icebear_cw (
icebear_cw) wrote2008-09-29 07:56 pm
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"Club Tropicana" Part 1
Let me take you to the place
Where memberships a smiling face
Blue. Different shades and tones of blue are the first thing he sees when he wakes up. That and the drool-covered blanket he shoved between his face and the plane window. He drags the fabric away from his face to reveal the whole view.
There aren’t many things that make him speechless, but this is definitely one of them. Even though he's seen it all before, it still takes his breath away. He can see the beach as they descend, long and white, dotted with blue-white parasols and brown rooftops.
Cottages peek through the palm trees, wooden walkways lead out of the green into the blue of the ocean and eventually to the guest houses directly on the water. Though none of that gives away just how huge the resort really is.
The island below is mainly green and white. Green for the tropical fauna that covers half of the island and white for the beach and sandstone paths that cross over the green to connect the different areas of the resort. Paths he'd run down, jumped over, played on or skipped entirely, and had occasionally skinned his knees on.
All things that had happened almost a lifetime ago.
He feels a slow swirl of melancholy deep inside his heart, maybe even a little regret for not returning until now.
“Jared?”
“Huh?”
“Seat belt? We're about to touch down. I thought you heard it 30 minutes ago.”
With a sigh, he lets go of the shell he'd been playing with. The chain around his neck falls back against his skin, letting the shell rest just above his heart. There had been several occasions over the last years where he wanted to just snort at the symbolism of it all. Another piece connecting him to the island below. Another piece anchoring his heart and his memories to Cocoa Island. If that isn’t pathetic, then he doesn’t know what is.
When he looks back, Sandy is smiling at him, the smile she uses when she knows he isn't quite all there. Sometimes he can’t stand it, thinks it has just a little too much pity in it. Most of the time, though, he is glad she's there. Especially now, since this whole trip was her idea after all.
“Dreaming again? Jared, we're here… you can stop dreaming. Take in the real thing.”
“Easier said than done, Sandy. I still don’t know why I agreed to come. I mean, there's no logical reason why he should be here. After all those years, it's pretty impossible.”
“Who knows?” Sandy shrugs and Jared feels like she knows more than she’ll admit. It underlines the feeling he's had since she came up with the idea. She is hiding something from him, he just doesn’t know what it is yet.
The plane trembles under his fingers and he grabs the armrest even harder. He hates landings. The plane is relatively empty, mostly employees. He still doesn’t really get why they didn’t take the speed boat. The water plane is 'employees only,' at least that's what Sandy told him. She'd said something about supplies and the plane only going once a month as well, but at that time he'd already been half asleep. He tries to get all the sleep he can, even on a 40 minute flight.
He is used to a lot, traveling-wise. He has to with his job. But still, it is a little over 18 hours from Dallas to Malé (and he still doesn’t know why he didn’t just fly from L.A.) and then another 40 minutes to the island itself. It’s already close to sundown and he can’t wait to have solid ground back under his feet. He longs to have a bed and to be able to lie down. The plane seats have been killing his back since half way across the Pacific.
Jared doesn’t have time to acclimatize, doesn’t have time to just stand there and take it all in. Because, of course, Sandy isn’t letting him. She tries to drag him through the entrance area and doesn’t stop at all when they pass the main offices. She has a strong grip on his wrist and he can only do so much to not fall flat on his face. His flip-flops skid along the white sandstones and he prays that he'll survive this without breaking any of his limbs again.
The heat isn’t as oppressive as he remembers, that or his body has other ways of dealing with it now. It's been almost ten years since he was last here, so maybe even his body thought it was time to catch up, to be a little more mature. It is still hot, though, and sweat is already pooling on his lower back, his shirt clinging to his body. Jared is thankful for the shadows provided by the trees and houses, and a slight breeze actually helps as well.
He thinks this could turn out to be interesting and maybe even good. Despite all his reservations against accepting the offer, Jared feels like it was the right decision and he hopes it stays like that. He needed some time off, a chance to do something different than what he's been doing for the last few years. He needs time to get everything back in order. He really hates how his life been in such disarray.
They're on the way to the staff quarters and Jared doesn’t have the time to accept the fact that he's finally really here. Sandy seems eager to present him to all her friends and his future colleagues. Later, he’ll think that if he'd known, then and there, where all this will lead, he might have turned around immediately or might have gone straight to the main offices and jumped his boss' bones. But of course he doesn’t know, so he follows Sandy and hopes that these friends of hers are really as awesome and accepting as she makes them out to be.
He could use new friends, especially now that Chad's pissed at him for skipping the road trip to Vegas. A road trip Jared knew would have been nothing more than a drinking binge and orgy for Chad. And for him, utter boredom paired with annoyances of mass proportions.
He sees movement out of the corner of his eye, but when he looks over, there's nothing there. Just a half open door and silk shades in front of windows, fluttering in the slight breeze coming in from the water. Sandy tugs even more insistently, and again Jared wonders what’s up with that. She's been a little weird lately, jumpy and bouncy, definitely more than usual.
Trees, colourful flowers, cottages and the pool fly by and the next thing he knows, he's being presented to people who don't even bother to hide the fact that they ogle him. Jared is used to it, partly due to his height, but mostly due to his job, so it's only slightly disturbing. Sandy doesn’t seem to mind, she's busy being hugged and crushed by a bunch of squealing women, already dressed in the resort’s obligatory shorts-and-shirt uniform.
“Dude! You're really tall.”
The guy in front of him completely sticks out in the whole tropical island-beach scenario, so much so that it throws Jared for a second. There's a cowboy hat, a checkered shirt which he almost bets is flannel – he really doesn’t want to know how the guy survives in it; plus the cowboy boots.
