Desperation on Wildflower Island

by Michelle Files

  “Hey Lola.” Tim found her sitting on the couch in the lobby of the inn reading a magazine and drinking a root beer. “We are super busy today and it would be extremely helpful if you could work in the kitchen and wash dishes.”

  Tim was wringing his hands in a nervous sort of gesture. He really had no idea what to expect from Lola. She was so different than any other girl that had stayed with them before.

  Lola looked up at him. She said nothing, but her face said ‘you’ve got to be kidding me.’ Teenagers were not hard to read.

  “Please?” Tim hated that he had to beg, but they needed her help, desperately.

  “Ugh, fine.” Lola slowly put her magazine down, picked up her root beer, and made her way off the couch to follow Tim to the kitchen.

  “You should probably take off that leather jacket and put on one of the extra t-shirts we keep in the back room. It’s much too hot and steamy in the kitchen to wear that,” Tim told her as they walked. He didn’t see Lola roll her eyes at the back of his head.

  He asked one of the employees to show her what to do and headed back out on the deck to help serve customers. Every table was full and when he looked toward the front entrance of the cafe, there was a line of at least 20 people. It was one of the busiest days he had ever experienced at the cafe in all the years they had owned it. It was nerve-wracking to say the least, especially with a new girl they had to deal with, but he couldn’t have been more pleased.

  Tim felt a bit guilty that he had stuck Lola in the kitchen. But with her tattoos, piercings, mohawk, and the like, there was no way he was going to put her out front and center for his customers to see. Frankie and his daughters were much more appealing as representatives of the cafe. Did that make him a snob? Perhaps. But he had a business to run and knew that having someone around that looked like Lola did could hurt business. That’s just the way it was.

  As Piper ran from table to table, helping customers, she noticed there were quite a few people that she knew at the cafe. The island was not that big, so there were always a few regulars there. George from the motel down the road was eating lunch with Dooley, the hardware store owner. She wondered if George had anywhere else to go, as he seemed to always be there having a meal.

  Sebastian Avery and his girlfriend of the week was there. Javier Lopez was having lunch with some friends. Jacob Hale and his girlfriend, Beth, were there. There were lots of people that Piper knew and she stopped to chat with most of them as she bussed tables. No one seemed to mind. They all loved her outgoing personality. Her sister, Mary, was running back and forth between the kitchen and tables as fast as she could, without dropping her trays of food. She had no time to chat. She wasn’t much of a talker anyway, Piper was the extrovert of the family. Frankie took orders and passed them along to Tim. They had a whole system worked out and it was running smoothly.

  Javier Lopez was an international movie star, but to the locals of Sea Cove, he was just Javier, another local they had known all his life. No one ever treated him as anything other than that. While Piper was standing at Javier’s table, refilling their drinks, and regaling his friends with the wild story of when she and her sister were taken hostage by one of their friends a few months ago, Luke and Eric walked in. They were with a group of friends. Piper noticed several people turn to look at them. She also noticed Eric glaring at Jeanette as they walked past her table. Jeanette just looked down at her food. She wasn’t the confrontational type and didn’t want anything started right there in the middle of lunch.

  “Aren’t those the boys that almost ran over Jeanette and her daughter on the sidewalk the other day?” Javier asked Piper.

  “Yeah, that’s them. I go to school with them. Luke’s okay, but Eric is a real jerk.” Piper looked at the boys and scowled as she spoke.

  “Piper, can you get the boys some menus?” Tim interrupted. He knew Piper might linger too long, neglecting her other customers. She had a tendency to do that once she got a story going.

  “Um, okay,” she replied to her father. Then to Javier and his friends: “Sorry, gotta go,” and off she went.

  Piper didn’t say a word to Eric and his friends. She handed them their menus and walked away. Frankie took their orders a couple of minutes later and Piper delivered their food, again without speaking to them. Her father frowned at her. Whether anyone liked the boys or not, they were paying customers and it was important to Tim and Roxanne that everyone was treated with respect.

