“You will find three large trees up there. Each of them symbolizes one thing worth climbing for.”
I shook my head. “I can’t really see anything. It’s so light up here. I think I’ve got the sun in my eyes.”
“That’s OK,” Lani said. “Just look around. Your eyes will adjust.”
I could almost feel the soft ground under my feet. Slowly the white turned into green, and gradually the green turned into the shapes of trees.
“I see them now,” I said.
“OK, take a close look at one of them. What do you see?”
I started laughing. One of the trees was made up of fluttering butterflies. “I see butterflies! Lots and lots of butterflies!”
“Nice! What does that tell you, Maya?”
I was quiet for a while. My heart swelled in my chest. “That I want to be free and happy like a butterfly?”
“Good,” Lani said. “Now you can continue.”
I could hear children laughing behind me, the sound of a car passing by. Still, it was like I wasn’t there. I was on the top of that hill.
“I see the second tree now. Lots of people are gathered under it. I see myself, too, speaking with people, guiding and leading them. I feel like I’m making a difference in their lives.”
“Nice,” Lani said. “And the third tree?”
I saw it. It was filled with red flowers. When I went closer, I could see that the flowers were shaped like little hearts.
“Wow,” I said and slowly walked toward it.
Lani sat quiet, still holding my hands.
“Such a lovely tree,” I said and exhaled.
Suddenly the tree changed shape and color and turned into a person, a man. First, I could only see his back, but I knew instantly who he was. He turned around, his brown eyes were laughing at me, while his face was getting closer and closer.
“William!” I gasped and opened my eyes in shock.
I was confused. It felt like I had been away for hours, but I realized it had only been a few minutes. The same surfers were lying in the grass beside us, the same children running around laughing. Everything was the same, yet everything felt different.
Lani was still holding my hands firmly, looking into my eyes.
“Hey, welcome back,” she said. “You came back a bit quicker than I had planned, but it seems like you had a good time on top of that hill.”
I nodded and swallowed.
“It was an interesting exercise, but it freaked me out a bit.” I shrugged, still in disbelief of what I had seen.
“What about it freaked you out?” She smiled and tilted her head to the side.
“William,” I said. “I saw William.”
Lani was quiet and just smiled, waiting for me to continue.
“But I have no idea what he was doing up there. He and I are only friends.”
Lani laughed. “Right,” she said, not sounding very convinced.
“What do you mean, right?” I asked, suspicious.
“My goodness, Maya. I’ve seen you together. The chemistry between the two of you lit up the entire farmers market the other day! You did not look like you were just friends!”
I stared at her dumbstruck.
Lani laughed.
“It’s really quite adorable how you don’t seem to see what is obvious to the rest of us,” she said.
I shrugged, oblivious to what she was getting at.
“C’mon, admit it! You’re crazy in love with William. And honestly, from what I have seen, he’s crazy in love with you, too.”
“We’re just friends. There’s nothing between us.” I heard my own voice fade as I said those words out loud, because suddenly I realized they weren’t true.
Lani laughed. “Frankly, and to be brutally honest with you, I think you are two middle-aged cowards in love. Neither of you daring to be the first one to say how you really feel, because you’re scared the other one won’t say it back.”
I stared at Lani. She looked back at me, with a big grin on her face.
I realized she was right. I had pushed it away and suppressed it as much as I could, but there was no use denying it to myself anymore. I had fallen for William. Big time. And when I envisioned my happy future life, I struggled to see it without him in it.
Something Josh had said to me on the beach came back to me—that when we have two equally scary scenarios, we should choose the one we think will lead us to the life we want for ourselves.
I was terrified by the thought of being rejected if I told William how I felt. But I was equally terrified by the thought of never finding out whether he felt the same way.
And all of a sudden, I knew what I had to do.
AN UNEXPECTED VISITOR
Back at the house, I noticed that William’s car wasn’t there. When George and I had our coffee that morning, a tradition we had more or less kept intact since the first morning we met, he told me that William would be back from San Francisco later that afternoon.
I was honestly glad to get some extra time to mentally prepare for what I was going to say.
I had called Lisa from the car on my way back to the house. Her advice was pretty much the same as Lani’s. “Stop being so afraid, Maya. Go after what you want. Tell him how you feel.”
“What if it turns out he only sees me as a friend after all?” I could feel my courage slip the closer I got to the house.
“Well,” Lisa said, “if it turns out he doesn’t feel the same, you will survive that too, believe it or not.” She laughed warmly. I was not sure I agreed, but I supposed she was right.
“You can do this, Maya. You are stronger and braver than you think. Call me later, OK?”
“OK,” I said and hung up.
…
The sun had just set when I slowly walked over to George’s house. I was wearing the dress that Lani and William had convinced me to buy at the farmers market the other day—white with little green palm trees, quirky but cute, and it fit me perfectly. My newly washed hair was hanging softly over my shoulders and I was barefoot, my new favorite footwear.
I noticed William’s car was parked outside. Music and warm laughter were coming from the house. Just the sound of his voice made me feel happy.
