Horizons

It was a quiet time at Magnolia Blossom. A cool, wet Sunday morning… the first day of Spring, in fact. Families rushed home from church to take advantage of the soil opening up and start tending their gardens or to see to it their kids finished up their homework. It was a normal day…

But Ashley Thorne had a lot on her mind. Spring. Spring meant a lot of things… most importantly of all, that she would be done with school soon. And then, she would be expected to choose a university and start that while still living at home, collect good grades, continue as she had been all this time. But she was ready for change. And if she was feeling this way…

It was no wonder her twin was so silly at every opportunity. Layla had always been the more energetic one, the adventurous one. She must be about ready to rebel… openly, that is. To be honest, Ashley was, too. But it wouldn’t be easy. “Hey, Layla?” she started. “I’d checked about as we promised, but things will be hard. There’s few jobs available and none we could get. Rents are high, too…”

“I know!” her sister was up in a heartbeat. “It’s like nobody even wants young people moving out! There’s no way we could afford it, even together!” It was true… to be fair, most young people were probably expected to have their parent’s blessings and help with making the next step into adulthood, but Ashley wasn’t going to say that out loud. Layla did know that, too, she was just trying to say how unfair it was that they wouldn’t. And she was still ranting “…the only place I saw online that we could keep up with, even on a budget was all the way down in Selvadorada…” wait. “Wait, what?“

“Oh… yeah, that. You do love that place, don’t you?” No, Ashley did not love Selvadorada exactly. She did love their legends, though. And their history. And Layla, she would love the sun and the jungle. But she hadn’t even checked rentals there because… of course, to just move over there would… not be possible, probably. “Doesn’t matter. You know dad would never let us move out that far.”

“He couldn’t do anything about it once we already are there, though.” Uh-oh. And now Layla got an idea into her head. And once that happened… sometimes, Ashley regretted having a twin that stubborn. Sometimes she was incredibly grateful for it. She couldn’t help but wonder which it would be this time, even as she let her sister’s tenacity infect her with a determination of her own.

“I’d rather not let it go that far, but we can deal with that when we come to it. You got any idea how to get ourselves there?”

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