by Karen Singer
“Easy, Jenni,” Sally said softly. “Don’t kill them over it.”
“Yeah, well, they can all just get used to it.”
She turned away from everyone so she wouldn’t have to look at them. She went to the end of the pavilion and stared out to sea instead. Far off, she could just see an island. Was that where they were going? She couldn’t imagine being stuck on that island with all her relatives in the same place. For an entire week no less! Hell on earth! She suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned and found her Aunt Sally there.
“Jenni, don’t jump down their throats. They haven’t seen you in a long time. You’ve changed. They don’t even recognize you anymore.”
“They recognized me enough to call me Kyle.”
“Jenni, go easy. Be nice. Try to be nice – to everyone. Please?”
Jenni rolled her eyes and looked back out to sea. “What time does the damn boat come?”
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The boat left the pavilion for the island right at five o’clock. It left there every hour on the hour until twelve at night. And it left the Pearl Sands Hotel on Pearl Sand Island to come back to the pavilion at exactly half past every hour. Before they arrived, Jenni could see that the island looked fairly small. There was a nice tropical looking collection of buildings, a lot of palm trees and tropical vegetation behind them, and a beach just visible around the side of the island. She saw a few people on the beach, but she couldn’t see who they were from the boat. Not that she cared. She also saw two small sailboats out in the water heading around the far end of the island. Who in the family knew how to sail one of those things?
She hung back on the boat and let her uncle and his family get off first, then she followed behind them and her aunt. As she dragged her luggage along the hard-packed sand and dirt path up to the hotel, she saw a few other members of the family stop where they were to look at them…or were they only looking at her? She purposely looked away from each of them.
Like the rest of the island appeared to be, the lobby was decorated in an overly beachy theme. Too much for Jenni’s taste, but she knew perfectly well that it was exactly what most tourists were looking for. She wasn’t a tourist. She lived in Florida. She could do without the beach entirely. In fact, she planned on doing just that for this entire trip.
She stood in line to check-in behind her Aunt Sally, who was standing behind Ashley. She saw Ashley turn and look at her…and she saw Ashley walk back towards her.
“Hey…Jenni,” Ashley said with a muted smile. “I love your dress.”
Despite everything, Jenni smiled. “Thanks,” she said. Since Ashley was only two years younger than Jenni, at one time, she and Ashley had been fairly close. Fairly anyway. Since she had grown up in Bradenton Florida, and Ashley had grown up in Jacksonville, they rarely ever saw each other. But when they had, they had enjoyed hanging out together. Hesitantly, Jenni added, “It’s good to see you again Ash.”
Ashley nodded. “You too.” Her father calling her to check in, ended that conversation.
“A friend maybe?” Aunt Sally suggested.
Jenni shrugged. “We’ll see.”
When it was her turn, Sally checked in, then stood and waited while Jenni went up to the counter.
“Jenni Finch?” Jenni told the guy behind the counter, asking more than telling him her name.
The hotel clerk checked his list, then shook his head. “Sorry,” he said. “I don’t have anyone by that name in the system.”
Jenni’s anger was immediate. “It’s Jenni! With an i. Look again!”
The clerk nodded then checked his computer again. He finally shook his head. “Sorry.”
Sally butted in quickly. “Try Kyle Finch!” she told him sternly.
It took only a moment for the clerk to find that name.
“It’s not Kyle anymore,” Jenni said angrily. “It’s Jenni…with an i. Fix it! Or I’m leaving!”
“But I have…”
“Fix it!” Jenni demanded angrily.
The hotel clerk nodded. “I’ll just correct…the spelling.” A moment later, he handed over a room key along with several pieces of paper, and he pointed out where her room was on the map.
“What room are you in?” Sally asked.
“D-1” Jenni told her, looking at the map now to see how to get to her building. “Where are you?”
“B-11,” Sally said. “I was hoping we could room next to each other. Or maybe even together.”
“Yeah, me too,” Jenni replied. “Although I don’t think you’d want to room with me.”
“Why not? I’d enjoy it.”
“Not if you saw what I have to go through to get dressed every day.”
Sally smiled. “I might enjoy that more than you think. Want to switch up and room with me? It looks like you’re on the opposite side of the island from me.”
Jenni shook her head sadly. “No. It’s better if I stay alone. But at least it’s a small island. We’ll never be very far apart.”
Sally hugged her. “I guess you’re right about that. See you for dinner?”
Jenni juggled the paperwork they had given her, one of which was a schedule for each day. “Seven o’clock?” she said. “I’ll be there.”
“Good.”
Together, they left the hotel lobby and found the path leading further back into the island.
They didn’t go far before they came to a large area in the path where it appeared that several different paths all came together. There was a sign pointing off to the right for Sally’s building. Another sign pointing straight ahead showed the direction to Jenni’s building.
“See you in a bit,” Sally said as she took the path leading to the right side of the island.
