We Lucky Few

Bracing the unknown

I gasped as we exited the airport and the hot, humid air hit me full force. My body struggled to decide between breathing the air or swallowing it down as it adjusted to the uncomfortable feeling. The backpack strained against my shoulders and rooted me to the ground. My eyes took in the unfamiliar surroundings as I felt Calliope step up next to me. A grin of anticipation on her face and a glint of excitement in her eyes, she turned to me and said:

"Here we go. Ready?"

I swallowed the bundle of nerves and fear down, and nodded at her hesitantly, running my hand over my concealed pockets and the reassuring bulge of my passport and wallet.

"Selamat tengah hari," an older man with greying hair said as he approached us with a smile. "Need taxi?"

Calliope threw me a look, then answered the man with a smile and a reassuring squeeze of my hand:

"Ya, terima kasih."

The man's smile widened and he waved us over to a nondescript red, white and yellow car, that could just as easily belong to some mass murderer who would kidnap us and kill us in some faraway place. Scenes from movies flashed through my head where that exact thing had happened and I shuddered.

"To Kuching?" the man asked Callie.

"Ya. How much?"

The man looked Calliope and me over speculatively. "50 ringgit."

Calliope laughed. "Tidak. That's too much. Twenty."

The man glared at her as his lips dipped down in frustration. I approached Callie from behind.

"Are you nuts? Just pay it. That's like 11 bucks, that's not much. He looks like he's going to murder us," I hissed.

She half-turned around to me with a grin. "No way, that's way too much. He's trying to rip us off."

"I don't care, Callie, I don't want the first thing I experience in Borneo to be 'getting beaten up by a random stranger.'" My voice squeaked up by the end and I cleared my throat. The taxi driver eyed us.

"Alamak! Not less than fourty."

"Thirty-five."

The man grumbled into his grey beard and gave Callie a dark look. I rubbed my sweat-drenched palms against my pants. Suddenly the taxi driver smiled broadly and shook Callie's hand.

"See? I saved us fifteen ringgit." She beamed at me and I felt the urge to slap her, throw her over my shoulder and run back into the cool safety of the airport.

"Yeah, you did, but now he just might take us to some lonely corner and murder us brutally."

Calliope laughed. "James, don't be so paranoid. That's how it works in this country, and many others. Be glad I have shown you sympathy because I'd usually take the bus. Taxis are too expensive."

I groaned loudly. Maybe this had been a mistake. I still wondered how Cal had been able to talk me into this when my plan had been to persuade her not to go in the first place.

Fucking Malaysia.

I shook my head. I still couldn't believe where I was.

I gulped and took a seat on the worn but comfortable seats of the taxi. I felt the drowsy sleepiness from the long flight settle over me. Callie had insisted on booking the cheapest flight and we'd been on the road for 36 hours, with two stops. I was dead on my legs, to say the least. Callie, though... She bounced with enthusiasm and joy, and I just wanted to smack her. It didn't take long before I fell asleep to the soothing sways and rocks of the taxi. Even my panicked mind and my fear of the murderous taxi driver couldn't keep the sleep away.