October 8, 2011

Ring….Ring…Ring….Ring….

Sora is startled by a phone ringing. She has a splitting headache; with her eyes still closed she reaches and feels around for the phone. She feels under the pillows, around the bed, reaches for the nightstand and ends up falling off the bed. She gets on her knees and answers the phone.

“Yeoboseyo?” her voice is hoarse and is dry.

“Good Morning…this is your 6am wake-up call” (in English).

“Huh….ah yes… thank you” she answers in English and the line is disconnected.

She places the phone back down, remaining on the floor and rubs her eyes to fully wake herself up. She looks around but the room is still too dark. She knows one thing; that she is not in her room. Sora slowly gets up from the floor and turns on the lamp on the nightstand.

 She looks around and she is in a hotel room. Confused she walks to the curtains and opens it fully and looks out the window. The sun has barely risen but she still doesn’t recognize the buildings outside at all. Looking for more clues she observes the room and stumbles upon the magazines on the table. They are all in English and there is a travel book that says “What to do in Los Angeles.”

Anxiety is hitting her, she can’t be in California. She doesn’t remember how she got there let alone her leaving the country. What’s more confusing is that there are also polaroid’s scattered on the table of herself with people she has never met. The pictures display her eating, dancing, and drinking with these strangers. Fear is hitting her, is this a dream? She calls the only person that can help her hands shaking while she dials the number.

“Yeoboseyo?”

“Dara-unnie...I….” but before she could finish her sentence she is cut off.

“Sora-ah…thank god, you’ve been missing for three weeks…where are you?” Dara asked in a concerned tone.

Tears start to flow out of Sora’s eyes. Just hearing her sister’s voice is making her emotional. But what is really freaking her out right now is she doesn’t remember the past three weeks at all. Something was wrong; a lot of questions kept forming in her mind.

“Three weeks? Unnie…I….I don’t know….how I got here….” She is hyperventilating while trying to speak.

“Sora, take a deep breath and slowly try to explain.”

“Dara-unnie…I’m in a hotel room….in Los Angeles…” she was finally able to blurt out.

“Ommo…how did you get there?”

“I don’t know…I don’t remember….”

“Okay, keep calm. First try and find your passport and I will book the next flight back to Korea. Find me your hotels phone and room number and I will call you back when I finalize your flight.”

Sora looks down around the phone and gets the information.

“Thank you unnie…here is the number.”

After hanging up the call with Dara, Sora then looks around the room for more clues as to how she ended up there. She was able to find her passport, some US currency, and a credit card that was not in her name in the safe in the closet. It was a good thing it was not locked for she would have no idea what the combination would be.

She also noticed the wardrobe in the closet. It was filled with revealing dresses, either see through or very short. Then she spotted something familiar. On the corner of the closet floor is an outfit she recognizes, it’s a pair of jeans and a sweater that she remembers buying awhile back that is neatly folded. She takes it out and places it on the bed. She then decides to take a shower and wait for her sister to call back with more instructions. After an hour Sora is dressed and watching some tv and then the phone rings.

“Hello…unnie?”