Bus home

Within 15 minutes of landing and the plane gates opening, I had collected my luggage and was on my way home. Thanks to the new visa-waiver programme, there were no questions asked, and the nice immigration officer stamped ’30 days stay’ in my passport and sent me on my way. My pace was quicker than ever before, and I made it out the terminal before anyone could.

I rushed to the bus to downtown Taipei, anxious of every passing minute. Though there is no ‘deadline’ when I need to get home, because as far as mum knows I’m not going to be home until next week, I felt like there was a clock ticking, and I wanted to be home as quickly as I could.

Unsure why, as the bus travelled toward the city, passing fields of rice and ponds, passing skyscrapers and the scaffolding around the latest construction projects, I became emotional. Emotional, as I thought about that moment of meeting, that moment I’ve been longing and waiting for for so very long.

I’ve cried at goodbyes, but I don’t think I’ve ever cried at a meeting. But now I know it’s possible, even though I’ve not actually met mum yet. In my mind, images of hugging her tightly were projected again and again. I cannot imagine her feelings, her sense of happiness, her surprise (pleasantly I hope…) when she opens that door and that moment she realises who it was and what I’ve been up to all this time. If the happiness of seeing a loved one and the rapture of a reunion could cure, then in my mind how I wish my arrival and my presence can cure her, if only by a little, little bit…

It seems like I’ve gone through a lot, waited a long time for this very moment, and now this moment is about to break. And it’s so beautiful, so very, very beautiful that it moves even me, and makes my heart weak and warm with emotions. After all that effort, after all that planning and consciously keeping it a secret to mum, after all the hurdles and distance in between, I’m so close.

So very close to finally seeing her again…