The Light of the Blue Pearl Read online

  “Hello?” Scott answered.

  Feigning a weak voice she said, “Hi, Scott? It’s Ethne. Ummm…I’m really not feeling well, I don’t think I’m going to be able to come in tomorrow either.”

  “Oh? That’s a shame,” Scott replied. “Well I guess we will see you on Monday then since you’re off until then anyway, hope you feel better.”

  “Thanks,” she said, before hanging up the phone, feeling a bit terrible about the deception. But she didn’t want to lose her job so there really was no other way around it.

  As she walked up to the gate the line wasn’t all that long, which was nice she supposed, considering the fact that she was unsure how this flight was going to go. The least amount of spectators to what might happen en route the better she figured.

  When it was her turn in line she handed her ticket to the woman, smiled a faint smile and was soon taking the long walk to the plane’s door. With every step it seemed her heart started pounding faster and faster, it probably was. She did her best to ignore it, but when it came time to actually step foot onto the plane, she froze.

  Her foot seriously wouldn’t move. It was inches from the plane’s door but she couldn’t take a step further. The people behind her started to get antsy and one of them even tried to push her, but to no avail. She wasn’t going anywhere.

  It didn’t take long before one of the flight attendants came to her aid and tried to reassure her that things would be fine. She looked deep into the woman’s blue eyes and tried to comprehend what she was saying to her but everything had gone silent.

  “Oh no, it’s happening,” Ethne thought.

  She tried to take a deep breath. About half way was the best she could muster, not quite enough oxygen needed to stay conscious. She started to feel the room go black.

  Someone behind her caught her arm and helped steady her as the flight attendant moved her off to the side so that everyone else could board the plane. She leaned against the wall for support and hung her head low trying not to faint. Another flight attendant brought her some water and helped her drink it.

  “You gonna be okay, hun?” one of them asked.

  She honestly didn’t know, but she nodded her head that she would and pretty soon the room started to look normal again. With her bearings established once more she took a deep breath and decided it was now or never. She had two options, one – get on the plane and see where this strange note would take her or two – go home.

  Having seen enough of home, she stepped onto the plane.

  The aisles were narrow, which she remembered from the last flight; she didn’t care for narrow. But she had committed and so she would see this through, even if it killed her. The flight attendant who had brought her the water was right behind her carrying her bag for her and making sure her newest passenger was well taken care of.

  Her seat was mid-plane just in front of the wing, a window. Not really liking being on a plane to begin with she wasn’t sure it mattered which seat she was in. She honestly couldn’t wait to get off. But this was a long flight, with a couple of layovers; it was going to be a while before she got her wish.

  The flight attendant put her bag in the compartment above her and handed her a pillow and blanket.

  “Are you feeling a little better?” she asked Ethne.

  “Yeah, a little,” she answered.

  “My name is Robyn if you need anything, okay?” she said with a nervous smile on her face.

  Ethne assumed that they dealt with nervous flyers all of the time, but doubted that they enjoyed it much.

  “Yeah, okay thanks,” she answered, gladly accepting the blanket and pillow.

  She hadn’t had much time to get to the airport and had pretty much handed her ticket over just a few minutes before takeoff, so it wasn’t long before they were under way and the plane was taxiing up the runway. She was gripping the armrest with white knuckles trying to breathe deeply, but wasn’t having much luck.

  There was no one sitting next to her, which again was probably a good thing. Not only would she likely be terrifying them because of her nervousness, but in case something happened she didn’t want anyone nearby anyway. She forced herself to look out the window and think about other things.

  The note from the morning was still in her pocket. She pulled it out and started studying the paper and the handwriting, trying to see if there were any clues as to who might have written it. She didn’t find any. She didn’t recognize the handwriting at all. She couldn’t think for the life of her who could have sent it and who had convinced her to travel so far from home.

  The plane was done taxiing and was starting to pick up speed as it raced down the runway before taking the final leap into the air. Ethne closed her eyes and tried to ignore what was happening, which was very difficult because it was so loud and so turbulent her mind could think of nothing else.

  Soon though, they were up and things started to level out; she was in the air. Flying over her home she took a quick glance down at the city below. She had such a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach at the bizarre turn of events of the day.

  “This morning I was sitting on my couch staring at the ceiling,” she thought to herself. “Now I’m flying to Belize…I must be crazy.”

  Perhaps she was, but considering the kind of life she’d had up to this point, she doubted anyone would blame her. Living alone all of those years, spending her time only working and passing the time, this was probably the most exciting thing she had ever done. She was terrified.

  She thought about what she was going to do once she landed, but decided not to even think about that because it brought on even more panic than the flight was. So instead she got up, got her bag down, and rummaged through it for entertainment.

  She discovered another note.

  “How do I keep missing these?” she thought.

  Unfolding the note she read the three words on it: “Take a nap.”

  “Take a nap?” she thought.

  Oh yeah, that was hilarious. Like she could even think about sleeping right now; not only did she have an extremely anxiety driven flight ahead of her, but then, after she landed she had no idea what was awaiting her. Take a nap. Yeah…right. Sleeping on a plane never held much appeal for her anyway, it certainly hadn’t benefited her the last time she’d flown.

  Just then the flight attendant walked by and asked if she wanted anything to drink. What she really wanted was something to take away her anxiety but alcohol wasn’t really an option, so she declined and went back to contemplating her fate upon arrival in Belize City. The note stayed with her though. Everything else had been something for her to do, so perhaps taking a nap was essential for some strange reason.

  So, fighting everything in her that wanted to stay awake, Ethne wrapped her arms tightly around herself and closed her eyes.

  CHAPTER 3

  The first time he had seen her sad eyes was the day he nearly fell over her in the hallway. She had dropped her purse and was bent down to pick it up; he was in a rush and hadn’t even seen her while he was juggling paperwork and his cell phone; the halls can be quite dangerous if you aren’t keeping your eyes open. He tripped over her and went flying into the wall dropping all of his belongings as well. She blushed and immediately apologized for being in his way and started helping him pick up his things. He felt like a total ass since it had been his fault for not paying attention to where he was going in the first place.

  He was at a loss for words, he felt so stupid for having tripped over her. After they quietly finished picking up all of his papers he asked if she was alright. She gave him a small smile, shrugged her shoulders and said she was fine before picking up her purse and walking away.

  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.

  CHAPTER 4

  Ethne 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.