This is a real story, and we have covered the identity of the visa applicant in order to avoid he/she to have problems in a future Bulgarian visa application.
Friday, February 1st, 9:35 pm…
Airplane number SU2062 of Aeroflot from Moscow to Sofia landed at Terminal 2. Seat 33K remained empty. Also was empty the spot 27A on flight SU2062 from Hanoi.
A traveler, yearning to see the world, had left behind her dreams two days before the flight. The luggage was tight, it was said good-bye to the relatives, just one more step and would take the covenant journey. A brief adventure for two weeks, but these two weeks would have been a whole new world in two thirsty eyes. But it will not be …
Somewhere in a warm office sitting in a comfortable chair, there was a bureaucrat. For him, case number 0184410 was like any other.
Another torture attempt attempting to break the blessed tranquility of the bureaucrat’s life. A pile of documents stood before him. They stood there from before they went on holiday. Pile of numbers, names that do not mean anything to him.
Documents and dreams won after long struggles, all this to please the notorious “Rules of the Internal Order of Migration”.
Weeks of money-scattering institutions, which instead of being invested in the future, went to feed the state machine. Placed in a folder, these fates turned into a simple stack of paper – no soul, no feelings. You can replace each name, each picture, and you will still get the same zero emotional response. Just work.
He
The sooner he ended up with the pile in front of him, the sooner he could return to the peace and coziness of his life. To such an extent, he had perfected the skill that the Americans called “skimming” that he could safely come across the formula for converting iron into gold, and yet not notice what he had read. It simply searches for keywords. Are not they – red stamp. Are they there – he will proceed according to his mood. And if he misses something. That’s why the red stamp had become his first companion.
Even keywords no longer had the same decisive power as before. Unless he was in very good mood, the stamped seal stood aside. And what’s in the number 014410? Nothing. At least in his eyes.
After weeks of labor, months longing – now he does a quick look, no more than a minute, and as if the red print itself jumped on the leaves. It was the most annoying part: REASON OF REFUSAL. The worst thing about this case was that nothing went wrong. Not that it’s unusual. But there was also an answer: IMMEDIATE PROOF. A point of the law, probably introduced by some of his predecessors, who had been tired of inventing reasons, and had introduced a ” Lifebuoy ” It can be interpreted as you wish. If they appeal – then you sit down to think of a reason. So the refusals arrived as late as possible.
Few people will try to appeal at the last minute, given that they will
The civil servant dropped the folder and took the next one. What he did with it I do not know. Most likely, he continued to work mechanically, thinking about the steak and the red wine waiting for dinner.
But that was not what people were expecting from case 014410. They were naive and did not prepare for such a situation that they would find themselves on February 1st, instead of been in an adventure together.
Now each of them is dining in his small room. A reheated dinner from the supermarket, and inexpensive chocolate to delude themselves into replacing the loved one’s kisses. Bitter is the wine in the glass of the bureaucrat, bitter is the taste in the mouth of the two souls, who will be alone today.