Then there are his knowing eyes and a slight smirk on an almost scowling face that Jared might find scary if the other man weren’t at least two heads smaller than him. It gives him an opening and Jared's not that insecure teenage boy any more, the one who used to slouch to hide his height.
“Well, isn’t everything really tall from your perspective?”
The man standing behind tiny-guy, and yes Jared is aware that it is so Nanny Diaries to name guys according to physical attributes or appearance, but he really can’t help it, cracks up at that.
“Nice comeback. I like you. I'm Chris and the guy cracking up behind me is Steve. Don’t mind him. He got too many coconuts on the head.”
“I know.”
“Huh?”
“Sandy.”
“Right. Now I can imagine what you know about us. I guess you're Jared then. Welcome to Club Tropicana.”
Jared nods, but worries that his confusion shows on his face. “Club Tropicana?”
“Yep, that’s what we call the staff quarters here.”
Right then, as if on cue, Wham’s Club Tropicana starts to play. Chris just rolls his eyes, so Jared guesses it’s a common thing around here.
“That would be Mike. He thinks he's a DJ. Usually, though, the music and the night has to be saved by Tom, the one hitting Mike with the pogo stick over there. But when the song starts you know that your shift is over. And if you have had the day shift, the party can begin.”
Jared nods again and thinks that this is okay so far. Considering that he hasn’t worked a single day yet, it seems to be okay. Some girl with swinging blond hair sidles up to him, watching the room and sipping from a drink that looks rather poisonous if you based it only on the colour.
Sandy is nowhere to be seen and Jared kind of feels abandoned. No, not really, but he'd hoped that Sandy would at least stay with him through introductions and all. But she apparently has better things to do than hold his hand. He can’t blame her. She's been there through all of it, has been his rock in the last months and he really is grateful for that.
“You are Jared, right?”
The blond girl startles him. She is not focused on him and smiles when he just looks at her, all confused.
“Sandy couldn’t stop talking about you last year. And really, you are some kind of a legend among the ranks of guest hosts around the world. Jen was so excited when he heard that Sandy is best friends with you.”
“Jen?”
“Jensen. The boss. The resort belongs to his family. He left for Malé just a few minutes ago, should be back tomorrow morning. Oh and sorry… I'm Kristen, by the way. I'm one of the gourmet cooks.”
Sandy, Chris and Kristen show Jared around. Tell him what to look out for and how to secure gates, boats and railings. They show him where everything is and which are the shortest ways to the important places. He won’t have to attend to guests directly, since he's only there for the entertainment equipment and spa services, so there's need for him to know the different kind of guest houses and rooms.
He knows some of them anyway, even though it’s been ten years and he can guess that the standards have changed considerably. He even has WiFi in his own room. He has a room for himself and doesn’t have to share, he hadn’t expected that at all. It’s rare that employees get their own rooms. Really rare.
He has his uniform already and is surprised that it actually fits him. That's even rarer than having his own room. A uniform that looks good, fits and is actually okay to wear in a tropical climate. If the surroundings hadn’t already told him that this was a first class resort, the little details would have forced the realisation.
He has all the keys and even some of his instructions, all he has to do is to settle in and fully delve into the new experience. He's never been one to shy away from challenges and this definitely is one. Jared's never worked for such exclusive people before, or in such an exclusive resort. He has to come up with new ideas and strategies if he wants to keep up with his own reputation.
This place sure as hell won’t need the basic means of mass entertainment that most common resorts would be satisfied with. He needs to come up with something new. But he can brood over that later, once he officially starts working, which won’t be until tomorrow morning.
So he lets himself be dragged through the staff quarters and down to the beach, lets himself being pushed down onto the still warm sand and somehow ends up with a bottle of beer in his hand instead of being half way to sleep in his bed.
The beach is sparsely lit by torches, which show the way back into the resort and to the guest houses. Everyone sits close, mostly so that they can see each other and the bottles they sneaked out of the staff kitchen.
Jared feels content, okay and even kind of at home. More at home than he has in a long time. Even though he's been awake for more then 24 hours, he isn’t all that exhausted. Sure, he is tired and he knows he'll fall asleep as soon as he hits the pillow, but he's okay right where he is.
Steve and Tom join them a while later, with two other girls in tow and Jared learns that those two will be part of his entertainment crew and that they're new as well. So he settles down to talk and get to know them. They trade stories about their previous jobs and agree about how different this place is. Jared feels okay, welcomed even.
A little while later, Chris is telling them about what life is like on an island used solely for tourism and vacations. He talks about how three months is really too long to be cooped up with nothing more to do than the job and free time spent on the beaches or on the boats going, between the different islands. Jared finds himself craving the solitude and the chance to get away. He doesn’t feel caged in by the possible isolation and boredom. At least not yet.
Jared doesn’t know how it happens, but somehow during the evening he gets talked into joining Chris, Steven and Jensen on the island hoping tour they do every week. It's an event that allows the guests the opportunity to see everything. Jared gets excited by Chris’ words alone and also the way he talks about Jensen. Odd, considering Jared hasn’t even met Jensen yet.
The waves crash against the planks of the guest houses built directly on the shore and Jared can only slightly make out the planked bridges leading from the beach to the houses and to the rest of the resort. He wonders what those houses look like. They weren't there ten years ago and he's a little curious.
When he looks back at Chris, who is still talking, he catches the other man looking oddly at the chain around Jared's neck, and the shell attached to it. Jared frowns but Chris just smiles and continues to tell a story from last year. Jared doesn’t know what to make of it, but then Sandy snakes an arm around him and he forgets about it.
Part 2