Beyond the Palms Read online

  “Like what?” Jack asked.

  The elevator dinged, arriving on the 8th floor. The doors flung open as John said, “Your jokes are still terrible.”

  John led the group out of the elevator into the small corridor. The walls had tan leather textured wallpaper that continued down the long hallway, ending in a stairwell framed with a large cathedral window. The vintage ceiling lighting glowed a soft yellow giving it a romantic feel. Eleanor glowed with adoration.

  “Oh, this place is beautiful!” she exclaimed out loud.

  “I know! I just love the colors! It feels like I’m in an Italian castle.” Thea said, running her hands down the wall as they walked.

  Eleanor admired the dark green carpet. It was embossed with vine imprints and ran the length of the floor in the hallway. The beautiful arched doorways to each room were made of dark stained wood and complimented the cream textured wallpaper.

  The bellhop zoomed ahead of them, stopped at the room labeled 801 and turned the cart sideways on the far side of the hall. He waited patiently for the guests to catch up, and unlocked the door for him to finish his job.

  Eleanor eyed him while John pulled the key card from his pocket and stuck it in the slot of the door. He removed it immediately and placed it back into his pocket. She watched as John grabbed the handle and paused to look at three little holes in the door frame. She saw something register across his face but wasn’t sure if it was confusion or interest. John reached his free hand up to examine them but was cut short by the sound of the door unlatching.

  The heavy wooden door creaked opened to reveal the magnificent hotel room — the walls were lined with wainscoting, vaulted ceilings, and two large beds spaced apart for a walkway in between. The huge TV hung above an electric fireplace on the left, and lights glowed for ambiance behind it.

  The far side had two recliners separated by a nightstand and a lamp that appeared as a silhouette due to the large bay window behind them.

  John held open the door and let Eleanor, Thea, and Jack enter the room. The three of them now noticed a bathroom that branched off of the hallway. Meanwhile, John tried to take the luggage from the bellhop. The man instead ignored his outstretched hand and placed the bags inside the door. John held the door open in defeat. When the bellhop finished, John had a cash tip waiting for him. He tried to hand it to the man, but instead, the bellhop grunted, turned to grab the cart and left. John shook his head and put the money back into his wallet and went into the room to join the rest of his family.

  “Did he not take it?” Asked Eleanor.

  “No, he just looked at me and left. Oh well, I guess,” John said tossing his wallet keys and phone on the wooden mantel of the fireplace.

  “That guy was kind of off, right?” Jack asked.

  “Yeah, I said thank you, and he didn’t speak, just stared past me. It was eerie.” Thea replied.

  “Look at this room though!” She continued.

  “Yeah!” Eleanor exclaimed. “I can’t wait to get this fireplace on, and these sheets are so soft!” She ran her hand across the exposed section of the bed closest to the door in awe.

  Thea and Jack were already laid side by side on the other pretending to make snow angels in the fluffy comforter.

  “Hell yeah! This bed is comfy! I could get used to this!” Jack could barely keep himself from snuggling in for a nap.

  John took in the room inch by inch. Making a note of the exits and surroundings like he always did. He couldn’t turn it off. The idea had been beaten into his brain from the day he joined the Navy.

  Eleanor saw it. The formations of possible escape routes forming in his head. She wished he could relax and not seem like the world was out to give him but knew it wasn’t in his nature anymore. The man she saw standing in front of her would never be the same man she fell in love with in high school. They had grown into different people over time, just like any other person. You learn and adapt to your environment as you age, become responsible and bare burdens. She had grown accustomed to his new habits but still wished he could turn it off and be as carefree as they were back then.

  “I saw that you were looking at the door, is everything ok?” Eleanor asked her husband.

  “Yeah, I just noticed that a few hotel rooms down the hall had those swing bar security lock on the outside. I just thought it was weird because they are usually used to prevent people from pushing in the door, not opening it,” John said looking towards the door with suspicion.

  He strolled over to it and flipped the same lock that was on the inside now back and forth.

  “See? This one looked like it used to have one on the outside too, but someone removed it,” John explained, waiting for his wife to tell him he was crazy and have him committed.

  Eleanor tried to push down the fact that he always picked out things like this and made a big deal out of nothing, and instead tried to put his worries to rest.

  “Maybe they’re used for storage? It would allow them to put a lock on it if they needed to.” She said, laying back on to the bed next to her husband.

  She stared at the vaulted ceilings and waited for the protested comment to leave his lips. It never came. Instead, he left it alone and laid down next to her.

  “You’re right. I’m sorry, I will try to relax.” He told her. Before reaching over and grabbing her hand. He brought it up to his lips, kissed the back of it, and then held it to his chest.

  4

  Room Service

  John opened his eyes and wondered how long he had been asleep. When his head hit the pillow, he couldn’t help but want to take a nap. He had stayed up for two days straight due to traveling and refusing to sleep in a public place. There was too much that could go wrong. Thus, he had kept watch while Eleanor and his kids rested. “So innocent,” he thought. If only they noticed what he did. John knew that if you were asleep, you were off guard, and that meant that if anyone wanted to hurt you, steal from you, or worse, they could, and you would be too stunned to stop it. He finally felt comfortable enough to close his eyes and now faced the dark window on the far side of the room. It had to at least be close to dinner time and John was sure that his family would be hungry soon if they weren’t already.

