Hawed From the Sidelines

Immutable interruption last night.  The sort of disruption that is absolute and completely un-navigable.  We were off to Paris on the 2:00AM flight from our beloved Beijing Capital Airport, Terminal III.  We had plenty of time as we stood up next to the immigration counter an hour or so before the flight was supposed to take off.  “You go up first” I said to the little one.  Glad I did. 

The staff quickly informed us that she, and therefore her sister were a few days over the limit on their visa duration.  There was a fine to be paid and filing of paper work and it would all take more than the time that remained to get on the departing plane.  “You’ll have to get another flight.” 

We hemmed for a bit.  I hawed from the sidelines like a fish flipping on the deck. But, sometimes in China it’s important to know when the negotiation is done.  Generally you rise to the occasion and go all out to persuade the person, who stands between you and what you want.  But when the immigration squad tells you it’s a non-starter, its best to pay attention.  Efforts herein would best be spent calming the little ones and managing the mounting frustration. 

Went home.  Slept.  Got up.  Made calls.  Navigated one and then another dead end.  Called back, sat through a second twenty-three minutes of Kenny G hold- music at Air China and then the Mrs. secured all that we needed.  And we returned to the airport and invested the accurately diagnosed ninety-plus minutes needed to do all the paper work and paid our fine and crossed out of China and on to this flight to Paris. 

The train we were supposed to be on from the Gare de Lyon is leaving now for Avignon.  With any luck I’ll be able to rent a car when I arrive.  One way or another, we’ll pick up on the thread of where we were supposed to have been, had we left on time, twelve hours ago.