I read her name tag. It says Mary. I show her the photo on my phone. “Mary, there are ants in my bathroom, but this young man says that he has to verify it in person before he is able to help me.”

  “I’ve never seen an issue like this here,” she admits, her eyebrows furrowing in genuine surprise. “I assure you, I believe you.”

  She extends her hand. “May I have your key card?”

  I had it to her and after a few keystrokes on her computer, she hands it back. “I’ve relocated you to a new room. I’ll write it down here for you.” She scribbles on a small keycard folder and hands it to me.

  “Thank you so much,” I say.

  She nods. ”To get there, head straight out this door, follow the path until you reach a fork, then take a left,” she instructs.

  I nod appreciatively. “Thank you again for addressing this.”

  “It’s my pleasure to help,” she replies with a gracious smile.

  I study her face, still trying to place where I’ve seen her before. “I’m sorry, this might sound odd, but have we met before?”

  A fleeting expression of unease crosses her face, but she quickly regains her composure. “I don’t believe we have. However, I encounter thousands of guests each year, so it’s possible. I definitely don’t remember every face I’ve seen,” she says.

  “Yes, of course. I don’t think I’ve ever been here before in my life, so there’s no possible way I could have met you,” I respond. Although, my dad did take me on vacation to many resorts all over the world when I was younger. I guess it’s possible I’ve been here before.

  “Right. Exactly,” she replies. “But it was a pleasure to meet you. If you have any more trouble, please come directly to me. I will make sure it gets fixed.”

  I nod and thank her one more time. I grab my bags and head out the door, following her directions. This time, I run to my new room, hoping to avoid being drenched in the downpour. At the fork in the path, I turn left. The units in front of me look vastly different from my previous one. Most of them seem large enough to occupy an entire building on their own.

  “There must be some mistake,” I mumble to myself as I approach the french doors. I use my key card; a green light flashes and I hear the door unlock. “No mistake,” I whisper as I open the door.

  Stepping inside, I’m immediately taken aback. The floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook the ocean are simply breathtaking. Drawn to the view, I walk straight to a window, captivated by the endless expanse of blue. The scent of the sea seems to fill the room.

  “This has to be a mistake,” I think aloud. “I hope they’re not charging me extra for this. There’s no way I can afford it.”

  I pick up the room phone and dial the front desk. “Hi, this is Jake Malone. I just had my room changed and the room I’ve been relocated to isn’t the same type I initially booked. I want to make sure there hasn’t been a mistake.”

  “Hi, Mr. Malone,” the voice on the other end replies. “One moment, please.”

  After a brief back and forth, they check the booking and tell me that it is not a mistake.

  “Wow, okay. Am I being charged more for this room compared to the previous one?”

  “No, it appears we’ve kept the price the same. Congratulations! You are about to have a wonderful stay in that room,” the voice on the other end says.

  “Thank you,” I reply, still a bit bewildered. I hang up the phone without even saying goodbye. “Wow, I’ve never stayed in a place like this,” I say quietly. I take several pictures of the living room and the various bedrooms, then connect my phone to the resort’s Wi-Fi. I send the photos to Stacia.

  She responds immediately. Babe, is that your room?

  Yeah. Isn’t it crazy?

  Man, you’re so lucky. I wish I was there with you.

  Me too, baby. Me too. But I promise you, this is not the type of room I booked. There were ants in my first room, so I requested a change. I don’t know what happened, but I got the upgrade of a lifetime.

  Don’t have too much fun there without me, she teases.

  You don’t have to worry, I text back. I love you.

  I wait and after a few seconds, she replies, I love you too, babe.

  I put down the phone and return to the window, gazing out at the view. “Even though it’s pouring down rain, it’s still beautiful. I could get used to this,” I muse.

  I think about messaging Stacia again to tell her that my phone doesn’t have service at the resort, but I opt not to. It might be good to unplug. What’s the worst that can happen?

  6

  CHLOE

  I rummage through my suitcases, looking for my rain boots and raincoat. I’m glad I thought to bring them. I vaguely remember from when I was here as a kid, the storms that would occasionally roll in, basically turning into monsoons. The boots and coat will come in handy today as I try to find Tawni.

  I rush to the front door, open it and start yelling her name as loudly as I can. There’s no response. The rain seems to dampen my words as soon as they come out of my mouth. I cover my head with my hood and step into what feels like a sheet of water. Puddles are already forming on the ground; I can barely see the grass anymore. I spend several minutes running around the campus, yelling Tawni’s name with no luck. Where has she gone?

  I really need to have a better attitude. She’s just trying to help me and all I’m doing is being a party pooper. I promise myself that when I find her, that’s going to stop. We are going to enjoy ourselves no matter what. This is an opportunity for me to reset after losing my dad. I am so grateful to her for suggesting it.

  I finally give up searching for Tawni and figure I’ll find her once the rain stops. Now is my chance to go ask about that package. I walk to the front desk and open the door. I’m certain I look like a drowned rat standing there as the rain drips from every part of me.

  “Come on in,” the front clerk says. “We can get someone to clean up that mess. Don’t worry about it.”

