salt lake country library

"Making Waves in Paradise"

Day One of "Making Waves of Paradise"

Maybe things aren't so bad, despite the fact that I've drowned my library book, the hottest lifeguard-ever hates me, and I'm sort of, but not really, responsible for the fact that the pool needs a decontamination treatment. Sassy, my mother's Pomeranian, races around the resort pool, dripping wet, yipping with the joy of ruining my reputation-only twenty-three minutes into our Paradise Island vacation. That's almost a record.

"Control your dog!" Hottie Lifeguard blows his whistle.

Parents yank their kids out of the pool, a group of guys make crude jokes, and the blond girls who smiled at me earlier, now shiver with disgust as they watch the maintenance guy approach with his pool-cleaning net.

The taller one glares at me. "The sign totally says, no dogs allowed."

I'm about to explain that my mom doesn't exactly realize that Sassy is, in fact, a dog -Mom considers her a fluffy child - when a guy shouldering a surfboard saunters past. Without stopping, he calls out, "Relax, Trina. Dogs can't read - like, that would be way more freaky, if the dog could read. What if it got hold of your diary?"

"Shut up, Jaxon!"

Jaxon wiggles his butt, and keeps walking toward the beach. The shorter girl giggles.

"Mia! He's a total urchin."

"A cute, funny urchin." Mia giggles again. "Hey, what's an urchin?"

I'm about to answer the question - Marine Biology was my favorite subject last year - when I realize that Hottie Lifeguard has finally captured Sassy. Or so he thinks. One good nip - and she's off, galloping away from the pool toward the hotel restaurant.

Crash! Happy barking follows the sound of shattering glass. Hottie Lifeguard mutters something too low for me to hear as I trudge toward the restaurant. Maybe things are worse than I thought.

By the time I got the the restaurant Sassy was already gone. I decided not to let anyone there find out that it was my dog that had caused the mess. I slowly walked out of the restaurant and down to the beach.

While I was walking I saw something move in the bush next to me. I stopped to see what it was but couldn't find anything. I kept on walking but then a little while later it moved again. I looked through the bush one more time and decided that I would head back to the hotel and get some rest, because, obviously I was hallucinating.

I got back to the hotel and went straight up to our room. I told my mom about what happened with Sassy and how she needed to watch her more closely or put her on a leash but she just stared at me with this blank look on her face. I asked her what was wrong and she said, "Putting a leash on Sassy would be just the same as putting a leash on you. And you don't need a leash do you?"

It took me a few minutes to regain my composure and realize that there never would be a good answer to this. It was just too much of a question. One that, in a normal family, would never have been asked! Unless... well, no matter. We'll leave it at that.

I left the hotel room in utter silence, and got into the elevator, pressed the number one button, and waited. It took about two minutes to get to the lobby. I decided my best bet would be to try and totally avoid the pool area at all costs- don't need Hottie Lifeguard to have another episode of Sassy the dog reins terror on innocent- not to mention cute!- lifeguards! Yes, that would be a headline that would make Paris Hilton's Chiuahua jealous. I wondered how my mom would react to that!

But what was really on my mind was: Oh dear, what is Dad going to think?

Dad! Well I can not believe the thought only came to me now. This was just great! Every other thing was going wrong, why not have my dad yell at me too. I walked out the front door of the hotel, and right past the bush I thought I had seen move. I looked down at it, thinking how silly I was to have thought I saw it move. Then it moved again! This time I was sure my brain had not played a trick on me. It really moved. I pondered whether I should explore it or just forget about it.
When all the sudden I saw Hottie Lifeguard walking toward me. There was no way I was going to let him see me. I had to find somewhere to hide, but the only place I saw was the bush. Did I really want to chance the bush? The Hottie Lifeguard was getting closer. I dove in to the bush.

"Ow," Someone whisper-cried. I felt a body squashed under me but I didn't dare move. I could hear Hottie Lifeguard getting closer and closer until I could swear he was right next to my bush. Then he walked of in a huff. I got off of the person, more or less pushed off anyway, and looked at him. He looked as if he had been living here awhile with his flyaway hair and muddied clothes. He looked at me as if I were the last person on earth. "I believe this is yours," he said in a quiet voice and I looked at what he was holding out to me. He had Sassy, curled up sleeping in his strong, cut arms.

"Oh,thank you. I didn't know she came out here."
"Your welcome," he said giving no explantion to why the dog was in his arms or why he was out there in the first place. I guess it didn't matter, though I would have liked to know.
"What have you been playing that made you that dirty?" I said, hoping that I had asked in the right way to not offend him.
We sat in silence for awhile, just looking at each other. It seemed he was trying to make up his mind if he could trust me.
Finally he spoke.

“Well, I wouldn’t exactly call it playing,” he says, with a shy, half-smile. “I work here.” He brushes some dirt off his turquoise polo shirt, and I can see the outline of the Paradise Island Hotel logo. “But, um, I guess I get a little too into it. I’m just on the landscaping crew, but if something happens to one of my plants, I have to figure out what’s going wrong…” I think he blushes, though it’s hard to tell under the streaks of soil running down both cheeks. “I mean, not like they’re my plants, but anyway…your dog seems to really like it here.” He holds Sassy toward me.

