Thunder in paradise (part 1)

Mike Reid, of Reid and associates, was quite aware that his employees were doing their darndest to help make his law company the best in town. He had just inherited a house from his grandmother, which in his mind was too big for her anyway, and decided that rather rent an office building, he was going to move his ever-growing practice to the suburbs.

              Mike had seven people on his pay role; four lawyers, five if he included himself, a private investigator, a receptionist and a cleaner / dogsbody. He held each of his employees dear to his heart and all for different reasons.

               As morale seemed to have taken an unfortunate toll after his private investigator, Robbie McGee, who he was working with for seven years, and Nicola Rucci, who had been a lawyer with the firm for nine, ended their six-month relationship. The whole firm were walking around on eggshells trying not to provoke a fight between them.

               Enough was enough! Billable hours were up and Mike took it upon himself to fix the rut the firm were digging for themselves. Because happy workers are hard workers, Mike arranged a five night all expenses paid trip for the whole firm to enjoy the island of Mnemba in Zanzibar. He worked it so that they would be whisked off to an island where the eight of them would be forced to communicate like adults. He wasn’t allowing spouses to join, partly because most of the employees were unhappy with their home life.

               Mike sprung the trip on his colleagues through a PowerPoint presentation. All of them looked at him with open mouths around the conference table.

               ‘Theres snorkelling, kayaking, paddle boarding and up to two scuba dives a day!’ Mike announced chuffed with himself. We leave on Friday flying first class with emirates to Dubai and then get a connected flight on to Zanzibar. Oh, and did I mention we will have the island all to ourselves!

               ‘But what about my case wi….’ Nicola Rucci was stopped in her tracks as Mike put his hands on the giant wooden table and smiled.

               ‘…. I’ve already arranged for your case to go to court two days before we leave!’

               ‘…but what about…’

               ‘…I’ve an appointment with….’

               All seven of his employees were talking at once so Mike slammed his hands onto the big, thick wooden table with such force that it trembled.

               They had all ceased from talking.

               ‘I’ve arranged this trip with all of the rest of your lives in mind;

               ‘Patricia, Suzanne is going to look after little Charlie when your daughter is at work! Sinead, all of your cases are under control and won’t be interfered with because of the trip! Pablo, I have spoken with immigration and all is fine, you are cleared to go! Sean, your wife said she’ll hold down the fort! Carol, your mother said she would be more than willing to take Suzie, in fact she was excited! Have I left anything out?’

               Sinead put up her hand as if in school.

               ‘Yes Sinead,’ Mike sighed. ‘My hair extensions are…’ she looked around as everyone else was staring at her, her hair in her hands. She waved her hand, ‘it doesn’t matter!’ she said and smiled vainly.

               ‘So were doing this!’ Mike more ordered than asked.

               ‘Yes,’ they said in unison, but Mike couldn’t feel the enthusiasm. He banged his hands on the wooden desk again, making them all jump.

               ‘Are we doing this?’ he talked to them the way his coach did when he was in the locker room at half time, down three points and determined to get the ball over the bar.

               ‘YES!!!’ they all responded and began to wrap their heads around the idea of five nights on an island all to themselves.

 

 

               After the luxurious flight from Dublin to Dubai first class no less, the eight; Carol, Pablo, Mike, Sinead, Robbie, Patricia, Sean and Nicola all walked off the plane where a waft of heat slapped their faces. Nicola could hardly breathe.

As most of the eight slept through the lengthy flight they were refreshed and ready for their connecting flight to go on the adventure of a lifetime, Nicola, however, was beginning to harbour a massive headache. It was probably brought on by the copious amount of alcohol she consumed on the plane and exacerbated by the heat.

They walked down the runway which connected the plane to the airport. Nicola became mortified as she remembered that she woke Robbie up in the middle of the flight and sat on his lap and kissed him. She ran to the nearest bin and expelled the contents of her stomach as she remembered becoming the newest member of the ‘mile high club’.  

When she re-joined the group who waited for her, Mike wiped his sweaty brow and ushered the workforce towards the gate where they were to be getting their connecting flight. Nicola began to nurse her hangover. The others enjoyed the ice-cold drinks they were serving not one hundred meters from the gate. Patricia, who was going through ‘the change’, placed the plastic glass against her forehead and sighed, ‘ah, this is the life!’