  As Piper headed to another table to clean up their dishes, George passed her and nodded his head in greeting.

  Tim grabbed a tray full of plates and was heading toward one of the tables to deliver their lunch when he noticed that George seemed to be heading straight for the teenage boys. Sensing trouble, he quickly deposited the plates on the table and turned to watch their interaction.

  “Hi boys,” George greeted them cordially, as he pulled up the waistline of his slacks.

  “Hi,” most of them replied back. Eric did not respond.

  “I just want to make sure you are all right after our little mishap down the street the other day.”

  George was directing his question mostly to Luke, who was the one that hit the light post. He had a bruise on the right side of his face, but overall seemed fine.

  “Yeah, we’re good,” Eric answered sarcastically. “You don’t need to bother us anymore. Why don’t you just go away, old man.”

  All the boys at the table, save for Luke, started cackling at Eric’s brazen disregard for George. It didn’t faze George though. He had had many run-ins with teenagers, and the like, countless times in his life. They didn’t intimidate him at all. He knew he was no match for a table full of teen boys though and he stood contemplating his next move for another few seconds. He decided that a confrontation right there at the cafe was going to do no one any good. As he turned to walk away, someone from the other end of the cafe shouted.

  “Oh wow, look at the sharks. Right there by the dock!” a woman yelled.

  Though they were on the beach, on an island, sharks were a rare sight around there. Almost everyone seated, got up and squeezed into a crowd at the end of the cafe deck, to get a good look. Even the group of teen boys ran over to get a better look, almost knocking George to the floor in the process. He managed to grab the edge of a table and stood his ground.

  There were lots of oohs and awes as the crowd watched the sharks. The few people that had been in the water spotted them and quickly removed themselves from danger. They all stood on the beach watching the sharks, who were very close to the shore.

  George was one of the few people at the cafe that wasn’t the slightest bit interested in the sharks. He pushed his way through the people, found his table and sat back down to finish his lunch with Dooley.

  “What was that all about?” Dooley asked him. He was another old timer that wasn’t interested in a shark sighting.

  “What? Those boys over there?” George shrugged his shoulders. “Nothing really. I was just making sure they were all right,” George told him.

  “Mmm hmm,” Dooley mumbled under his breath. He knew that was all he would get out of George, so he let the matter drop.

  After a few minutes, the excitement of the shark sighting simmered down and everyone returned to their seats.

  The teenage boys were rambunctious, laughing and joking with each other, causing a scene, a french fry or onion ring finding its way through the air and hitting a boy in the head from time to time. They were beginning to annoy some of the other customers and Tim hoped they would hurry up and finish their lunches, and be on their way.

  Mary Carmichael was refilling the drinks at one of the tables when she heard one of the teenage boys let out a yell. Everyone at the cafe heard it as well and turned in his direction.

  “He’s choking! Someone help!” one of the boys yelled in a panic.

  Mary had taken a CPR course at the local hospital that very summer, after the earthquake and wave had killed several people. She had b
een of little help then, but didn’t want to be useless anymore, in case something like that happened again.

  Mary sprang into action. She ran to the table and saw Eric gasping for breath, while holding his stomach. She could see that he was breathing, therefore he was not in need of the Heimlich Maneuver or CPR. Everyone watched as he started retching and vomited violently, causing many of the cafe’s patrons to scramble for cover.

  ‘I feel…dizzy,” Eric managed to choke out. His green eyes had a look of confusion in them as he collapsed to the floor and passed out.

  “Someone call 911!” Mary shouted. As she looked around, she could see that several people had already pulled out their phones and were taking photos and videos. “Are you people freaking kidding me! Stop taking pictures!” she screamed at them. A few people lowered their eyes in shame and stuck their phones in their pockets. Others continued what they were doing.

  Mary didn’t have time to think about those people. She had to figure out what was happening to Eric. His friends kneeled down and one of them started to roll him over onto his back.

