Chapter 19
Dave and Peng sat on the next flight to Kathmandu beside each other looking at the screen in front of their seat at the current Infos of their flight.
"And now 3 hours and 49 minutes to go" Peng mentioned as the screen showed the current location of the plane and the distance.
"You're not watching anything?" Dave asked the boy,
"There are so many movies and shows I want to watch, but I can't decide" Peng explained sliding down the list.
"What if you pick the first one in line, afterward you pick the second one and so on?"
"That's kind of not fair. I would just pick the ones starting with A"
"Okay…...what about you close your eyes and you randomly pick out a movie'" Dave suggested, then Peng nodded at the idea and closed his eyes moving his hand over the screen, afterward he tapped on a image with a blue-skinned man in a black tight suit. Peng opened his eyes and smiled.
"Oh I choose a good one," Peng said watching the intro of the company appear on the screen, then Dave gazed at the screen to see a baby with a blue skin complexion.
"I think I've seen this on cinema when I was 16" Dave mentioned. "Was really entertaining"
"I agree," Peng said then stopped the movie and opened his seatbelt. "I need to go to the toilet. I'll be right back" The child told Dave, which nodded, therefore, the boy walked the corridor of the A340 back queueing behind two women, that were waiting for the restrooms to get free.
Yi and Jin sat in the coach with the destination Kathmandu both watching a movie, that aired during the ride.
"Oh no, not him" Jin complained covering his ears as the credits of the movie came with a pop song on it.
"What a drama Jin. When was the last time you heard him singing?" Yi asked the boy, which rolled his eyes bothered with the question.
"I don't know it, but it was better for me without it," Jin confessed picking a water bottle, that stood in front of his feet to take a sip.
"I haven't noticed you going to the toilet for the whole ride. How can you hold it that long when you have almost drunk the whole bottle all by yourself?"
"Last time it was about 8 or 9 hours ago when I went to the toilet. You were sleeping"
"Alright, was just wondering"
"We guys have a little larger bladders, as the women as we don't have inside us the uterus,"
"Right, I'm aware of that" Yi stated, then the bus driver picked up his talkie turning it on to announce to the passengers' news.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, we're going to pull out at the next camping place out for a 30-minute break. Be aware, that our ride starts punctually at 18:50 again to be here or inside the coach at that time. The Toilets and the coffee machine can still be used during the break and outside on the camping lot contains a few toilets too, in case of longer waiting time"
"The toilet is free at the moment, I'll be going" Yi mentioned earning a nod from Jin, which watched Yi walk across the corridor of the bus and disappearing at the stairs, which head to the exit. Out the window he watched a family share a table where they were eating dinner. Jin got up from his seat and took out from the overhead bin the shopping bag, which had the covers rolled up together in it and a few boxes with eatables in it.
Jin placed the bag over his shoulder crossing the corridor to the stairs, where Yi had passed before to go to the toilet and Jin stopped on the front of the entrance on the counter, where the coffee machine of the bus stood and several paper cups in different sizes. Jin picked two large cups and placed them inside the bag, then waited for the coach to stop.
Yi came out of the toilet, then encountered Jin waiting with the bag at the exit.
"Are we stopping?" Yi asked watching out of the window at the of the door at the bus turning into a free parking spot for larger vehicles.
"I don't know, but are cereals enough for us as dinner?" Jin asked seeing Yi shrug her shoulders.
"For the rest of the trip, it should be enough. I think we've only got about 14 hours more or less until we're in Kathmandu" Yi answered. "In Kathmandu, we can see, if we eat at least something warm and healthy,"
"You know what I miss?" Jin questioned the girl. "Your grandmother's pork buns"
"You're not the only one Jin" Yi mentioned, then the door unlocked itself and opened up, then the two friends left the coach followed by a few other passengers.
The two stopped on the grass, then Jin took out the cotton cover placing it on the floor like for a picnic.
"We better leave the table for others, which came with their family" Jin mentioned taking a seat on the cover along with Yi, then she took out the two cups he took from the coffee corner before.
"Well cornflakes would be more enjoyable to eat if we had milk, but the bus only has capsules of cream" Jin mentioned taking out two cornflakes boxes. "What do you prefer? Wheat semolina? Honey or there's a chocolate one inside the bag"
"I'm good with honey" Yi answered, then Jin stored the wheat-flavored cereals back and opened the cornflakes package with the honey flavor up, then emptied a little on the large coffee cup, then for himself too. Afterward, the two picked up their cup and smacked with it against the other and Yi picked out a few cornflakes to eat while Jin placed the cup to his mouth to drop a few flakes into his mouth to chew them. Yi chuckled amused by the boy, continuing eating from the cup.
"Do you think we will make it in time to see Mr. Burnish's ashes being scattered off the mountain?" Yi asked the friend, who swallowed down his food.
"We're definitely going to make it. The other day Miss Burnish had mentioned, that Peng and Dave were in Hotan and we've been there about a day later. We could eventually even catch them before they head to the Himalayas,"
"That be good"
"Yeah it would" Jin agreed, then he thought about his cousin, then gazed at Yi, which had dropped into her mouth a few more cereals. "Do you think Peng will be angry if he sees me or happy?" Jin asked as Yi looked at him as he was questioning her. "Like I have been a little too strict towards this situation with Mr. Burnish's last will and us all going to the Himalayas to scatter his ashes.
