By Sin We Fall

Chapter Seven

Song- Intro, The xx

New York was like a flame, A little flame amidst the many in this busy city. There were blinding lights, continuous action and loud insistent sounds. The city was so alive, the concrete and high buildings just intensified the volume of it all. For me though, It was always a flame behind a glass. I saw it from dance studios, from moving car windows and from hotel room outlooks. Never coming near it enough for it to burn me. Yet it was so intriguing, I couldn't stop the force of it pulling me in.

Landing down at the airport I felt the change immediately. The whole energy was different here. People were prominent all the while not being interested in others' opinions. People all around me were reaching for their dreams and I guess I was one of them, one in the millions. And while Las Vegas was my family, this felt like it was my own, for the short time being at least. And it felt good to have something that wasn't my family's. I looked around me with excitement. In wide eyed amazement. What did Dad say about vigilance? I was in full blown wonderment for everything.

Driving to our hotel I couldn't stop looking out the window while a light summer storm passed through the busy streets. Could you imagine that? A light storm, not the torrential rain storms we got in the desert that lasted twenty minutes before the sun resumed its unrelenting reign over the sky. No, here, the rain mossied in and stayed its sweet time. It left the place feeling all the more magical with the city lights shining below the darkened clouded skies. "It's beautiful, isn't it?" I asked the two in the front seat. Simone and Mauro, my two newly assigned bodyguards. I could already see from their expression of a deep furrow brow that they weren't exactly taking in the scenic views, rather searching for trouble. "Have either of you ever been to New York?" I asked the silent car again. "No," one of them said. I missed which one had said it as something else caught my eye outside the moving vehicle. They both had the same tone of voice so I just addressed the car again. "Well, this will be an adventure for all of us then!" I said optimistically. I got a huff in return from the quiet men. Well this would be fun. My gaze kept bringing me back to the city again, slightly paranoid that I'd miss something spectacular around the next corner. I had already asked the two in front if I could roll down my window to take in more of the scenery. That certainly got them talking, "No!" they both yelled in unison. I looked up as much as the backseat window would allow me to, the high rises were now encased in a misty layer of clouds. Whimsical feelings filled me. I wondered about the people who lived in them, people who lived in the clouds. I sat back in my seat and was overwhelmed with nostalgia and gratitude. I had to smile to myself of how far I'd come from that shy little girl who was too scared to go to her first ballet class.

Dad had such a look of confusion on his face as he watched me over the span of ten minutes as I walked up to the dance studio door, peered through the window then ran back and did a little circle while chewing my finger. "I don't know if I can do this," I said. "Of course you can, Greta." I looked up and saw confidence in his eyes. I went back again to the door then spun around and ran back. "No, I've changed my mind. Let's go home." He knelt down after watching my indecisiveness for too long. "Greta, listen carefully, you are a Falcone, you can walk into any room and command a presence. Let yourself be that Greta." "Do you think I will be able to go to New York, if I get really good?" I looked up with hopeful eyes. "Of course, once you live from your true place in this world nothing will stop you from where you are meant to be."

Simone stopped the car at the hotel entrance and Mauro escorted me out of the car. A bellhop boy cheerily jumped up at our arrival but then was promptly and rudely chased off by Simone coming around the car. I rolled my eyes, these guys were worse than my family. I got a quick catch of the humid summer air and shuffling people on the sidewalk before I was steered into the lobby. In the big scheme of things I didn't know where I was going but right now I knew with unwavering certainty that I was in the right place. I could feel it.