 

The flight to Zanzibar was nothing like that to Dubai. There were no first-class seats, and the plane looked as though it was forty years old. The group refrained from waking Nicola, who was snoring with a long piece of drool that ran from her mouth and connected to her neck pillow.

‘Man is she an aggressive drunk!’ Mike said to Robbie who happened to be sitting beside him.

’Alcohol gets her libido going as well!’ Robbie smirked and fist bumped his boss and friend.

‘So are you two back on then?’ Mike asked.

‘Hell no! That chick is bat shit crazy!’

Mike looked at Robbie with a furrowed brow as their flight landed. Mike, being the boss and because he had booked this holiday, took it upon himself to wake Nicola.

‘Nicola honey, were here!’ he whispered in her ear. All he got in response was a moan.

Robbie walked over to him and physically shook her by the upper arms, ‘Nicola,’ he barked, ‘time to wake up!’ and with that she was awake!

               Robbie explained to Mike that she was a very deep sleeper and needed to be jolted out of it, that softly softly doesn’t work for her.

               Mike was impressed.

               Nicola wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and took off her neck pillow, attaching it to her rucksack, which Pablo had graciously taken down from the overhead bin, and got off the plane.

 

After all the travelling, when they finally made it to Mnemba island, the eight of them collapsed into one of the twelve thatched roof indoor-outdoor bungalow’s and fell asleep.

 

The next day as the sun rose, so did the firm. There was a day full of fun activities planned and they were refreshed from the comfort of the Posturepedic beds. They were in awe of having the place all to themselves and the view was outstanding. When they looked towards the sea they could see the crystal-clear water, and when they turned towards the centre of the island, the trees reminded them of a jungle.

First things first…they were introduced to their personal entertainer, the hotel liaison, Lucas. The fact that he looked like a boy wasn’t missed by anyone, it was the first thing that sprang to mind by all eight. Then he began talking and they realised how he was only a baby himself as his voice was croaky like he had only just hit puberty. His pock marked face on top of his tall lanky body made the group decide to take him under their wing and treated him with the utmost respect, mirroring his lead.

The first thing they all wanted to do was go scuba diving to see the coral reef. Lucas informed them that only four could go at a time but reminded them that they could go up to twice a day so as no one was left out from the experience.

They broke into two groups of four, Mike making damned sure that Robbie and Nicola were in separate groups.

As one group went scuba diving, the others went kayaking and paddle boarding, and then they switched after a luxurious lunch of cucumber sandwiches and an array of native fruits.

Whilst eating, Lucas informed them that were endangered species protected on the island.

That night, they were all exhausted and went to bed after dinner except for Mike and Patricia.  They sat in sun loungers on the beach, a firepit at their feet.

Patricia was a bad ass and the first to join Mikes firm thirteen years ago. She has been with him through thick and thin.

She was an openly gay woman who didn’t even try to conform to society. She had the tight haircut and the pant suits and walked with a square gate.

It wasn’t Patricia who found Mike, it was more like Mike had found Patricia. As Mike left the big corporate job, he had in the city to go out to the suburbs and try and start up his own practice, he left his good friend Patricia behind. She worked in the cubicle next to his and was passionate about her work.

‘Do you remember the first day you joined the firm?’ Mike asked.

‘You mean the day you knocked on my door and ask if I wanted to join you?’

‘Yeah,’ Mike laughed, ‘you got teary eyed, the first bit of emotion I had seen from you throughout our friendship, and jumped into my arms!’

‘Yeah,’ she giggled, ‘I remember! I got shivers down my spine when you walked me into that little dump you called an office!

‘Hey!!’ Mike said, before nodding because it was a dump in comparison to where they are now.

‘Yup, even though the pay wasn’t as good as it was in that massive corporate gig, I realised I would finally get the respect I deserved!’

‘And you got your own office!’ Mike added.

‘And I got my own office!’ Patricia nodded.

‘Do you regret it?’

‘Not for one second, I’d do it all over again tomorrow if I got the chance!’ she said looking into the abyss.

‘I’m sorry the pay isn’t as good!’ Mike held his head in shame.

‘No need, respect is worth more than money! Besides, who else would rent an island for five days for their employees?’

‘That is true!’ Mike giggled. ‘Look, l was wondering something!’

‘Go on!’

‘Would you consider being a partner?’ he asked tentatively. He wanted to ask for months now but wasn’t sure how to broach the subject.

‘No thanks,’ she said and sipped her beer. ‘I’m quite happy the way things are! She answered honestly. ‘But I wouldn’t mind a pay rise!’

