The Light of the Blue Pearl (3 page)

It wasn’t the first time he had seen her of
course, it was just the first time he had noticed her. He wasn’t
sure how she had escaped his gaze before, since after looking into
her eyes that day he couldn’t seem to think of anything else.

He made an effort to speak to her after
that, but she typically kept the conversations very short and was
obviously trying not to be bothered. Not doing much for his self
esteem he wasn’t sure why he wanted to pursue it, but something in
her eyes had him so intensely captivated he could think of little
else.

After about a week of thinking about her and
failing miserably at trying to strike up a real conversation, he
came up with an idea. He wanted to learn more about her, and
obviously the typical tricks of the trade weren’t going to help him
here. She was a difficult one, shy and reserved but incredibly
smart; he could tell that she was keeping everyone at a distance on
purpose, and he decided he had to find out what that reason was.
Naturally a problem solver, this was a puzzle he couldn’t leave
unfinished, so he set out to work on his elaborate plan.

It took him a while to iron out all of the
details, and there were a lot of details, but after he had, he was
quite proud of himself at its cleverness. It would take an
interesting person to do the things that he had planned, but he had
a hunch that she was indeed an interesting and rare person. The
next day he had put his plan into action.

He was so nervous it wasn’t going to work.
That everything he had just spent forever dreaming up and
scheduling was going to go to waste. “Really, who in their right
mind would travel somewhere with no notice and no explanation?” he
thought to himself. It was outlandish, totally ridiculous to even
consider. He had a sinking feeling his efforts were going to fail
before the plan was set in motion; that this may be a puzzle that
would go unsolved. That was a thought he couldn’t stand. Not being
the type to ever leave a puzzle undone, he was already thinking of
other ways to get the answers he was looking for when he heard the
telephone ring down the hall.

The conversation wasn’t long and not much
had been said, but her name being pulled from the work schedule
that night was confirmation for him that the first step had worked.
Whether or not she would follow through with the second step of his
plan was a completely different question though, it was quite a bit
to ask of a person really. And for her he knew it was going to be a
gigantic challenge.

“What was I thinking?” he thought to
himself. He knew very little of her past, but enough to know that
the next part of his plan was going to be a gigantic hurdle for
her. He had probably shot himself in the foot with the idea, but
this step he had decided was the catalyst to the rest; a necessary
piece that couldn’t be left out.

If she could do it, it would answer so many
of his questions without any words being exchanged. Now, with the
first challenge met all he could do was wait. Unfortunately,
waiting was really not something he was good at. He was pacing the
halls waiting to see if she came into work after all, waiting for
another sign that the next step was going to be taken. He would
have given anything to have been a fly on the wall of where she
was, but that wasn’t possible. The most important part of his plan
was that she couldn’t know it was him sending her on what probably
seemed to her a wild goose chase.

After about a half an hour he made a phone
call and discovered that the first envelope had been received,
opened and read. It was the closest he could be to being a fly on
the wall. The complete stranger on the phone had been very kind to
accept his offer of delivering the envelope. Though he’d had to
compensate and convince him some, that wasn’t unreasonable given
the circumstances; the first domino has to start somewhere, and it
had now been knocked over.

His heart was racing, wondering if what she
had read in the note was even something she would consider. He knew
most people probably wouldn’t have, most would have thrown it away
and ran; it was after all a bit insane. But something told him that
she wasn’t most people, that while it may seem outlandish at first,
the idea in itself was exhilarating and intriguing. After that day
in the hall he felt maybe she needed a bit of that in her life.

The sound of the phone ringing down the hall
confirmed that he was right; she wasn’t most people. She had
accepted his offer and was soon going to be on her way to
Belize.

He stood shocked for a moment when he
realized the beginning of his plan had been a success; he wasn’t
quite sure what to do with himself at that point. It was going to
be a very long time until he got another update. “What am I going
to do with myself now?” he thought. He certainly wasn’t going to be
able to sleep.

The next hour or so was critical. This step
was going to be so hard for her; he knew this when he planned it,
but Belize was an integral part of everything, there was no other
option. Still, even though he didn’t know the whole story of what
happened on her last plane ride, he knew flying wasn’t at the top
of her list because of it. He really wasn’t sure how this was going
to go. Half of him wanted to hop in the car and drive to the
airport to help her get through it, but he couldn’t. All he could
do was wait and see if she was able to take this step on her
own.

While he waited for news he decided to go
over everything he had scheduled again to make sure nothing was
left out, that he hadn’t forgotten anything. Even the smallest of
detail could mess this up; he was after all sending this poor girl
to a foreign country and for whatever reason she was trusting him
to take care of the details.

The plans he had upon her return were just
as important as this trip. Even though he had tried to think up
everything in advance, truth be told he was so excited about the
first part and whether or not she would even take the bait, he had
put more focus on it rather than the entire plan as a whole.

So it was time to get back to work. While he
held his breath waiting to hear news, there was nothing else he
could do but set things in motion for her return to the States. He
poured himself another cup of coffee, although he didn’t really
need it, and did his best to keep his mind off of what was
happening at the airport.

E
thne was greatly
surprised to find herself snuggled up in her blanket as she
groggily came out of a deep sleep. Sleeping on a plane had never
really been successful before. She hadn’t thought she was going to
be able to get any rest, but she must have been truly exhausted
from the excitement of the day because it had taken no time at all
to drift off. She slowly glanced around the cabin to see if she
could make heads or tails of location or time.

