When Sacha did a practice-pack a couple of days later, she couldn't say why but she left space in her carry-on luggage for a bottle of duty-free. Just to keep Hannah happy; she supposed she'd been living with Hannah long enough now to feel some influence, some desire not to disappoint her even if only unconsciously. The packing went well: she had more space than she'd expected, even taking into account unnecessary gaps, and she knew the golden rule that a person should unpack half of what they'd packed so that boded well. She could unpack half of it. She could get rid of half her stuff. She could live light.

Packing done, there was only one major thing left to do: buy her ticket. She'd been researching it online, in the library and at the internet café near home, and she'd spoken to a couple of travel agents - carefully, so as not to raise their expectations - and she was pretty certain when she was going to go. Mid-week, so as to save on money; end of winter, so as to miss the peak time; late at night, to maximise her chance of getting some sleep on the plane. All of that, triangulated against whatever tickets happened to be available and how much they cost and to what degree she was willing to fly on any given airline, should make deciding when to go relatively easy.

But there was still the matter of buying the ticket. She was going to go, she was really going to go - but for now the prospect of leaving the country was still comfortingly abstract, she hadn't spent any money on it and thus hadn't locked herself into any decisions. Buying a ticket would change all that. Buying a ticket would be final: decision made. Go now or forever be in debt.

Go now. Go now. Go now. Sacha had already spent almost an hour doing nothing more than staring at her practice-packed suitcase. She'd already spent months thinking about booking a ticket, thinking about going overseas - but now was the time to actually make it happen. It had to happen. It had to happen.

Stop it! She shook her head clear, she let the circulating thoughts fly out of her head like a flock of pigeons. She stood up. She got her key and her debit card. She had to pay rent next week but she could afford it, she could afford it, it was time. It was time to go and get her ticket.