Devoted Love, Mr. Hayes’ Darling Wife

In early March, Celesta Zorrilla helped Micaela arrange a slow variety show to experience life and travel.

No end is in sight for Strange Journey, a slow-paced variety show curated by well-known host Charro, which, I’m told, was put on ice by the station before going out, due to funding and the nature of the variety show, until it was appreciated by Burroughs earlier this spring.

Celesta Zorrilla says the show suits Micaela’s temperament and route, and since Micaela has been working a lot lately and is somewhat tired, going to this slow-travel show is a half-vacation, half-job way of experiencing life, which is the best of both worlds.

At first, Micaela had no illusions about the show, as she thought it was just a fake slow variety show that followed a script, and there were bound to be scripted fights and character scripts along the way, but by the third day of joining the group, Micaela realized that this variety show was really about experiencing life.

Gradually, too, from the initial contention, the journey became enjoyable.

The first place they flew to was southern Africa, the island of Madagascar.

The guests were Pohang, Diane and Fidele, plus Micaela.

Pohang is a popular folk singer who has reached middle age and has become a hit with a hit song. She dresses casually and has a casual, stand-up personality with an unmistakable rural vibe.

Diane, who has received numerous nominations for Best Literary Film Actor and has yet to win Best Actor, is forlorn and optimistic.

Fidele, a talented singer, is an old face in the entertainment industry, but has never had a major masterpiece, and is famous but overmatched and in an awkward position.

As for Micaela, she is a newcomer, with nothing to prove because of her recent appearance in the acclaimed “Blanco y Negro” and her status as an Almazan girl.

Charro laughed at the awkwardness and harmony of the first lineup of guests, who looked like unrelated people, but whose temperament vaguely matched that of the slow variety show.

The weather in southern Africa is hot and humid, with a great difference in temperature between morning and afternoon, and a summer heat in the middle hours of the day.

Charro arrived in southern Africa the same day he arrived with his home group and ran into problems.

As they were foreigners, they were held by customs and security for twenty-four hours for unexplained reasons, on the grounds that, with their cameras and various equipment, they did not look like good people, but like terrorists and spies.

Charro contacted the embassy in exasperation.

The fear of isolation during the airport hold caused fear in the group.

Charro was the trip leader, acting as a big sister and reassuring everyone even when they were frightened.

Airport staff temporarily confiscated the crew’s cameras and tape recorders, but not the cell phones they were carrying.

To calm the fear, Charro teasingly asked, “If we were really stuck here and couldn’t get out, if you only had one chance to call, who would you call? Who would you call for help?”

Pohang flipped through his phone and said sensibly and jokingly, “Call my family and ask them to find a way to free me.”

Diane said, “Me too, I guess, I don’t want to die.”

Fidele said, “I wanted to call the person I had lost on my whim, because I never had a chance to apologize and I felt that if I died like this, I would have to reconcile before I died anyway, not wanting to leave in anger and shame.”

Charro looked at Fidele with a smile, “So it looks like this person is really important, you even left your last distress call to call someone and apologize.”

Fidele smiled back, “Aren’t you all still here? You all called for help, and this call won’t affect anything even if it doesn’t.”

A few people laughed easily in the small enclosed room, and the atmosphere was no longer so oppressive and fearful.

Charro asks, “Micaela, what about you? Who do you want to call on your last call, and stop asking for help because Pohang and Diane have done it.”Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

Micaela felt she was being “taken for a ride” and asked, “Why did the question turn sour when it was my turn?”

Charro winked, “Seeing how young you are, I’m bullying you.”

Pohang: “It seems that out of the few of us, you’re the youngest and we’re all guys.”

Micaela was silent for a moment, flipping through her phone and finally stopped when her finger landed on Nico’s cell phone number.

Even she didn’t know that Nico had become the person she most wanted to contact in times of danger.

I’ve never felt deeply in love, but I am now. It’s a terrible feeling, like falling into a swamp, and I can’t help but slowly fall into it, I can’t help it, I can’t help my words.

In fact, Micaela prefers to be in control of her emotions, which are so uncontrolled that she has the feeling of losing herself, and unconsciously, they repulse her.

Even with Dario Cepeda, she was sober and kept her pride intact.

She finally crossed out Nico’s number and looked up to answer Charro: “I’ll call my grandmother, I guess, to tell her to be careful and not to turn on the air conditioning to save electricity.”

Charro: “So obedient.”

Journey of Wonder is a half-variety, half-charity show.

This time, they went to South Africa, partly for the trip to do a show and partly to promote the idea of protecting mammals and elephants.

Due to economics and market demand, there are a number of products on the market, such as ivory combs and ivory mussels, that require the brutal stripping of elephants, their capture or incapacitation.

Charro and his team observed and filmed the entire ivory extraction process. While this is the result of market demand, of a certain economy, and there is no way that a single public service will stop people from hunting elephants, it will make more people aware of how cruel it is to extract elephant tusks, and it will stop more people from buying ivory products.

Any public service, while not eliminating the root cause, can deepen the idea and change it a little.

Micaela’s mind was much calmer during these days of travel in Africa.

A lot has happened in these days, not only in relation to Nico and Dario Cepeda, but also in terms of the big changes in her career and work, all of which has made her less confident.

The goal of traveling has always been to find the true self.

Micaela seems to be getting to know the real reason Celesta Zorrilla asked her to come to Journey of Wonder.

Before going to sleep at night, Micaela sent a Facebook message to Celesta Zorrilla: “Celesta, thank you.”

Rarely had Micaela thanked someone in such a formal way, knowing that she had many resources that Nico had pressured her to get back because of a disagreement with him, and that Celesta Zorrilla had secretly helped her get.

Micaela is grateful.

Micaela hangs up the phone and is about to fall asleep when a woman screams and gunshots suddenly come from the B&B hotel.

“Ah!”

There was a lot of commotion in the B&B hotel, as if something big had happened.

Micaela had put on her shoes and was about to go outside to look when the door had been flung open by a tall black man holding a rifle.

The man threatened her in a stern English voice: “Don’t move! Hands up! Get down!”

Micaela’s heart stuttered and she hastily raised her hands and was carried down the stairs with a black man’s rifle against her back.

In the lobby of the B&B was a room full of panicked guests.

Micaela found Charro’s group and surreptitiously approached to crouch with them.

One of the guests was so frightened that he got up and was about to run away, when the black man with the gun shot him in the back and he fell to the floor dead immediately.

Micaela looked wide-eyed at the dead woman on the floor, and even the most calm and collected woman began to fear.

Charro whispered in Chinese, “I can’t believe we’re in a terrorist attack, this is really a prophecy, we’re not all going to die here, are we?”.

A room full of hostages stirs.

Apparently annoyed, the terrorist shot straight through the roof of the house and bellowed irritably, “Shut up!”.

For the first time in her twenty-one years of life, Micaela truly felt that she was very close to death.