Hand of God

Susana was trying to book an airline to Spa. She thought of KLM and other ancillary flights that touch base there. But at the last minute, she changed her mind and landed upon a quasi-descript, now-defunct airlines that was part privately-owned and part franchised. Problem is it seems that the travel agency must have double charged her. At least that’s what her De Medici statement read.

Now she has two choices. Either get on the phone and wait for about 15 minutes. Or just go to their website and instead choose Live Chat for support. Yup. Be it so if it some girl from Croatia trying to help her with leetspeak and broken grammar after being hired over a freelancing website.

Her fingers danced on the laptop and perfectly typed out the domain name after ‘https://’ prompt. She scrolled down to her right as a pop-up with a smiling face of a black-haired devilishly handsome intern with the name ‘Dev N.’ popped. And yes, Dev even color-adjusted the tie to perfect shade of magenta and yellow as research indicates such color palette induces warmlines, trust and ‘flair’.

Hi. Thank you for your patience. Your wait time is 5 minutes. One of our fun and friendly agent will be with you shortly.

Sweet. Susana thought. Then as she glanced from the corner of her eyes, she noticed the three dots which appeared to assure her an agent was online. Is that Dev? She wondered.

Hi. My name is Debashish. Sorry for the delay. How may I help with you today?

Her soliloquy which consisted mainly of “Jesus Christ those gorgeous eyes…” “I bet he is too hot to be straight…” “Indian? I bet he is not single” was interjected by a chime and the sudden message in a pop-up bubble.

As she snapped out of the reverie, the following convo took place:

Susana: Hi. My name is Susana Reed. I just booked a flight to Belgium for myself, kids, and husband and it seemed that I was double-charged.

Dev: Not a problem madam. I will get it sorted out right away for you. By the way, would you kindly happen to have your flight number and booking confirmation number with you?

Susana: Yeah. Absolutely. It is TF819 and 00918239213743291.

Dev: Fantastic. I will be right back with you shortly.

What seemed like a delay of 5 minutes, the agent became online as indicate by the green dot in the box by his name.

Dev: Is this for Susana Reed?

Jesus Christ. I fuckin just told you that. Why do I have to repeat myself again? Susana thought. But she kept her cool and patiently typed out affirmatively.

Susana: [...] And oh yes, my husband’s name is Krajicek Reed. It should be under my name.

Dev: Not a problem madam. I am showing that the booking is under your name. Also, you requested for vegan meal. Your kids are Stephanie and Siria.

I don’t need my fuckin biodata spelled out you mook.

Susana: Yes?

Dev: I am sorry, madam. Thank you for your patience. Can you please verify your birthdate and current address?

Susana did so.

Dev: I am sorry madam. Could you please tell me what seems to be the problem?

I JUST FUCKIN TOLD YOU. JESUS. She felt like screaming.

Susana: My bank statement showing I got double charged. I would like to know why.

Dev apologized and went away offline. After 10 minutes or so, he returned to duly type the following.

Dev: I am extremely sorry madam. It does appear to be charged twice from our end. We apologize profusely. I have talked to my supervisor and reversed it with immediate effect. You will see the refund to your bank statement by Wednesday.

Susana: Wednesday? That’s a week from now!

Dev: I am so sorry madam. Please be advised that we are will be closed tomorrow for 4th of July as well as bank holidays and it takes about 3 to 5 business days to process the refund. Again we are extremely sorry for the inconvenience.

Susana: This is so unacceptable.

Dev: I agree madam. Again, I tried my best. As one-time courtesy, we can upgrade your booking to business class, madam.

Susana: Oh…wow. Terrific. That would be great.

She couldn’t believe her sudden change of luck.

Dev: Yes madam. It has all been taken care of. Your whole family has been upgraded to business class.

Susana: Oh wow! Thanks. So sweet. Debashish right? I will be sure to leave a good review in the survey.

Dev: Yes madam. Debashish Banerjee at your service.

Susana: Ah nice! From India right?

Dev: Yes madam. From Bangalore. I majored in computer science and received a degree in communication. I could not complete Master’s due to family problems and financial opportunities. I am blessed to get this job, madam.

Susana almost felt bad for her earlier behavior.

Dev: How is the weather in Wyoming madam?

Susana: Oh… perfect. Haha! :)

She even included a friendly emoji.

Dev: Yes madam. I am actually very happy today. My team did well in IPL and I actually moved ahead of the leaderboard in fantasy league.

Susana: That’s great Debashish. I am happy for you.

Dev: Is there anything else I can help you with, madam?

Susana: No you have been an angel.

Indeed, Dev has been an angel. For Dev doesn’t exist. All this while Susana was chatting with a AI virtual assistant. At exactly, 9:39pm tomorrow, right after the departure of the flight TF819, the plane would explode mid-way with the latter half-dangling from the sky. It would be carefully articulated so as to increase the temperature at just the right dial allowing an interaction with the nitrous halide combustion coming from the leakage at the fuselage would ignite half of the plane to thwart and European Union election. Such is the wit and kindness of the AI that since she has been moved up the chambers, the shell of the upper-half of the plane will still remain intact before dropping down on the Yellowstone River and if luck is with her, Susana may… may survive the wreckage and the crash as a life-long paraplegic.

Such is her Fate and the Hand of God in this.