The Flying Kebab

Many of you will think that the story I am about to share with you is false or wildly exaggerated, when in reality apart from very minor changes and adjustment for the basis of better flow, it’s almost a transcript of events. I hope you enjoy it!

The Flying Kebab

“A kebab?! You must be joking!?”

“Nope.”

“From Oxford?! All the way to Dhaka, Bangladesh?!”

“Yep!”

“Is he insane!?!”

“No, more like eccentric.”

“You don’t say…!”

The incredulity and utter disbelief on my face were matched by an equal level of seriousness and worry on my sister’s face.

“How would you even transport that?!”

“I don’t know. Do you think if I freeze it and then put it in a tupperware box it will survive?”

“A 12 hour journey, and being tossed around? NO, and neither will he when he eats it! He must have a death wish.”

“No, he is just different, very nice, clever, good person, just eccentric.”

“Yeah, you already said. Just tell him NO, you are up and moving your whole life, the last thing you need is to worry about a kebab going *SPLAT* in your suitcase.” 

I honestly couldn’t believe she was considering flying a kebab from Oxford to Dhaka. It was bonkers, amusing, and genuinely kind and considerate, everything my sister is but tries to hide.  For a no nonsense kind of girl she sure was prepared to go through a lot of nonsense over the kebab, but then again she had made a promise. 

“He didn’t want anything else. I was ready to get him perfume, clothes, even jewellery but no, all he wanted was a Kebab from Kebab Kid, a mixed kebab. Are those nice?”

“No idea, I’m a burger girl. Had a chicken kebab once, it was alright.”

“Oh my God sis how am I going to get it there?!”

“I don’t know, considering I just had to sit on your suitcase to close it I don’t even know how you will get it IN the suitcase let alone to Dhaka.”

“Can you put it in the smaller case?” Our friend finally joined the conversation now that she had managed to control the giggling fit that the idea of the flying kebab had started.

“No, I am not checking that in.”

“They’ll make her throw it away at security.”

We all just looked at eachother and started laughing.

My sister was moving back home, to her family and therefore by extension my adopted family. I didn’t give them a choice on the matter. My sister and I may not have been related by blood but we had lived many lives in the past together. We had  the deep bond of two spirits that seek each other out in every life and live it together in whatever form. The decision of her departure was sudden and swift as she had got a great new job in Dhaka, and tonight was the last time that the two of us and our friend were going to be together for a little while. The flying kebab was a much needed distraction from the elephant in the room that was her leaving. She had been a rock during hard times, listened to me swoon over guys, rant over politics, and put up with my constant need to inform and educate. We had been through alot together, and now we had to get through the flying kebab, together. 

At that moment I also realised that her leaving wasn’t something we needed to get through or get over. This wasn’t a goodbye, it was an I’ll see you in September. she already had the ticket! I wasn’t losing her and she was not losing me. We will both lose many people in our lives but never eachother. As that certainty hit me it allowed me to stay calm and to laugh with them tonight. I was going to miss our shenanigans terribly but we were just going to have to organise them a bit better and in advance and maybe travel some. The world is so tiny these days that distance mattered very little, it is time you have to be careful with. For now our last shenanigan for a while was going to be the flying kebab. 

“Hey will you be keeping that or can I have it?” Our friend pointing to a portable heater snapped me back to the moment and the two of them were laughing. We had been dividing the stuff my sister wasn’t able to take back and it had turned into a joke, calling dibs on even her used shampoo and the paper towels.   

“Nah, take it.”

We continued like this the whole night and then two days later my sister had flown back to Dhaka with a frozen kebab in her suitcase. Upon her landing I got the following message:

“Hey sis, the kebab survived!”

I guess she got there in one piece too. Already can’t wait to have her back.

Bon Appetite 

A Mixed kebab - would you want one? Because We deliver - Globally ;-)