It Turned Out For the Best

It Turned Out For The Best

Olivia was so excited. She had been nervous about handing over all of her savings to the travel agent (even though it is supposed to be a bargain vacation) and her reluctance showed as she asked a million questions about the insurance, refunds, medical emergencies and lots of other problems she was ridiculously conjuring up in her head. Like a child she loudly told the man behind the desk of the ‘A Getaway of a Lifetime’ travel agency that she had waited so long for this holiday that absolutely nothing could spoil it, barring getting an illness that resulted in a medical emergency and a long stay in a foreign hospital. Then she immediately thought to herself ‘why did I say that? Look at his face…he thinks I’m a nit wit!’ But whatever he was thinking, his many years of professionalism only allowed him to say to Olivia, while extending his hand, “I know you will have a wonderful holiday my dear and don’t even think about getting sick, because I guarantee you won’t”…..as if he could guarantee that!

She skipped out of the office, a folder full of tickets, instructions, insurance cover and a free keyring with the company logo on it, light of heart and even lighter of bank account.

She was on the countdown until she flew off on her adventure. Each day in her dreary office she would tell the other girl how many sleeps there were to go! Her case had been packed for two weeks – clothing neatly ironed and layered in. A ‘tick off’ sheet lay on top of the clothes in the case and everything was ticked off except ‘wash bag’, hairdryer, running shoes and the last line in big bold letters read ZIP THE CASE SHUT!

The last trip Olivia had been was tour guided – only around Scotland. It had been interesting most of the time but by the end of it she realised that she was actually happier wandering around on her own. She didn’t need the entire group of chatty, witty, ‘photo snapping every two minutes’, people that she ended up with. They had split up into three groups and hers seemed to compile of both very young students and the ‘blue rinse’ set who were making their way around the world this being just a tiny part of their trip. The students were silly and annoying and the oldies were….just that, old. Some of them seriously thought there was nothing they didn’t know! Olivia thought she fitted into the middle of the two lots of tourists so could really only relate to a couple of them. One was David who was a student from Edinburgh University and was studying ornithology, so to him the small islands around Scotland were a perfect situation for finding birds although after spending a couple of hours walking around with him, she was beginning to get tired of listening for the sounds of the Mistle Thrush and found the high pitched humming sound still going around in her head ages later, and he did get rather cross with her when just as he spotted a Guillemot, Olivia moved quickly to his side and knocked his binoculars to the ground. The other person whom Olivia could easily talk to was an elderly lady from New Zealand, who was making her way around the world, telling Olivia in a Kiwi brogue “They needn’t think I’m leaving a cent to them (meaning her children and grandchildren), because they are too lazy to work for money themselves. They don’t even know I’ve gone! Well they’ll get a shock when they eventually think about ‘the old girl’ and decide to get in touch….I won’t be there”. With these words she laughed and carried on walking briskly with the aid of my arm which she had come to rely on!

I did enjoy the holiday in lots of ways and saw some beautiful sights in Scotland – walking through and around Edinburgh Castle was amazing in so many ways and then seeing the isolated and dramatic mountains and glens surrounded by dense forests and fragmented and breathtaking coastline.

The hotel where we all stayed was comfortable, in an old fashioned kind of way, the food was adequate, except for some of the ‘delights’ of traditional Scottish food such as haggis and black pudding, which I told the rest of the touring party, ‘I wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole, let alone eat!’ But I wasn’t happy with the room sharing arrangements. When I booked the holiday I was well aware that it was a twin room and my first thought was that we would probably be paired up with someone of similar age but how wrong could I have been? Either I looked much older, well more than twice my age, or they just didn’t care who they paired you up with! I’ll never know. It wasn’t that Mary Chisholm from Alabama wasn’t a sweet lady but she was 87 years of age, couldn’t remember what she was saying half way through a sentence, which made the evenings together feel like we were trying to do a crossword puzzle where half of the clues were missing. I couldn’t work out if her gums had shrunk or the teeth she had in were ‘one size fits all’ from a dental sale’ – they reminded me of a toy I had as a child – a pair of huge white teeth that when wound up clicked together at an amazing speed. so when relegated to our rooms by 9.30 (we have a very early start tomorrow walking on the moors, so an early night is a grand idea) we were instructed, and because Mary felt the need to chat to me, I watched her teeth clattering around and going up and down in her mouth, waiting with my hands cupped in case I had to catch them.