My heart was racing, and my mouth was dry, but I was determined that I would not chicken out.
“Scared, cowardly middle-aged people,” Lani had called us.
“Fear is what holds people back from living the lives of their dreams,” Josh had said.
I was done being scared. I finally knew what I wanted. And I would not let some silly insecurities or fear of rejection stop me.
George’s veranda was empty. I slowly walked up the steps and was just about to knock on the door when it opened and William came out, carrying a bottle of wine and two glasses. He was laughing, as if someone had just said something really funny.
In his linen shirt and linen trousers, he looked like he could be a model for “casual island living” in a fashion magazine. He was so handsome it hurt. When he saw me, he stopped in his tracks and for a millisecond something came over his face that I couldn’t quite read. Then he seemed to pull himself together and smiled. “Maya! Hi! What a nice surprise!”
The door opened again and a tall, gorgeous brunette, dressed in cutoff jean shorts and a tight white T-shirt, came out. She looked like a supermodel. She smiled a big white smile and reached out her hand.
“Oh, hi there. I’m Rebecca!”
Her handshake was firm, and she had the same air around her as William: confident, warm, friendly. I already hated her.
I shook her hand and made an effort to return the friendly smile, while trying to ignore the voice inside my head that had started trashing my self-confidence.
Honestly, what did you think? That William would be interested in you? How stupid can you be? Good for you that you were saved by the bell; talk about being close to making a total ass of yourself. Not that it would have been the first time.
I looked up and s
aw William’s mouth moving and Rebecca laughing, but I couldn’t hear a word. I had to concentrate on standing upright and forcing a smile, while desperately trying to find a way out of this embarrassing situation.
“Why don’t you join us for a glass of wine?” Rebecca asked.
Did she have to be that nice? It would have been so much better if she had been a total bitch. And preferably ugly, too. But I guess that was too much to ask.
“I actually just came by to see how George was,” I said, relieved to finally come up with an excuse for standing on their veranda like a fool.
“Dad is just taking a little nap. Have a glass of wine with us until he wakes up?” William suggested.
“Thank you, but I’m sorry I can’t stay. I have something I need to do. So sorry, but I have to go.”
I turned to head back down the steps.
“It was very nice meeting you, Maya,” Rebecca said cheerfully.
I nodded and tried to smile, realizing that I probably failed at it. “You too, Rebecca.”
I looked over at William. “Say hi to George from me,” I blurted before I raced down the stairs, grateful that my legs still could hold me.
William looked puzzled. I knew I was acting weird.
But I had to get out of there.
I reeled as I walked back toward the beach house. What a fool I had been! How could I have believed that William would ever have been interested in me? Clearly, he preferred supermodels with legs up to their ears. I wanted to kick myself. That stupid hilltop. It had messed with my head, numbed my normal sensibility, and made me start believing in fairy tales.
A deep sadness and emptiness overcame me, as I realized this was the beginning of the end. With Rebecca there, everything would change. It had been George, William, and me, and now it would be the three of them. I wouldn’t fit in anymore. I would go back to being the weird neighbor. Now they could tell funny stories about me and forget about me as soon as I leave the island.
I was angry with myself for letting my guard down and allowing William to sneak his way into my heart. And I was angry with Lani for planting the idea in my head that he had been interested in me. How much easier it would have been if I had still been fine with us being just friends—if I hadn’t started asking myself what I wanted and if I hadn’t allowed myself to dream.
I was so absorbed in my own misery that I didn’t even notice the black Mercedes parked on my lawn until I nearly bumped into it. As I approached, a car window slowly opened, and I heard someone say my name.
“Maya Williams, is that you?”
I stopped and stared in disbelief at the face that looked back at me from the back seat of the car.
“Mr. Hatchett?” I asked, incredulous.
A man in a driver’s uniform walked around the car and opened the door. Mr. Archibald Hatchett, the chairman of TechnoGuard, stepped out.
He was taller than I remembered, but that might have to do with me not having a habit of being barefoot at work. He was dressed in a dark three-piece suit. I had never seen anyone who fit less into his surroundings than Mr. Hatchett did at that moment.
I stared at him, expecting him to disappear into thin air at any second. Clearly, this was just a hallucination. It wasn’t until he shook my hand and asked if he could come inside and talk for a minute that I realized he was for real.
I led him to the house and suggested he make himself comfortable on the veranda while I got us something to drink.
“Thank you. I wouldn’t mind a whisky, if you have it,” Mr. Hatchett said with his posh British accent, which made this whole picture even more absurd.
“Sorry, I only have wine,” I said.
“That would be fine,” he replied and sat down in a chair that faced the ocean. “My oh my. Quite a view, I must say.”
As I was pouring us the wine in the kitchen, I watched Mr. Hatchett through the window. Last time I had seen Archibald Hatchett, he was on the cover of Time magazine.
I had only met him in person once, six months earlier, when I had been asked to give a presentation for TechnoGuard’s board of directors. I remembered how he had challenged and tested me, and how I had been able to answer all his questions without wavering once.
