"Welcome to Canada" The flight attendant's voice came over the intercom informing the passengers of the flight that they had finally arrived in Toronto. Elle waited impatiently for the isle to clear. She knew they were in Toronto already, she had been watching the tiny image of a plane make it's way along the curved red line on the television screen the whole flight, waiting for them to get into Canadian air space. She had relaxed only slightly when it finally had. Her family could not claim asylum until they actually set foot on Canadian soil. The first step into the terminal brought with it a relief so profound it was nearly painful. Tears had welled up in her mother's eyes as her father had hoisted his son into his arms and her mother had clutched Melinda and Elle tightly. They were dirty, the backpacks on their backs contained all their worldly possessions, they were tired, hungry, but joyously alive. Even standing in a new country, with no money, no place to go, dreadful things happening back home, Elle had never been so glad in her life. So thankful just to be standing safe with her family. For a minute they simply held each other while tears of joy ran shamelessly down their faces. Then they had gotten hold of themselves and they had moved into the terminal.
They bypassed the huge luggage carousels,(they had not been able to grab much in their hurry to get away), and walked out into the terminal, wondering what to do next. To their shock they saw an asian looking woman in a nice suit holding a sign that read "Wizards-Welcome to Canada". Tentatively they made their way up to her. She took in their weary, bedraggled state with a sympathetic eye, then asked "Can you read the second line?" Elle's dad, Reg, looked at the woman confused. Then Millie, her little sister piped up
"Welcome to Canada?"
The woman now smiled warmly at them and they realized that the sign must say something different for the muggles, it was a test to see if they were magical or not. Certainly people would take notice of a person standing there holding a sign with the words 'wizards welcome to Canada' on it.
"Follow me and we'll sort you out." The woman said kindly. She lead them through a confusingly large hall filled with moving stairs and lines of people waiting for a turn at counters surrounded by trolleys full of baggage. Some were touching the screens of machines that were sticking out of the floor and having pieces of paper printed out. Toddlers cried and people ran, dragging family and bags behind them, obviously late for flights. Elle surveyed it all with a kind of manic energy. She was so worn to the bone she could collapse but filled with exceptionally large amounts of adrenaline and an eagerness to miss nothing. The lady lead them to an open booth like a store front on a street but with the front open as it was in the wall of the large hall. There were similar stops on either side of it renting cars and selling bus passes. As soon as they had crossed the threshold the lady began speaking again as she turned to face them.
A smile like a sunrise lit her face. "Welcome!" she stated as if she meant it with every fiber of her being. "Our system told us that a group of five magically inclined passengers was on that flight and that you had not applied for visa's with the English ministry. You are seeking sanctuary from the conflict there?" the smile deserted her at the mention of the war.
"Yes!" Elle's mother cried in relief tears streaming down her face. "Oh I am so glad, so glad we made it out." She tried to explain to the kind witch. "I'm a muggleborn, I was..." She faltered "Are we safe? We have sanctuary?" The Canadian affirmed this vigorously and the entire family was suffused with joy, as her mother continued "I was sentenced to life in prison for 'stealing' magic, and my wand... my wand was taken from me." The kind woman in the suit looked horrified and fierce as if she would like to hurt whomever it was that had made such ridiculous claims and enacted such a dreadful punishment.
"You don't need to worry, don't worry at all!" she took in their bedraggled state "I just need to ask you a few questions so we can get you're paperwork started for temporary refugee status, we'll look into more permanent paperwork once that's done. We currently have a program set up for you're support. It will help you find jobs, a home, take care of placement testing and enrollment of you're children in school, even shop for clothing and other possessions you have had to leave behind." She surveyed the sagging and bedraggled family before continuing "have you got all you're luggage or shall we go back and pick it up for you?"
Elle replied for her parents "This is everything, it was all to fast..." The woman smiled kindly and a man who had been sitting beside them filling out forms told the woman, Ms Chang, they had been informed, that everything had been taken care of for today. She then handed each of them a cloth sack before leading them out of the airport and across a bridge with windows, over roads full of traffic coming into and out of the airport, and into a comfortable lounge like room with a counter along one wall. Ms Chang went up to the desk and came back to the group with a key. "This is to you're room, number 1225, it's on the twelfth floor, do you need me to show you how to use the muggle elevator?"
"Thank you Ms Chang, but that won't be necessary." Elle's mum replied "I have experience with them. But I have to tell you..." now mum looked worried. "We haven't got any money, we had to run so quickly and I'm sure all our accounts have been frozen. We were lucky, I'm usually not much of a procrastinator, but I hadn't taken the time to transfer the trust my aunt left me when she died five years ago, out of the muggle bank. Otherwise we would have had to try to hitchhike into France, I would expect. She didn't have allot of money and it's all gone on the rush plane tickets we had to buy."
Ms Chang smiled her winning smile once more and told them it had all been taken care of before having her hand wrung by Elle's dad and acknowledging his repeated earnest repetitions, "Thank you! Oh, thank you so much."
She told them to come back to the booth when they were well rested and reminded them that if they were hungry all they need do was to add their bill in the restaurant onto the room's tab.
When they finally arrived in the room they remembered the mysterious sacks that had been given them. Upon opening them Mary gave a gasp of surprise as they revealed clean pajamas, toothbrushes, combs, a selection of travel games for the children, toothpaste, a few pre-packaged snacks, two full sets of clean muggle clothes in each of their sizes, one set of robes each, hair elastics for Elle and Millie, pamphlets explaining the Wizard Welcome program more fully, a pair of nail clippers in mum's bag, and a notebook and a few pens to keep track of things that they would need to do.
"Bless them!" Mary sighed before hustling the younger ones into the bathroom for a quick shower each before putting them to bed. The older three also took their turn in the shower Ellie reveling in the feel of the water gliding over her exhausted body, the pain of fatigue now nearly enjoyable because she knew she would soon be cuddled up with her little sister in a clean bed, in a safe place. With her little brother on the cot at the foot of the bed and her parents in the bed beside them. She climbed out quickly the feeling of being clean a marvel after a solid month of dirtiness. She had managed to give herself a quick wash with paper towels in public loos every once in a while but this... heaven. She crawled into her wonderfully clean pajamas and slid into bed beside her sister. She did not know what the world ahead held, but she was not frightened. Her last thought before she drifted to sleep was welcome to Canada.