  “What time is it?” He asked, rubbing his eyes into focus.

  “Uh, about 7:15,” Eleanor replied, looking at the watch on her left wrist.

  She was sitting in one of the recliners reading the book she had on the plane. From the looks of it, she was almost finished, and John hoped that she hadn’t packed others.

  Thea and Jack were both kicked back on the bed staring at the bright light of the TV watching a Pay-Per-View movie.

  “Do you guys want to order room service or go downstairs for dinner? I would suggest we go out and find somewhere, but I haven’t had a chance to look up restaurants in the area.” The man’s stomach growled in agreement as he questioned his family.

  “I’m ok with just ordering room service,” Jack answered first.

  Jack was always the most invested when it came to food. Thea and her mother envied him for being able to eat an entire pizza in one sitting, but instead of gaining fat, somehow earned another ab. He had his father’s metabolism, and he was openly proud of it.

  John looked for a phone but couldn’t seem to find one. Instead, he changed his search to look for the room service menu but came up empty with that too.

  “Ok, I have to be missing the phone, and do you guys know where the room service pamphlet is?” John asked, as he frantically raced around the room opening drawers and cabinets.

  “I haven’t seen a phone; I don’t think the room has one. We haven’t seen the room service menu either or believe me, we would’ve ordered food by now.” Eleanor said without looking up from the fine print pages in front of her.

  “I’ve been debating on going downstairs to get the Wi-fi password, too, because I don’t see it anywhere, but the server comes up on the Wi-fi list on my phone, so they do have it.” Jack chimed in.


  “What kind of hotel room doesn’t have a phone…” John trailed off, giving up on his search.

  “Never mind, let’s go downstairs, and we can stop at the customer service desk on the way back. Deal?” John continued.

  The three of them nodded and pushed their way up to their feet in the process. John stretched and grabbed his things from the mantel, and waited for the rest of them to get ready.

  The family piled out of the room and walked back down the long hallway. Eleanor noted the doors that John had pointed out. Her theory could be right, but she admitted that it was pretty weird. When they reached the elevator corridor, Thea pushed the down button, and all of them stared at the numbers going up above the door. 3—4—5—6—7—8, and then finally, the door dinged open.

  The four of them squeezed inside and pressed the button on the bottom for the lobby. The elevator jerked into motion and then slowly descended to the ground floor. They rode quietly, and no one said a word until the doors pinged open on the lobby floor.

  “Oh, yes!” Jack said.

  He closed his eyes and took a big whiff of the air. “Do you smell that?” he said out loud, not waiting for a response.

  His stomach growled and grumbled in response as he pushed forward to be the first out of the elevator. They walked left toward the restaurant on the opposite wing.

  “Oh, food how I have missed you,” Jack yelled excitedly, drawing the attention of some of the people in the lobby.

  Thea rolled her eyes.

  “It’s been like 5 hours since I watched you cram handfuls of plane pretzels that you smuggled off the plane into your mouth,” Thea said sarcastically.

  “Well, you know sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. You don’t get like this by not eating Princess,” Jack stabbed at his sister.

  He stopped mid-stride and turned around to face her. He waited for them to catch up and instead teased his sister by bouncing his pecks.

  Thea’s eyebrows furrowed together, clearly not amused and pushed at Jack as she walked by.

  “Stop it, you’re pathetic.” She scolded and continued walking.

  “They don’t seem to think so,” he said pointing towards the lounge to their right.

  He shot a cunning smile and winked toward the small sitting area they were sitting at earlier. When Thea looked, she saw two young women, probably in their early twenties looking him up and down giggling like children.

  “What the hell is wrong with you, go braid each other’s hair or something. Come On!” Thea yelled in their general direction.

  Jack sped past her giddy, charming, and full of himself as always.

  “You know, we’re on vacation. Maybe you should try and not be such an uptight prude. You might find out its fun, and maybe then you won’t rain on my parade.” Jack said, shrugging his shoulders as he walked through the restaurant doors. Thea stole a look at her dad that screamed, ‘Do you see what I have to deal with?’

  “Ok enough you too, this is supposed to be a family vacation. Let’s not give your father a heart attack during it.” John pleaded.

  He reached up and held the door open for Thea and Eleanor to walk inside before letting it close behind him.

  “How many?” asked the hostess.

  Her long black hair pulled into a ponytail but still came down to her lower back. She waited for Jack to respond, but no words came from his mouth. Instead, his jaw fell open. The hostess batted her sweet blue eyes and turned to his mother. Eleanor pushed her son out of the way. “Sorry, he clearly has never been in public before. There’s 4 of us.”

  “It will be just a couple minutes,” the woman smiled and gestured to the bench to their right.

  The four of them sat down. Jack watched the hostess’s hips swing as she walked over to help the busboy clean up a table for them. Eleanor double took, catching her son out of the corner of her eye.

  “Really!” she snapped.