The cabin was quiet except for a few
passengers coming and going to their seats. She must not have been
the only tired traveler that day, although she doubted anyone on
the plane was doing something as crazy as she was. Now that she was
done running around town and facing her fears getting on a plane,
for the first time all day she started to really think about what
she was doing.

With the excitement of receiving the first
note her mind had been a buzz all day, almost as if in a dream, but
for the first time the reality was sinking in. She had left her
job, her responsibilities, and hopped on a plane without even a
second thought as to why. It was a strange thing to be fulfilling
the wishes of whoever was behind the notes, very likely a person
she didn’t even know. Her circles of friends was a dot really, she
had more connections at work than anything else and even that was
fairly non-existent.

The choices she made to keep people at a
distance were her own, but it never made it any easier when she
thought about the things she was missing out on. Perhaps that
reason alone was why she found herself sitting on a plane,
travelling to a country she had never given a second thought
to.

Although she was excited and a bit nervous
about what would happen when she landed, sitting there on the plane
wrapped up in her blanket she felt a sense of calm. That was a
strange feeling to have given the circumstances. She leaned over
and looked out the window, although it was still dark she could see
faint lights below and some wisps of clouds as they traveled by.
This experience was definitely different from the last time she had
flown.

“Do you need anything?” someone whispered to
her. She had felt so alone in that moment staring out the window
she had almost forgotten where she was. She slowly came back to
reality and looked over to see the flight attendant looking down on
her.

“Umm…I’m sorry, what?” Ethne asked.

“I was just wondering if I could get you
anything. You were asleep when we had brought the drinks around
before, I didn’t want to wake you, but I could get you something
now if you like?” Robyn asked.

“Oh…sure I’ll have some orange juice, thank
you,” she replied.

“It’s no problem, I’ll be right back,” Robyn
said, turning around and heading to the back of the plane.

“She must really be concerned about me,”
Ethne thought to herself. Although she hadn’t flown much she was
pretty sure that serving drinks throughout an entire flight wasn’t
really customary.

“Here you go,” Robyn said, quietly handing
her a glass of orange juice and smiling before turning to
leave.

“Thanks,” Ethne whispered, taking the drink
from her hands before drinking it down in one gulp. She was not
only thirsty, but famished; hopefully it wouldn’t be long before
she could get some food too. She had been too nervous to eat at the
airport, but now her stomach was protesting loudly at the lack of
sustenance. She wasn’t accustomed to being at the whim of others,
unable to just simply get herself a sandwich. Airline travel really
wasn’t her cup of tea.

The flight attendant had been very kind
though, so she was going to do her best to be patient, albeit not
her strongest of suits. To pass the time, which she figured was
only about three hours into her five hour flight to her connecting
flight in Miami, she decided to search the bag again.

Unbuckling her seatbelt and pulling herself
up out of the seat, she retrieved her bag from above. She sat back
down and started rummaging through it, hoping to find something of
interest to entertain her. Two more hours on this flight wasn’t
that bad really. Waiting in Miami forever wasn’t going to be that
thrilling, but it beat being stuck on an airplane for twelve or
more hours; that was truly an inhumane experience.

After rifling through the bag for a few
minutes she found the book she had thrown in last minute and an
iPod with headphones. Unfortunately, there was nothing else in the
bag to distract her, much to her disappointment.

A little disheartened, she placed her bag
back up in the overhead compartment and sat down with her book and
iPod in her lap. She was just about to pop the headphones in and
try to forget the long wait she had to endure when the flight
attendant showed up with some food.

Once she had devoured her dinner Ethne was
feeling a bit groggy and figured sleeping was really the only
option. She put the headphones in and did her best to get
comfortable. It wasn’t long before she was having an extremely
vivid dream, completely unaware that she was 30,000 feet in the
air.

***

The sand felt cool beneath her feet even
though the hot sun was beating down on her. She raised her hand to
shield her eyes and saw someone waving to her from a distance
farther down the beach. She could see him smiling at her even
though she couldn’t make out who it was. She waved back and started
walking towards him. At first it felt like her feet weren’t even
moving, instead like she was gliding across the sand towards him.
After a few minutes she realized she must have been walking for
hours but hadn’t gotten anywhere; they were exactly the same
distance apart, still unable to make out any features.

She started looking around her in a panic
trying to see what could be keeping her from making any progress
towards him. She looked down at her feet and saw that she was no
longer standing in the sand. Looking up she realized she was back
in her hotel room, completely alone.

***

When the plane touched down Ethne was jolted
awake from her dream and once again remembered where she was. She
was kind of glad she had been asleep for the descent; landing was
never her favorite thing, but for some reason the dream had left
her a bit unsettled. It took forever for it to be her turn to get
off the plane, and her legs were more than happy to finally be
walking freely again.

Once out into the airport she went in search
of more food, her stomach once again reminding her of its neglect.
She found a restaurant not far from the terminal and found a table.
After ordering a turkey sandwich, which was so much more up her
alley than the airplane dinner had been, she started looking
through a brochure of Belize that the flight attendant had handed
her when she was leaving the plane.

The pictures were gorgeous, but that wasn’t
unexpected. The place was after all a huge tourist attraction; she
knew at least that much even if it hadn’t been on her bucket list.
When she flipped to the last page of the brochure there was a note
stuck to it.

It read: “Congratulations on making it this
far. Go to the Hudson News by Gate D29, the man there has something
for you.”

She had kind of forgotten about the notes
with all of the excitement of the plane ride. But now it was back
in the forefront of her mind what she was doing, following strange
commands from written words on a page. In a way though it was nice
to have something to do with the five hour wait she had in front of
her.