Mike felt disappointed, he was almost sure she was going to say yes.

‘Is everything ok at home?’ he asked as in the thirteen years she had been working with him she had never asked him for anything.

‘The wife got laid off!’ Patricia shared, ‘she was working in the airport and, when covid hit, they gave her severance pay and let her go!’

Mike sat there in shock. How did he not know this?

‘Are you ok for money?’ he asked a very personal question to a very private woman.

‘The wolves are at the door in all honesty!’ Patricia took another drag from her bottle of beer.

‘Why didn’t you say anything?’ Mike asked, shocked that his first employee was really struggling.

‘You know me,’ she said, ‘I’m a private person! I didn’t want you to feel obliged to give me a pay rise because my wife lost her job!’

‘And you know me!’ he said, ‘you are my best worker and I would have been more than happy to give you a pay rise! I’m just shocked that I didn’t know about Suzanne!’

‘Ah, it worked out for the best!’

‘How so?’

‘She can mind little Charlie when my daughter is at work, and what with the second grandchild coming and all, she can help out there too! My daughter, Karen, she was in financial difficulties when she had Charlie in day care…it was using up most of her pay check, so now she has that money to live off and Suzanne gets to play granny!’ Patricia smiled. ‘The only problem is that now Suzanne wants a kid now too!’

‘What?’

‘Yea, see she’s only thirty-six and her biological clock is ticking and she always wanted a baby of her own!’

‘Are you going to go through with it?’ Mike asked, amazed at what he was hearing.

‘Probably!’ she took another long drag of her beer. ‘I have three grown up kids, and Suzanne is brilliant with all of them. How can I ask my soulmate to kill her dreams just because I’m fifty-eight and am quite happy the way things are? We were thinking of getting inseminated with my sons sperm!’

Mike choked on his beer. He hadn’t been expecting that.

‘That way the baby would be a part of both of us and my David is on board……so why not?’

‘Wow, that would be good!’ Mike agreed.

‘We’re just too strapped for cash at the minute and all of these hospital visits are expensive,’ Patricia confessed, ‘€250 here and €250 there! Its relentless!’

Mike thought to himself for a minute.

‘I was going to give you a bonus if you became a partner anyway, so I’ll give it to you in exchange for your word that you’ll try for the baby!

‘No!’ Patricia shook her head, ‘I can’t take your money!’

Mike went silent.

‘But I will take a raise!’ she smiled at him cheekily, ‘and if you want to back date it, I’m sure that would be ok!’

Mike smiled, happy to help his friend out, ‘deal!’ he said.

Patricia yawned and finished the bottle of beer she had been nursing for an hour at this stage, ‘I’m going to hit the hay!’ Patricia announced getting up off of the sun lounger with a groan.

‘I won’t be far behind you!’ Mike smiled. He grabbed her arm as she walked past, ‘you really are respected!’ he said.

He saw her smile with the aid of the embers of the fire, ‘I know!’ and with that she went to bed.

Mike lay on the sun lounger and noticed that a storm was heading their way. He was comfortable and closed his eyes, not opening them again until he felt the rain begin to pelt down on his face.

He got up and quickly ran to his thatched roofed indoor-outdoor bungalow as a clap of thunder shook the ground. The rain pellets were coming down in little bullets that he could hear attacking his shelter like gunfire. There was a crack of lightening that lit up the whole sky followed very closely by more thunder, and that’s when he saw her silhouette. Patricia was walking on the beach just outside his hut towards the sea. He ran to her and gasped when he could see that she had been brutally stabbed. The blood was pouring out of her and she was growing ever paler as the seconds passed by.

Mike put his arms under Patricias armpits and dragged the not so slight woman into his shelter. She lay on the wooden floor, her words muffled with a gurgling sound. He couldn’t make out what she was saying. She coughed and blood splattered from her mouth. She kept trying to talk but more and more blood gushed from her mouth like a volcano. She grabbed Mikes t-shirt, and looked deep into his horror stricken eyes before her whole body went limp. She was gone! There was nothign he could have done!.

He sat in a pool of her blood and cried hysterically into his hands. ‘Who could have done this?’ he thought to himself…there were only eight on the island, well eight and Lucas. He was in shock and sat there with the thunder clapping and the lightening cracking all around him. He got up and left his bungalow in the eye of the storm to answer the age old question….which one of them did it?