Follow your heart.......

The air outside was cold and dry. Frank stared out the window as he sat by the window of his room. "Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap" was the sound he heard as the rain drops bounced off the window in the quiet rented room of his, located by the slumps of the city.

Frank was thinking, he was thinking about his future. He recently lost his job in the production line when the economy took a turn for the worse. Frank is clueless about what the future holds for him. All his job applications have been rejected, and he lies at the very brink of poverty. Frank takes a look at his bank book, all that is left in his bank account is 50 Ringgit. He takes a good look at the bank book and gingerly puts it away into the drawer.

Frank lets out a long sigh of despair, "I never thought I would end up in this God forsaken state!"

Frank came from a village about 8 hours drive from where he is now. One year ago, he made the fateful trip to the city to seek better opportunities after 3 years of helping his father catching fishes at sea. He wanted to find out what it was to be working in the city. He wanted to know if it was anything like in the TV shows - men in dashing three piece suits, fashionable pretty women, social networking in the bars. Unfortunately for him, a diploma in the city only qualified him a factory job, with wages of 7 Ringgit per hour. With the wages, Frank always made saving provisions to be sent back to his village for his parents and little sister. Putting the savings to be sent back to his village above all else, it often left him with not much to spend for himself. Instant noodles were his staple diet and some litte extra went to buying an apple.

Every letter he sent back to his family always ended with, "I am doing fine here and please use the money I sent for yourselves and sis. Father needs a break from all the fishing. I love you all." The last thing Frank ever wanted to do was to go back to the village to deliver the bad news of his lost of employment.

The rain continued into the night. Frank did not want to think any further and just covered himself under the blanket to sleep. As he closed his eyes, he wept in despair.................

"Frank, Frank, Frank," he heard someone calling to him. Frank opened his eyes and saw a bright light, so bright that it made him winch. He found himself lying down in a place that is white, like being on a white plain. More perplexing to him was that he recalled he was supposed to be asleep in his rented room. He softly asked himself, "Where am I?"

"This is Utopia, Frank," said a voice.

Frank quickly got up upon hearing the voice. He looked left, looked right - nothing. There was no one around him at all yet he was certain he heard a voice.

"I am God, Frank."

"Does that mean I am dead?"

There was a chuckle, "No, Frank. You are very much alive. I can assure you."

"Why have you come to me now? I have been praying and asking for your help for years! You never once came to my rescue! Why now? Why??? You came to mock me and to see me in this horrible state?" There was anger and frustration in Frank's tone.

"I did not take the trouble to bring you here just to mock you. I brought you here to show you something that you have been overlooking for a while now."

"Overlooking? What do you mean 'overlooking'?"

"Look below you, Frank."

Frank looked below him and he saw his village. To be more accurate, he was floating above his house. He could see his father, mother and younger sister sleeping in the old wooden hut he onced lived in together with them.

As he watched them sleeping soundly, he suddenly felt warm stream of tears flowing down his cheeks.

"You missed them don't you, Frank?"

"Yes, I do. Yes, I do. It's been at least 5 years since I ever went back to visit them."

"Why don't you pay them a visit?"

"I can't go back the way I am. They expect more from me, not some loser."

"Whoever said that? Whoever said you had to go back to your village as a rich tycoon? Whoever judged you and called you a loser or a winner?"

Frank found he could not provide an answer to all the questions God just posed to him. He kept quiet.

"I know you send money back to your family every month on the very day your monthly wages is paid out to you. You always go to the bank at 3.30pm to send the money back to them. Most importantly, I know you miss them and desire to see them dearly, yet you fear that they may think you have been unsuccessful and a disgrace to them."

Frank just stared at the family hut as he floated in the air above the hut.

"Did you know your father always wanted you to take over his fishing business?"

"No, no.... He never told me anything about that. H never mentioned it to me before."

"He was supposed to talk to you about it but you left the village just before he wanted to talk to you about it."

"Why didn't he talk to me about it. I would have stayed in the village."

"He didn't want to pour a bucket of cold water over your head when you were so zealous about leaving the village for the 'real world'. Would any father want to do that to he is own child? I am sure you know the answer to that. Every night just before your father slept, he would pray to me asking me to watch over you and make sure you are safe in the city. In his heart, I could feel the sadness in him. Ever wondered what your father has been doing with the money you sent back to him?"

Frank was silent.

"Here, let me show you."

Frank was teleported into one of the rooms in his hut. Frank started crying when he saw what was in the room.

