After the bad news

 So they said I should come as early as I could, I looked up the tickets and they were sold out. Come by bus if you must, you have to come, they will say things about you and the family if you don't make it on time. It's happening in two weeks, until then we ill take care of the outsiders, beyond that there are no guarantees, they told me. Of course I'd go.

I would have to take four different buses to get home. It was to be a perilous journey. Traveling on those roads in the best of times was no feat, traveling in the smack middle of monsoon was to stare Death itself in the face. Floods, avalanche, who new what else would stop me on my path, but not making the journey was not an option let for me anymore. I had to make the trip, to get back home on time for ceremonies, if that meant I'd not make it alive, so it be. And so I set, with one of my new friends in the town. He had been with my side right from the start and was well-aware of my relationships around, and he knew that a certain amount of secrecy was required to not upset anybody at home. Yea stay in my place for a few days and I'll make sure you can get back in the best flights we can find, I assured him fully knowing it wouldn't be surprising to have no new flights for several incoming months.

We took the 5.30 train in the morning, somehow it was packed like fish so early in the morning, where were these people going to, it was not quite sensible or possible he hadn't yet made a move on any of those incredibly warm and interesting diesels. We couldn't go empty handed, so on our second stop we bought some fruits and jars of malted drinks, and some desserts, specialty for the little village wee were, the one where one's idea of  good night out was telling women they were actually, quote good, on the internet.

The bridge that had been swept away for the third time in the season -- don't ask -- had been recently repaired but the tracks hadn't been put on yet. A porter helped us cross it, and we boarded a small bus that was to take us through the great pass.

Oh what a journey that was. Every single soul in the bus, save for my friend and myself, would have vomited by the end of the perilous journey. The insides stank exactly like that...the insides of a very sick person, but our resolve and the seriousness of the matter gave us strength to make it all the way through.