Aubrey emerged from her hotel bathroom, smelling like all of the soaps and shampoos that now lied empty beside the shower. She wrung the extra water from her hair as the pads of her feet met the soft carpet of the bedroom. Sitting on the edge of her made up bed she picked up the alarm clock that rested on the nightstand.

  6:52am                                                                     

  It was early on a Monday morning, a time where while school students would just be going to bed after another long summer night, working adults were already up and on the move for another day at their jobs.

   It's important to have a good work ethic. I've always been the one to be the first to arrive and last to leave. I've kept that kind of attitude, and I like to believe that it has helped me accomplish the things that I have, in the time that I have.

  In one of the many articles Aubrey had stuffed in her bright red book bag, she doubled back to one interview in particular.

  So, he was the hardworking type?

   Loves kids, has good looks, and more wealth than most of his age group in an economy like this.

  As she slid a white knee length dress over her head, Aubrey laughed to herself. She smoothed the pleated skirt as she stepped into her converse, and tied an old checkered button down around her waist.

  If she wanted to meet this guy, it would seem she was going to have all of the time in the world. He must have been a workaholic, and in the back of her mind she wondered if that's why she was always a hard nose in school.

  Sniffing, she shook her head.

   "Nah..." She lifted one foot to the edge of the bed as she tied it. Wet hair still clung to her neck, and standing to her feet, she began gathering it all into a top knot. Her eyes watched the streets below her hotel as she approached the full length window.

   At that moment, she imagined what her mother must have thought when she first visited the city.

   Texas had nice cities, and they had visited them a handful of times throughout their lives. But usually when you have access to something, you don't tend to hangout around it too much, allowing out of towners and others to enjoy it instead.

     Here was different; it was Chicago. A land completely unexplored by her, and had a warped thought passed through as she realized had her mother not died, and had she not been cleaning out her closet to find the box filled with Antonio Russ, she wouldn't have made it out of Texas anytime soon.

   Sandra had to have been around Aubrey's age, if not a tad bit younger when she was sent here to live with an estranged aunt. She was a senior member of some local black scholars' organization or whatever, and Aubrey had never met her in her life. All she knew was the woman was old then and probably the same if not dead now.

   Opening the curtains further, she let the sun shine in as it made its official debut in the sky.

   Her mother had always loved the small serenity she found in the first moments of the morning, before anything had begun, before anything had been said, she would sit and just...think. Aubrey figured it was her way of getting the day started. Whenever she would be running to catch one of her many buses to school, she would always pass by a statue like Sandra, kissing her cheek before running out the door.

  Now she wished she had slowed down some of those mornings. She should have sat with Sandra, taken the time to say good morning and ask what was on her mind. She could have tried to eat the breakfasts she would make for her, knowing her daughter had a long commute to school.

    There were so many perfect opportunities to tell her mother that she appreciated her efforts, that she loved her ...

   A slight faintness played behind Aubrey's eyes as her heart pounded. She trembled before going to grab her bookbag, and pushing her arms through it. It was packed with maps, and a couple complementary water bottles the hotel had left next to her own personal coffee pot. She knew she wouldn't be using that thing, and figured she would indulge in the water instead. As she slipped out of her room, she bounced towards the elevator, pushing the clear arrow turning it red.

   Her hands gripped the straps closer to her shoulders. Against her back she had maps of the city, pictures of Antonio, and all of the other letters she decided to pile in. When the doors opened, she joined the likes of other early risers on their way to conferences and other meetings for the day. Squeezing into the front, she realized one thing.

    Aubrey had no idea where to begin her day.

oOo

  Antonio slicked back his hair into place as he watched himself in the bathroom mirror. The black comb put his tresses in his signature parted hairstyle that he had finally become fond of three years ago. He grabbed a can of hairspray, adding extra hold that would keep his look for the rest of the day.

   Coughing from the fumes, he knew he just added a few more steps to his carbon footprint.

  Gathering himself, Antonio swaggered back into his bedroom, picking up his suit for the day, and began to dress.

    Within the past year, Antonio had been given the position as marketing executive of a city firm after the death of the longtime employee who previously held the same job. There was shock, to say the least, but mutual respect among him and his colleagues as the young man transitioned easily into the job title. After all, it wasn't like Antonio was a new and fresh face around the firm.

   He had snagged an internship during college, and had been around since grad school. He was a reliable man, and had a knack for reaching customers with the company's product. He had kept in the community since he was a boy scout, and his abilities to connect with people from all walks of life around the city made it easy for him to interact with personnel.

   In his high end one bedroom apartment, sunshine peaked through every available window. The natural light gave his one man home enough warmth to make himself proud for what he had. As he sat on the edge of his bed and began putting on his shoes, he heard the sound of his cell phone ringing, the ringtone giving away that his mother was calling.