Jenni paused as she watched her aunt dragging her bags in a different direction than where she needed to go. She finally turned and started dragging her own bags again along the path that led all the way to the very back end of the island.
Jenni had been in very few hotel rooms in her life. But she could tell the moment she entered that her room was nice. And the view of the ocean out the big glass doors in the back was amazing! She unpacked her bags, then briefly looked over the schedule for the entire week…what little there was of it. She stood and watched the ocean out one side of her room for a long time. Then she went to the big window at the front of her room and stared for a while at the thick tropical trees and plants she could see from that side of her room. Finally, she moved some of the things from her backpack purse into a smaller lighter purse that she could easily hold in her hands. With a last view out at the darkening ocean, she left the room to head toward dinner…and the rest of her family.
She was happy to see her aunt waiting for her outside of the dining room. “Hi Aunt Sally,” she greeted her aunt, more grateful to see her than anything else. She noted how nicely her aunt had dressed this time. “You look great!”
Sally smiled. “Thanks Jenni. Ready?” she asked as she turned toward the door.
“Not really.”
Together they entered the dining room. It certainly wasn’t packed, but there were quite a few people in there…most of them named Finch, and all of them family. In fact, her Aunt Sally was the only person there whose last name wasn’t Finch, and that was only because her Aunt was divorced, and had been since her marriage had ended after only two years, many years ago. All the rest of her grandmother’s children had been boys.
Sally was quick to notice that all the tables were round, and they all appeared to have six seats. She quickly spotted a table with two open seats. “This way Jenni,” she said brightly as she led the way to where her brother Jimmy was seated with his entire family. There were two open seats there, but there was also a highchair set up against the table that held Jimmy’s two-year old granddaughter Arianna.
“Can’t we sit by ourselves?” Jenni asked softly.
“Don’t be ridiculous!” Sally told her. “Hi Jimmy. Can we sit with you?”
&nbs
p; Jenni was quick to note the scowls from all of them that seemed to be leveled at her.
“Fine,” Jimmy replied flatly as he nodded toward the empty seats. He wasn’t happy to see Kyle there…or whatever he was calling himself these days. In truth, he barely recognized that it was Kyle, because he looked surprisingly feminine for a boy. More than at any time in his life. But to go out and openly change who he was? That was just plain wrong! The disapproving look he gave Kyle pretty much said everything he was thinking about.
Jenni sat, very much aware of the way her Uncle Jimmy was looking at her. His wife, Madison, just looked surprised to see her. Their son Logan and his wife Kaylee looked just as surprised…or was that displeased to see her. Only Kaylee’s two-year old daughter, Arianna, sitting in the highchair next to her mother, didn’t look angry. She alone looked delighted to see her.
Jenni purposely remained quiet through the small talk, listening in on everyone catching each other up on their lives. She already knew that her Uncle Jimmy, her grandmother’s third child, worked for the Jacksonville City Utilities department. Usually on the water system. And his wife, Madison, still worked for a company that did repairs for ships in the Jacksonville port. She hadn’t known though that their son Logan and his wife Kaylee both worked as intermediate school teachers in Jacksonville. She got the impression that they had met there and had married soon afterwards. And now they had their first daughter, Arianna, who Jenni really wanted to pick up and hug to death. The kid was just so cute!
“And how about you Kyle,” Logan said. “Are you working?”
That fast, Jenni got angry again.
“Easy Jenni!” Sally quickly said as she put a hand on her niece.
“It’s Jenni! With an i,” Jenni replied, trying to remain calm. But the anger was still evident in her voice. “If you don’t like it, get over it.”
“Easy Jenni!” Sally said a bit more forcefully.
Jenni turned toward her aunt, shook her head, then stared down at the table. She wasn’t Kyle anymore!
It was Kaylee’s next question that lifted Jenni’s head again. “So, are you working anywhere, Jenni?” she asked.
Jenni was surprised by how nicely Kaylee had asked. She looked at her and nodded. “Yes. I work.”
“Where? What do you do?”
Jenni shook her head. “I’d prefer not to say.”
“Why not?”
Jenni shook her head. “Everyone hates and disapproves of what I’m doing with my life. Everyone! I don’t need anyone condemning me for anything else.” When she saw the surprise and worry in everyone’s eyes, she quickly added, “I’m not doing anything illegal! Nothing like that at all! It’s just that…some people might think that what I do could be a little…uncomfortable for them. But I love what I do, and I think I’m good at it! I don’t make much, but I do like it.”
She was surprised to see Kaylee smile. “At least you like what you’re doing. I think that goes a long way. I sure wish my job paid better too.”
“Don’t we all,” Jimmy added.
There was no announcement, no special sound. But the entrance of Grandma and Grandpa Finch went through the room like someone had flipped an electric switch. Every eye turned toward them. Every eye stayed on them as they began going from table to table. Grandpa mostly stayed back, but Grandma stopped at each table to talk with the family members there. To Jenni, she looked like she was trying to play the part of a queen or something. It was just something in the way she moved that shattered that illusion. And it took only a brief moment of listening to her to completely obliterate any royal illusion at all. As far as Jenni was concerned, her grandma was a bitch. A first class bitch!
