Beyond the Palms Read online

  Jack froze at the sight of what lay underneath the cart. “Is that blood?” he thought to himself. His brain emptied and ignored all of the instincts that told him to run away. His body wouldn’t allow it. His feet became one with the green carpet under his feet. Before he could comprehend what he saw, someone grabbed his shoulder hard and turned him around. He was now facing to face with the manager.

  “Hey! Jack Dawson, right? I helped check in your family. I am so sorry that you had to see that. Please, let me explain. There is such an easy way to put this, but I want to put your mind at ease. There was a man that committed suicide this morning before you checked in. Not long before your family walked through our front doors, this place was covered with our version of Police. Here we call them the Korps Politie Aruba or KPA for short. However, when things like this happen, it’s not like it is in the U.S. where the police take care of cleaning up everything as well as taking care of… well, you know. So, Maria and Eve here were helping us clean up the mess. Lovely ladies, aren’t they?”

  He turned Jack around and waved at the two ladies. Both with an equal amount of shock and anger across their face.

  “Don’t worry; they can take the mess from here. Just next time, let’s try to watch where we’re going, ok?”

  The manager said with a wink.

  “Uh, yeah! It won’t happen again,” he assured the manager.

  Jack was still a bit in shock about seeing the bloodied towels that fell out of the trash.

  “I guess a suicide does make sense,” he thought to himself. He decided to get his parents input on it all when he got back into their room.

  The manager guided him back toward his family’s hotel room and tried to send him on his way. Remembering what he came for, Jack stopped in place.

  “Before I go, you wouldn’t happen to know what the password to the Wi-Fi is, would you? I was on my way to the front desk when this happened.”

  Jack signaled to the mess that covered the ground.

  “Oh, yes! The name of it is ArborHotel&Resort, and the password is FunNtheSun.”

  “Thank you!” Jack responded before turning on his heels and fleeing down the hallway.

  He did everything but run. He unlocked the door, slid inside, and slammed it shut behind him. He didn’t know what to think, other than that whole incident gave him goosebumps. Leave it to him to run into a cart full of bloodied towels from cleaning up suicide in the hotel that he currently resides.

  “What are the odds?” he said under his breath.

  “That was fast!” John said to his son’s return.

  Jack walked further into the room before saying anything else.

  “Jack, what’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost!” His mother asked him.

  “Well, you’ll never guess what just happened to me. I was walking down the hall and bumped into the maid’s cart. It fell over, and I panicked and tried to apologize to the maid. She was yelling at me in a different language. I didn’t know what she was saying, so I tried to hurry and pick up the cart, and there were all these towels covered in blood. Before I could say anything, the manager from earlier that helped get us the hotel room grabbed me. He said there was a suicide and that the police here weren’t like back home, and the maids had to clean it up. He gave me the Wi-Fi password and told me to go back to the room.” Jack explained.

  “Oh, my God! Are you ok?” Eleanor asked, worried about her son.

  “Yeah, I’m fine, but I don’t know; it just seemed a little weird. I have had a bad feeling about this place since we got here.” He replied, taking his first full breath since he knocked over the cart.

  “I thought it was just me being anxious, but maybe something is going on here. That is way too much of a coincidence, don’t you think?” John said and turning toward Eleanor in anticipation.

  “Oh, here we go again,” Eleanor said, pulling her knees up to her chest and folding her arms around them. “Here comes the ‘everyone is out to get us’ vibes.”

  “I am serious, Eleanor. What hotel room doesn’t have a phone in the rooms? If we need anything, we have to walk all the way downstairs to ask. Let’s not forget that this place has deadbolts on the doors of its guest rooms and furniture bolted to the ground. Literally, every piece of furniture mind you, I checked. There’s something off about this place, I’m telling you.” John pleaded with her, desperately trying to get his wife to understand.

  “John, I am sure that it is just a coincidence. You always expect the worst out of everyone. You’re just you. It’s ok! Now, I know that it had to be hard for Jack to see, but I am almost positive that my family needs a trip to the loony bin. I mean, come on, can we please just take a family trip without worrying about creating conspiracy theories?” Eleanor fired back.

  “OK, how about this when have I been wrong to assume that something was off? Name one time.” John stabbed back.

  “Um, I don’t know. How about when a street cat walked by out garage and the security light came on, and you had to go outside in full tactical gear. You were just SO SURE that it was some sort of trained assassin coming after our family,” Eleanor said, determined to not let her husband win the argument.

  This time Eleanor got up from the bed, put her hands on her hips, and scowled at her husband.

  “Must I go on?” She asked, knowing that she would be doing a victory lap in the hotel room soon.

  Jack laughed, trying to hide the snickering with his hand. Even though his attempts at hiding it were well efforted, his dad still saw him chuckling.

  “Ok, in my defense, that was one big freaking cat.” John threw his hands up in surrender.

  The conversation stopped with Thea walking through the door.

  “Hey, I’m surprised you guys are still up.” She walked in and threw the bag down against the nightstand to the other bed.

