The Mystic Island of Dreams

Chapter 5

"Lilian, for the love of God, slow down." Raven was living a nightmare at the moment.

Following her announcement two nights ago, Lilian had driven to Raven's office on Friday to take her shopping. She had a lot more freedom with her time so she'd shopped for a few things on Thursday, but the most uncomfortable aspect of shopping for Raven – lingerie shopping – she left that for Friday.

Now they were walking out of their third lingerie shop, about to enter another one and Raven was all but red in the face. It was the funniest thing to Lilian. Raven wore lingerie but would never comfortably shop for it.

"Oh stop walking like an old lady. Come on, we don't have all day." As much as Lilian was enjoying Raven's discomfort at the moment, she knew her bestie had a limit to how much she could endure and this would be their final stop or Raven may just abandon the trip altogether.

"This will never happen again," Raven vowed definitely. Lilian didn't respond to that but Raven knew she heard her loud and clear. She also had a feeling Lilian was done teasing her, for the moment at least.

They moved quickly through the boutique, Raven with the bags, Lilian selecting the pieces. By the time they walked out of the store, Raven had shopping bags in both hands and Lilian had hers too.

"This is just excessive," Raven muttered as they dumped the bags in Lilian's car – a gold Venza – in the parking lot beneath the mall.

"Bish, there is no such thing as excessive when it comes to what you wear as a woman." Of course Lilian thought that way, Raven thought. Her bestie was a model and fashion designer, she was used to things like this.

"I hear you loud and clear," Raven said instead. "Can we go home now? I'm tired and very hungry, plus we need to sort out our visa and other things for the trip. How are we even going to get the visa approved in time?"

Lilian smiled, then got in the driver's seat and Raven got in on the other side. "One thing at a time Raven. The visa is being handled as we speak... something about an embassy affiliation with the resort."

"Wait, I don't get it."

Lilian started the car and put it in drive before explaining things further while they drove out of the parking lot and onto the highway.

"It's simple. The island is at a secret location but they work in partnership with a country. That country has an embassy in Nigeria here and our visa applications are done online, to be approved when they confirm the details with the resort. So..."

"That makes no sense." Raven didn't totally understand the travel process as she'd never been out of the country before but it didn't make any sense that the process would be so simple, especially not with everything she'd heard about visa applications.

"It does to me. I mean, imagine they don't have that connection already, how many months do you think it would take for one to get their visa approved? It would be a total waste of one's time, free trip or not."

"When you put it that way... I guess it makes sense." Raven was unconvinced but she had little information to work with and Lilian was the experienced one when it came to foreign travels.

"Latest by tomorrow, we'll have the visa and then the flight takes off on Sunday."

"Wait, I thought that was next Sunday not this one." Raven hadn't realized how fast things were moving. "That means my mom will be home alone for days." Lilian gave her a look of 'what?' "Dad doesn't get back until Friday next week."

"Then why did you tell Madee he would be back before we traveled?" Lilian knew how much Raven's mom hated being home alone. She'd travel to stay with relatives than stay at home all by herself. It was irrational but they knew something was responsible for her fear, something their parents would never talk to them about.