I think it’s him she really likes. I’ve never seen Sassy fall asleep in anyone’s arms, even my mother’s. I know this is my cue to take her and leave, but I can’t move. “She’s not my dog,” I tell him. “She’s my mom’s.”

Duh. Like that even matters. But the guy just laughs, brushing down his flyaway hair with his free hand. “Oh, I see. She’s your mom’s dog, and yet your mom isn’t the one taking care of her. You are.” He looks at me like there’s something special about that, even though I’m just doing it because Mom, well, can’t.

“I’m the one failing at taking care of her. You’re the one actually taking care of her.” I want to keep talking to him, but I don’t want to talk about Sassy, or my mom, anymore. “Just like you take care of your plants. Have you figured out what’s wrong with this one?” I point at the leaves above us.

“Not yet. I think there might be too much nitrogen in the soil, but…sorry,” he says, blushing again. “I’m kind of a science geek.”

I laughed at the expression on his face.
"What?" he asked, his blush retreating and replaced with a look of curiosity.
"Oh, nothing." Our eyes met and for a second, my stomach did a backflip. His eyes... There was something different about them. Something that seemed to draw me in, It was as if they were calling to me, luring me closer and__
I shook myself out of my trance and this time it was my turn for a blush to threaten to creep up my face, but I fought it. Desperate to turn away the attention from myself, I said, "So too much nitrogen, huh? What would that do to the plant?"
He began explaining, and as he explained, the atmosphere around me began to feel fuzzy and distorted, causing me to lose focus on his words. Noises around me began to muffle in my ears while a sudden dizziness swept over me. Blackness slowly seeped into the corners of my eyes, and then the last thing I remember was falling backwards. The darkness completely overtook my body, and then there was nothing...

Day Two of "Making Waves in Paradise"

I woke up in a dark atmosphere on a couch. I blinked my eyes a bit and shook my head. Suddenly, a face appeared above me.
"Are you alright?" it asked me quietly, I stood up and stepped away.
"Who are you and what have you done to me?" I asked in a squeeky voice.
"Well that would give away the surprise now wouldn't it?" the man I now realized said with a chuckle. I looked around me confused and saw the boy up against the wall tied up and bloody head down as if knocked out.
"He put up quite a fight to protect you so I hit him with a rock, he your boyfriend"
I felt a bit for that boy then but I didn't reply to the man instead I said "What do you want with us?" I asked again in an angry voice
"Oh you'll find out in due time my pretty," the man said, "but for now I realease you to your boyfriend." I ran over to him and held his head in my hands. I opened his eyelids with my fingers. His puples were upward. He grunted and I felt hands grab my mouth and I felt blackness overcome me again.

Fortunately, blackness loses it's charm after a while.
UN-fortunately, headaches are such poor sports, and don't wait for Blackness to finish it's turn before they set in.Sucked to be me.The freak who'd covered my face and made me pass out was over by one of the two windows. The illumination(which really was more obscurity, if I'm being accurate) lit up his outline, highlighting his swollen nose and jaw, and drawing unfortunate notice to his bulging midsection.What a grotesque silhuette.I would have felt sorry for him, if he weren't such a glaring abomination to humanity.
I stayed quiet this time, and peered around around worriedly for my newest crush. To my relief, he was sitting up, and aside from rumpled hair(was there ever a more adorable hobo?)he looked very collected. That made one of us.....

I pondered the thought of what I looked like for a second.Not a pretty thought.Any way I guess it did not really matter how bad I looked, it probably was only going to get worse.As I was pondering these things my newest boy friend walked over and sat down next to me."You were out for a while are you okay?"
"I am fine."I replied shocked that he seemed to care so much about me.Then again I had a crush on him and I only saw him for a few minutes.It was just possibly that he had one on me too.Making it true what I was thinking that he was my boyfriend.Butterflies hit me hard right then and I knew they would not go away for awhile.All the sudden the door at the far end of the room opened.

"Sassy!" I shouted.
I couldn't believe it, my annoying little dog found us a way out! She wagged her way over to us, and tugged on my shirt, trying to pull me to the door. Knowing this might be our only chance to leave, I grabbed the boy's hand and started yanking him toward the exit. He got up and we made our way silently through the dark corridor and out the door.
We were now at the top of an old, rusted staircase. Sassy was excited to be out of the dark, and made her way down the satircase at full speed. I gave my new friend a look of relief, and quickly ran down the stairs, him running right behind me.
The stairs led to a heavy metal door that took all of our strength to open. After pushing the door aside, we found ourselves in the lush jungle, which was just south of the beach were my hotel was.
We heard rumbling from the building behind us, and knew our kidnapper discovered we were missing.
" Come on! He's gonna find us!" said the boy," We have to hide!"
He grabbed my hand and the dog, and we raced deep into the trees..

