Upbeat pop music wakes me up. I’m in a hotel of some kind from the looks of it. A gorgeous blonde barges in and gives me a beckoning wave and a smile. Andrea. I know her. What does she want at this hour? Oh, wait, I know what this is. She’s going to make us exercise again. I read my update while she leads me and the big guy I recognize as Evan through a progressively demanding series of stretches and poses. My body is accustomed enough to the routine that it doesn’t hurt much even when she pushes us further than my notes from yesterday say we’ve been going. Now that I remember that, it feels a little weird to have anything playing other than the rolling drum chorus she used on the boat.
Feeling limber, I hit the shower and wash off the sweat. I feel Evan answer a knock at the suite’s door while I’m getting cleaned up. It feels like some fancier clothes than what we’ve been wearing on the boat. Alan must have arranged for delivery. He has good taste, the tailored tan suit is tropical themed, but pretty upscale. I float my set into my bedroom and lay it out on the bed. I glance at the mirror as I slide on some deodorant and realize I’m looking pretty scruffy. I haven’t shaved in a while. I pull over a few bots and scour off the stubble as I dry off and get dressed. I could get a closer shave with a razor, but this is so much faster and easier. Plus, I never cut myself this way.
Evan emerges from his room just a minute or two after I come out of mine. Where my clothes are muted, he’s sporting some brighter and bolder colors. I don’t think I could pull it off, but he looks fantastic. Andrea comes out a few minutes later looking stunning in a red and white dress that looks like it was made for her.
“Ready for the cameras?” Evan asks.
“Let’s do it.” I answer, as Andrea smiles and leads us out.
The press event is in a grassy area near one of the resort’s pools. I put up some bot screens as the sound guys finish setting up mics and the camera crews and reporters stand ready. I cycle through pictures and videos of the platforms we built while Evan talks through the script that Sheryl provided. His delivery is excellent, and he just looks like he belongs here. I wonder if his mother was Hawaiian. Andrea puts up a three dimensional model showing a time-lapse of a platform in operation, how it captures plastic and grows and then someone can build whatever they want on top of it. She puts a happy cartoon family on a floating farm in her display. The reporters ask some softball questions. I field those with the help of my index, which makes it so easy to spew facts and statistics. And then we’re done. I’m sure it’ll be the feel-good piece on all the news outlets today.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
The concierge points us to a place for lunch just a couple blocks away from the hotel. Amazing burgers with an asian flair. I order something called furikake fries that turn out to be unbelievably good. I alternate them with bites of my teriyaki burger. Andrea silently laughs as Evan’s eyes go wide and start watering when he mistakes the fiery hot sauce for ketchup.
This is so good, being here with these two, solving problems, saving the world. Life can be good. Maybe I can even learn to be happy again. I was once, I think. Forgetting isn’t the answer, I’m not going to try that again. I just need to find a different path.
Help me, Mom, if you’re out there anywhere. I need you.
I dip a fry in Evan’s sauce so that my sibs will think the tears building in the corners of my eyes are from that. If they know otherwise, they’re too polite to say it.
We do the tourist thing for the afternoon. Andrea’s shopping makes me start to worry about the Institute budget again as she adds a few dozen new outfits to her collection, but once I crunch the numbers I calm down. It’s still a drop in the bucket compared to what we’re spending on everything back on campus. Evan and I get ourselves some Hawaiian shirts and a bunch of cheap souvenirs for all the little sibs. We end up with enough stuff that the easiest thing is to take a couple of cars back to the airstrip after we finish our dinners at the seafood place near the beach. Andrea’s shopping loot fills one of them on its own and we can barely fit ourselves and the souvenirs in the other.
Back on the plane, Cindy is getting all our stuff stowed. I put my bots in sleep mode, grab a tablet, and start getting caught up on all the work I’ve missed. Evan pulls it out of my hands.
“Nope, vacation time,” he declares. “From tonight until tomorrow night, you’re on vacation.”
“Just one little spreadsheet?”
“It’ll all be there tomorrow night,” he reassures me. “I’ll let you do all the business stuff you want then.”
“Fine,” I say with insincere sullen resignation in my voice.
We find some movies we can agree on as the plane takes off, an old sci-fi epic in three parts. I know I’ll probably only make it half-way through. The cushy chairs are super comfortable. I feel myself fading out between the muted roar of the engines and the movie’s dialog that I can’t remember but somehow know I’ve heard a dozen times before.