  “What have you been up to? At home, you’re in bed by 9 p.m. I’m surprised to see you awake right now.” Her mother questioned.

  “I was downstairs reading and lost track of time.” She said, conveniently leaving out the conversation with James and Alex. She didn’t think she should bring them up, especially considering how weird it ended. Jack would just give her criticism, and she wasn’t up for it tonight.

  “What have you guys been up to?” Thea asked her family, raising her eyebrows in suspicion.

  “We were talking about how Jack and I think this place is sketchier than it seems, and your mother was just throwing me under the bus,” John said nonchalantly before picking up the remote and clicking through the channels.

  “Well, are you going to elaborate as to why you think it’s so off?” Thea asked, looking at her father.

  “No, because apparently I’m overreacting, so I think we can just let it drop.” He stuffed his hand into a bag of chips he got from the vending machine on the way up.

  “Oh, good lord, it’s nothing! Your dad is just crazy, as always. Nothing is going on here!” Eleanor announced to the room, making sure to draw out her words to emphasize the irrational assumption of her family’s claims.

  “There was a suicide in the hotel,” Jack stated. Thea’s eyes grew wide. “Wait. What? When?” she questioned.

  “Before we got here.” He said back.

  “WE ARE DROPPING IT!” Eleanor yelled.

  There wasn’t another word out of any of them. John turned on a movie, and within an hour, everyone was sound asleep and ready for the next day.

  II

  The Calm Before the Storm

  “By that point, we had shoved the eerie feelings we got from the Arbor aside and tried to enjoy our vacation. That marked our biggest mistake, we chose to stay and have fun and disregarded our gut feeling telling us to run.”

  -Thea Dawson

  Therapy Session 2

  7

  The Smoothie Bar

  The next morning, Eleanor woke first. She wiped the sleep from her eyes, hopped in the shower, and got ready for the day. Once she finished, her hair nicel
y brushed and blow-dried, she flipped it over her shoulder and walked back into the main room area. All three of them snored softly.

  “Maybe I will order room service,” she said out loud to herself.

  She pulled her phone from her jeans pocket.

  “Maybe, just maybe, there will be a menu online or at least a phone number to call.”

  She thought, not wanting to walk all the way downstairs. She tried to open the internet but would soon be reminded that they didn’t get service.

  “Well, it looks like we’re walking.” She said out loud.

  Eleanor shoved her phone back into her pocket and threw on her shoes. She grabbed the room key on the counter and headed for downstairs. As she journeyed down the hall, the maids cart coming out of a nearby room caught her attention. She stopped to peer up and down the hallway to see if anyone was around.

  “Hey, I’m Eleanor. My son Jack I think ran into your cart last night, or maybe a different maid’s. Er- I just wanted to apologize for any trouble he caused.” Eleanor said sweetly.

  The lady peaked through the door, saw her and frowned. She yelled a single syllable but wasn’t sure what it meant. Judging from the tone, though, she was not happy. Eleanor backed up slowly and continued down the hallway with a quick “Sorry again!” send-off.

  “Pftt. Wow, ok, she is odd.” She said to herself once she was far enough away that the lady couldn’t hear her.

  She approached the elevators and pressed the down button. The gold doors opened, and she stepped inside. There were two other men in the elevator standing towards the back. She mumbled ‘hello’ to them and turned to face the doors. One was tall and blonde; he had a square jaw and stunning blue eyes. He was dressed well and seemed confident. The other was in shorts flip flops and a blue t-shirt that had the Los Angeles Police Department logo on the pocket. The two seemed to be longtime friends and conversed in small talk as the elevator descended to the lobby floor.

  “Can you believe that the convention is here already? It came so fast!” said the man in the L.A.P.D shirt.

  “I know! my wife was really bummed out that I didn’t go with them to Venice, but this is just something you don’t miss. I literally count down the days to this event every year. Venice is nice, but it can wait.” The blonde haired man said.

  “Must be nice to be filthy rich, you know, some of us had to work to get here. It wasn’t just given to us in a will.” The L.A.P.D man stabbed at his ‘so called’ friend.

  Eleanor stayed facing forward, but was wide-eyed waiting for the fight to break out between the two men. Instead, they both laughed it off as a big joke.

  “I feel personally offended, Elijah!” The blonde haired man exclaimed.

  “It’s OK Timmy, be we all know ‘businessmen’ don’t really work.” said the man she now knew as Elijah.

  The doors opened on the Lobby floor; Eleanor made her way to the front desk. while the other two men in the elevator walked over to the manager and yelled.

  “Eric! Long time no see!” Elijah said loudly, drawing the attention of those in the lobby as his voice echoed.

  “Boys, we say this every year.” The manager said with a chuckle.

  The men gave each other high fives, and half hugs before they began talking some more. Eleanor turned her attention to the front desk attendant, Eddie.

  “Hey there, I was wondering if you guys offer room service? If so, can i order here? There isn’t a phone in the room or a menu.” She explained to him.

  “Yes, of course, Mrs. Dawson,” Eddie said while handing her a leather bound service menu.

