Ria, are you ok?

Chapter 18

86 - Bong Gu

We walked and walked and walked, and then we walked some more. We almost died at least a few times every week. Dogs bit me and tried to kill us. Once, we almost got ran over by a train. People tried to murder us. A cat scratched my nose, making me bleed. The roads were covered by water and we had to swim our way across them, with snakes. Cars almost killed us as well. We were always tired, scared and hungry, but we made it together.

Some things were clear to me, one of them was that we were the heroes of the story. No one has done the things we've done. The other dogs stay in the same place but none of them moves like we do. What is also clear is that surviving is the goal. We eat what we can find and do whatever we need to do to keep ourselves warm and dry at night.

Bruno's priority is to keep me safe. Every time there's a threat, he assumes a fighting stance and gets ready to fight, not thinking twice about striking back at the first sign of aggression stray dogs show us. Dogs are scary, people are scarier and cars are even scarier.

Every time Bruno puts his bag down, I know it's because he's found a quiet, safe and hidden place where we can rest. I watch him take out my food and water from his bag and set it on the floor for me to eat and drink while I rest. This happens several times a day. He then does his stretching routine and sits or lays down next to me, where he dozes off using me as a pillow.

Most days nothing special happens, then something happens, and then nothing else happens again for a while. That is our life. That has always been our life.

87 - Gwen

With the mysterious package in one hand and the boarding pass in the other, I attempted once again to go through customs.

"Is this your luggage?" the officer asked me.

"Yes..." I told him, feeling like I had nothing to lose anymore.

"Come with me please." The officer grabbed my bag and took me to the same room I had been to minutes before.

"You again?" one of the officers said. I couldn't really remember his face but I guessed he was the same guy that put the bandage in my hand. I waved at him shyly.

"Who gave you this bag?" one of the guards asked me while the other one checked me out with a creepy smirking smile on his face.

"I don't remember," I said.

"There's no need to pretend. We know who you are and what you are doing." I looked down ashamed and at the same time glad they knew what I was doing because I didn't even know what I was doing myself. What I did know was that life was very short and I could die anytime, and I knew that my cat had run away and my best friend was waiting for me in another continent and I didn't even know how to get there.

"You have been the victim of a scam," he continued.

I looked up and said: "Have I?" giving them the most innocent face I had after the strawberry daiquiri incident.

The next four hours were spent answering questions, signing papers and occasionally getting laughed at by customs officials. They were still nice though, I mean we're still Canadians after all. Had this happened in the States I might have gotten injected with some truth serum and taken a few warning shots to my thigh.

They didn't let me keep the ticket but they were nice enough to explain the situation to the airline which flight I had missed and they kindly assigned a seat for me in the next flight from one of their partner airlines.

As the plane took off, I looked out the window and thought about how nice it was to be born in this part of the world and in this time in history.

88 - Bruno