  I look down at the puddle underneath my feet and give him a sheepish grin. “Sorry about that,” I say.

  “No worries,” he says. “It happens. We’re just at the end of our rainy season.”

  “Got it,” I say.

  “How can I help you?” He asks.

  “Yeah, this is gonna sound a little weird, but there’s a gift in my room with my name on it and I have no idea where it came from.”

  I give him my room number and wait a few seconds as he looks it up. A confused look crosses his face.

  “I don’t have any record of a gift being delivered to your room. Are you sure it’s yours? Maybe it was delivered by mistake.”

  “Pretty sure it’s mine,” I say. “It has my name on it.”

  “Oh wow. That’s very confusing. I don’t really know how that would have happened. There are only a handful of people who have access to those rooms and it is company policy to log anything that we deliver. I’m just as confused as you are,” he says.

  I put my head on my arm and sigh. Great. Only here a few hours and I already have a stalker. I lift my head and look at him. “Can I speak to your manager, please?”

  “Of course, ma’am,” he says as he takes off to get the manager.

  A few moments later, a tall brunette woman comes out of the office. She is very put together, somehow almost regal in her uniform.

  “Hello, I’m Mary, the general manager of the resort. My clerk says that you have a strange package in your room. Is that correct?” She asks.

  “Yes,” I say, “and it’s imperative that nobody knows that I’m here. So I’m very concerned about this.”

  “I understand,” she says. “We often have guests who want to remain anonymous. So I understand how important this is to you.”

  “Very important.”

  “And you’re sure that it is addressed to you?” She asks, looking at me concerned.

  “Yes, I’m sure. It has my name on the tag.”

  “Very interesting,” she says. “Listen, I will check the recordings to see if anybody came to that room before you arrived. But I can assure you, there is no one on our staff that has leaked your presence here.”

  “I know. I’m not blaming you. I’m just a little freaked out by it, that’s all. It was probably my agent. She probably just wanted to surprise me with a gift and somehow managed to get it into the room without you guys knowing.”

  “Yes, I’m certain that’s it,” says Mary. “You’ll have to excuse me though; I have quite a lot of things to do this afternoon before everybody comes back out of their rooms. It looks like the rain has stopped,” she says, gesturing towards the window.

  I look outside and see she’s right. The rain has almost completely diminished and I can see that the clouds in the sky are beginning to depart.

  “Yes, of course. I appreciate you looking into it,” I say.

  She nods and turns back towards the office.

  “Hey, one more quick question,” I say.

  She turns back around and looks at me.

  “My friend Tawni went out in the rain and I haven’t been able to locate her. Any ideas on where she might be?”

  “Hmm,” she says. “Well, you could always check the bar by the pool. It’s covered and might have been a good place for shelter.”

  “That is one place I did not look. Thank you so much.”

  She nods and turns around, walking back into the office.

  “Of course, she’d head straight for the bar,” I mumble to myself. “That girl loves a drink.”

  I walk outside. The sun is quickly heating up the ground and an earthy smell rises from it as the steam burns off the rain. I take a deep breath; the clean air feels good in my lungs. I check the signs posted by the sidewalk and walk toward the bar.

  About halfway there, I notice a figure huddled on the ground. It looks like their leg is stuck in a hole. The figure looks up at me and I can’t help but giggle.

  “Tawni?” I ask, surprised. She just nods, mascara running down her face. I can’t tell if it’s from the rain or from real tears.

  “What the heck happened to you?” I ask.

  “I got stuck in this hole,” she says, half crying, half laughing.

  “And you couldn’t get yourself out?”

  She shakes her head. “No, I tried. But I don’t have good enough leverage.”

  “So you’ve been sitting here this entire time?” I say, almost fully engrossed in laughter. My laughter must be contagious because she’s now laughing too.

  “Yes, I know it’s stupid. But I was so mad at you. Here we are in paradise and you’re over there being grumpy.”

  “I know. I’m so sorry, Tawni. I promise the rest of this trip I’ll only be happy-Chloe. We’re going to enjoy this, I promise.”

  “Okay,” she says. “Now help me get out.”

  I grab her arm and pull. We hear a sucking noise as the mud tries to grip her and keep her in the hole. But finally, with her strength and mine together, we are able to pull her out.

  “I think I lost my shoe,” she says, giggling.

  “I’m not putting my arm in there to get your shoe back,” I say to her.

  “But Chloe, this is all your fault.”

  “I’ll buy you another pair of shoes,” I say. “That one’s lost for good.”

  “Fine,” she says.

  I wrap my arms around her, not even worried about getting covered in the mud.

  “I’m so sorry, Tawni. This would have never happened if I had been nicer to you.”

  “I forgive you. Let’s go back and change so we can get that glow on, now that the sun is coming out again.”

  I laugh. “Alright, sounds good.”

  We walk back towards our room, arms around each other’s shoulders, the strange package temporarily shoved to the back of my mind.