  It had been the fifth call since he left last night. The first ones were received early in the morning, which was when he assumed she switched from her bottle of wine to his father's stash of harder alcohol. Antonio had tried drinking in his youth, usually only joining in on the fun for the hell of it. He was used to seeing his father have a drink every evening, and had only caught his mother with a glass every once in a while.

   His sophomore year of college, he had noticed how often Mary paired a glass of wine with dinner, and soon discovered from one of their maids that it wasn't only wine she was enjoying; she had added alcohol into her diet three times a day now. That same year Stefan Russo's mistress had come forward claiming to be pregnant. She was the same age as Natalia, and had been a classmate of hers, even visiting the house for barbeques in the past.

   After weeks of separation and his mother swearing up and down that she was headed to a divorce attorney, the couple had moved back in together. Stefan stayed home every night for two weeks to prove his loyalty to his wife was unwavering now. Once that two weeks was up, he was back to his old ways.

   Antonio never had to be told, but after running into the young woman at a social event months later in a skin tight dress and drink in hand, he put two and two together and hit the nail on the head with guessing her pregnancy ended in a more than forced abortion.

  After that fiasco, and seeing the permanent change in his mother, drinking had lost its perks for him when he couldn't visit without smelling it on Mary's breath.

   "Hello Mom."

   "Antonio, I have been calling you all night. You left so suddenly that I didn't get a chance to say goodbye."

   "Between the bitches and bastards that you and dad were throwing around, I figured I could be excused just this one time." Propping the phone against his neck, Antonio drew his leg up to the edge of his bed as he began to tie it off.

  "God, I'm so sorry you had to witness that. It's your father he just-I sometimes just want to." Mary sighed in defeat, upset that she allowed herself to become upset once again behind her husband, pushing her son away.

   "I know mom. You don't have to explain to me. That's between you and him."

   "No Antonio, it's not right. You kids have grown up seeing us at each other's necks. I'm so sorry honey." It wasn't like her adult children were the little girl and boy and hid in Natalia's room during their parents' weekly shouting match anymore. Antonio had stopped looking for an apology from his parents when he was thirteen and had become used to the behavior.

  "Ma, I promise it's alright. Okay?" Pinching the bridge of his nose, Antonio let out a loud breath. "How are you doing this morning? Are you on your way to work?"

  "As always." As Mary drove in her car, she could feel her heart ache from the thought of her son. While she showered him with love and adoration, she knew that wasn't all a child needed from his mother, and was she was disappointed to say she never found that out until after it would have done the most good.

   "What about you? Have you eaten yet? You should at least grab a cup of coffee to hold you over."

  "Of course ma."

  "You're not going to do it, are you?" Mary smiled knowing her son would say what she wanted to hear.

  "You know if I had time I would. I've got to get going now; I'll call you later on tonight if you haven't gone to sleep, okay?"

   Arriving at a red light Mary glanced up to the built in bluetooth where Antonio's voice came from.

  "I love you Antonio. Have a good day."

  "I love you too, ma."

Grabbing his suit jacket and briefcase, Antonio left his apartment, locking it behind him.

oOo

   When the elevator dinged announcing their arrival to the lobby, Aubrey felt her shoulders being pushed by the men and women who paid attention to their smartphones as they checked emails and began dialing numbers.

  She had fixed her mouth to excuse herself, but soon saw that her ingrained phrase fell on deaf ears. Walking across the lobby, she looked over to the front desk, finding the woman who had been so excited to help her last night.

   Standing with her hands on back pack straps, she held a small grin as the clerk hung up from a phone call. The woman's face paled, and Aubrey caught a visual tick in her right eye.

  "Good morning...Stephanie." She greeted looking down at the chrome name tag.

  "Good morning, miss. Did you enjoy your night?" She asked as she held back the urge to dip her words in a venomous coating.

  " Most certainly. Thank you again for all your help last night. I was just so exhausted from the travel and was beyond grateful to find a place to lay my head for the night." Aubrey batted her eyelashes in her face, backing away with a finger wave. "See you tonight!"

  Turned, she swore she could hear Stephanie groan as she pushed through the heavy doors of the hotel.

  Aubrey began her stroll down the streets with no destination in mind at the moment. She knew she needed to make a better plan for this trip, for she needed to get back home in time. In the letter she left with Ms. Anderson, she had promised her that she would be back by the end of the week, and that she shouldn't worry about anything changing. At first, when she had told Marquis that she was going on this week long excursion, it had seemed like she had an infinite amount of time.

  As she stood waiting for the white Walkman to show on the pedestrian light pole, she admitted to herself that she may have been off by a small margin.

  Honestly, she half assed this entire plan.

  Doubt began to sink in, and she wondered how she could get herself on a plane, bus, boat-whatever-and back home.