I actually started writing to Mary when we all got home from the holiday but it didn’t last long as she died three weeks after getting back. I thought it was either because of the tough walks on the moors or the black pudding.

Anyway that holiday taught me one thing – which was that I didn’t want to share a room again!

So here I was still on the countdown – only two sleeps to go. I think in hindsight that I had packed my case a tad too early as I had needed to use some of my packed clothes during the last two weeks that they had been in my case, and after each use I had to wash and iron them and put them back , until I got sick and tired of the ironing and shoved crinkled clothing in the case hoping there was an iron at the hotel!  

My work colleagues couldn’t believe that I had never been to Spain before. Well I hadn’t. Once apparently, when I was a small child my grandma took me to Paris for the weekend. She had won the three day holiday in a competition and both my mum and dad couldn’t get time off work, so she took me. I have very vague memories of it and even of those I wasn’t sure if I had made a lot of it up, but it was well over thirty five years ago. Gran would still happily tell me years later that I had enjoyed the holiday and had lots of fun! There were no photos – my Gran had her bag stolen while we were walking to our accommodation and the camera had been in it, but she had wisely put her money into a pocket that she kept zipped from the minute we left her house. The one thing I do remember was being allowed to have an ice-cream early one morning – for breakfast. Gran said to me “Don’t tell your Mum and Dad – it’s our secret”. If she was alive today I’m sure she would be very pleased with me because I still haven’t told them!

The day had come. “No more sleeps” Olivia said out loud as she dragged the case out of her front door and clattered down the steps bumping noisily with each stair, and with each bump of the case, a single word…”Holiday, fun, adventure, freedom, happy, excited…but for the last two steps she couldn’t think of any words so just let out a big Woohoo”.

She dozed off and on during the flight. It was only six hours but she felt tired. Of course it was her screen that didn’t work and as the plane was full it was just “We’re very sorry about the screen but unfortunately we don’t have a spare one to move you to, but we can offer you a voucher to one of the stores at the airport in Spain and an extra ice-cream with lunch”. She did have a book with her that she could have read but really couldn’t be bothered. After nearly five hours of flying, and an extra ice cream at lunch, a young child a few rows back started to cry and didn’t stop until they touched down at the airport. Olivia couldn’t wait to get off the plane and be on her way to the hotel.

I’m actually in Spain she kept thinking as the taxi sped along the busy main road. Her head darted from one side of the car to the other trying to take in as many sights as she could. She tried to strike up a conversation with the taxi driver but he looked and sounded as if he was completely fed up for some reason, probably with pale skinned, excited English tourists just like myself’ she thought as he pulled up outside what looked just like the picture from the brochure.

The foyer was huge but quite empty – ‘Oh peace and quiet’ Olivia thought! Even thought it was windowless it felt very cool and this was partly due to the high ceilings. Olivia looked around and thought how clean it was; even the blue carpet beneath her feet was spotless.

She wandered up to the front desk to register with the clerk. The dark wood gleamed in the light from the small but effective chandelier hanging down, reflecting onto a shiny brass bell sitting on one side, used to ring for the Porter to come and take bags and suitcases up to rooms for the tired and sometimes grumpy guests.

“Good afternoon Madame. How may we help you?” an immaculately groomed girl probably in her late twenties asked Olivia, smiling and showing perfectly aligned white teeth surrounded by plum coloured lips.

“Hello" replied Olivia looking at the clerk with a slight tinge of envy for the teeth that she had always wished she had. “I’m Olivia Harper and I’m booked in here for seven days”.

“Oh yes Miss Harper. Welcome to the Hotel Cabos. We hope you enjoy your stay with us. You will be in room 207 with a Miss DeJong., who has not yet arrived, but we can show you to your room now”.

