Synopses

It was a Tuesday of those very normal and hot days with nothing interesting, it seemed that Atlanta had become a western movie with those where the city is deserted and the only thing circulating on the street is a very small handful of hay being pushed by the wind, but in my case, the only difference was that: a) We were at The East Andrews Bar and b) This bar is exactly in the center of Atlanta, which means that there was not a single sign of desert, or sand or anything that comes to your mind related to small towns in western movies. Me, Stefany White or simply Fanny as I have called her since high school, Jolie Jones, better known as Jojo, Sophia Turner, sophi for short, and Zuleide Watson, or if you prefer Laide we were celebrating our last days at Georgia State University, well, I'll soon tell you that this university is not the best, as the name says it is state university, it means, it is public and public universities here in the USA are equivalent to the private universities here in Brazil, so you should already have a notion of how it is... But back to my memories, we were discussing about what would be the destination of our graduation trip, around the first table outside, in front of the dark glass entrance door of the bar. Twenty minutes had passed and I was already tired of hearing so many varied destinations. Jojo wanted to go to Las Vegas to enjoy all the lights of Sin City, Fanny kept saying she wanted to go to the Bahamas to enjoy the wonderful July sun, Leide wanted to go to Los Angeles, why? Beautiful, fit and tanned men in black sundresses on the streets, Sophi wanted to go to Seattle, for the same reason that all Brazilian tourists end up in New York, shopping! And I, as the wise part of the group, wanted to go to Athens, I think all those grand monuments are amazing, but as I knew my idea would not be accepted, so I took a deep breath and said: - What if we went to Miami? Look, it's got beautiful beaches, muscular guys, they say it's a shopper's paradise, and if I'm not mistaken there are several bars and I don't know what else we can go to at night. - I say looking at the half-full glass of soda in front of me, and yes I am a person who goes to bars and drinks coke instead of beer, it's just that I don't like alcoholic beverages, I don't know why I just don't like them. - Good idea! Who's in agreement? - Sophi said, looking at each one at the table for at least some nodding heads, which after five seconds happened, we all agreed to spend the next two weeks in Miami to relax, have fun, and in Leide's case, date a lot. Three days later, we were squeezed in the lobby of the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, waiting in line to get out of that nightmare that was literally crushing every bone in my body, to give you an idea, according to our dear Wikipedia in 2011 more than 92.4 million people passed through here, so I guess you already have an idea of how was this chaos that we call the airport. An hour later we managed to board the plane thanks to Leide and the clumsy girl who checked the tickets, which was unusual, to say the least, Leide never pays attention to anything, let's say she is a classic type of girl who lives in the world of the moon, but anyway, after another fifteen hours and five minutes we were on solid ground, or better, on solid sand, because Zuleide's dummy took us all to the wrong flight, and instead of going to Miami, we ended up in Cairo. - You had to make this mess right, Zuleide," I say in an accusing tone while closing the front door of a white Russian car with a black and white checkered stripe, very old, with beaten up marks on the sides, which at best was a taxi. - There, sorry you know I'm out of touch with life, besides it wasn't all my fault the girl who was checking the tickets didn't even bother to read ours! - Leide speaks in defense while looking to the sides and holding the side handle of her huge black wheeled suitcase. - Look on the bright side, people, we'll be able to visit the pyramids, and the sphinxes. - She had just graduated in archeology and had gotten a job helping a restorer who was in Yanqing restoring a part of the Chinese wall that was already being eroded by time. - Great! I will be forced to spend approximately forty-five minutes in this taxi that stinks of a New York subway system. - Jojo with a hateful expression in her eyes as she squirmed to share her space with the other three girls. -Hey Jojo, more respect! I was born in New York, you know!" I say, turning around abruptly and finding the eyes rolling in disgust of a blonde patrician with 1.75 meters of pure glitter and light brown eyes. The way to the nearest hotel was simply terrible, I didn't know what was worse, if it was the crater thirty centimeters wide and forty centimeters high on the floor of the car that gave me a "privileged" view of the asphalt or if it was the crazy people who were speeding past our taxi project every five minutes. Well, there are, but nobody gives them the slightest credence, the ones I saw only had a wooden stick in their hand and cursed at the drivers who practically "ran over" them, honestly, it is pitiful. About twenty minutes later we finally arrived at our "wonderful" hotel that according to the taxi driver was the best in the whole region. The dump, I mean, our wonderful hotel, was a very old building all gray, but this gray was only the plaster without paint, the entrance was two very large doors made of brass those market doors that we all have seen once in our lives, the building had a total of seven floors with countless windows made of rustic wood to simplify it, it looked like a very old and finished tenement, the reception was quite simple and small, it had a reddish wooden counter, the floor was made of yellowish ceramic and there were some clay plates with drawings of Egyptian gods on the walls and there was an elevator to take the guests to their respective floors, the only luxury that this hotel had. We booked the last room available, which for five young women of twenty-eight years old means that three of them will have to sleep in a squeeze. Well, we arrived at the room and it was not the catastrophe that I had imagined, until it was. There was a very large black ceiling fan in the center of the room, right on the right wall were two queen size beds made of very old brown wood, the bedding was all light blue, the pillows the same color, the walls were white, there was a small dark wood table between the beds, the floor was the same yellowish ceramic tile as in the reception area and in front of them was a huge window with red curtains. We put our bags on the left side of the door, Sophia went to the windows to open the curtains, Jojo and Fanny threw themselves one on each bed, Leide sat on the one with them, while I walked towards my suitcase to get my pajamas, a towel and my two panty cases where I put absolutely everything I use when it comes to personal hygiene, and went into the bathroom that was on the wall opposite the bedroom door to take a shower and then sleep, because for me there was nothing else to do