"I know you were worried since us three alone could lead us to trouble and I know Peng won't simply hate you for the rest of his life, because of your brotherly instinct towards him"
"Now after this trip, we got at least to know a few more places and people ….Well we didn't quite enjoy anything at all, cause we spent the major time traveling inside public transportation and us overnight at the hotel,"
"When we're together with Peng and Dave we might have more time to have better look at those places again. They're not as astonishing as the ones my dad had collected postcards from but still amusing to know about them,"
"Have you thought about passing by these places again?" Jin asked emptying the whole cup in his mouth. "Like with….your family?" Mumbled the boy.
"Yeah, we only managed to get to see the Leshan Buddha last summer. Nai Nai and my mom were really amazed by the statue and….we couldn't help but share a tragic moment there together thinking how it would have been if my father was here" Yi mentioned having a tear running down her face. Jin noticed it, then sat closer to her placing his arm behind her back to comfort her.
"He would have loved it Yi" Jin implied. "I even believe he was up there watching over you seeing how much you three had grown closer together and the same with me, Peng and you"
"I know he's up there watching down at us right now, seeing how our journey is going"
"Yeah" Jin agreed, then widened his eyes as Yi had leaned her head under his neck while looking up at the sky, which was slowly getting darker.
Near the departure time, Yi stood beside the bag drinking from her water bottle observing almost all passengers, that were from the same coach as Jin and Yi returning into the vehicle, then Yi looked at a small cottage signaled with restroom signs at the door. Yi walked towards the lodge to look around for Jin.
"Jin?" Yi called approaching the first closed toilet door, then she knocked on it, waiting for an answer then she opened it to see the room was empty, all she could see was a squat toilet. "Jin, are you alright?" Yi asked knocking on the second door opening it up to catch another empty cabin. Yi sighed and moved to the next cabin, then opened the door hitting with it on something, then she rolled her eyes down in shock to see Jin lying on the ground and the door had touched him on the back.
"Jin!" Yi cried trying to squeeze through the gap of the door, then noticed down at Jin's feet the floor next to the toilet was wet and it had Jin's shoe trail tagged on it and the left trail was smudged alluding that the raven-haired boy had slipped on the floor and hit his head somewhere. Yi crouched next to Jin lifting him up leaning him against the door, then slapped him gently on the face trying to wake him up. "Jin please wake up" Yi begged slowly managing to bring Jin out of the swoon. "Jin, can you hear me?" The girl asked seeing Jin open his eyes slowly to see Yi in front of him.
"Wha…..what am I doing here?" Jin asked passing his hand behind his head, followed by a groan. "Ouch, where did I hit my head?"
"I think the footprints there tell you, you slipped and hit your head on the lavatory or the wall" Yi explained showing Jin the prints on the floor.
"I should have peed in the coach or at the outside like anyone else" Jin complained, then Yi widened her eye in shock.
"The bus! We're gonna miss it" Yi exclaimed, then got up and held her hand out at Jin to help him up slowly. "You're okay?"
"I'm good, let's go" Jin continued leaving the toilet along with the girl, then they saw their coach disappearing continuing their trip without them. "Wait! We're here!" Jin shouted running on the side road, but it wasn't worth it cause the coach was too far for them to reach it. "Damn it!"
"Oh great, how are we now going to reach Kathmandu without a bus?"
"If I knew I would hit my head back in the restroom and make us lose the coach, I would have waited in it instead until the toilet there was free" The raven-haired boy complained.
"Just forget about it Jin, it happened. I just came along to see, if you were feeling alright or not and good I did come"
"What are we going to do now?" Jin asked the girl. "I don't know how high the chance is for another coach or anything else here to stop"
"It's almost night, I don't know, what's a better idea, wait here until other people arrive or we keep going and hope to get picked up by people" Yi mentioned watching Jin use his smartphone to find out, where the two were located at the moment.
"Here is a national park, but…..that's in India. That's not the way we have to take"
"Jin, do you remember at the begin of the trip it showed us, that we were going on the 219 to Nepal and we would cross Bhutan before we arrive in Kathmandu"
"Yeah, that's the only road we have to take to get down to Nepal. I can't clearly tell to 100%, that this is the only road on the map thought"
"This sounds crazy, but if the road really is only that road we have seen on the coach and on your phone. We could walk along the road as far as we can and take a break on the hills before we continue?" Yi told the boy, which wasn't really liking the idea. "We would be save from any harm...or not?"
"I feel unsure about that idea with spending a bit of the night on the hills. There could be mountain lions around here and we could be attacked"
"Jin you're silly. There are no mountain lions in China," Yi assured the boy. "But I think it's better for us if we stay here waiting for the next day and we go on in the early morning"
"Or we still can go both together and one of us sleeps first for one or two hours, then we change and after that, we keep moving on" Jin suggested. "In case of something, one of us wakes the other up and we try to deal with that situation"
"Okay, and why do you suddenly agree with it now?" Yi asked curiously.
"There's no danger as you've told me now," Jin answered. "And I believe not everyone would stop right at this camping place, maybe somewhere else in the front….or when we're out there and watch a car on the road we can also ask them for a ride"
"Okay, I believe we will have a chance at some point to find a ride" Yi added. "I mean who would let two people deal with their problem in the middle of nowhere?" Yi asked earning a nod from Jin.