Grandmother, parts 2316 - 2319

 2316. The paperwork at the airport check in adds so many little costs that the bill resembles the receipt for a trip the hospital emergency room. Yes, there are hidden, unexpected, and accidental expenses as well as outright extortion on the part of hotels clerks and taxi drivers and in the end the unexpected expenses end up exceeding the basic costs of the hotel, restaurant and air fare.

 2317.  The tourist who is traveling is looked upon as a golden goose to be fleeced, but the traveler absorbs it all thinking, “This is a once in a life time event, don’t count the cost.”  So every traveler, unless they are very experienced, finds themselves in a phone booth pleading with their credit card company to extend their line of credit, or God knows what will happen to them, all alone now somewhere in Albania, laving lost their passport and other documents.

 2318. The sum total of Coromo’s assets came to 2487 dollars, if you added his credit card to his Grandmother’s money. I know it is incorrect to consider a line of credit as an asset, but such book keeping distinctions do not enter into the equation when a person is contemplating a drastic life altering decision.

2319. The idea to cast his fate to the wind and go to New York was arrived at eventually without Coromo ever adding up how much it would cost. He was going to go, he made up his mind, come what may. Having made this decision to go, he was confronted by a crisis of the imagination. He was unable to form any kind of convincing vision of what he was about to do. He tried to imagine what New York might be like, but the best he could manage was a series of mental still shots of things like the Statue of Liberty, and subway cars.