Eve

“This place is beautiful Callie. I can’t believe that we’re actually here.”

“I can. We’ve been planning this trip for almost six months. I didn’t think we were ever going to get here at the rate we were going.”

It had felt like a long time, but it was one of those times that I thought all the talk and planning wasn’t going to lead to the trip of my dreams. Now we were here in Vietnam and I couldn’t believe my luck. If people wouldn’t have been watching us, I would have pinched myself just to make sure that what was happening was real. It felt real and the heat from the hotter side of the sun was real as I started to sweat as soon as we left the building.

“Well now that we’re here, why don’t we get a cab and get to our hotel rooms. I made sure that there was air-conditioning at this one before I booked.”

She waved me off like I was being silly, but Callie was wilting just as much as I was. It was not at all like the crisp air that I was used to in Chicago. There I was able to breathe, but here it was a little harder because the air itself felt thick.

We made our way to the stand of cabs and it wasn’t long before we were getting into one and I was giving them a very bad version of the address in their language. The cab driver was smiling in the rearview mirror and he seemed to enjoy the fact that I had at least tried to speak his language. I’d been working on it for a couple of months, but I certainly wasn’t proficient. If it wasn’t about something that I’d previously studied, I fear that I was going to not know what to say. I had a little translation book in my backpack, but I hoped that I wouldn’t have to use it too much. I didn’t want to be that tourist.

Callie was anxious to get to the hotel and get something to eat. I was feeling along the same lines, even though at the time I was still taking in the country that we were going to be in for the next couple of weeks. Two weeks in paradise and a nice exchange rate that made it all possible.

The hotel was a little smaller than I had imagined, or the picture led me to believe, but it was cute and quaint, and I saw a few air conditioners dripping on the concrete below as they ran. It was going to be good enough. Air conditioning was not all that common here in our price point and it was all that I required.

Callie went to the bathroom while I checked us in. The slim man at the desk that had me fill out all the paperwork was eying me and I tried to pretend that I didn’t see it. We had decided that this trip was going to be for us, not for romance. As much as I liked the idea of a nice vacation fling to get my body reenergized as well as my mind, I knew that it would cause more trouble than it was worth. It always did for some reason and I was better off staying far away from men in general.

The room was pretty, but plain. It was so gorgeous because of all the natural beauty around us. This was the place I wanted to be. We had many plans for the next couple of weeks and tomorrow morning we were going to go hiking on some trails that I’d read about.

The best part of the place was the sweeping balcony on the third floor. It wasn’t as high as a couple of the other hotels, but it was beautiful all the same. I could see for miles and the view was breathtaking.

“So, are you going to stand there gaping all day or are we going to go get something to eat? I’m ready to get out of here and mingle.”

I agreed and closed the balcony door and sighed to myself. Sometimes I wished Callie was a little slower going. I was excited too, but I was more excited to have some time to relax. I ran a column in a newspaper and it was always rush, rush, rush. I wanted some time to think or once without all that noise in the background. It was all that I could think about beyond the moment.

We locked the door to the room and took off to find something to eat and check out our new surroundings. We were going to be here for a while, so I wanted to get a lay of the land before we took off tomorrow. We also picked up some supplies for the next morning, so we could just leave directly after breakfast. I was a planner and it was all planned out. It was going to be perfect.

***

The next morning, we were up extra early because we’d went to bed early and the time difference was a thing. The sun was barely up before we headed out. Both of us had our backpacks ready when we set off. We’d done several trails together and I trusted Callie. We’d been friends for years and I was thankful to find someone that was as in tuned to nature as I was.

It didn’t take long to find the old dirt road that was going to lead to the trails. The town was gone behind us and soon it felt like we were all alone in a deserted country. There were no signs of people for hours and by the time noon hit, we’d only seen a couple of other people on the trail. One was a foreigner like us and the rest were locals. It was clear that it wasn’t a road that was used that often, but I didn’t think nothing of it. I was routinely in places that hadn’t seen a human in a while. That’s the best sort of place as far as I was concerned.

I didn’t start to worry until there was a fork in the road that I wasn’t expecting. I looked at the maps I had printed out and it took a while for me to figure out where we were. Even then, there was no road where there was a road. I didn’t know which way to go and we stopped for a moment.

“Well it doesn’t really matter either way where we go. We’re here for a couple of weeks and could stand to get lost.”

“I don’t like the sound of that at all. I think we should go back to the hotel and get the right route. Like you said, we have two weeks, so we can always leave early tomorrow.”

I don’t know why, but I had a bad feeling and didn’t know why she didn’t feel it too. Callie was always willing to go headfirst into madness.

“Come on Eve, it will be fine. We will just go for a little while longer and see what happens. We can still get back by dark if we don’t decide to go this way.”

I agreed, but I didn’t really want to. I was constantly going against my gut with Callie and apparently today wasn’t going to be any different.

“Fine, but we aren’t going too much further if it looks hanky.”

Callie laughed and started off on the road to the left.

It shouldn’t be that big of a deal. I mean, all these roads looked the same to me and they all pretty much led to nowhere this far out.