To Earthland and Beyond

“You’ve got to be kidding me…” Quinton stood staring at the line in front of him, his jaw hanging a bit in awe. As according to the law, he was required to register himself and obtain a passport, already being from another country. “How many people are waiting?” The line looked like it was almost a mile long, with all kinds of people in front of him. Here he was in the bustling city that was Rose Garden, but he was stuck waiting in a line for who knew how long it would be. As he stood there slack jawed, even more people had moved into the back of the, prompting him to straighten up and jump in line.

The day slowly marched by, and Quinton had lost track of time a long time ago. “How much further could it be? It can’t be that much more...” There was a glimmer of hope in Quinton’s voice as he tried to look around the people in front of him, but that glimpse made his heart sink to see he’s hardly made a scratch on his trek to obtaining his passport. “Oh you’ve got to be kidding me…” Quinton could only make a groan as the line slowly moved ahead. He could see a shop in the corner of his eye, serving ice cold drinks to patrons sitting in the outside patio. “S-stay strong… don’t need a drink…”

The pace of the line had started crawling to a painfully low speed as the sun hung in the middle of the sky. “What i wouldn’t give for a drink right now…” Turning his head, Quinton could even still see the same shop from a few hours ago. Now having a bit of a landmark to judge how far he’s really gone in such a long amount of time, the frustration of how useless it is to be waiting around almost pointlessly had started to feel. “I’m going to die waiting in this line, aren’t I?” The curse of the line was finally starting to get to him.

The sunburnt face of Quinton only served to add insult to injury. If he had known about this kind of ridiculous wait time just for a simple passport, he would have figured out a much better way to approach it, including something to drink. Quinton couldn’t stop trying to lick his lips from how thirsty he was at this point. But there was no turning back at this point, too much time had been spent in waiting for this passport, and he was sure as hell going to get one. The sun had even began to set on everyone still waiting, as many people as there were. Luckily for all the unfortunate souls left, the office was open 24 hours a day.

“F-Finally…” Quinton had waited well into the night, but his time had finally come. He had entered the office about twenty minutes ago, and was finally near the front of the line. ‘The pain is finally over...’ Quinton had felt like he was going to cry of relief and joy. When he finally approached the front desk for processing, he gladly handed over his paperwork and moved towards the camera for a picture. Everything went along smoothly, as his paperwork was quickly ran and his passport was made. Well, almost everything before he opened the book and realized he was still sunburnt...