The Price of Paradise

Two women sit in a room the size of a broom closet. The dull grayish walls absorb the light hanging above them dimming the room slightly making the space even more depressing. A poised young woman early 30s sits at the table with her back straight her face unreadable making small adjustments to her suit jacket. Across from her sits a wild hair woman with red rimmed eyes a tear stained face and disheveled clothing. The wild hair woman places her elbows on the table and cradles her head talking incoherently under her breath. The poised woman readjusts her jacket, “Why don’t you start at the beginning.”

The wild hair woman lifts her head and drops her arms and just stares. After a moment she sits back crossing her arms. “The beginning. Ok let’s see in the beginning my life made sense. In the beginning I wasn’t sitting across from some woman looking at me like I have lost my mind. In the beginning…” She becomes overwhelmed with emotion covering her face with her trembling hands. The poised woman watches her as she takes a deep breath drags her hands down her face as she wipes her tears and places her hands in her lap. With her voice barely above a whisper, “What’s going to happen to me?”

The poised woman leans back crossing her arms, “Start at the beginning and we’ll see how it ends.”  

The wild hair woman nods and takes a deep breath. Keeping her eyes down and focused on her hands she begins. “Ok well let’s see the beginning. Well this year has been hell. No…no not hell. Worse. Wow.” She raises her head and looks at her, “This year has been some word I can’t even think of but hell doesn’t even come close for me, which is saying a lot I think because when people describe something as horrible and traumatic and soul crushing hell is generally the first word that comes to mind. But no not this year, no this year has outdone hell. In fact I would say hell is to nice of word to describe a year where I lose my job due to cutbacks after receiving a promotion 3 months prior; or where finding a job that doesn’t involve driving strangers around is virtually nonexistent.” The poised woman arches an eyebrow. The wild hair one takes an exasperated breath as she crosses her arms, “look I spent 10 years running my own team. I had business lunches and there were clients and I had just been promoted to a corner office ok so excuse me if I couldn’t bring myself to sack lunches and chauffeuring ok.”

The poised one uncrosses her arms and leans forward placing her hands on the table. “There are programs correct. You lost your job no fault of your own so there is unemployment and there’s---”

She rolls her eyes and shakes her head as she holds up a hand to stop her, “Yeah I know all about the programs.”  She scoffs, “In fact I would say that leaning on the government for assistance is going spectacularly well if four months without a single dime or phone call or email counts.” The poised one raises her hands in surrender. “You know and to top it all off my savings will be gone by next month which is going to create a whole new set of problems.  So there’s that.”

She nods, “Ok so tell me about the contest, tell me how this happened?”

She takes a deep breath and uncrosses her arms letting her hands drop back to her lap. “I had a really crappy year and I just wanted one moment where I didn’t have to think or figure out or process something. And you know the promise of an all expense paid 4 day 3 night stay on an island where there would be these white sandy beaches where I could sip something with a tiny umbrella in it. And where I would have people with these magical hands at my beck and call that could ease all my cares away just sounded right, you know.”

The poised one straightens up and nods, “So crappy year intriguing offer. The contest it was a competition between you and four other people right.” The wild hair woman nods. “Did you know any of them prior to today?” She emphatically shakes her head no. “Did you knowingly set out to hurt a one James Beckett?”

She immediately sits up straight, “no, I--I didn’t.” She takes a deep breath and looks her in the eye, “look we we’re all in competition with each other ok it was a scavenger hunt that had an amazing first prize. I wanted that island getaway. I did things for that getaway.”

“Things what kind of things?”

She holds up a hand, “ok first we started in this open field where we had to run about a 2 miles until we reached the bikes and there was a scavenger map attached to the bike that showed us everywhere we had to go and what we had to do and if you completed the task then you got a stamp and if you collected all 7 stamps then you win.”

“You and James were tied correct?”

She shakes her head, “yeah. I mean it was about 3 hours into the game and I had already run 2 miles ad biked I don’t know how long, went head first into a pond---” The poised one furrows her brow. The wild hair one raises a hand and shakes her head, “don’t worry it was a part of the scavenger hunt well I was suppose to wade through the pond. The whole head first thing was accidental but it was cool. I had to eat escargot which I threw up twice and since it doesn’t count unless you kept it down it took a minute which is how Beckett caught up with me.”

“So each item you needed to retrieve had to be done by participating in some kind of extreme challenge?”

She nods, “Exactly. Think the amazing race meets fear factor ok. So it’s the last leg of it all and you know that turn on market Square.” The poised woman nods. “Ok so and I didn't do it to hurt him just slow him down." She takes a breath, "he was right there next to me as I took the turn so just to stop him I leaned a little harder into the turn and clipped his bike.” She holds up her hands, “ I thought he would skid to a stop or would lose balance and skin a knee or something. Who knew the man would would..." She leans on the table head in her hands her shoulders start to heave up and down. In a small voice she says, "I just wanted a sandy beach and a tiny umbrella. After the year I had that’s all I wanted."

 The poised woman stands, "I'll be right back." She exits the room leaving the wild haired woman to softly weep.