As a child, my father used to tell me, “Sometimes, when you least look for things is when you find them”. He always told us how he and Mom met, but never the reason why Mom left. On June 27 seven summers ago he died at work for no reason, when doing the autopsy we were told that he had taken a suicide pill and that he had simply left a note on his desk saying goodbye and writing "657 823 76_" (Spanish number). At first, I thought it would be a clue to something magical that would take us back to him but later I realized that it was not true, it was simply a work paper with the start of a phone number that he hadn't finished typing. The workers of "The Carousel, '' the boat factory where he worked at, told us that he had never had any problems with anyone, in fact he was the person who always offered to help, and he was his boss’ favorite. After his funeral in Grandpa's village, my brother Josh and I were alone. Aunt Marisa offered to take care of us and have us for a while until Josh would come of age, which would take 4 years. With Marisa things went well, we did not have to move from Oviedo (a city in the North of Spain, but not on the coast) since she came to live with us. My life did not change much, I felt a little more distant and had fewer friends. One day, I signed up for drum lessons; at first, I thought it would be easy since it seemed easy, but later I realized that coordinating all my limbs at once was quite difficult, there I met Javi, he was only one year older than me, and we became close friends. We spent most of the afternoons together playing video games on his console, playing sports, or playing drums. Javi's sister, Laura was dating Josh, but at the age of 17 he started smoking something that Laura did not like very much. I caught him several times and he always told me that it was just a cigarette. He stopped smoking when he got into a university to change his image and be more responsible. That happened when Aunt Marisa left and began to send us checks for food and for what we needed. Josh continued his relationship with Laura and was very convenient because I would be with Javi and Josh with Laura. When my brother started second year, studying criminology, I finished fourth of ESO (10th grade), at that moment I felt that I was mature.

My brother Josh was very fed up with me that hot August day, normally at this time of the year we used to go to grandpa's village, but our grandpa told us that that summer was different since he had to go to Switzerland. I had never heard any story related to someone in Switzerland, for that reason I began to speculate about my family. That day I had told my brother my speculations and I had talked about the past so much that he got fed up with me. That afternoon I didn't want to go with Javi, I preferred to stay at home removing Dad's things. Josh dressed very elegantly, as I had never seen him so dressed up before. He went with Laura to a super posh restaurant where there were water fountains and high profile people dressed in suits. Dad's things were the same as always, his sailor utensils, his grandfather's compass, a tin spyglass, construction tools, a stack of boat rental papers and a photo of him with mom, who was a beautiful girl with blond hair and a perfectly exercised body. Finally, an old map of the South Atlantic where there was only a small mark and latitudes with a strange letter saying "Perspectives". According to Grandpa that brand was a simple location in Brazil where my father and he had to meet for a business matter. I had never come to believe it, I had tried to find a relationship between the latitudes: -11.827432, -50.687839 and the telephone number. I had studied so much about the relationship between the two that I already knew the two numbers by heart. That day was different from the other days. I entered that small room at the end of the corridor of that small apartment next to the sea. Normally I would walk in with teary eyes thinking about why they should have left us, sometimes I felt anger for mom, although Josh always said that mom had a good heart, he would never understand why she left; that day I entered with optimism with the motive of looking for something that would give me an explanation. As always, I didn't find anything new. The days of August passed and passed, until Grandpa called and told us that he had to tell us something important, he told us to take a train to the station in the neighboring town. He was going to pick us up and he told us that he was taking us to his village house. I was amazed to notice that our grandfather was more active than usual because he had never offered to pick us up from the train station, and I did not know that he could take a plane and not get lost along the way. While making the train ride I noticed Josh was thinking and distant, so much so that he almost forgot to take the train, at that moment I thought he knew something, something he had never told me and I felt irritated. Already outside the train I saw Grandpa with the red van, something I hadn't seen many times, only when he wanted to buy something in the gadget shop that was in the city. Along the way he only told us what to eat and the news in the village. When we got to the house next to the sea, I noticed everything was much cleaner, even his fishing boat was clean.

We entered the house and sat on the sofa, he told us that in the afternoon we would talk seriously, that he had to make some calls and that in the afternoon we could do whatever we wanted. I was very intrigued by my brother's attitude on the train, he always told me that he had never been told anything when he was little, that dad and mom used to argue but that he had no idea about anything. After eating, Grandpa was still locked in his double room overlooking the sea talking, Josh and I decided to go to the field to play soccer, along the way I asked him what he was thinking when he almost did not get on the train, he told me that there was a simple detail of when he was little that he had thought a lot about. He told me that he had engraved on his head an image of mom in a futuristic costume like the war video game I played with Javi and that she had a very rare gun. On the court we were playing with the friends of the village.Talking about how our course had been, they asked us if we were going to the village parties in a few days. When they asked us that, I realized that Grandpa had not told us the plans we were going to have, what we were going to do or where we were going to be. Once at home, we spent a quiet night, Grandpa was still locked in his room with a sign of "please do not disturb, I will talk to you tomorrow", that night I did not sleep well, I had a strange feeling, thinking about what my brother had told me and the amount of curiosity accumulated.