Olivia thought she was hearing things. “Pardon, who is in the room with me? Miss Who? I’m booked in to a single room. I have all the paperwork with me”. She rummaged through the file containing all of her paperwork – just as she thought the correct piece of paper was about to save the day and correct the misunderstanding the file slipped out from under her arm and onto the floor. Papers floated to the ground, some blown by the large ceiling fans and picked up by staff scurrying to help.

She took all the loose papers from the many outstretched hands and tried to assemble them into a neat pile while quickly looking for the most important sheet – the one stating that she had paid for a room to herself. She didn’t want to share with anyone – images of Mary Chisholm with her clicking teeth, hairy chin that resembled a small furry animal that was afflicted with alopecia sprang up before her eyes making her shudder at the thought of it, but then she remembered that Mary was no longer living and said a quiet “God Bless Her”.

“Here we are” said Olivia aloud, almost shoving the sheet of paper into the face of the desk clerk in her excitement. “Look here it says….umm, it should say ‘single room’ but it says ‘shared room with two single beds. That’s wrong. I paid for a single room just for me. I don’t want to stay with a stranger. I’ll pay extra to move to another room”. Olivia started to rummage in her bag for her purse , looking as if she would almost burst into tears at any moment.

“We are very sorry Miss Harper but we are completely booked out as is every hotel in the area – the tomato festival is on and that is one of the busiest weekends of the year. Next Tuesday there could be a free room for you to move into, but unfortunately that is all we can offer you at this time.

She was devastated. Part of her holiday was having time to herself, being able to come back to her room whenever she felt like it, flop on the bed or take a long bath or just sit on the lovely balcony and watch what was going on down below. ‘And goodness knows what this other person is like – I might really dislike her or visa versa. She took a deep breath and held her hand out for her room key saying “Oh well it was obviously a mistake on my travel agents part. I will check to see if there is a room available on Tuesday. Could someone take my case please?”

The lift up to her room was clean and quick and she stepped out into a bright and narrow hallway. Following the hotel worker carrying her case Olivia decided to try and be pleasant and polite to the person who she would be sharing a room with. Maybe they would get a shock too on being told?

Linda arrived a couple of hours after Olivia had settled in with a glass of red and her book, and was just deciding whether to order dinner to the room or go out and about in what looked to be down below on the streets, noisy and fun. Laughter rang out and seemed to rise up to Olivia’s balcony telling her ‘we’re having the best time down here so come and join us!’

After introductions and the usual small talk that happens between people who don’t know each other, Olivia offered a hand of kindness saying “if you want to unpack your case and get settled, then if you like we can go out and find something to eat?’

“Oh I’d love that” said a beaming Linda, and Olivia thought ‘Oh more perfect white teeth!’

They discovered that they had a lot in common over dinner, and ended up showing each other photos of their families, with Olivia, after a couple more wines telling her new friend that “If your gorgeous brother is single and would like a pen pal, then I’m the one!” (The next morning she was a little embarrassed when she remembered what she had said).

They didn’t do everything together but enjoyed each other’s company when they did. The tour of the city was so much fun. Linda had a wicked sense of humour and was quite irreverent but Olivia hadn’t laughed as much in a long time and it was just what she needed. The most amusing part of the tour was rating the handsome Spanish men and giving them English names to suit their look. They both had good appetites too and the food and drink was the biggest pleasure of the holiday interspersed with lying around the pool, dipping into the aqua water and just soaking up the sun. Of course there was the occasional walk through cobbled streets finding little treasures in gift shops.

The weekend came and went like they do – too quickly. On Tuesday morning as Olivia was stretching out in her comfy bed and trying to block out the sound of Linda sounding like a steam train with her snoring across the other side of the room, the phone rang and Olivia answered it sleepily. “Hello, yes it is. Umm No thank you, I’m happy in this room. It’s all worked out very well. But thanks anyway”. Then she got up to sit on the veranda in the glorious morning sun, wondering what delights this day would bring.