The Voice

I looked up to heaven and just called out, shouting, “Oh God, I am fed up of this life!” A Voice from the pit of my stomach commanded me to “get up and go to the American Embassy.” I was so frightened because I had never experienced a feeling like that before. I began to converse with The Voice and I said, “I can’t go to the American Embassy.” I knew the children would be getting home from school soon and the American Embassy was way across town. I didn’t want to leave and not be back in time to meet them, but The Voice repeated itself and told me again, “Go to the American Embassy.” I stopped what I was doing and picked up one of my handbags that had an old Visa application in it that Criss and I got a few months earlier, as we had been in talks of traveling to America one day. I looked deeper in my bag and realized that I did not have enough money to handle business at the American Embassy and get through the week, so I began to battle with The Voice again saying that I did not have enough money to go, but The Voice rang out louder, “go to the American Embassy.” So that’s what I decided to do. I put my coat on and walked down the stairs of 121 Riverdale Drive in Hammersmith and headed to the subway toward the American Embassy. Once I arrived, surprisingly and thankfully there was no line, or wait, when normally the line is wrapped around the block. I walked up to the receptionist and handed in the application with my passport and the man examined everything and said, “This passport is no good.” It was a new passport from the Jamaican Embassy, but he explained to me that they had not stamped an issuing date in the book which made it invalid. The gentleman told me that I had to go back to the Jamaican Embassy to get the passport stamped in order to apply for an American Visa. I was beside myself trying to get all of this done knowing that my daughters would be getting out of school and daycare soon and that I would have to get back in time to pick them up. Abiding by The Voice though, I walked about 15 minutes to the Jamaican Embassy and when I arrived I headed straight to the man at the front desk and explained to him what happened. He told me to look around the room and take a seat with the rest of the people that were waiting. I explained to him that I already have a passport, but I just needed it stamped, but at first he told me I still needed to have a seat. Moments later, The Voice must have rang out in his spirit, because he called me back over, asked me for my passport and said he would run upstairs and have them stamp it for me. He disappeared up the stairs and moments later came back down with it in his hand, stamped. I went back to the American Embassy and handed the man at the desk the stamped passport. There was still no line and no wait. I was pacing back and forth because they were taking so long and I was worried about picking up my children. They were calling all of these people up to this window to be assisted and I turned to a lady next to me and asked her why they were calling all of those people up and we had been there before them. She told me that we didn’t want to be called up to that window because people being called to that window were being turned down. “When you have been approved, the man will come through the double door with his hands full of passports,” she explained to me. No sooner than she finished speaking, a man came walking through the double doors with his hands full of passports. He put them on the counter and my name was the second one he called. He said to me, “good luck.” I looked in the passport and saw they had stamped it, but did not know what the stamp really meant. I asked a lady standing next to me for some help and she in turn grumpily asked, “How did you get that?” “Get what?” I asked. She informed me that I had gotten a multiple indefinite Visa which meant I could travel back and forth whenever I wanted. She was quite mad that I had gained this new access. I walked away and immediately realized that The Voice was only God working in my favor. I ran out of the building, rushed to the subway to pick up Maxine and Donna from daycare and made it to Lorna’s school just in time to greet her at the school gate.