The next morning, I woke up very late, I found my brother with the suitcase still done and with his bed very collected. I found my grandpa and my brother on the porch, talking, my brother with a lost look. Instead of having breakfast right away I waited to lunch, and at the meal my grandfather finally spoke. He told us that everything happened was very strange, that all this was not expected and that he did this simply because of revenge, mystery and because he did not want to leave this world without solving that doubt. He told us that our mother worked in a major organization, that she had a very weird accent, and that some things didn't fit with the time period. That, fitted with what my brother had told me. Grandpa told us that mom and dad met on a trip to South America that my father made for a place in the ship company. Grandpa had only seen my mother about 7 times, of which everything seemed normal to him except the last time that he saw a tactile watch that did not exist at that moment. The coordinates were a location in the middle of Brazil, something he had already told us, but he said that he went to investigate, but he did not find anything. He told us that this is where he had gone, not to Switzerland and that when he returned, he called us since we deserved to know the truth and more help always came in handy. He told us that the day before he was making calls, it had occurred to him to call the phone number that was on his desk when dad died, testing the last digit from 0 to 9. With the 5 he found a very nice lady from the south of Spain, it had nothing related to us so he continued, all the numbers had no owner or were non-existent until he reached the nine which was not a phone number. When he finished telling us all this, he took his mobile and directly started writing the number.

I directly heard Dad's voice: it was a recording. The first thing I thought was how much I missed him and how little I remembered his faint and deep voice. It was an old recording, but I didn't understand how from a phone number you can get to a recording. In the recording Dad said: "I hope to explain this to you in person with mom, but if not, you have to know this: perspectives are important. They change the direction of the boat. Beware of the numbers, they´re crucial for the Importance."

Grandpa told us that he had heard it about 10 times, but that he didn't understand either clue, so he asked us if we did have any solutions. The moment I heard Perspectives I thought of the map with the coordinates... I told them it was the only site that had Dad-related “perspectives” written on it, but that I had never cracked the meaning. During the afternoon I was thinking about it, until I was intrigued by one thing thinking that it could be the solution, I Googled the coordinates, and it gave me the same point in Brazil that I had observed many times, but what intrigued me was not that, it was to find out the coordinates had a different meaning backwards. It was the South Atlantic. In the middle of the sea with huge storms and many dangers, a point so remote in the nothingness that it made it intriguing if that was really the meaning of the track. That perspective that changes the direction had a meaning!

Grandpa and my brother saw it as a possibility. Our grandfather rented a boat immediately, not very large but fast and that could sail the Atlantic. To me it seemed very expensive since such a boat cost you thousands and thousands. My grandfather wanted to use all his savings and knowledge as a Marine soldier as he just wanted to know the truth before he died. It was assumed that the boat was to be used only by the Cantabrian Sea (the sea that is in the north of Spain) and with a planned route from Gijón (a city in the north of Spain very close to the town) to San Sebastián (a city in northern Spain next to France). We had rented the boat for two days, so we were saying goodbye to the townspeople for the next day and going to Oviedo to get all the information about Dad and his utensils. With everything ready we went to Gijón, I was very surprised by the suitcase so big that the grandfather had since I had not seen him take so many things. Once in the port, the company boy gave us the key to the boat, we got on and went straight to the north. When we were already far from the visibility of the coast, I asked Grandpa why that suitcase was so big. It was gasoline. I had forgotten the gasoline factor,  the company had only refuel for two days. After about 30 minutes, the grandfather, knowing the boat, went to the stern where the engine was and removed the emergency locator with a tool he brought with him. He told us that we were going to do something illegal, but we were going to say that we were lost and were hit by a rock and had lost the locator.

We were going to have a long journey, in which my feelings: fear, uncertainty, intrigue, sadness and anger, mixed. When these feelings mixed, I felt pain, as if a great depression invaded my heart and began to value the things I had: those childhood friends, my best friend, my grandfather, my brother. I began to realize that I had focused so much on what happened to my parents that I had not lived my life. You are not 16 years old every day, I told myself. After this adventure, I was going to focus on my life and to live it knowing there is only one. I did not know what we were going to find but we did know that we would find it together.