   In her stomach, she had a strange clenching sensation. Aubrey rarely became nervous, or had a case of butterflies, and it irked her that she would come down with them of all possible times in the world.

   Holding the palm of her hand flat against her abdomen, she looked to see a small café tucked into a corner. A chalkboard rested just outside the door, boasting of a morning deal on muffins. Aubrey wasn't big on breakfast food at such an early time-it usually left her feeling under the weather by the time noon came.

  When she found herself gripping the door handle as a woman immersed in her phone came out, she decided it wouldn't hurt to grab a juice. Maybe it would calm her nerves.

   "Oh goodness!"

  "Sorry..." Shocked, Aubrey looked at the person who stood before her, a large brown stain now decorating her pink blouse.

  "No, no. I wasn't looking. Christ.." Setting aside her blackberry on a nearby table, Mary examined the stain seeping through on to her skin. Removing her sunglasses, she ran her fingers through her hair as she let out an exasperated sigh.

   Thinking quickly, Aubrey reached for a cloth napkin lying on the nearby table. The customer who sat reading a newspaper shouted.

   "Come on!"

   "I'm sure there are more." Aubrey cut her eyes at the man as he snapped the paper before disappearing back behind it.

   "What-Oh no, that's fine. Honestly."  Before her, the young girl she had bumped into began dousing a napkin with a water bottle retrieved from her backpack. Mary didn't get a chance to stop her as her hand darted out, taking hold of her shirt as she dabbed at the stain.

   "You wanna get this out quick. Or else it'll be harder to later." Mary stood speechless as the treatment continued.

  "You know, this color goes well with your...your um...your hair." Aubrey chuckled, unsure of what to say. When she took a quick glance up to the woman, she saw her hands frozen in the air as she stood rigid from Aubrey's attentions.

  "I'm guessing you could do that yourself. You probably already know how-I didn't -Here." Placing the napkin in the older woman's outstretched hand, Aubrey side stepped with a grimace, giving her space to leave the door.

   "While I'm sure this can be fixed easily by the dry cleaners, thank you for helping me." Mary's half smirk surprised Aubrey. She had expected at least a rolling of the eyes for the ruining of what she was sure was an expensive shirt. She watched with abated breath for a sly comment before the woman slipped past her.

   "I didn't mean to run into you, I must have not seen you."

  "I'm not worried one bit. I had my face shoved in my phone-that was my fault. My apologies for bumping into you." With a warm smile, Mary pressed the side of her phone, seeing the time. With a slight wave, she slid her shades back on and quick stepped to her car, getting in and driving off.

  Aubrey watched the sleek vehicle make its way around the corner. At the very last second, the woman behind the wheel  turned her head in her direction. She wasn't so sure if she had truly looked back, with her sunglasses obscuring her face, but Aubrey was fine with letting out the breath she had been holding that entire time.

  "Hmph." The man who she snatched the napkin from out of haste walked past eyeing her as he left out the door. Sucking her teeth, Aubrey grumbled as she moved to the counter, finally placing her order of a small bottle of orange juice.

oOo

   Gnawing on the plastic straw between her teeth, Aubrey studied the city map splayed on the small café table. She sat on her ankles, giving herself enough leverage to hover over the images to see where she should start off first.

    Setting down her empty bottle, she searched her bag for the black marker she had packed away.

   "I'm here...." Pointing to her approximate location, she drew the hard tip of the pen slowly, arriving to another spot on the map."...and he is here."

   Of course on a piece of paper drawn to scale, it looked as if her destination was but a hop, skip, and jump away. Miles lied in between the two points, which meant she would have a lot of walking to do.

  Somehow, asking for change for a hundred for a bus fare seemed out of the question-- and it wasn't like Aubrey had never used her feet as her own mode of transportation. She was a smart girl; she could do this.

  Hell, this would give her a good chance to do some sight-seeing anyway. She could send some pictures to Marquis and...

  "That's right." Reaching into the bottom of her bag, Aubrey recovered the cell phone left by Marquis's henchman the day he paid a visit. Just as she hovered over the only telephone number in the call log, she stopped.

   "He said he didn't want to hear from me ." Placing the phone back down, Aubrey stared straight ahead.

   Disappear was more of what he had said. Though she had been heated in that moment-going as far as to hurl the f-bomb at him-Aubrey noticed that for the past day or so, she hadn't had a second thought about what he had said. And in that moment, she was prepared to call him and let him know that she had arrived safely. She was actually looking to hear from a familiar voice; hear some kind of encouragement.

   Tossing the phone back into the bag, Aubrey stretched and cracked her neck.

   She wasn't going to let Marquis worry her.

  Right now, she needed to focus on her main goal.

  "Antonio, Antonio.Antonio." She sighed, packing the large paper back into its original compact shape. Throwing her arms into the straps, she walked out of the building, tapping the small book of paper against her thigh.