So many plans have unraveled…

The jump-off line comes from Insha’allah by Danusha Lameris. 

So many plans have unraveled. In grade 6, when went on our school to the same place we went each year because the only other place we could go were prone to kite accidents where the strings from kites snagged people’s necks, I thought I would do something different by joining the BBQ (I had never done that before because you had to bring your own BBQ forks) but I left the utensils on the bus. So I couldn’t join the BBQ after all. I resorted to buying a bottle of bubbles to blow. I did that every year. 

So many plans have unraveled. When I thought I flunked the entrance exam to the selective high school I ended up attending, we had to come up with other options. I even attended an interview for this school during which I was going to turn myself into a Bella. But that never happened so I had never been a Bella. 

So many plans have unraveled. We were going to go to Shanghai every September or around there to travel around and stock up on towels and undies and socks. But then COVID came and we hadn’t been outside the country for 5 years. 

So many plans have unraveled. I bought 2 novels to read in Shanghai, one for every year. But I only read one because COVID had come. The one I hadn’t read is Around the World in 80 days. I bought 2 Penguin Classics because they were on cheap. I didn’t take the other one back with me from Shanghai. The other one was Perfume, about this murderer who was the most renowned perfumer of his time because he was born with an inhumanly keen sense of smell and he killed to acquire virgin’s blood which made the most fantastic ingredient for perfumes. I enjoyed reading the book which I had donated away to my Shanghai relatives cos I didn’t want to lug it back again to Melbourne.