Looking at the trees around the road did not help Elias calm his mind. Still, this was better than the concrete jungle of the city that made him feel suffocated. The contrast between the him who loved living in the city and now was just disappointing. Now he feels relieved leaving the same place he used to want to stay.
“Alright! I got all the snacks we need.” A cheerful voice called out.
Elias turned towards his friend, Danica, who came out of the convenience store carrying two big plastic bags in both hands filled with an assortment of junk food and soda. He raised an eyebrow at the amount she bought but didn’t say a word and walked back to their Jeep.
“Oh wait! Look!” Just when they opened the doors she called out pointing with her chin. It was the nearby vendor stand selling various trinkets. From what he can recognize it was a mixture of native and Chinese themed good luck charms.
“Take these in, I’m going get us the luck we need! Hehee!” She excitedly shoved the bags into his arms and went towards the vendor.
Elias sighed and put the bags inside and sat on the front passenger seat, watching Danica as she talked with the old man about his good luck charms. “Good luck” He frowned, if those small decorations can have the power to actually give good fortune, they would be treasures worth more than their cheap price, too bad it was all just symbolic superstition, he thought bitterly, otherwise he wouldn’t mind buying a ton if it can get rid of his problems.
“Now I’m really done, let’s get this trip on the road.” Danica said after getting inside the drivers seat. “Wait! Here have some.” She reaches into her new purchases while starting the engine. She offered him a bag of oddly shaped biscuits, no, these are--- “Fortune cookies!” she happily cracks one open.
She ate the hollow cookie before reading the message. “Happy days don’t have to be about celebrations.”
“That sounds more like philosophy rather than a fortune.” Elias commented.
“It’s cryptic wisdom, you have to think and apply it first.” She tucked the slip of paper in her pocket, he knew she was only happy for having read the good fortune. Her simplicity made him envious, even when she’s having the same predicament, yet here she goes, carefree enough for a road trip.
“Well go on, open one,” she urges me.
He sighed, cracked a cookie and read the fortune. “Your problems are the result of your lack of effort, work harder and then you reap the benefits.”
The silence that came was more than awkward, the fortune was irony hitting him in the gut and face with a sadistic smile. Even Danica’s happy-go-lucky smile froze as she wasn’t ignorant of how the context of this message was reigniting her friend’s burning anger and resentment. Without another word she immediately turned to the road and drove onward, not wanting to look at his expression temporarily.
Elias looked calm as he stared at the words on paper, inwardly a thunderstorm of his anger was swirling inside him as the memories of the past year came. It was a new beginning when he started his first job in a company in Manila, as part of the marketing department. He was very thankful getting the job on his first application, it made him relieved because now he had a proper reason to refuse his father’s insistence on working in their family’s poultry farm.
It was actually very successful and his position was the same in a sense that he was helping with sales, but he wanted nothing to do with the rural setting and be associated with farming. He was grateful for the help his roots gave him to achieve proper education, however he craved more than what the countryside had, wanting the glamour of the city life. And it was just as he desired, at first.
He met Danica, his best friend and current companion, many more others as he went to get used to the way it was in the city. There were struggles and times where he realized he needed more than just dreams, but he managed well to pass them. That was how things were, until their CEO died as one of the many casualties of the pandemic, as a consequence the next person to take their place was an incompetent idiot. He didn’t know the details of how the person even got the position, only hearsay of corruption from opportunistic higher ups.
To summarize what happened next was a series of losses the company suffered due to mismanagement and embezzling. This naturally affected everyone, with no exception. Many lay-offs, overtime, obnoxious superiors and low morale, added with a constant need of more caffeine on a daily basis even at night, he gradually burnt out.
Even with the horrible working conditions he still persevered believing that it was only a temporary dilemma that will pass, alas he was wrong. He thought he could endure the hardships, after all he managed to adapt and survive the nuances COVID ushered, he even rejected his family’s insistence of returning home, not wanting to give up and return to the rural life even if he was at risk, as petty as idea was.
The revelation of how he was already at his wits end was when Danica shoved a hand mirror in front of him; he saw a man with a gaunt unshaven face, black eye bags and messy hair. It was him! It was his face! His self-care was already drastically horrible. With that realization, he filed for leave to rest. It would have been nice if that was all he needed and everything would turn out well, but what came to him when he turned up for work again was a timely arrival of the announcement of their company’s bankruptcy, a week before Christmas at that!
Many complaints and cursing the upper management that followed cleaning their desks, he and many others were now jobless. Now he spent most of his time wallowing in depression at his apartment, he did go home at Christmas day to celebrate with his family but went back afterwards as he didn’t want them to know his circumstances, but even then he was reluctant to go back to Manila something he never thought he would feel before.
All his effort and hard work gone, he was confused. Then new year passed and Danica suggested they go on a road trip for “soul searching” to find themselves. Well the result was they were lost now, literally.
“How exactly this happen.” Elias said, though it felt like he was asking more than one question.
“Your back! I mean, you were so quiet for four hours, well, ehehe,” Danica was nervously drummed on the steering wheel. “Yeah, about this trip, I didn’t reaaally have any destination in mind before, I just thought that we let fate decide on the place.” She smiled awkwardly.
Elias could only turn his head very slowly, the way it moved in horror movies and stare at her.
“Let fate decide,” He heard his voice say calmly and softly, yet the underlying danger was there.
Danica, sensing her impending doom swiftly unbuckled her seatbelt and scrambled out of the Jeep. “Okay! Okay! Calm down, I know this is bad, but let’s just be calm and try to think about this more!” She says holding her palms out in front.
Elias stared at her, but eventually sighed and peered outside to see it was late evening. Danica took it as a sign him settling down and took in her surroundings. “Well, I’m going look around a bit then,” She says.
With her gone Elias was back contemplating his life and misfortunes. He appreciated his friend’s effort in trying to lift his spirits with this trip, sadly it wasn’t really helping with his problems. His worries won’t stop haunting him.
“Elias! Over here!” Not even five minute passed and he heard Danica calling him. Sighing in frustration, he went out of the Jeep and looked ahead to see her with another person. Coming closer out of worry for his friend’s strange company, he recognized the person.
The old man selling charms!
“This lady here told me you two are lost.” The old man said.
“Why are you here?!” Elias said confused.
“Oh, funny coincidence, his home happened to be nearby and I possibly ended going back and forth a few times on the way so, were back here.” Danica sheepishly pointed farther back, I saw the convenience store we stopped by before, now with all the lights on against the darkening highway, and the old man’s stall closed nearby.
“Miss I can’t exactly give you directions if you have no place to go mind, but I can tell you where the nearest hotels are.” The old man says taking out a map.
“That would be great! Thank you sir.” Danica said gratefully.
“Oh! And have these, for your troubles.” The old man gave them, again two fortune cookies.
Elias could only stare at him as he accepted the cookies. With that, the old man left and went home, leaving the two friends in another awkward silence. Danica fidgeted, unsure what to say.
Elias thought “Let fate decide, whatever,” then broke one cookie to his friend’s shock.
Misfortune and problems will never leave, unless you finally act and leave them behind
The words this time were surprisingly good, even motivating, almost too convenient like a cliché happy movie. But whether that can apply to them is different, but it could a have been worse. Shaking his head, Elias went back to their Jeep.
“Wait up!” Danica rushed after him.
Sitting on the passenger seat in front while his friend fussed over starting the car, Elias thought, it would be a lie to say that it didn’t lift his morale, no matter how small. He can’t promise anything himself, but he’ll try and let fate decide.
It seems that phrase keeps repeating today.