Persistence-and Where It Can Sometimes Lead You

Talina von Dego gazed sadly out of the window of her work. She was bored, and her continuous wondering about whether her dreams were completely dashed never seemed to cease.

"Talina!" a voice rebuked her. Talina looked up to her strict boss, a skinny tight-lipped lady in a short business dress and heels. "Get back to work!" She said her name, "TAL-I-na". Talina said, "Yes, ma'am," watched her boss saunter away, and returned to her job.

Only four short days ago, she had planned to go to Yuisuigi, a beautiful tropical island, for two weeks-but that all changed when Pirate Paper Works told her they needed her. They were losing people. Talina rolled her eyes. No kidding. This place made you fall asleep within two minutes of working there.

And Pirate Paper Works. What a ridiculous name. Pirates were adventurous, not boring. Not like this place.

Talina jammed the number, "11" in the amount of paper towel rolls that Mr. Peter Jenkins had ordered. "Drat it all, the '1' key still doesn't work!" she exclaimed out loud, to the surprise of her co-workers. Talina grew warm as she felt 22 pairs of eyes upon her, but she determined to press on. "Who fixed this?!" she demanded.

A small man in the corner of the room chuckled nervously, pushing his glasses back. "I did," he answered.

Talina scoffed. "Looks more like you didn't," she retorted.

=

By the time Pirate Paper Works was done needing her(what I mean is, she quit), Talina immediately tried to get another ticket to Yuisuigi. It turned out, however, that the fates were against her when she applied.

"Only one flight left to Yuisuigi," her computer said.

'I'm going to get on that flight,' Talina thought.

-

An excitement so deep twisted inside of Talina. She was finally getting her wish! But as she turned around, she noticed a sad-looking couple talking.

"We go every year," the man said. "I don't understand."

"All the flights have been either canceled or filled," the woman explained.

"Still," the man replied, "this is the middle of winter. Who would want to go to a tropical island?"

The woman smiled. "You just said we go every year. It's no wonder people want to travel to a tropical island. It's so cold here in Chicago! But," she added, looking at their single ticket, "which one of us should go? Neither one of us wants to stay, but neither one of us wants to go without the other one, either!"

The man looked thought about it for a while before responding. "You should go," he said. "Yuisuigi is your homeland, your native place."

The woman nodded. "I'll miss you," she said. Then they embraced and the man started to leave.

It took Talina half of an aggravating millisecond to make up her mind. "Wait!" she cried out to the couple. The man turned.

"I have a ticket!" Talina explained, waving it in the air. "Here." She ran up to the man, slapped the ticket into his hand, and walked off, away from a happy man and his wife, and away from a trip to Yuisuigi. Yet Talina's heart soared as she thought of the joy of the young couple. She had done the right thing.

-

It took Talina five days before she was able to get another ticket to Yuisuigi. She drove to the airport and waited for her flight. At last, she was going to Yuisuigi. Talina sat down on a dilapidated wooden bench and waited.

Thirty minutes passed. Talina went to get some food, but just as she returned, the loudspeakers announced the despairing news: "We are sorry, but the flight has been canceled due to construction failure."

Talina exploded. "WHAT?!!!" she exclaimed. "Not again!" But oh, joy, it had happened again. It seemed that Talina would never get to Yuisuigi.

-

Talina had had enough. All of her flight trips had sunk into the ocean before she could even board, and now there would be no more trips for five months. She just couldn't wait that long.

Talina leaped into her car and zoomed down Interstate 63. She would get to Yuisuigi one way or another. Maybe a Wyoming airport would have flight plans to Yuisuigi.

A siren suddenly started, but to Talina, the noise was scarcely a breath on the cold wind that whipped around her car. It wasn't until she saw the blue lights and noticed that her car was the only one on the road that she realized this was meant for her.

Talina groaned and pulled over. The police officer stopped his car, stepped out, and walked toward Talina. Talina rolled down her window in dismay.

"Yes, Sir?"

"Excuse me, but what were you thinking going down the interstate at 96 miles per hour?"

Talina shrugged. "Over-excitement?"

-

That night, since Talina did not have $200 in her wallet, she slept in jail. The next morning, she drove(carefully) to a Wyoming airport. She had already bought her ticket before going to jail, but luckily, the plane had not left yet due to an empty fuel tank. Someone had filled it up, and Talina boarded with a sense of doubt.

She was right.

When they were almost to Yuisuigi, the fuel tank emptied(they discovered a leak later on), and everyone had to jump out with parachutes. They were going to crash.

Talina put on her parachute and jumped. She was 1926 feet above ground and could see deep water below her. A funny knot tied inside of Talina. Now she wasn't only not going to Yuisuigi, she was going to drown.

But then, just as all hope was definitely gone, Talina spotted something in the distance. Land! Talina veered toward the tiny island, put up her parachute, and dropped to the ground, neatly missing a large sign.

Looking up at the sign, and blinking her eyes because of the bright sun, Talina whooped with happiness and relief. For there, on the sign, it said one thing:

"Welcome to Yuisuigi."