I have to say, the main thing that I was thinking about was him holding my hand. I know, I know, here we are, running from some physcotic man, and I'm getting major butterflies from this guy that I barely even know. And then, like always, Sassy ruins it. She yelps.
"Shh... Sassy, I guess. Huh, I just realized something. I know more about your dog than I do about you. And I've just been through a life or death situation with you. What a crazy world this is..." he mutters.
"Amy."
"What?"
"My name! It's Amy."
"Oh, um, I'm Luke."
"Good to hear. Now I feel like we're old pals. The only problem here is that this crazy physcopath is out chasing us and we have no idea why!"
Luke looked at me with a guilty look on his face. I frowned. "We don't know why, do we?"
"Well..." he said. "I guess it's kinda my fault."
"You're fault? How?"
"Well..." Luke said. "That guy out there is sorta my dad."
And to think, just yesterday, I'd been worried about MY dad...

His dad... my mind was spinning with things I needed to ask,but the first one that popped out of my mouth was probably the worst one to ask,"What in the world did you do to make your dad so mad at you?" He stopped instantly and the look on his face told me he was not sure how to or mabye if he should tell me at all. I guess we were not as close as I thought a few minutes ago. We started walking slowly. After a few minutes Luke started talking.
"It is not me. My dad is mad at the whole world. He hates everybody,and everything. Really kinda of sad. Nothing we can do about it."
"Nothing we can.We as in who?"
"You and me of course."
Was this some kind of trick? The butterflies come then go. The silence after what Luke said only lasted a few
minutes.
"Over here." He said leading me into a clearing. "I think we are safe."

I stood there in my own little bubble and realized that I need to stop thinking that the world revolves around me and that other people have problems too. Suddenly Sassy barks and I return to Earth. I look into Luke's eyes and for the first time I notice that they are filled with fear. The eyes that I had looked into and thought were filled with joy and happiness I now realize have changed.

We hear yelling coming from the building behind us, he looks at me and tells me to take Sassy and run. I tell him that I am going nowhere with out knowing he is safe but then the most amazing thing happened. He put both of his arms around my waist and leanded in next to my ear and whispered...

"Your DAD?! How?" I managed to choke out.

Luke seemed uncomfortable. He rubbed a hand through his handsome hair, and sighed. "Well..." he began. Without thinking, I reached out and took his hand. He seemed to need the comfort of it. "My dad has always been a little... different. Very centered around his work. Absorbed in it. He's- he was in in the CIA for a little while. It made mom kind of mad, so about three years ago, she left us. After that, Dad became REALLY centered around work. Last year, he came home. He was really upset. From what I gather, they demoted him. It put him off. So, the reason he's doing all of this is 'cause-."

Luke cut off, and I dropped his hand as if I'd been whipped. "Shh, there's someone out there." Sassy squirmed in my hands, and I pressed her to my shirt to stifle her yips.

Luke listens intently, as do I. "Amy, stay here. I'm gonna go see what's going on."

Before I can protest, which I did plan to do, he swoops down and pecks me on the cheek. And then, he's gone.

I stand behind the palm fronds listening with all my might. Suddenly, a hand smelling of coco butter claps over my mouth. “Don’t move or I’ll kill that little dog of yours like I should have earlier,” a deep voice says. Sassy sniffs. I sniff. Chlorine. Chlorine and cocoa butter. That can only mean one thing.

I stomp on the flip-flopped foot of Hottie Lifeguard!

“Oww!” he cries, hopping up and down, holding his foot and looking totally ridiculous. Sassy leaps from my arms and grabs onto the lifeguard’s swim trunks. Rrrrrriiiiip! Hottie Lifeguard falls to the sand and screams like a little girl, “Get it off me! Get it off me!” I pull the belt from my jeans and lash his feet together. “This is what you get for being mean to little doggies,” I say. Sassy stands like a pit bull on Hottie’s chest, tiny teeth bared. It’s hard not to laugh.

“Great job girls!”

I jump to my feet. “Mom!” My mom—my ditzy, flakey mom—twirls a gun on her just-manicured index finger.

Ignoring me, my mom says (in a voice I’ve never heard before), “Hold him, Sassy.” Mom pulls a pair of handcuffs from her designer jacket and says, “We’ve been after this dirtbag and his sidekick for months."

“But what—”

Before Mom can answer the first of a million questions I have, my dad crashes through the underbrush, his normally perfect hair askew. In front of him, with his hands in cuffs and a gun in his back, is Luke’s dad. Luke trails behind.

Dad gives mom and me each a quick kiss on the cheek. “Now that our work is done, let’s start our real vacation,” Mom says.

Luke takes in the whole scene—my gun-toting parents, the lifeguard and Sassy—and looks at least as confused as I feel. "This is your family?" he asks.

The sound of sirens draws closer and closer. Sassy throws back her little head and howls. My parents laugh. My mother smoothes my father’s hair. “Yeah,” I say with a big smile. “This is my family.”

...... The End ......