Fail to prepare, prepare to fail. No one puts Maya Williams in a corner. He came and shook my hand afterward and told me he’d been impressed. Apparently, I was later told, that was not something that happened often.
“Thank you, it was actually quite refreshing to be asked so many intelligent questions, Mr. Hatchett,” I had replied. After all, I wasn’t exactly accustomed to that from the executive team.
At first, he seemed surprised, then he chuckled. “I look forward to following you, Maya Williams. Something tells me you will go far.”
Well, he certainly had been right on that one, even though I doubted this was what he had in mind.
I walked out to him, still barefoot, carrying two glasses of white wine.
Mr. Hatchett turned around and smiled at me. He looked like a slightly older version of Pierce Brosnan, very elegant with a British sense of flair.
I handed him a glass and sat down on the chair opposite him. With no idea what to say, I just sat silently, waiting for him to speak.
Mr. Hatchett took a sip of his wine, looked down at the glass suspiciously, and then began.
“First of all, I am delighted to see you alive and healthy, Maya,” he said. “When you didn’t answer your phone or reply to my emails, I asked my secretary, Mrs. Avery, to investigate the matter further. When she told me that you were still on Kaua’i, I must admit I was quite surprised.”
Mr. Hatchett leaned forward in his chair and put the glass of wine back on the table.
“Mrs. Avery was able to find someone at a car rental company in Poipu who had your name on record and was willing to share your address with us for some hush money.” He chuckled, clearly amused by the whole situation. “Then, when we finally had your address, I decided I would pay you a visit myself. Thankfully, I was already in San Francisco, so I asked my pilot to pop over to Kaua’i for the day.”
I stared back at him, nodding at the last sentence, as if I thought popping over to Kaua’i in a private jet was the most natural thing to do.
“I will be leaving again in a few hours, so let’s get right to it, shall we?”
He picked up the glass and took another sip of wine. The face he made told me that he didn’t particularly care for it, but it was all I had, so it was going to have to do. Before he continued, I took a large sip of my own, still unnerved by the visit.
“Last week we fired Alistair Parker.”
I could feel my jaw drop. I had to make an effort to put it back in place and keep a neutral face.
Mr. Hatchett continued, as if there was nothing dramatic about that statement. “It turned out that he has been lying to the board for quite some time. After the conference you attended here, we did some digging and learned that he withheld crucial information from shareholders, falsified reports, inflated numbers, and methodically cheated on his travel expenses for years.”
I shook my head. So, the rumors had been true. And Alistair had been behind it all.
“It took us some time to gather enough evidence against him and the CFO, but last week we were finally there, and now they are both out. They should be very grateful that we are not pressing charges.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“At least not at this moment,” Mr. Hatchett continued, with a telling smile. “Right now we need to focus all our energy and resources on saving the company, instead of taking them to court.”
I nodded. That made sense.
“TechnoGuard is a broken company. Some of our best engineers and sales reps have already left. Our stock has plummeted. We are losing clients to our competitors every day, and the board has agreed that our top priority now is to rebuild trust in the market and to stop the flood of people leaving the company. If this continues, pretty soon there will be no one left.”
&
nbsp; I suspected that I knew why he was here. He’d probably come to offer me my old job back. And I already knew what my answer would be. No thanks. Alistair Parker might be gone, but I knew the corporate drill well enough to know he would simply be replaced by some other high-strung, self-absorbed, white male CEO-type. It would be the same old shit with a different wrapping. Like always.
Mr. Hatchett mustered the courage to take another sip of his wine. He tried not to pucker his lips, but I noticed he still hadn’t changed his opinion of my ten-dollar bottle. He put the glass on the table, leaned forward in the chair, and looked directly at me.
“We need someone in charge who knows the business, the market, and the company. Someone who can deliver great performance and who has demonstrated real leadership in challenging times.”
OK, great, but why was he telling me this?
“After careful consideration, I have decided you are the person for the job, Maya. I am here to offer you the position as the CEO of TechnoGuard.”
I coughed, choking on the wine I’d just swallowed. If he’d said that he’d like to send me to the moon, I would have been less surprised. After all, this was the company that hadn’t had a female executive for twenty years, and last time I checked, they were still struggling with that whole idea.
Mr. Hatchett studied the expression on my face and continued. “I was as appalled as anyone about what you did at the investor conference, but after I realized how rotten the leadership of TechnoGuard really was, I have come to realize that what you did was a true demonstration of integrity, courage, and leadership. Thanks to your presentation and all the positive media coverage you got afterward, we have been able to separate the unethical behavior of the few at the top from the company as a whole.”
I was still struggling to take it all in.
“Had you lied onstage that day, our story would have been much worse. Honestly, I don’t even know if the company would have survived it.”
He paused and took another sip of his wine. “Now we need to demonstrate that the things you stood for onstage are the things we stand for as a company. And I can’t imagine anyone who will do that better than you.” He paused for a few seconds, then said, “We will, of course, compensate you generously.”
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