It Begins

    “Wakie wakie, it’s gonna be a busy day!”     Mia drew the curtains of Colette’s room and beckoned her to wake up by raising her voice.     “Wake up Col, it’s new year’s eve, people will flock into the restaurant early today and then it’ll get boring in the afternoon, then busy late evening, with few late customers till nine, and then we’ll close…wait, did I miss the part where we’ll decorate the place for tomorrow? We’ll have to make it more splendid than our Christmas decorations before we go to the square.”     “Wake uuppp!” She then shouted.     “Ow, good morning mum,” Colette greeted her mum     “Good morning Colette, now get in the shower, you’re looking very messy, and you’ve managed to out-sleep your alarm.”     “What time is it mum?” asked Colette     “6:37, that’s how late we’re, thanks to your father’s sports commitments yesterday,” she then sighed.     “Well, get yourself ready, your dad and Clement already are.”     “Yes mum,” Colette replied with a gloomy face.     Thirty minutes later, the family was all set to leave for work at the restaurant, and their father locked the door of the house. They were all dressed and in thick clothing, with all but Mia wearing black coats, Mia wore a brown coat with brown boots - same colour as what Colette wore, with Argus and Clement wearing black boots. They all wore blue jeans. Argus was relatively taller than the rest of his family, and built, as he stood alongside them and unlocked the car, parked beside the house, to let the rest of the family in.     It was a quiet ride to the restaurant, which was just a five minutes drive from their house, or fifteen minutes walk taking the same road, but the family usually took the ten minutes shortcut to get there whenever they didn’t use car. They proceeded to cleaning and opening up the restaurant to customers, with both parents busy in the kitchen preparing and doing the dishes, while Colette and Clement stayed at the counter to take orders from customers. As expected, the restaurant was busy in the morning, with customers rushing in to get their breakfast once the restaurant opened at 7:45am, and also trying out the new year’s special menu. Colette soon found herself very busy dashing to the kitchen to get freshly prepared food to top up the ones she had sold out in coolers at the counter, and Clement himself was rushing to tables to clear up used plates and giving it to his father in the kitchen to wash, as their mother was busy at three different cookers preparing two different soups and a curry dish, although she had Argus to assist her. After more than three hours had passed, the restaurant’s morning rush had finally calmed down, as the influx of customers for their breakfast had reduced drastically, and they were now attending to a customer every five minutes. Argus joined his daughter at the counter to see how much customers were now seated.     “Haah, I wish your aunt was here to help, quite the worker that one,” Argus said of his sister.     “Dad, don’t be selfish ya know, she also deserves a holiday, hope she gets lovey-dovey with someone there at Brazil,” Colette replied with a smirk on her face, as Clement, who was passing by also giggled.     “Well, that’d only mean more work for you as well, so don’t think I’ll be the only one affected, humph,” replied Argus grumpily.     “Actually, you seem to forget I’ll be in school, so my work here will pretty much be the same pops, even Clement’s own.”     “Welp, atleast you called Clement’s real name this time,” Argus replied with a sigh.     Just then, a customer came to make an order, and Argus apparently knew the man, as they then engaged in small talk.     Phil was Argus’ younger sister who had been helping out and living with his family since they moved in two years ago, but had taken the holiday off from the restaurant and went to Brazil for the holidays, as she had always wanted to go there, and always pestered her brother to pay for the trip as a reward for her services to him, until he gave in before Christmas.     The time now read twelve O’clock, and Colette and Clement’s work was done at the restaurant. Colette went into the changing room and untied her apron, before stuffing it into the laundry basket at the corner of the room. She sighed and sat on the cupboard in the room, then bringing out her phone to check for notifications and messages. She then proceeded to call Chloe, her close friend in high school since her family moved to San Antonio.     “Hello Chloe, you around?”     “Hey Col, hummm, kinda, no, I’m available infact, just no-one’s at home. What’s up?”     “Huh, thinking you could come around, I’m done at the restaurant, and Chris wants to stay behind, probably wants to take advantage of mama’s Netflix, haa,” she sighed.     “Well, might be available till five, but what about Patience?” Asked Chloe.     “She travelled this morning to her grandparents' house, looks like her extended family’s celebrating together this year. Say, are you going to the square today?”     “Nah, I’ll have to take a nap at five cus my family’s going for new year’s vigil service by ten, what a drag,” Chloe sighed.     “Hm then, come around…kinda got nothing doing myself till five, will be back at the restaurant by six to help out again.”     “Ok, lemme get changed, bet I’ll beat you to your house,” said Chloe.     “You always do girl, always ha-ha,” Colette replied as she laughed.     “See you then Chloe.”     “See ya! Expecting ya, try bringing some latte from the restaurant, the child’s starting to increase ya know!” “Sure thing.” And with that, Colette hung up and put on her black coat and wore gloves this time. She left the changing room and went to the kitchen and asked her mum to prepare a flask of latte for her to take home, as Chloe was coming around. Her mum obliged, and within ten minutes, her latte was ready and her mother gave her a black-coloured flask filled with latte, and Colette received it and thanked her mum, before putting on the hood of her coat and bidding her parents goodbye and patting Clement on the head. She hung the flask on her right shoulder with the cloth strap of the flask and held the flask’s strap near its cover. She then began her leisurely stroll home through the usual shortcut she took on occasion.     Eleven minutes later, she arrived her house and saw Chloe leaning on the balcony of the bungalow, looking towards her.     “Yaaa that’s a record for lateness,” Chloe said as she laughed.     “Sorry Chloe, mum was busy with this,” Colette replied as she raised the flask.     “How long have you been waiting though?” Colette asked.     “Say, about…almost ten minutes, now can’t wait to drink that latte, it’s freezing out here.     “Oh, sorry, Colette said as she unlocked the house door. They both stepped into the house, and Colette went to the kitchen and dropped the latte before getting mugs for the hot drink while Chloe bounced on the long chair in the living room and let out a loud sigh, before taking off her grey coat. 