  “Don’t do that,” Mary ordered. “You might hurt him. Besides, if he keeps throwing up, it’s better if he’s lying on his side.”

  The boy nodded and backed up. Mary was in charge and he knew it.

  Mary felt Eric’s wrist and neck to check for a pulse. She found one, but it was slow and irregular. Not at all what a teenage boy would normally have.

  “Did someone call 911?” Mary looked around at the crowd.

  “I did,” Lola spoke up.

  Mary looked up at her with surprise. In all the confusion of the crowded lunchtime afternoon and Eric collapsing, she had completely forgotten Lola was there.

  “Thank you,” Mary told her. “Oh hey, Lola, can you please get me a blanket from inside the inn?”

  Lola disappeared inside without answering. Less than a minute later, she returned with a thick quilt and helped Mary lay it over Eric, just as they heard the sirens approaching.

  “Can everyone please back up and make room for the paramedics?” Roxanne said, as she waved her arms a bit to disperse the crowd. She had never been so proud of her daughter in her life.

  “Oh my god, he’s not breathing,” Mary announced, just as the paramedics ran up the cafe deck.

  “We’ll take it from here. What happened?” one of the paramedics asked her.

  As Mary told them everything that happened from the moment one of the boys screamed that he was choking, until the moment he stopped breathing, the paramedics worked on Eric. The crowd was enthralled. It was the most exciting thing to happen on the island for a while.

  The paramedics got Eric stabilized enough to load him into the waiting ambulance and head to the hospital. Roxanne walked over and wrapped her arms around her daughter.

  “What the hell did you feed him? Did you give him food poisoning?” one of Eric’s friends accused Tim.

  The accuser was a boy that Tim didn’t recognize. He was a short, squat boy, that looked to be no more than 5 feet, 4 inches tall at most, and more than a little bit overweight, Tim thought. Because of his size, and his driving need to prove he was tough, the teen had a mean streak to him. He stood up to anyone, anywhere, and didn’t care who it was.

  Tim was taken aback by the boy’s accusation. “What are you talking about? No, we didn’t give him food poisoning. You all ate the same food, out of the same kitchen, and none of you are sick.”

  Tim was suddenly terrified that people would think his cafe had something to do with Eric’s illness. He looked up at Roxanne with fear on his face.

  “Before anyone jumps to conclusions,” Tim continued, as he put his palms up toward the crowd, “let’s see what the doctor says.”

  Tim looked around at the crowd. Many of them nodded their head in agreement, but he noticed that most of them did not go back and sit down at their tables. They walked over, threw some cash on the table, and dispersed quickly. That was a bad sign.

  Chapter 6

  “Hey Cecily,” Sebastian Avery said as he sat down on his favorite barstool at the Wildflower Inn bar, where she was the bartender. “How have you been?” He gave her his best ‘I’m really cute’ smile.

  “Fine. You?” she replied, not taking the bait. ‘Not another night of this,’ she thought to herself.

  “Oh, I’m pretty good,” he told her. “I heard you and what’s his name broke up. I’m really sorry to hear that.” Sebastian did his best not to smile when he spoke. Instead, he showed her an over exaggerated frown that was just ridiculous and she rolled her eyes in his direction.

  “Yeah, you look really broken up about it. And you know perfectly well what his name is,” Cecily chided him.

  “No, really, I’m sorry. You two looked like a cute couple. Buuut…” he said, drawing out his question, “…since I’m here, I thought I’d see if you wanted to go out sometime?” he asked her, with hope shining through in his eyes.

  “Sebastian,” she began, “I don’t want to be harsh, but you know that I’m just not interested. You’re a nice guy, and we can certainly be friends, but you just aren’t my type.”

  Without missing a beat: “Oh honey, I’m everyone’s type.” He wasn’t wrong.

  Cecily just shook her head from side to side dramatically, making sure he saw it. Then she couldn’t help but smile. As much as the man annoyed her sometimes, he was darn cute and quite charming.