  7

  JERRY

  The waves tower above the beach, extra high this afternoon after the morning’s storm. Even with the high waves, there are still a few dozen people out trying to catch them. Most of them are locals, getting in a few hours of surfing before starting their jobs. However, there are also a few clients from the resort, people who’ve hired surfing guides. They’re easy to spot. Most of them can’t even get up on the board, let alone stand on it for very long. It always cracks me up to watch them try. They’re tenacious, I’ll give them that. But surfing is not something you can learn in a few hours. It takes daily practice, sometimes for years, to get any good at it and there’s no way they’re going to get that kind of practice here.

  I’m sitting underneath a palm tree, wearing my sombrero and sunglasses. I don’t really want anyone to recognize me. They all think I’m weird just because I love to take pictures. I feel like when I take a photo of something, I can see it in a completely different light than with my regular eyes.

  My Papi gave me my first camera when I was six years old and I’ve barely put it down since. Taking pictures centers me and it calms me down. Recently, I’ve been needing much more of that calm. I don’t even need to know the people in my photographs. In fact, I often make up names for the people whose photos I take. Sometimes, I even create backstories for them as well. It helps me imagine a life beyond this island, a life I will probably never experience.

  After a couple of hours, I sigh and look down at my watch. It reads 4:15. Crap, I was supposed to be at work fifteen minutes ago. Mary is going to kill me.

  I quickly grab my things and stand up, my back aching from sitting in the same position for so long. In my mind, I still feel like a twenty-year-old man, but my body tells me something different. All my joints creak and ache and the maintenance work I do at the resort is getting harder and harder to do. But I have no choice; I have to keep pushing on. I have no savings and no retirement fund. I’m going to be doing this job until I die.

  My daughter keeps trying to beg me to come live with her, but I just can’t. I need my space. I may be forced to one of these days, but today is not that day.

  I walk quickly towards the resort grounds, hoping nobody notices me. I’m almost home-free when Mary spots me walking across the lawn. She stomps over to me in her high heels, looking furious.

  “Jerry, what do you think you are doing?”

  I apologize, “I lost track of time.”

  “It’s always something with you,” she says angrily.

  I hate working for her. I should have her job. I’ve been here much longer than she has. But somehow, she weaseled her way into the boss’s good graces and got promoted. And here I am, stuck doing maintenance, the same job I’ve been doing for at least thirty years.

  “Like I said, I’m sorry, Mary. It won’t happen again.”

  “Right. It won’t happen again. You said that last time.”

  “Well, I’m saying it this time too. It’s not my intention to be late, ever.”

  “Because intentions matter so much when we have hundreds of guests here that need things and we need to make sure their rooms are operating properly.”

  “What are you going to do, Mary? Fire me? Who are you going to get to replace me?”

  She crosses her arms, looking annoyed.

  “That’s not the point,” she says. “You should know better and be more professional.”

  I nod in agreement. “You’re right. I will do my best to be here on time from now on.”

  She rolls her eyes at me. “Well, you need to get right to work,” she says, “starting in room E101.”

  I look at her with confusion. That room was not on the list of rooms I needed to look at before today.”

  “No, it was not,” Mary confirms. “But I have upgraded someone to that room.”

  “Oh, okay. So, they’re already in there?” I ask.

  “Yes, but they’re probably off on some excursion for today. Just knock to make sure before you go in. I need you to go in there and double-check that everything is in working order. I would hate for them to have a reason to complain.”

  “Right. That would be terrible,” I say sarcastically.

  “Just do it, Jerry and don’t cross me,” she warns, “because I will find somebody to replace you. There’s got to be someone on this island that I could teach to do maintenance if necessary.”

  I turn my back to her and walk away. I don’t need to hear the rest of her lecture. We’ve known each other since we were kids. Well, to be honest, since she was a kid and I was a teenager. I’ve never really liked her and now is no exception. It’s no surprise she’s still single at her age. She lives and breathes the resort. I don’t think she’s taken a day off since I’ve known her, not even when she’s sick. She’ll just grin and bear right through it.

  I take that back. There was one time she took a few days off, but that was unheard of. She probably got the flu or something; I don’t even know. All I know is that a woman who is that married to her job doesn’t even have time for anything else.

  I walk towards my office and grab my ladder, hoping that the tenants are not in the room. I hate that awkward moment when I show up to do maintenance on a room that’s occupied. Mary knows it makes me look suspicious, yet she makes me do it anyway.

  I clench my fists as I walk towards room E101. I knock. No response. I knock again. “Maintenance!” Still no response. I take a deep breath and grab my keys to unlock the door. I open it, shaking my head. There better be no one home.

  I’m relieved to find the lights off and the place uninhabited. Now, all I need to do is get in and out of here as quickly as possible.

  8

  JAKE

  I take a long nap, waiting for the rain to die down. Despite my nap, I still feel like my whole body is rocking back and forth from the time spent on the boat at sea. I wonder how long I’m going to feel this way. While I slept decently, I kept waking up. My body is still recovering from motion sickness.

  Now that the sun has returned, I put on my swim trunks and grab a towel, thinking about heading towards the beach. The retreat starts this evening at the luau. If I can get a few hours to myself before everybody else gets here, maybe I can go into this thing with a better attitude.