The Transition Point

Isil leaned back into her airplane seat, the soft hum of the engines vibrating beneath her. The flight from Doha back to Australia stretched ahead like a long, silent tunnel between the past and an uncertain future. The seatbelt light had just flicked off, and the flight attendants moved down the aisles with practiced efficiency. Outside, the endless expanse of clouds drifted below them, while inside, Isil felt a different kind of weight settling in her chest.

Beside her sat Valney, his eyes glued to the flickering screen in front of him. He was watching The Matrix, the same film they had chosen when they switched seats in the departure lounge—an innocuous decision that now felt significant, as if everything had shifted in that moment.

They had met at the airport, both of them wandering through the liminal space of international transit. Valney was headed to Brisbane, and Isil was returning to Darwin after a brief visit to Turkey. He had been struggling with directions, lost in a sea of signs written in English, a language he barely understood. Isil had offered to help, using broken Portuguese she had pieced together from her years of navigating cross-cultural spaces, and their connection had formed from there.

In the quiet intimacy of the flight, they had cuddled, watching Neo dodge bullets in slow motion on the screen, the two of them pretending for a moment that the world outside the plane’s windows didn’t exist. Isil remembered feeling comforted by the warmth of his body beside hers, feeling—for the first time in a long time—that maybe this could be something different, something better than what she had known before.

But now, months later, she wasn’t so sure.

Her mind wandered back to her ex-partner, the man who had given her the visa that had first brought her to Australia. At first, she had been filled with hope for the future, imagining a new life, a fresh start far away from the expectations of her family and the limitations of her past. But that hope had quickly curdled into something darker.

Her ex had fallen into addiction, sinking deeper into a life ruled by heroin, while she had been dragged down with him, forced to handle his problems with more compassion than she could give, even while she was struggling to heal herself. There had been accidents—too many. The dog bite was the final one, a literal scar that kept her from returning home to Turkey when she desperately needed to see her family. She had stayed in Australia, trapped in a relationship that no longer had anything to do with love.

But she had fought. She had clawed her way out, cutting ties with her ex and finding her way back to herself, slowly, piece by piece. She had rebuilt her life, gone back to school, and started her journey to become a teacher—a decision that felt like reclaiming something she had lost. Fourteen years of struggle, of trying to find direction, but she had made it. She was finally starting to feel like herself again.

And then there was Valney.

"Neo… good?" Valney asked suddenly, his thick Brazilian accent clumsy around the English words. He pointed at the screen with a faint smile, his eyes lighting up as Neo fought his way through the system, breaking free from the rules that bound him.

Isil forced a smile, nodding. "Yeah, Neo’s good. He fights the system."

The irony wasn’t lost on her. Neo was trapped in a world that wasn’t real, bound by invisible forces that sought to control his every move. And wasn’t that what she had been doing for years—fighting against the systems of other people’s expectations, relationships that kept her tied down?

She had fought to escape her ex, to build a life that belonged to her, free from the weight of his addiction, his needs, and his demands. And yet, here she was again. Another man by her side. Another life asking for more than she could give.

Valney had his own struggles. He had a son back in Brazil, a law career that meant nothing in Australia, and a dream of starting over, just as she had. But he had no English, no qualifications that could help him here. He was desperate for a visa, and though he hadn’t said it outright, Isil knew he saw her as his way to secure that future.

At first, she had tried to ignore it, tried to convince herself that his affection for her was genuine, that this wasn’t just another transactional relationship like the one she had survived before. But the more time passed, the more the pressure built. Valney came to Darwin often, always expecting something more, always pushing the boundaries of what she was comfortable with. And now, though they were living together, he was staying in his room, too close for comfort. Too close to escape.

His presence weighed on her, reminding her of her past, of the mistakes she had made, and the ones she feared she was about to make again.

She hadn’t planned on getting involved. She had made a promise to herself after her ex—that she would never lose herself in someone else’s life again, that she would never let herself be dragged down by another person’s struggles. But Valney had a way of pushing, of wearing her down with his quiet desperation, his need for her to help him build a life in Australia.

She had resisted, at first. But eventually, she had caved. It was easier to say yes than to keep saying no, easier to go along with his requests than to confront the growing dread inside her.

Now, it was too late. Valney’s visa process was tied to her, whether she liked it or not. She felt trapped, just as she had before—caught in the web of someone else’s life, someone else’s needs.

And she was tired.

She glanced at Valney again, watching as he smiled at the screen, oblivious to the storm raging inside her. He had a brother in Brisbane, but for some reason, Valney had latched onto her instead. She was his lifeline, his hope, and she could feel the weight of that expectation pressing down on her shoulders, suffocating her.

Isil had fought too hard to build her life, to carve out a space where she could be free from the burdens of others. And yet, here she was, on the brink of repeating the same cycle she had barely survived the first time.

She wanted to be kind. She wanted to help. But she also wanted to be free.

As the plane hummed on, carrying them back to Australia, Isil felt the knot in her chest tighten. She had followed her faith before, trusted that things would work out, that love and compassion would be enough to see her through. But now she wasn’t so sure. She could see the pattern repeating, and this time, she didn’t know if she had the strength to break free again.

Neo had fought the system. He had broken out of the matrix, claimed his freedom, and defied the rules that sought to control him.

Isil wondered if she would ever have the courage to do the same.

That night, when they landed in Australia, Isil couldn’t sleep. Valney had fallen asleep easily at his room, as if the weight that bore down on her had no effect on him at all. She stared at the ceiling in her own room, the same thoughts spinning through her mind.

She could end it. She could end it right now.

The idea came to her suddenly, flashing in her mind like a neon sign. She could cut the visa sponsorship—withdraw her support and force him to face his own struggles. She could pull away from the trap she had fallen into, just like she had with her ex.

But it wasn’t that simple, was it?

Valney wasn’t cruel. He wasn’t addicted. He wasn’t abusing her trust in the same way her ex had. But he was desperate. Desperation was its own kind of weight, and she knew how heavy that could be.

As dawn broke, Isil sat up in bed, her decision forming. She couldn’t save him. She couldn’t let herself be dragged into another life that wasn’t hers. She had worked too hard, fought too long, to lose herself again.

But leaving wouldn’t be easy. There would be guilt, pain—maybe even regret. It would mean hurting someone who hadn’t hurt her. But she had to believe that it was better to feel that sting now than to let it grow into something darker, something she couldn’t escape later.

And so, as the sun rose, Isil decided. She would break the cycle. She would resist the impulse to save Valney from his life at the cost of her own. And for the first time in months, as the morning light filled the room, she felt a strange, unfamiliar lightness inside her—a flicker of hope, of freedom.

Just like Neo, she would break free from the system that sought to control her.

She would choose herself.