  “Sorry,” he responded, but his gaze never shifted.

  John laughed; it reminded him of when he was Jack’s age. He knew it wasn’t right but decided to let it slide.

  Thea stared at her phone, scrolling through post after post on her social media news feed. She didn’t bother to look around, nor care what she would see. She was hungry, annoyed, and determined it would be better for her to distract herself than lay witness to her brother’s actions.

  Moments later, the hostess returned.

  “Right this way!” She said while grabbing at a couple of menus and tucking them under her arm. She walked off down the aisle, separating rows of booths, illuminated by low ambient lighting. She placed the menus on the tabletop of the booth and stepped aside to allow the family to be seated.

  The black leather covered the seat and seat-backs, framed by dark stained wood. In the middle was a wooden tabletop to match. The single pendant light hanging above the center of the table ending with a bright red stained-glass casing and gave off a soft, warm glow.

  Thea and Jack sat down on one side while their parents slid in on the other.

  “Someone will be right over to take your order. If there’s anything I can do, please let me know!”

  That was the last thing the hostess said before returning to her post by the door.

  5

  The Man at the Bar

  After everyone finished dinner, John and Eleanor returned to the hotel room while Jack went adventuring around the hotel. Thea decided based on the day’s events that maybe some quiet time would be best. She sat in the lounge outside the bar and pulled out a paperback book from her purse. Thea’s mother has loaned it to her after she finished it. Thea folded open the book to reveal her metal bookmark pressed between the pages. The spine creaked open.

  There was something about the smell of ink on paper that was aromatic. Within seconds she found herself scrolling through the pages and had become completely entranced.

  She barely noticed the waiter bring over a glass of wine. “Oh, thank you!” she mumbled. Her head confused, how long had she been here? An hour? Two? And when did she order a glass of wine? Maybe the waiter pitied her for being on vacation and not having anything to do other than reading.

  The man standing behind the bar brought her a glass of wine, and her father a beer during dinner. She decided, based on the sweet gesture, to stay where she was until the glass was empty, then she would join her family upstairs. She picked up the clear wine glass and swirled the dark red liquid around before she brought the rip to her lips. It was the same wine she said to herself. That must have been it. She shot the bartender a glance, waved, and said, “Thank you!” The man smiled, his light brown hair poked out from under a backwards hat, and his brown eyes lit up. He didn’t miss a beat; he reached up to grab the white towel that was thrown over his shoulder. The bartender’s hands began to swirl the towel around the clear glasses that he was drying and putting into a cabinet below the bar.

  “I’m honored, but it’s not me that you should thank. That man over there paid for it; I just knew the type of wine you wanted,” he said, his deep voice took Thea by surprise.

  The bartender lifted a finger to point at a man sitting at the end of the bar. He barely looked up from the glass and phone in front of him. She wasn’t even sure he heard them talking. His brown hair was longer than the average clean-cut businessman giving him a boyish persona in contrast to his strong stature. He had a full beard but kept it short and clean. He sat by himself and didn’t look like he cared whether it stayed that way. The man shifted uneasily knowing that she noticed him.

  She looked back down at her book, careful not to stare too long. She thought back to dinner, her father laughing at Jack for being all googly-eyed with the hostess. Thea’s mother made her discontent with her son’s actions clear. Her father, however, thought it was fine.

  “Hey, he is having a good time, its vacation, give the boy a break.” Was the just of his response. Eleanor had protested and made the comments for Jack to behave in public and used Thea as an example. Jack tu
rned his frustration toward Thea.

  “At least I am letting go a bit. She’s always the perfect one, perfect grades, perfect appearance, must be hard being that uptight all the time,” he said through clenched teeth.

  The words rang in her head now. Someone sat down quickly in the seat in front of her causing her to jump. It was the bartender she noted.

  “You know, he always sits over there alone. He could use the company.”

  “Playing matchmaker, now are we?” Thea blushed.

  “No, not matchmaker, but you both look lonely as hell, and maybe you could not be so lonely together.”

  He gave a firm shoulder shrug.

  “Just think about it.” He winked and went back to the bar.

  Thea took a minute to think before saying, “What the hell, why not.”

  She slammed the book shut and shoved it back into her purse. She grabbed her glass of wine and strode over to where the man sat.

  “All right! Look, Alex, you have a friend,” The bartender yelled loud enough that everyone in the lobby heard, and turned to look.

  The man looked at him and gave a fake smile and returned to watching videos on his phone.

  Thea sat down on the stool next to him.

  “I didn’t want you to come to sit by me. The drink wasn’t to try and pick you up. It was just because you were by yourself.”

  Alex said, looking up at her.

  The eyes that stared back at her didn’t fit the man that sat beside her. They belonged to someone who carried more weight than they should. They were dark brown and full of mystery. The bags under his eyes said that he was sleep-deprived, and the slight slur in his voice was a dead giveaway for how intoxicated he was.

  “Well, in all honesty, I have nothing better to do, and your friend here is right. It looks like you could use someone. I don’t want anything. My family and I have only been here for a day, and I’m already bored, so, enlighten me.” Thea waited for him to respond.