Testing Their Courage in India

The medical exam.

I’d almost forgotten about it, slacking off eating well and exercising regularly so I could study for my finals. I had been stressing out over them for the past few weeks, but now that they were behind me, all that remained of my stress was a bit of a stomachache. I could get used to this feeling.

The next day when I woke up, I felt refreshed, invigorated even—like a new person. After breakfast with my parents, I packed my things and headed to the tube station to meet Jordan in the city where we would catch our flight to India. India was closer to us than Africa was, and their healthcare standards were higher anyway. Jordan was meeting me at the tube station so we could take the train together and leave early enough to find an affordable hotel near the airport.

I arrived at the station and waited at the platform for him. While I stood there watching people stroll by, my phone vibrated in my pocket. It was a text from Jordan saying he was running late; he would meet me at Heathrow instead because he didn’t have time to grab his luggage from home. This meant that we would have to split up; we wouldn’t be able to fly together after all, since the tickets were tied to each person’s ID. He would have to go through security on his own and board the plane first. We would then meet up in India once everything had been sorted out, which could take a few days depending on how fast the bureaucracy worked in Calcutta—or whatever city we ended up going to instead if Indore wasn’t working out as planned.

As I thought about our plans, something occurred to me: What would happen if one of us ended up dying in some sort of accident while we were apart? The other person would be left alone with no family or friends nearby and no means of finding them again.

I dismissed the thought immediately though; there was no need to worry about that right now. We weren’t going anywhere dangerous anyway—or so I hoped.

After two hours of sitting around waiting for Jordan at Heathrow Airport and talking with some rather annoying passengers asking me whether I knew where they should go or what gate they needed to be at, my phone rang again: it was Jordan saying that he had reached the Indian consulate and had managed to pick up our tickets without much trouble, but that he had missed his flight because of it. Apparently he had arrived just ten minutes too late and had already missed his flight back home, but hadn’t wanted me to know because he didn’t want me worrying about him just yet or telling him not to go through with this plan if it seemed unsafe (which I probably would have done). He assured me that everything was going according to plan so far though; he just wouldn’t be leaving today anymore—not until tomorrow morning at least.

That night, when I got home from work after giving my presentation on the future of colonisation in space, more text messages had arrived from Jordan: apparently he had made it through customs without any problems and had gone shopping with some colleagues who were also staying there at the hotel overnight before flying out in the morning (he didn’t tell me that part though), but he wanted me to know that everything was going great so far; he hadn’t encountered any difficulties whatsoever since arriving there except for a brief run-in with someone who couldn’t speak English well (apparently people are still learning it nowadays) but nothing serious enough for him to worry about or tell me about right away (to avoid worrying me).

The next day, after finishing up another round of exams before class began, I received another message: Everything is fine now! He said goodbye then told me that he loved me; we would see each other again soon enough anyway so nothing bad could possibly happen between now and then (that's what he kept telling himself anyway). The only thing bothering him was his stomach hurting after eating at some restaurant earlier that day—but it wasn't anything serious enough for him to skip seeing me altogether; that definitely wouldn't do—and besides, it wasn't even his first time being sick either so this kind of thing shouldn't surprise him anymore (if anything it's surprising how resilient humans are nowadays).