There were many tin cans stacked up together neatly on a shelf each with a label of how money was in each tin can. On a small table beside the shelf there was a note that said, "One more year for a new boat."

"That new boat, Frank. It's for you. Your father has been stashing up the money you sent back to get a new and better fishing boat for you. He has been quietly hoping that you would come back to your senses and stop chasing the city dream. He never once prayed asked me to bring you back from the city. Not once, Frank."

"But why?"

"He has always been telling himself that that's what you wanted and he should respect that. As a father he wants to support you and not pull you down. Even if it cost him his own wishes. Since the very day you left the village, he has not stopped worrying about you."

Frank remained silent. He didn't know what to say or how to react. He kept thinking about the time he kept insisting about how the city would offer him a better life. He just couldn't comprehend why his father kept silent about wanting him to take over the fishing business.

"It's because he loved you, Frank. The love of a parent knows no boundaries. He knew if he objected to your idea of leaving the village, you'd just end up hating him and still leave the village. It's because he loved you, he was able to let you go and face the harsh city life."

Frank kept silent for a while and then said, "What I am supposed to do now, God?"

"Listen to your heart, Frank. What does it tell you to do? I am sure you know the answer to that."

Frank put his hands over his chest and softly said, "My heart........? But.... but what would I know what my heart wants? Isn't it the same as what I want?"

"No, Frank.... it's different. Believe me, I have been around far, far, far longer than any man has been. From what I have seen so far, people tend to lie to themselves about what they truly want. your brain tells you one thing, your heart tells you another thing. Don't bother thinking about it because I know it for a fact. I am God, after all."

"What should I do, God?"

"Well, what does your heart says?"

"I........................."

Frank's eyes suddenly open and he finds himself staring into the ceiling of his room. He thinks to himself, "What the hell just happened? Did I actually visited my family with God last night?" He didn't have the answer to his questions but one thing he knew - his head was throbbing. It was simply too difficult to get up from bed and he simply decided to lie down for a while to let his head clear.

As he laid his head down, he somehow felt very comfortable deep down and he felt at peace with himself. Amidst the feeling of peace, he somehow knew he had to go back to his village to continue where he stopped off.

Frank packed his things on the afternoon itself when his head was no longer throbbing and headed for his village, his family, his home, the place he belonged to.

When he finally reached his home, he opened the door and he saw dinner readied. What surprised him was dinner was served with all his favourite dishes. While Frank kept staring at the dinner table, his mother walked out from the kitchen, "Frank? Frank? Is that you? Oh my God! Father, sister, come out! Frank is back!", she said in excitement as tears filled her eyes.

That night, the whole family had a long catch up conversation about what has happened over the years while Frank was gone. In between the conversation Frank asked his mother, "Mother, why did you cook up all my favourite dishes today? I didn't inform any of you I was coming back today." His mother responded, "Your father kept telling me he knew you were coming back and told me prepare your favourite dishes. I cooked your favourite dishes otherwise your father would have gone on and on about you coming back."

"How did you know I was coming back, Father?"

"Hmmmm....... I can't really explain it but, I could have sworn I felt your presence in our house last night while I was sleeping. Probably is God!", as he chuckled.

That night, while Frank was asleep, he once again appeared in Utopia.

"It was You, God. It really was You!"

"It was me, but only because you called upon me. One more thing, go on and check out the boat tomorrow," said the mysterious voice.

By the time Frank left Utopia, he realised he was already awake and it was morning. He quickly prepped himself and ran out of the hut to check out the boat. He saw his father in front of a brand new fishing boat with the name 'Fishing Frank' painted on both sides of the boat.

"How did you managed to get a new boat so soon, Father?"

"Your sister got a full scholarship for her studies. That freed up my savings I had for her studies and pulled with the money you sent back, we managed to get this beauty! God really answered all my prayers! You know, son. Throughout my life, I always did two things - living by faith and followed my heart of which I knew my faith guided. I guess, sometimes you just need to follow your heart and stop thinking too much. Thinking using your brains may not always get you the right way round, son. I never had much education, and always believe in God. God never answered all my prayers but I knew he always guided me toward the correct direction. You have a diploma which you got from your hardwork and I am definitely proud of you. I have never blamed you for wanting to leave the village. In fact, I believe it was His will for you to try something else before coming back here. At the end of the day, sometimes you need to try what your brains think you should and can do before you can follow your heart.............."

~Path of Time~ by Micky Foo is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.