Chloe was the same height and age as Colette, they were both seventeen and in the second year of high school, and the same class. She checked her wristwatch and saw the time was 12:52pm and then started small talk with Colette, who was in the kitchen, which wasn’t far from the living room and was also visible from there, as there was no physical barrier between. The house warming system was left on, but was set on low, so the house had a cozy feel when both girls settled, and the air was filled with the smell of latte, as Colette brought two mugs of latte to the living room and gave one to Chloe. She dropped hers on the center table of the living room and went back to the kitchen to get the flask, while still talking to Chloe.

    “So how’d the girls’ Christmas carol go, couldn’t attend cus of duty, dad’s really got to pay me more for that you know,” she said as she dropped the flask on the table and picked up her mug.     “Well, no need to sound tragic, doubt you would have sung anyway, all you were interested in after all was the after-party wasn’t it,” Chloe snapped    “Heh…I’m not bad in singing you know.” Both girls laughed, and Chloe remarked that Colette not be sarcastic.     “Vanessa sang brilliantly though, could win a grammy for that performance, especially when she sang solo that day. Bet the boys will start fawning over her now,” both girls giggled again.     Both girls chatted for the next two hours, drinking their latte, before playing some video games till 4:30pm. Colette saw Chloe off to her home, which was a ten minutes walk from hers, and then headed to the restaurant to help her family finish the day’s work.     At past ten, they were now wounding up, as lesser and lesser customers were entering, and most were just there for coffee. The street across the restaurant was now starting to get more and more lively, with everyone now anticipating the new year. At Eleven O’clock, Mia told her children they could start going to the square so they could get a clear view of the clock tower’s countdown, as fireworks were going to go off on the stroke of midnight. She said her and their father would leave at 11:30pm after they closed down the restaurant. Clement yawned and said “we could go together you know,” to which his mum replied “you were the one who said he wanted to take in the city’s new year night celebrations, so, go on now, and try to arrive there early both of you, and keep your phone on Col, so we’ll call you after the celebrations, although you could just locate the car which will be parked by the street opposite, your father reckons we won’t see any parking space in the part of the square allocated for it.”     “Ok mum, bye,” Colette replied.     It would take twenty minutes to get to the square by foot, but they constantly stopped along the way to see some of the beautifully designed scenery in the city. Different trees were still wrapped with Christmas lights, and some of the sky scrapers had new year countdowns projected on them. The streets were also crowded and lively, and some parts were having carnivals, while some people had already started shooting fireworks into the sky.     “It’s really beautiful sis,” Clement said to his sister, as he was quite mesmerized by what he was seeing.     “Yea, really is pretty, but we’ve already spent so long on sight-seeing you know, it’s already twenty to twelve,” she said, as she checked her wristwatch.     “Yea, bet mum and dad are already at the square.”     They then hurried to the square through the streets and got there eleven minutes to twelve. They were now at the entrance of the square and realized it was almost filled up. They joined the queue to be scanned by the security personnel at the barrier of the square, but the clock tower was still visible from there nonetheless. As Clement was getting scanned, the clock entered the final minute of the year, and suddenly, everyone in the square went quiet, atleast almost everyone, as it was a tradition in San Antonio’s square, such that at the stroke of midnight, once the first fireworks went off, everyone erupted in joy as the explosions went off.     Suddenly, it was just fifteen seconds to new year, then fourteen, thirteen, twelve, eleven,…     Boooommmmmm     Colette’s eyes blinked open, she had felt herself being thrown off as she was been scanned by the security personnel, and suddenly she was on the floor. She wasn’t hearing too well, sat up, and looked around to see what was going on, only to see people running around her in utter panic and manic. There was a huge fire in front, and she saw firefighters trying to battle it, the clock tower was just visible through the flames, and the time read 12:11am, behind her, hen she turned her head to look, she saw ambulances loading people into their vans, it was just pure chaos, and just then, her ears started to open again, and she heard someone say – “a bomb had gone off…”