Rowan #2
Trying to ignore the twang of protesting muscles, I turned my attention to the job at hand, which was kicking off now that I was headed for the resort.
The car was clean, inside and out, and I couldn’t detect any troubling noises.
Good, they kept their vehicles well-maintained.
The driver was nothing special, but he wasn’t offensive.
He had attempted friendliness and, when shot down, had gone about his job without batting an eye.
I looked him over and found that while he wasn’t wearing a uniform, he was dressed reasonably well—nothing that would attract attention, but neat and clean.
It was important to make sure everything I witnessed and experienced was catalogued and appraised, including the first person I interacted with and how they handled things. Considering his driving wasn’t bad, I decided to relax a little before the full assessment started.
I could certainly give high marks to the view.
The roads were smooth and wound back and forth through the mountains, allowing passengers to take in the vista below.
The upper peaks glistened with white caps atop gray rocks, surrounded by pure blue.
Everything below was a sea of green and brown stretching for miles; the hills and cliffs giving the illusion of a sea of trees.
I wasn’t sure if you could drown in that kind of sea, but the idea was unsettling, and I pushed it away.
Not that the sight did much for the pain, but it was beginning to ease.
The last thing I needed was the occasional pothole jolting me.
What I wanted was to reach into my jacket and pull out the pills I’d stowed in a hidden pocket, but that was a bad idea.
The retreat was a ‘clean living’ facility, and the only drugs allowed were those necessary for the preservation of health, though there were exceptions for pain management.
When I’d seen that while reading over everything in my office, I’d snorted.
At a lot of these ‘wellness’ resorts and camps, the idea of painkillers was anathema to their ‘clean’ doctrine.
Apparently, the Arete Resort was run by a different breed of people.
At least they had the sense to know that no matter how ‘clean’ you were, some people needed pain management to get through life.
To my annoyance, doctors had all decided I was not that person, and no amount of money or threats could dissuade them.
I strongly suspected my parents or sister had interfered, probably because they suspected, without proof, that I had been abusing my pain medication.
They were right, and their hearts were in the right place, but damn them.
I lost track of time, but at some point, I became aware of less traffic on the road.
Eventually, there were no other vehicles, especially when we pulled off the main road onto a narrow path.
The fir trees grew thick, and even with the windows up, I could smell the rich, fragrant dirt and the needles wafting through the vents.
Eventually, the trees began to thin and then broke, opening into a clearing.
I leaned forward, curious about what lay before us.
I had only seen a few pictures of the place and knew the basics, the better to pretend to be a standard resort resident.
The driveway, if that’s what you wanted to call it, turned from a rough path into gravel that led up to a concrete patio.
The entrance to the building was built into the side of the mountain, an elegant but striking facade of mountain stone, lined with metal beams and punctuated by tall panes of glass that sparkled in the sunlight.
The wall of stone that made up the mountainside blocked the view of the rest of the facility, but I thought, near the top, I could see the corner of something peeking out that didn’t look natural.
It was gone as the driver swung the car around the circular drive to the broad pavement leading up to the doors.
The car rolled to a gentle stop, and the driver got out, popping the trunk.
I looked around. The smell of the forest was thicker now I was outside, and there was a dampness to the scent that wasn’t unpleasant, but spoke of lake water and pleasantly soft mud.
The doors leading into the lobby slid open, revealing two men walking toward me.
One wore a suit and took measured steps, while the other, shorter and younger from the looks of it, wore loose-fitting clothes and smiled widely when he saw me.
The older of the two was slower to respond emotionally, his eyes sweeping over me.
The younger man spoke first. “Hello there, you must be Rowan.”
“I am,” I said slowly as I approached, not sure who to hold my hand out to. “I take it you are Mr. Wentworth?”
“Reggie is fine,” he said brightly, taking my hand. “And this is Mr. Shepherd.”