  The menu was made from card stock and lamination packets. Eleanor recognized the material from her crafting exploits and was impressed by its quality.

  “We will take 2 of the Early bird specials, eggs scrambled and both with white toast. I also need 2 French toast orders both with sides of bacon, thank you!”

  She said as she handed the heavy menu back to him but he waved her off.

  “It’s OK Mrs. Dawson, you can keep it,” Eddie sad politely.

  “Oh, while I’m thinking about it, is there a way to get a phone for our room? Our cell phones don’t get service upstairs.” Eleanor asked, she was going to quickly get tired of making trips to the front desk if they needed anything, it was better to just handle the problem now.

  “Yes! I am so sorry; we just converted that room over from storage, they must have forgotten to put a phone in there. I’ll have someone send one up!” Eddie grabbed the phone next to him and called immediately demanding for a phone to be sent to their room.

  “One will be sent up soon. If there is anything we can do, just let us know!” Eddie said before returning to typing on the laptop in in front of him.

  “Will do!” Eleanor said, ready to return back to her room and surprise her family with food.

  This time the elevator was empty and quiet. When the doors opened to the corridor on their floor. The overwhelming silence was eerie to her. They hadn’t seen anyone else on their floor besides the maids since they had arrived. She wanted back to their room and slid the room key into the door. The green light flashed, and as she pushed it open, she calmed almost instantly as the sound of snoring fill her ears.

  She decided to start waking up Thea and Jack, who instantly protested the idea. After a moment, they gave in and sat up slowly. They immediately started arguing about the other’s sleeping habits. She moved to John, who just laid there blinking his eyes for a minute, hoping it was a bad dream, before braving to sit all the way up. When he finally did, Eleanor sat beside him.

  “How does breakfast in bed sound?” She asked.

  “Amazing! Although there isn’t a damn room service menu. So, not so much. More like breakfast downstairs.” John said groggily not wanting to be up.

  His protest ended with the sound of 4 knocks on the room door. Thea jumped up and shuffled to the door in her llama Pajamas, her hair a tangled mess, and a blanket draped around her shoulders. She opened the door to be met with a large platter with four meals on it. The smell of bacon radiated from it.

  “Oh, wow! Thank you!” She said.

  The man said nothing but turned and walked away.

  Thea let the room door slam shut and walked the tray into the central area of the bedroom.

  John’s mouth gaped open.

  “I must still be dreaming,” he said as she shook his head left to right, in hopes that the food would still be there when he stopped.

  “Not dreaming, you just have the best Wife ever,” Eleanor said with a wink.

  The four of them grabbed their plates and dug into their food.

  The room fell silent besides the sounds of chewing. That was until Jack piped in with a question.

  “What’s the plan for today?”, he asked with his mouth full of french toast.

  “Well, I was thinking, let’s check out the beach! There’s also an event at one of the restaurants by the water tonight. So, beach all day, then get dinner at— oh, what was the name of that restaurant.” She put the palm of her hand to her head and thought hard. “Oh! The Hermit. That’s what I was.”

  Thea and Jack agreed excitedly. John nodded his head in agreement, not wanting to speak with his mouth full.

  “OK, well, let’s eat and then get ready to go!” Eleanor said already dressed and ready for the day’s events.

  With full stomachs, the family of four piled out of the hotel room, through the long hallway, down the elevator and out the front doors of the hotel. The walked down the narrow trail leading to the beach behind the hotel. The walkway was made up of flat asymmetric stones that were puzzle pieced together. The trail split apart palms trees and vegetation laced with tropical flowers in reds and oranges. It curved around the hotel and ended with a short boardwalk that embedded itself in the snow white sand of the beach.

  The family marched down the trail; their flip flops clicked in unison on the old wood of the boardwalk before barreling into the sand themselves. The sand was warm from t
he sun beating down on it, and mushed between their toes. The weight of the sand bogged down their feet and it wasn’t long until they each abandoned their shoes.

  Colorful umbrellas and beach towels littered the sand. To their left, were three restaurants stationed along the coast, one being The Hermit, another called the “The Sea Shack,” and the last being “The Lobster Bay.” There also was a small hut on the beach called “The Smoothie Bar,” which had loudspeakers blasting music. Most of the people on the beach enjoyed the ambiance but there were some who didn’t hide their disgust for the taste in music. Under the canopy of the hut were picnic tables with people drinking brightly colored drinks with over-sized bendy straws and a man standing in the service window helping a customer.

  The wind gusted, and Eleanor slapped her free hand on top of her head to hold her white floppy hat down. The other holding a cheap telescoping umbrella, it was the only one she could fit in her suitcase. Jack wore black board shorts and cradled a boogie board he rented from the hotel. Thea had a bathing suit on with a backpack slung over her shoulder, which undoubtedly had study material inside of it. Lastly, John had donned a pair of American flag board shorts and a V neck white t-shirt and lugged the collapsible cooler over his shoulder.

  They looked like a modern family but stuck out among the crowd on the Aruban beaches. Each carrying their own beach towel, wadding through the deep sand to find a spot to make home.