Judith Finch slowly, purposely, toured the room, going from table to table. As far as she could see, just as she had wanted and gone out of her way to arrange, every last person in the family was there, right down to each of her great-grandchildren. And even Kyle, who evidently called himself Jenni now, was there with Sally. She didn’t give him one look more than she gave anyone else, yet she purposely noted him again and again out of the corner of her eye.
When she came to the table where he was sitting, the table with Jimmy and his entire family, her hand just seemed to rest on Kyle’s shoulder as she talked with everyone else there…except Kyle. Then she moved on, happy and delighted. Feeling like a queen with all her admirers gathered around. Everyone there to love and worship her. When the truth was, she didn’t really give a fig for any of them. Not one! Each and every person in the room was nothing but a money grubbing low-life as far as she was concerned. And that was despite the fact that they were all her children, and all her grandchildren, and all her great grandchildren. As far as she was concerned, other than them doing what she wanted them to, they could all go to hell!
When she had finished with the last table of family members, she sat down with her husband at their own table. The hotel wait staff was there immediately to take care of her. And she demanded good care. She was certainly paying enough for it!
Jenni’s eyes, like everyone else, had followed her grandmother and grandfather through the room. She hadn’t been able to see it well, but the one time she paid more attention to someone else other than her grandmother, was when her grandmother had stopped to talk to her mother and father, Andy and Cassie Finch. She couldn’t see her older brother, Brian, as well as she could see her mother and father.
It had been two years now since she had left home. Two years since she had last seen or spoken to any of them. Her father had been Grandma’s fourth and youngest child. She briefly wondered if he still worked for the same plumbing firm? It seemed like all her life he was going from one plumbing company to another. And her mother seemed to go from working as a desk clerk in one hotel to another. The last she had heard, Brian had been starting at the University of South Florida at their campus the next town down in Sarasota.
She wasn’t sure if she really wanted to know what each of them were doing now. She had hated them all her life. They had stifled her all her life. She hadn’t been able to really live until her Aunt Sally had taken her in. She had written her real family off at that point. As far as she was concerned, they didn’t exist anymore. She thought of her Aunt Sally now as her mother, as much as she was sure her aunt would let her.
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With dinner over, Jenni found herself with nothing to do. She had been afraid that was going to be the case with most of this trip from the time she had first agreed to go. With nothing better to do, she threw her purse over her shoulder and decided to wander the maze of paths around the island, trying to get the lay of the land…or rather, the lay of the island.
The gift shop, not far from the restaurant and the hotel lobby, was open and there were no family members in it. She spent a happy few moments alone there looking through what they had. Quite a lot of clothes, and mostly a lot of bathing suits. She looked at those too. Someday, she was going to feel perfectly appropriate wearing one of those bathing suits, even the bikinis. But today wasn’t someday. Still, she happily looked at everything in the store. Some nice stuff! Not that she could afford any of it.
She left the store and moved inland along the wide path. She didn’t get far before she came to the area where all the different paths converged. She took the path that led off to the left, toward the beach. Most of the landscaping on the island appeared to be thickly forested in palm trees and large leafy tropical plants. Plants that Jenni knew could stand up to the worst of the tropical storms that went through the Keys quite often. As the path she was on twisted and turned instead of leading straight ahead, she felt like she was walking through a jungle. It was rather pleasant though.
She came across another large area carved out of the vegetation where several of the paths appeared to meet. In the middle of the area was a large bird cage. There were two large red tropical birds in it. Jenni spent a few moments walking around the cage admiring them before moving on in the direction of the music she co
uld hear in the distance.
She easily found the beachside bar. The loud recordings of steel drum music made it easy to find. She didn’t go down to it, but she stayed back on the path and watched from a distance. The bar was crowded with family members. She wasn’t interested in spending more time with them than she had to. She kept going, following the path toward the right instead of taking the one leading down toward the beach.
The path finally led her past one of the guest room buildings perched up on a small hill overlooking the beach. She saw a big letter A on the outside. As far as she could see, there were only four rooms in the building, and lights coming through the window of only one. As she passed the front of it, she heard yelling from inside. An argument. But it was only her grandmother’s voice that she was able hear, although not clearly. And then she heard her grandmother yell something even louder.
“You’ll do what I tell you, you worthless pig!” her grandmother’s voice cut through the thin walls.
Jenni was surprised. Evidently, her grandmother didn’t act much better towards her own husband, if that’s who she was talking to. As far as she could tell, the argument seemed to end there. She saw her grandfather coming out the door.
She moved on, the beach was on her left as she passed the building where her grandmother and grandfather were staying, as far as she could see, it was the only building that actually looked out over the beach. She was glad her building didn’t have any kind of view of the beach. She didn’t want to be reminded of what she couldn’t do every time she saw another woman lying out there on the sand in a swimsuit.