“A pleasure,” I said, shaking the older man’s hand as well, albeit with less enthusiasm than Reggie had done with mine. “I wasn’t aware there would be a meet and greet with the heads of the resort.”
“Well, he’s the head,” Reggie said in a low voice, like we were trying to keep a secret from the man within earshot. “I’m just the Director of Operations. He’s the head honcho. The big boss. The man in charge. The—”
“I think he gets the idea,” Mr. Shepherd said in a tired voice, but I didn’t miss the slight twitch of his lips. “We try to make sure every guest is greeted properly.”
“We can’t maintain that everyone who stays with us is important if the people who keep the wheels spinning aren’t willing to say hi, right?” Reggie asked with a grin. “So we come down from our ivory towers and wave to the common folk.”
“I can assure you that despite appearances, Reggie is exceptional at his job,” Mr. Shepherd told me in a pained voice. “Even if he hasn’t realized that not everyone is on board with his particular brand of humor.”
“Ah, right,” Reggie said quickly, grinning sheepishly.
“Sorry, they keep telling me to ease back, but I get excited every time someone new comes rolling up that drive that I forget myself. Don’t worry, we’ll make sure you’re comfortable before you have to worry about the ins and outs of the place, but uh, I am told that I give a pretty mean tour. ”
“Of...course,” I said, taken aback by his enthusiasm.
That wasn’t a mark against the place, just a mark against him for me personally, because good lord, I really hoped I didn’t have to deal with that much enthusiasm the whole time.
“I would say you could pretend I know little about the place, but that wouldn’t require much in the way of imagination. ”
Mr. Shepherd frowned in confusion, but Reggie nodded. “Right, right, I remember now. Everything was set up through your personal assistant, wasn’t it?”
“Yes,” I said smoothly. “He took care of the details and arrangements. I was told to show up, and the rest would be handled.”
“And so it will,” Mr. Shepherd said, his face giving away nothing as he turned to Reggie. “This is your show, Reggie, please remember what we talked about earlier.”
“I’ll take it into consideration,” Reggie said, with a brightness that seemed dimmed, and then, like flipping a switch, it returned as he waved me into the building, while the driver continued past us with my suitcase.
“I’m sure you’re aware that you agreed not to bring anything you weren’t supposed to; illegal drugs, weapons, alcohol.
Any prescription drugs you’re on would have been noted ahead of time, but you didn’t have any, so that’s no concern. ”
“For Head of Operations, you’re certainly on top of things for individual customers,” I said as we walked into the lobby, which was…
well, it wasn’t going to wow anyone, but it wasn’t going to cause doubts.
It was clean and well-lit, but plain, with a small seating area and a large picture of a lake surrounded by forest.
“Guests,” he corrected quickly.
“I am paying for the pleasure of your services, aren’t I?”
“I won’t stop you from referring to yourself as a customer,” Reggie said. “But you’ll find people employed here will refer to you as a guest, so be prepared to do a lot of correcting if you plan on sticking to your guns.”
“Right,” I said as we walked up to one of two doors.
He pressed a button, humming to himself.
“And operations here allow us to maintain a certain level of, let’s say, intimacy with those who stay with us.
I make sure to know what’s what about each of our guests, but don’t worry,” he said as the doors slid open, letting us into the elevator, “even your personal guide won’t know anything that isn’t necessary.
And before you ask, necessary means any disabilities or conditions that would require their attention.
The reasons you’re here, your medical history, any details of the past that you wouldn’t bring up at a cocktail party, are out of their reach. ”
“Guide?” I frowned, wondering if I should have looked into the resort before agreeing to come here. I had trusted Hannah to take care of everything and tell me what I needed, but I should have known some details would slip her mind, so I wouldn’t say no.
“Oh, right, you know next to nothing about our program,” he said brightly as the doors slid open to reveal a short hallway, and he led me to a room off to the right. He stopped when he saw the light over the door was yellow. “Give me a moment, please.”
“Of course,” I said as he stepped in, and I looked around.