Stairways To Heaven

The school break has just commenced. She was waiting for this moment to settle an important task. Right then she had no companionship to lend a helping hand, so she just undoubtly boarded a double-decker bus that Monday morning heading towards the metropolis. It was in conjunction with a public holiday and that the journey was rather slow-moving as the highways were heavy. It took her a lousy 12 hours of boring trip to finally reach the 400 km destination which usually could just be done in 6-7 hours. She chose to just travel by road, as air tickets were much too high for a 45-minute's fly especially during the holiday seasons like ths.

Two days earlier, it was so stressful for her. She spent hours, re-checking to confirm her online reservations. She went wild and crazy when it was stated 'cancelled' and 'expired' on the screen. How could it be when she was already given the confirmation the day she booked it months ago. She got panicked and that she took a drastic move. Booked another flight! Because a duplicate of the authorization must be attached when applying for the visa as evidence of the travel and that she couldn't afford to jeopardize the whole scheme after all. The first booking problem would be dealt later as all her calls were repeatedly unresponded. Only when the second booking was completely done that the agent issued a reply to all her enquiries. She should have her aviation bookings checked and confirmed with the airlines. Oh dear! She rushed to the airport to have this clarified otherwise it would be another long night for her. What a comfort when she was made clear that her air trip on the stated date and destination were valid and authenticated and that her double booking would be refunded and credited back into her account.

First thing the next morning, she headed to one of the agents authorized by the embassy to submit her application forms. She chose to deal with an agent in a small town nearby her vicinity to avoid the usual long queues at the main centre in the heart of the city. It took her only less than two hours before she was called up to the front desk to have her thumbs and finger prints taken and that the documents were ready to be picked up after three working days. Sighing a deep long breath, she drove off to get a nice breakfast of Roti Canai with curry dressing at a Mamak Restaurant, a 10-minute's drive away, feeling a lot relief and soothing.

However, there was something else that kept haunting her which was giving her the spooks and creeps. She was aware of the recent chaotic situation in the country she was going due to the demonetization of the 86% valuable currency in the country which has ttiggered a severe cash crunch. The country had run out of cash and the masses were taken by surprise overnight. She has been following news of how bad the situation that had befallen the nation. The populations were panicked stricken. Some had reached their limits of coping and lost insanity and that they even took desperate measures. There were reports of strings of death during long serpentine queues at the ATMs and banks, less not cases of dramatic suicides. In fact humanity in this part of the globe was at the edge.

And how could she still have the courage and intentions to let herself be in that tensed environment? She has been quizzing her senses and rationality since the November announcement. Wasn't it just like purposely indulging herself into a big trouble unecessarily? Having thought long enough, she had no choice but to just move forward with the scheme. This unexpected situation could not sway her off course and destroy her rendezvous. Someone was there to assist her and she trusted him more than anything else in the world, hence this well-planned voyage was going to be as scheduled and that the sailing was definite.

She knew if there's a will, there's a way.