  Cecily had told him she wasn’t interested dozens of times, but he just would not get the hint. There was something intriguing about a woman that was not falling all over herself trying to date him. Those women bored Sebastian. Cecily certainly did not.

  Sebastian Avery was the town heartbreaker. He was a 35 year old bachelor that still lived with his parents. He was ruggedly handsome with his dirty blond hair, baby blue eyes, and a slight southern accent that the women could not get enough of. He had so many girlfriends that he sometimes had a hard time keeping them all straight. But, he wouldn’t commit to any of them. He liked the carefree life of living rent free in his parents’ basement and he never wanted a steady girlfriend. His motto was ‘What is the point in having one woman when I have dozens?’ And that’s how he lived his life.

  His willingness to be a serial dater in a small town caused him a lot of trouble with the ladies. He had been the object of many a cat fight in the bars on Wildflower Island over the years. This made him a frequent topic of gossip, which Sebastian took all in stride. One thing that can be said about him is that he was always honest with the ladies. He told each and every one of them from the start that he didn’t want anything serious. Unfortunately for him, many of them thought they could change him. They couldn't.

  Then along came Cecily Blackwood. There was something about her that he just couldn't shake from his mind. She was tall, with long brown hair and blue eyes. She was fun loving, outgoing, and Sebastian found her easy to talk to. Though she had had a boyfriend until recently, he didn’t let that stop his pursuit of her and Sebastian frequently spent evenings in the Wildflower Inn bar chatting her up. However, Cecily would not give him the time of day, which was something completely new to him. She certainly noticed how cute he was, she wasn’t blind, but she knew his reputation and wanted to have nothing to do with him. She also knew that he still lived with this parents and thought of him as a mama's boy. However, that did not slow Sebastian down. He pursued Cecily like it was the last thing he would ever do. Perhaps he wanted her more because she wanted nothing to do with him. He thought of her as a challenge.

  “I don’t understand what the problem is,” he continued. “Most women in this town would die for the chance to date me.” He actually thought that was an endorsement. He ran his fingers through his blond hair, a habit he had acquired over the years. It was a bit long and unruly, and he was in need of a haircut.

  Cecily couldn’t believe her ears. “Are you kidding me? That is precisely why I won’t date you. Pretty much every other woman on this island already has. And I c
an’t even imagine how many of them you have slept with. Ick.” Cecily scrunched up her face and shuddered dramatically for emphasis as she walked to the other end of the bar to help her only other customer. It was still early and the regular crowd hadn’t shuffled in yet.

  “Ouch. That hurt,” Sebastian replied, grabbing his chest and pretending to be in pain. He knew how charming he was. Cecily turned around briefly and smiled at him, then continued on to help her customer.

  He wasn’t really hurt by her remark. He thought of it as a badge of honor that he had slept with so many women. He was convinced that most women wanted him and most men wanted to be him. He was mostly right. The proof was all over town.

  When Cecily walked back over to him, she poured him a drink, without saying anything, and started walking away.

  “Hey, wait a minute,” he started. “I wanted to ask you if you saw all the commotion out on the deck a little while ago?”

  “No, I didn’t see anything, but I heard the ambulance. Lola, the new girl, told me that someone choked on some food. That’s all I know, which is really weird since I usually know everything,” Cecily replied, with a smile.

  She certainly had the reputation for being the island’s biggest gossip. She knew it, and so did everyone else. Sebastian smiled back.

  “Who’s Lola? Is this someone I might want to meet?” He hoped his comment would stir a bit of jealousy in Cecily. It didn’t.

  “She’s 14 years old,” Cecily told him, with a scowl and an icy stare.

  “Oh, oops,” he smiled back at her.

  “Well anyway, it was a teenage boy that choked on something, I guess. I saw the whole thing, but I don’t really know much,” Sebastian told her. “I did hear through the grapevine that he might not make it,” he added. “I don’t know how true that is though. You know how terrible the gossip is around here. I don’t know what to believe half the time.” He was making fun of Cecily and she was quite aware of that fact.