The city was named Phoenix because just like the bird, it rose from the ashes to become a powerful city, a beautiful city that attracts tourists from all over the world. At a certain time in history, the volcanoes errupted, burning down the whole city. Though, it is now a global tourism center, there are few tales about the city. Amongst them; it is said that the people of old thought that the volcanoes were the gates of h.e.l.l and would often throw people who had committed henious crimes into the fiery pits.Naturally, you can"t go close to an active volcano because of the sulphur, carbondioxide and other posionous gases it emits, so may be, it"s just a myth. Another interesting tale is about a man who once led the village, as it then was, made blasphemous claims about the G.o.ds and led the people into revolting against the hand of heaven. The G.o.ds were so angry they permitted the king of h.e.l.l to let lose his fire. The village was then destroyed. All these are irrelevant as science has explained the mystery behind volcanic erruption but these stories are still told to entertain the tourists.
The climatic condition of Star country is great. It was never too cold that it would snow or too hot that it would result to heat stroke. So even though it was December, it wasn"t extremely cold. You could still find people along the beach. This is one of the reasons that make Phoenix a popular tourist destination. The food market was also exotic, since fishing was one of the major industries, you could find different sea creatures in different forms; steamed, stewed, fried, roasted. There was also the smell of sea the blanketed the city.
As Kim wondered the streets, she couldn"t help but marvel at the things she saw. She had seen pictures of the city before but now she saw for herself, she knew that seeing it with your eyes can not be compared with the pictures. You could smell the sea, the food, even the people. Different things she saw excited her but she knew she could not possibly survive here with the little money she had on her so she decided to look for something to do while having fun. She watched families and friends move from one point to another with laughter admist chattering. Her thoughts wondered to Carl, he was her only family, but she disappointed him.
"If he were here, would we be laughing too?" She wondered. They had not interacted much or even laughed for a while. Even though she wanted to hear his voice, she stopped herself from turning on her phone because she was yet to hear her heart. She saw people of different race and culture interact, she felt at loss because apart from Carl, she really didn"t have anyone to call friend. As it was getting late, she made her way to a hotel first. She needed to sort herself out first before anything else.
Not long after, she fell asleep, in her dreams, she saw Carl getting farther away from her reach, she tried to run to him but she couldn"t, it was like an invisible force held her back. She screamed for him, but it was as if her voice was lost because she couldn"t even hear herself. She trembled in her sleep, her clothes were soaked with sweat. Waking up, she picked up her phone to dial his number, her earlier resolve, dumped somewhere far away. She didn"t want to be left alone, to be left behind again. "h.e.l.lo..." She spoke with a wobbly voice. "Where are you? Are you okay? Why are you speaking like that? Should I come to you? Tell me where you are..." His worried voice floated into her heart. "I"m fine, you don"t need to worry and you don"t need to come over either. I"m in Phoenix." She answered while staring at the ceiling. "Oh.. then what can I do?" He asked. What he hated most was feeling helpless and useless. Currently, he felt he wasn"t doing much for her. He wasn"t adding value to her life and he couldn"t do anything to help her too. He was also in a bad shape as guilt ate him up from within but he didn"t tell her that. He didn"t complain either. He acted like the past few days didn"t happen.
"Carl.. I wish you"re here.."- "I need your hugs" she thought but didn"t voice it out. "It"s a very beautiful city." She said. "I heard so." He replied.
"This.. can I come over?" He asked, testing the waters. "I just told you you can"t, weren"t you listening?" She questioned. Without waiting for a reply, she continued, "I miss you.. a lot."
"Then why did you leave?" He thought. "I see." He replied. She was stunned, she was expecting to hear "me too" and not "I see". Disappointment washed over her, like a splash of cold water turning her face pale.