The Journey to Hell (pages1-3)

Luk Decato Embe, a dweller in Pairai’se, a strange land far away from Umbraland his homeland…,

“Um, a stranger in a strange land,” he took a few steps away from the mirror, arms akimbo, eyed his reflection, up and down, and addressed the man in the mirror rather sarcastically, “Decato’s a stranger in Paradise?” He took two steps forward and whispered slowly to his reflection, “a universal stranger, even in Umbraland.”

…has a decision to make.

“…a stranger even at home,” he thought about that for a while as he toiled with the decision he’s about to make.

After living in hardship for so many years in his adopted land, he’s now capable to take a long break, away from the stressful place Pairai’se has become to him. In fact he has never taken a break in over 27 years; he needs the break to reflect on the accomplishment of his life journey, and to strategize on what lies ahead.

He has acquired a meager fortune—albeit substantial in Parai’se, but a royalty in Umbraland. Suddenly, Umbraland, the hell on earth is the paradise for his vacation.

“What a chance?” He started out, but stopped short of finishing the sentence when he realized he was talking to himself.

He must have been quietly thinking the rest of the sentence as he seems to be saying to himself: to take some of his hard-earned fortune back to his people.

“What a great idea!” he burst out loudly and pumped his fist high up in the air.

Life in Umbraland is so hard, especially in the post-war period, that its citizens believe it’s a living hell. Pairai’se, on the

other hand, is a living paradise, the envy of the world where everyone in Umbraland, seemingly, wants to be. They believe it is free of all mortal sufferings---no poverty, no disease, not even hunger. Every good thing on earth is in abundance---wealth, food, fame, just name it, and you’ll get it. This belief, however, has always proven to be a myth, a saga Luk and others, like him, who have come over will instantly discover, as they set foot in their new land.

Upon arrival at the southern hemisphere of Pairai’se, Luk Embe immediately experienced a lurking culture shock. All his observation was in contrast to the notion of the paradise he had harbored all through the years. He started noticing that poverty, disease, and hunger were also part of the glamour that made up the paradise on earth, and at least in his surroundings, everyone seemed unhappy and carried a gloomy look on the face--- no smiling, no greetings, no romping, and no social interactions as was the case in the culture he left behind. He knew immediately he’d have to change his initial plan, “but when and how?” was another problem confronting him.

Luk’s surprised, shocked and hurt. How come…the reality…the virtual reality is all a damn lie? He concluded then that his initial strategy in migrating to Parai’se was based on a false reality. A new way was therefore necessary for him to adapt and live successfully in his new homeland. He conjured up an ideal mentality, at least in his mind eye, a model to prosperity in his new world.

As he gradually severes communication with all contacts in Umbraland, he constantly longs for those dreamy days he used to relish in and he was constantly “longing for home in Pairai’se,” as he’ll say, “wishing for hell in heaven, light years away from Umbraland.”

When adapting to his new him—a backbreaking task—he came to believe that the physical and psychological torments he’s experiencing in the south was “society’s ways of eliminating the weaklings from the strong and breaking the former down.” As determined as he was to make it, he refused to be that weakling; instead, he developed an attitude that if he could survive in the south, he could survive anywhere in the world, including in hell’s fire. He decided not only to work hard but to work smart, and so he did. However, little did he know that a belief he was nurturing out of his brutal experience would one day come back to “bite him in the butts.”

His anguish in Pairai’se is naught compared to what he’ll undergo when he returns to Umbraland: the shock that awaits him as he disembarks the vessel that will ferry him across the waters to his homeland will quadruple in comparison to the culture shock that changed his life in Pairai’se. Umbraland’s a glimpse at hell itself, he’ll believe.

On landing, he’ll understand what misery is, what poverty is, and what suffering is. He’ll be greeted with sadness instead of happiness; deterioration instead of recovery, death and destruction instead of growth and development. Luk will discover that, after his long journey back home, he’s returned to a ruthless state rampant with fear, crisis, chaos and desperation-- a place where hope is virtually dead. “A people without hope, without courage to go forward, moving around in perpetual sadness,” he’ll silently wonder as he browses through.

However, fear doesn’t only start to terrorize him on arrival at his homeland, but right here in Pairai’se, his adopted land. “You’d die if you set foot in Umbraland,” a bizarre excerpt from a letter he received from a relative back home, the year his grandmother and younger sister died, long before the death of his mother, who’d told him it was just an empty threat. He learnt later from a cousin that it was a confession from a member of the family who was on her death bed. He went into a panic crisis that took a lot out of him physically and mentally. Blood pressure skyrocketed to dangerous levels.