"Never cut the tree down in the wintertime. Never make a negative decision in the low time. Never make your most important decisions when you are in your worst moods. Wait. Be patient. The storm will pass. The spring will come."
- Robert H. Schuller
"Come on, Mix, one more."
"No, Khao," Mix lazily shook his head and with his pointer finger, he was pointing in Khaotung's face. "I am already wasted, aaaaand I need to flyyyy tomorrow. Get it? No more for me."
"Fine," Khaotung patted Mix's shoulder, "I'll drink for you too."
Mix chuckled, "I don't think my sister invited you to her wedding just so you can drink everything."
"I'm not drinking everything. I'm just helping to clear this table so that nothing goes to waste," Khaotung raised his hand with a glass of rosé wine and took a sip.
"Sure, sure," Mix nodded, leaning on Khatung's shoulder. "I miss him, Khao."
"I know, Mix. You said it like hundred times tonight," Khaotung rolled his eyes.
"But it's trueeee. You know that he was only at one wedding before and it wasn't a happy one for him? He would loveee it here. We would dance and kiss, and kiss, and kiss—"
"Geez, Mix. Get up, I'll take you home."
Mix stood and wrapped his arms over Khaotung's shoulders, "you drunk too, no driving for you."
"I won't drive, First will. He should be here soon. Now, get up," Khaotung stood up, one hand wrapped round his best frined's waist, so Mix wouldn't end up with his face in a nearby wedding cake. That would be an astronomical waste of the cake. And Mix wouldn't appreciate the cake in the face either.
"First? Do I know him?"
Khaotung sighed, taking Mix's phone from the table and shoving it in Mix's frot pocket.
"Oh, wait," Mix said, way louder than was necessary, "that's the guy you met at uni. So, are you two —"
"Boys."
"Ms Wongratch," Khaotung lightly nodded his head.
"Mom, great wedding. Organization 10/10 would recommend," Mix showed his mother a thumbs up and smiled.
Mix's mother laughed and patted her son's hair, "can't wait to organize your wedding, sweetie. Now, go. You need to have energy for your flight in a few hours. Khaoutung, can I ask you to take care of him, please? Me and Aroon still need to take care of everyone here."
"Yes, of course, don't worry Ms Wongratch. I was about to take Mix home."
"Thank you, Khao — oh, I'm sorry, I need to go. It seems that Aroon got stuck in the unpleasant company of aunt Hansa."
"No problem," Khaotung smiled as Mix's mother already ran to rescue her husband from the claws of aunt Hansa.
"Okay, buddy, let's go." As he said it, Khaotung felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. First must be already here.
"My mom wants to organize my wedding. Did you hear that?" Mix asked, with what could be described only as a creepy drunk smile.
"Yes, Mix I did and it's great and I'll be sure to assist you with everything but first you need to rest so you can fly back to your boy soon. Okay?"
"Yes, sir," Mix saluted Khaotung and went with a surprisingly straight walk outside to the parking lot.
Khaotung shook his head, and walked right behind him. He smiled wildy when he saw his boyfriend getting out of the car and opening the backseat for Mix. "First!" Khaotung ran past Mix and hugged First, leaving kiss on his cheek.
"Hi, love. How was the wedding?"
"Great, Mix's sister was beautiful."
"My sister is the most beautiful girl ever! Of course, she was beautiful," Mix pouted.
"And this is my currently drunk best friend Mix," Khaotung chuckled. "Mix this is as you suspected already, my boyfriend First."
"Nice to finally meet you, Mix," First smiled.
"Nice, nice. Just wait around until I'm not drunk. I wanna have a talk with you," Mix said, and walked around the couple to sit in the back.
"Should I be nervous?" First asked.
"Nah," Khaotung laughed, "he won't have time for that. He flys back to Canada around noon."
"So if he weren't flying back, I would have a reason to be nervous?" First looked back at half-asleep Mix in the backseat and then started the engine.
"No reason to be nervous. He just wants to be friends with you," Khaotung shook his head in amusement.
"Are you sure?" First asked, driving out of the parking lot.
"Yes, yes, I'm sure. Now drive. We need to get this kid to bed as soon as possible."
.....
Mix's head was throbbing as his father left him standing in front of the airport. He ran his hand through his hair and very much regretted his decision to drink that much last night. But hey! Earth told him to enjoy the wedding so he did.
He saw his sister during the happiest moment of her life, he danced with her and with their mother. He ate a lot of delicious food and drink a lot of quality beverages. He caught up on everything with his best friend and even met his best friend's boyfriend. He couldn't say that he remembered a lot from that meeting but he did meet First. And that counted!
Mix made his way to the airport, the flying ticket firmly in his hand. "Hello," he gave the lady at the terminal his ticket and passport.
"Um, I'm sorry sir but all flights to Canada have been temorarry put on hold."
"What do you mean 'put on hold'? Why?"
"There are multiple extremely strong snow storms in Canada since yesterday. You won't get there from any country. I'm sorry."
Mix felt a sinking feeling in his stomach. This was bad. He needed to get back. It wasn't just that he wanted to. Mix needed to get back to Earth as soon as possible. That was their agreement. "How — how long will it take?"
"I'm not sure. The meteorologists expect it to take at least a week maybe more. It's pretty bad there, sir."
Week? Or more? Mix couldn't wait that long. It was already four days since he and Earth were apart. Earth — Mix didn't even know if Earth was still alright. Waiting more than a week was a way too big of a risk to take. But what were his other options?
Mix's eyes wandered to the wall behind the lady, where a big led screen was displaying flights of the day. His eyes stopped at one particular destination: Buffalo, NY.
Buffalo, Buffalo, Buffalo...Buffalo it's close to Canada. Maybe he could fly to Buffalo and then take a bus or something. And once in Canada, he will manage. He will call sheriff LeBlanc or something. Mix was getting back to Earth as soon as possible and no one, not even mother Nature was going to stop him!
"Um, excuse me. Is it still possible to buy a ticket for today's flight to Buffalo?"
The lady at the terminal looked at Mix with a sympathetic look, nodding her head she started to search for the information on the computer.
Mix was nervously biting his lip, looking around himself. Strangely there weren't that many people at the airport. That didn't happen often. But at least no one was standing behind him so Mix at least didn't need to feel guilty about wasting someone else's time.
"Ah, good news for you, sir," the lady exclaimed, "we have a ticket for you. Flight 4625 from Bangkok to Buffalo. The plane is taking off in three hours."
Mix sighed in relief, "thank you. I'll take that."
.....
Three hours later, Mix was sitting on the plane to Buffalo with a sinking feeling back in his stomach. One thing was to fly to Buffalo and then somehow get to Canada. But if the storms were really as bad as they looked from what he searched on the internet during those three hours he was waiting at the airport — Mix had no idea how was he going to get to the cabin that was so far away from USA-Canada borders.
With each bad thought, the sinking feeling got stronger, taking Mix with it into depths of awful possibilities.
Please, please, don't disappear on me.
To be continued...
P.S. Now...should Mix be worried or not? 🤧