Memories

|49| • The Girl Henrie •

The three of us went outside and got in our respective cars. I got out a notebook and pencil and started to take notes of where Brian followed Carlos to in these narrow little streets. The further we drove the less optimistic I was that we would find our way back home, but nonetheless I kept taking notes to maximise our chances. We drove down into the valley and through Puerto de la Cruz before we drove uphill again. It always seemed to be either going uphill or downhill, going straight was a rarity. But Brian managed to keep up with Carlos well during the drive.

And not quite half an hour later Carlos pulled over and parked his car with Brian doing the same. The street was narrow and it seemed like a bit of a miracle to me how we could park and another car would still be able to pass by. But Carlos helped Brian to park the car accordingly, and that ended with me having to awkwardly crawl over to Brian's side of the car after he had gotten out because Brian had parked so close to the wall of the house that I would have had to be a sheet of paper to fit through my door. But it worked, and when I was out, I looked around curiously.

The house we had parked in front of was yellow, a dark yellow, with green blinds and doors. Tinerfeño (not Tenerifan or anything as Brian had told me) architecture amazed me, the houses were built in a way that I couldn't really make sense of them. In those narrow streets they were all connected, uphill, downhill, to the sides, but it was nothing like the uniform English streets, no, here all houses were different in shape and colour.

"Are you alright?" Brian insterrupted my thoughts, smiling at me as he placed his hand on my back.

I nodded and smiled back at him. "Yeah.. I'm just looking around to see where we are. This is so different from London, but I love it. Is this where we'll be going?" I asked, pointing to the yellow house.

This time it was Carlos who replied. "Yes, exactly. This is where Luis and María live now."

"They live together?" Brian asked curiously. He had mentioned that María and one of the men (Luis apparently) had possibly been in a relationship, so it did make sense when Carlos confirmed that, going over to the green door.

"Yes, they are married now, they are married last year in March. They have a baby now, he is two months," Carlos told us before he knocked.

"A baby?" Brian asked, immediately smiling widely. "Ohh that's wonderful. Is he going to be there?"

"The baby? Yes, he is here." Carlos confirmed with a nod before he turned back to the door because someone answered. A man, another handsome man, it seemed to be symptomatic for Tenerife. The two men greeted each other in Spanish, talking very rapidly but I did distinguish the name Luis so I assumed that the man who had opened the door was María's husband and the little baby's father.

It didn't take long before possibly-Luis shifted his attention to Brian and me, his smile not getting smaller. He obviously recognised Brian because he stepped past Carlos and hugged Brian, saying something in Spanish to which Brian replied surprisingly. Impressive. And then he smiled at me and hugged me, doing the cheek-kissing greeting which I quite obviously messed up because it really took my by surprise. Chuckling softly, possibly-Luis straightened up again. "You are Henrietta, yes?"

I smiled at him and nodded. "Yes, that's me. Hola," I said, probably making an even bigger fool of myself with my pathetic attempt of Spanish, but it didn't really matter anymore anyway after the messed up greeting.

"Hola," he replied, smiling. "I am Luis, it is nice to meet you. Brian talked a lot about Henrie, but a girl Henrie. That is you?"

I glanced at Brian and chuckled a little when I saw his cheeks turn slightly pink. It was cute that he had talked about me a lot apparently. "Yes, that is me. Henrie is Brian's nickname for me, he finds it funny to tease me."