Mack

The Kuri Island was as close to paradise as I was going to find, but it wasn’t what I wanted. I was supposed to be here with Danny, but she hadn’t wanted to come. If she wouldn’t have agreed to go with me, she certainly wouldn’t have agreed to the rest of the plan. It was the plan that was going to take me off of everyone’s radar for good.

Now I was here, with nothing to do in one of the most beautiful places that I’d ever seen. I’d read about this place years ago and wanted to come. Now I was here and it didn’t have the magic that I was hoping for. In two weeks, that feeling had changed and I was already looking into somewhere else to hang my hat. It felt like the least that I could do now that I had all of this time on my hands.

The island consisted of a couple of hundred inhabitants and I was close enough to Hawaii that I could take a plane there in less than an hour. I went to my small villa and made some arrangements to go there later in the day. It was going to be another beautiful day in paradise and I didn’t want to spend it alone.

My hair flipped in the breeze and the shirt I was wearing was opened all the way down. If nothing else, I surely didn’t miss having to wear a suit. I was never the stiff type and I was much happier dressed like a beach bum. A very well dressed one, but a bum none the less. There was no one to impress and even though it was known I came with money because of what I secured when I got here, no one there knew who I was. I had a new identity now. Bud Sparks. I just felt like it was time to be a Bud.

The plane was out when I got to the small airstrip. It was a small cry from what I was used to back home, but life had changed. I knew it would. It had to and now I was a man that had to wait for a plane that was far smaller than my own to get a ride to one of the big islands. Being here had been a series of adaptations that I was still getting used to.

Charlie came out and assured me that it wasn’t going to be long.

“I didn’t think you got much business here?”

I was already thinking that I was going to have to secure a plane full time if I was going to stay here very long. I still wasn’t sure on the matter, but waiting like I was doing now was convincing me that it had to be done.

“Well this one was an odd ball request from the main islands. Some woman wanted a ride here and Dante went to go pick her up. I don’t know how she convinced him, but Dante did always have a soft heart. I hear that he isn’t even going to charge her.”

I wasn’t really hearing him. It just meant that I was waiting for a soft heart. I’d learned my lesson when it came to matters of the heart. It was better not to have them as far as I was concerned. It didn’t end well for me and I was content to go the rest of my life fighting the urge to ever really care again. It was a mistake that I wouldn’t make again. It was much how I had been the first time she’d picked something else over us.

“Should I come back later?” It was already getting hot.

“No, he just radioed in. They will be here soon. You got somewhere better to be Mack?”

It was a fair question and I guess the answer was a sad no. I didn’t have anywhere better to be. I had no work to do, no art to sell. All I had now was a paradise background that didn’t hold up with no one here with me. Danny had ruined paradise for me and I swore if I ever saw her again, I was going to tell her that.

The small plane I was waiting for was another ten minutes until it arrived. I was already half an hour late from when I was supposed to be able to go. I knew that I didn’t have a meeting to take or a deal to broker, but I still liked to go by the watch on my wrist. Out here, time didn’t matter. It still did to me though. I wasn’t ready to stop measuring my days just yet.

I spotted blonde hair coming out of the plane. It was a mass of tendrils that covered her face, but I didn’t need to see it to know who it was. I’d traveled the world and seen so many people, but never a blonde with that color hair.

“Danny.” I said her name under my breath.

“Danielle, that’s the name I heard.”

I wasn’t listening to Charlie’s prattling again. Danny was getting out of the plane and she was dragging a suitcase behind her. Dante grabbed it for her and I could tell that he was checking her out. Danny was oblivious to it all. She always had been and I started to walk towards her.

For a minute I’d thought that I was seeing things. I wanted her to be here so badly that I wasn’t above the idea that I had made her up. This could all be in my imagination. Was I sure I wasn’t sleeping?

“Mack, I wanted to surprise you.”

She pouted and then smiled.

“You did surprise me. What are you doing here?”

I still wasn’t ready to hope again that she was here to be together. The woman was wishy-washy.

“Your mom said something at the funeral. Your funeral. I can’t believe I was right. I thought you were dead.”

I was leaning in for a kiss and she slapped me hard across the face. It was hard enough that she got the other two men’s attention in the middle of a conversation. Soon it would be the talk of the island.

“You made me believe you were dead.”

“Well technically I was trying to get you to come with me so that we could both be dead together.”

She wasn’t ready to not be mad at me. I had to believe that she wasn’t here to slap me and see if I was alive or not, though I wouldn’t honestly put it past her.

“That’s not funny.”

”It’s a little funny.”

“It’s not. I hated to think that you were gone. It made me realize that if you were still alive, I wanted to be with you. None of the other stuff matters. It’s just a job. It doesn’t make me happy like you do. There is nothing back home that was enough to stay away from you.”

“So are you staying then?”

“Well it’s not paradise without me, right?”

She didn’t know how right she was and I finally pulled her in for a kiss. Danny yielded against me for a moment and a small sound of pleasure came out before she pushed me back.

“I’m still mad at you though.”

I grinned and tugged her back. “Mad enough to tell me no?”

“I didn’t say all that…”

THE END