Chapter 1: Organized Exhaustion

Saturday

“Could you imagine trying to do this all in one go?” asked Brenda Oliver, looking at her husband, Steve. “Some of these people look like the walking dead!” she whispered.

He snorted out a quiet laugh. “Don’t laugh! A week from now we leave and head back to civilization. By the time we get home, Bren, we’ll make these zombies look good!”

Brenda glanced at some of their fellow passengers and then gave her husband a theatrically elaborate shudder. “I think when we get to the hotel, I’m going to want to take a nap.”

Steve Oliver looked down at his wife and smiled. He was five-foot-ten, four inches taller than her. “That sounds interesting.”

She grinned and nudged him with her elbow. “I was talking about a nap, not a nap!” Her husband just gave an innocent look as a response, and she continued, “Well, maybe we can do both.” Then she looked around again, and added, “For some of these folks, that might be questionable.”

Steve looked around at their fellow passengers on the small inter-island ferry. “I don’t think it’ll be that bad for everybody. Sure, some of these people have been on the go for a day or two, but most are from here in the islands. You can put us in that category, too. For them it’s just been a ferry boat ride. They didn’t spend a day or two flying in.”

“We did that two weeks ago,” she agreed. “How much longer, do you think,” asked Brenda, looking towards the bow and wondering when they would see their destination.

Her husband followed her gaze, but then glanced at his watch. “Another hour, maybe a bit more. According to the ticket agent, the weather was supposed to be good and the trip normal. It’s quarter after eleven, and we are supposed to dock about half past noon. From there we can get to the hotel, check in, and then you can have that nap you are looking forward to.”

“Just remember, that’s a nap, and not a nap!”

“We’ll see,” he replied with a chuckle.

Brenda Oliver smiled at that and just shook her head in amusement. She still couldn’t believe that they had been able to take three weeks in the South Pacific, and it was all work related. Steve was a Professor of Botany at Empire State University, just outside Albany, New York, and had managed to arrange a working vacation in the Maltesano Islands for the summer. She figured he was about the smartest guy she had ever known, and that intelligence was proved when he invited her along for the trip.

She remembered sitting in the kitchen with Steve at home and asking, “Exactly how did you manage to snag this trip?”

“Snag? More like I’m the guy who got picked last for the team. Everybody else managed to get research slots in Hawaii or the Caribbean, or someplace a hell of a lot closer than the Maltesanos! I’m the junior guy, so I get to fly halfway around the world. I think the only place more remote is the South Pole.”

“Well, it still sounds like fun, and we get to take a vacation without the kids!”

He had rolled his eyes at that. “Yeah, you’ll get to drink and dance on the bar in your string bikini while doing Jell-O shots, just like in college.”

“Steve!” she had protested, swatting at his arm.

Their sixteen-year-old daughter, Heather, had just entered the kitchen where her parents were talking. She yelled, “GROSS!” at that, and then stormed out of the room.

“It’ll be quieter, that’s for sure,” was his comment.

Ever since the trip had been announced, Heather and her fifteen-year-old brother, Steve Junior, had been going through a major fit of pique. They wanted to go with their parents but didn’t want to have to be away from their friends for three weeks or hang around grown-ups for three weeks. They also didn’t want to have Brenda’s parents stay with them for three weeks. More than anything, though, they just didn’t like the idea that their parents could be doing something they wouldn’t be allowed to do.

That had been a function of pure economics, however. The trip was the result of a large grant for the purpose of studying biodiversity, which covered Doctor Oliver’s travel, accommodations, meals, and work-related expenses. He had to cover his wife’s expenses, but that was something they could manage. Adding a pair of children, both of whom would demand their own rooms, would be prohibitive. As a result, both Steve Junior, and especially Heather, would spend the summer sulking and throwing a snit. Neither parent was overly concerned with the permanent psychological damage their children were claiming because of the exclusion.

For the last two weeks, the Olivers had been traveling around the Maltesano Islands. The grant had provided the funds for a large Land Rover, which not only carried their luggage, but also the supplies Steve had needed for his work collecting samples and sending them home for further study. The trip was for three weeks, and Steve had arranged for the Land Rover and supplies to be waiting for them at the Maltesano airport when they landed. Now they were on the last leg of their trip, the ferry ride to Haka Nuva, the most distant island in the chain. They would finish collecting samples and then enjoy the remaining time as a vacation before heading back home.

The reason for the zombie-like expressions on the faces of some of their fellow passengers was due to the long and convoluted path to get to the Maltesanos. As Steve Oliver had mentioned, it truly was one of those places ‘you can’t get to from here!’ From Albany, they had flown across the country to Los Angeles, stopping in Chicago on the way, but that was just the first step. They spent a night in Los Angeles, but the next morning they flew to Papeete in Tahiti. At least that had been on a jet, but after that it was all turboprops. From Papeete they flew to Hiva Oa in the Marquesas, then continued from Hiva Oa to Nuku Hiva, also in the Marquesas, and from there onward to Maltesano. That had been over fifteen hours of flying, not including the eight-hour trip from Albany to LA, and it didn’t include the time they had to wait around for layovers or collecting luggage in airports that didn’t have a decent luggage transfer system. It had taken them almost a full day to make it to Maltesano from Los Angeles.

It wasn’t hard to figure out that the zombies were the people who had just flown in and then hustled directly to the ferry terminal. They were the ones still wearing their welcome leis of brightly colored flowers, which they had received at the Maltesano airport upon arrival.

One thing Brenda noticed was that most people on the ferry were simply passengers. The Maltesano Star wasn’t all that large, and the vehicle traffic was light. She had commented on it to one of the ship’s workers and it had been explained that several small freighters and container ships moved among the islands, and westward to the larger island chains, and brought in most of the cargo for the islands. Haka Nuva itself was so small that most visitors simply stayed in the town that shared the island’s name, where everything was in easy walking distance. She was assured there was a decent taxi and bus service around the little island.

“You hungry?” Brenda asked her husband.

“A bit. We should grab something now. By the time we dock and get to the hotel and checked in, it’ll be another couple of hours,” he answered.

“When we get to the hotel, I am taking a nap! I am beat!”

Brenda led the way across the passenger deck to the small refreshment counter. Meals weren’t served, but you could get coffee or soft drinks, and pre-made subs and sandwiches. Steve eyed his wife appreciatively as she moved in front of him. While she hadn’t been doing Jell-O shots on the bar, without the kids around she had been more relaxed. At thirty-nine, a year younger than her husband, Brenda Oliver retained the looks that had first attracted his eye back when they were in college. He suspected her reddish-brown hair now needed some help from the beauty parlor, but two children and two decades had not hurt her hourglass figure. She also still retained a certain lustiness that made him think their nap would become a nap at some point.

They weren’t the only people heading for the lunch counter. Following them was a young couple, both wearing leis, and as they got closer Brenda noticed that the woman was pregnant. “Here, you go ahead of us.”