Chapter 8 #2
Stephan laughed. “I understand. More cryptic than anything, and unfortunately that is true with so much of the work that I do and see. I know it sounds corny, but it’s darn irritating,” he added, still chuckling.
Eric ended the call. Deciding to get the lay of the land, he went downstairs, grabbed a coffee to-go, and went outside to walk the grounds.
It truly was a beautiful location, and, if people were coming here to get away and to enjoy some stress-free downtime, an awful lot could be said for this site. As a matter of fact, everything about it had a special sensuous feeling.
He wandered about with a smile on his face as he enjoyed the area. When he came to a gardener standing over a large bed of roses, Eric stopped to talk. “It’s truly beautiful here,” he shared, with a friendly smile on his face. “You’ve done a heck of a job.”
The gardener turned to him and smiled. “Thank you. I’m Samuel.”
Eric nodded. “I’m Eric. How long have you been here?”
He shrugged. “I’ve been working for the hotel for a very long time. Though, at one point, it looked as if they would have to sell the place,”
“They almost sold the hotel? That must have been ominous.”
“Yeah, it was a while ago. We were in a situation that almost guaranteed I would lose my job,” he shared. “But somehow they managed to pull it back from the brink, and here I am, still working with my beloved plants. Most that I planted myself,” he added, with a proud smile.
Samuel started talking about a couple specific plants in front of them, using names that Eric didn’t recognize, then adding the Latin names to boot. They walked and talked, as the gardener showed him some of the different areas he was working on and some of the plants he was putting into place.
“You really love your job here.”
“I do,” he stated instantly, “and it would break my heart if I ever had to leave, but there’ll always come that time when you must put down your tools.
You can’t just continue to work forever,” he noted, with a smile.
“I’ll just be happy when that time comes for me, as I’ll know that I’ve done as much as I can for this place. It’s really been great.”
“Do you have any idea what the owners did to avoid having to sell?”
Samuel nodded. “Bringing in all these retreats and seminars over the weekends. It’s really been something to see, knowing how close they came to not being able to meet payroll. It was a very stressful time for everyone.”
“So, what do you think of these weekend seminars?”
He smiled. “I love the fact that people come here to appreciate the beauty, and, although they aren’t necessarily here for us, we’re here for them, and they end up going home feeling so much better about everything in their life,” he shared.
“So, from that perspective, I absolutely love that they come here.”
“Any downside to it?” he asked, as he turned to look around. “I presume there’s no drama, danger, or anything getting damaged here.”
“Oh no, that behavior would never wash with us,” he stated, with a smile. “Besides, these people, they come here looking for peace. They come looking for joy, for hope, and all the good things in life,” he added, his smile widening. “Are you a first-timer?”
“Yeah, so you figured that out already, did you?” Eric asked, with a wry smile.
“Yes, that’s also quite typical,” the gardener noted.
“What?”
“The grilling. I am used to it. After you’ve been here once or twice, you’ll realize that you just want to keep coming back more and more.”
“Maybe so,” Eric conceded, with a nod, “and, if I get to enjoy your beautiful gardens, I would consider coming back,” he admitted.
Samuel beamed. “Thank you for that. Gardeners are often very overlooked in terms of the work that we do. And it’s okay. I get it, but sometimes it’s nice to be appreciated.”
“It’s always nice to be appreciated,” Eric confirmed, with a smile.
The gardener nodded. “As much as I would love to talk more, I need to get back to work.” He pointed over to somebody standing off to the side. “Oh, that’s the guy who’s doing your seminar this weekend.”
“Ah, maybe I should go over and talk to him.”
“You’ve never met him?”
“No, I sure haven’t.”
“Here, come on. Let me introduce you to Richard Santino,” he said.
“I see him on a semiregular basis, just because he’s here so often.
” Together, the two of them walked over, and the gardener quickly made the introductions.
Then he waved. “Now I’m off. Enjoy the gardens.
” And, with that, he returned to where he’d been working, picked up his rake, and headed off in a different direction.
Eric casually studied the man standing here, deciding not to mention their phone interview. “Hey, I’m in one of your seminars this weekend. Sorry for the interruption. The gardener decided I should come meet you.”
“Ah.” Richard’s face broke into a beaming smile.
For the life of him, Eric couldn’t find anything obnoxious or dark about his aura.
Something was genuinely nice about the energy around him.
It was a little disturbing, in fact, because Eric wanted to pinpoint something as being wrong or negative about Richard.
Instead he came across as someone quite lovely.
Richard spent a few minutes talking with him, and then he looked down at his watch and excused himself, saying, “I’ve got to deal with some of the paperwork.”
“Of course, of course.” Eric stepped back, giving him space to leave.
Richard headed to some small cabins off to the side.
Of course there were some cabins set aside for other people, and that would give them a little bit more privacy during the entire seminar too.
A space to step back away from the attendees and to not be pestered and questioned by everybody.
Eric didn’t know if that was a challenge here or not, but it was conceivable.
As it was, Eric was perfectly happy to continue walking the gorgeous grounds and enjoying everything they had to offer. When his phone buzzed, he looked down at Eden’s text. She was awake. He picked up the pace and headed back in her direction.
When he neared the front entrance to the hotel, he watched her slowly walking down the front steps, looking around at the surroundings. When he waved at her, she smiled and hurried toward him.
“Hey,” she greeted him. “I must have been really tired. I don’t know what happened,” she muttered, shrugging. “I really crashed.”
He nodded. “You seemed to need it.”
“I don’t know why,” she murmured. She looked outside and smiled. “It’s beautiful out there.”
“Not only is this beautiful but they have absolutely stunning flower gardens too,” he shared. “Do you want to get a coffee and then take a walk outside?”
She beamed at him. “I would love that.”
And that’s what they did. Picking up coffee first, they headed outside. It was a relaxing, peaceful walk through the gardens as he explained a little bit about what he had just been told.
But it felt natural. It felt right. And he was a little put off by that. Generally he would keep up his walls to maintain any general conversation with somebody, just because he always had challenges in his world for his energy. But Eden didn’t appear to cause him any stress energetically.
He thought that was interesting and probably something else to discuss with Stefan.
Putting all thoughts of that and Stefan off to the side, Eric could get used to being at a place like this, just for stress relief himself.
As Eden wandered around beside him, she said, “It really is gorgeous, isn’t it?”
“It is,” he murmured. “I’m quite struck at how unusually beautiful and peaceful it is.”
“I was just thinking that. It’s almost as if there’s a certain energy all over the place.” He paused and looked at her. “What?” she asked, staring back at him. “What did I say?”
“Just your comment,” he murmured. “I thought it was an interesting way to put it.”
“You mean, about energy? Yeah, well, if anybody could learn to package it, that would be one heck of a selling point.”
“It would, indeed,” he murmured, his mind churning now, wondering if that could be what was going on here. Thoughts ran wild in his head. Could something nefarious be in all this wonderful and positive energy? Was false positive energy a thing?
For the first time, he looked around the place with a more distrustful gaze, wondering if something specifically odd was underneath it all.
She laughed. “You don’t have to look at everything as if it’s poisonous now.”
He frowned and then relaxed, as he realized his reaction was probably over-the-top, and, if nothing else, was over-the-top in terms of other people seeing it. He smiled at her. “I don’t know. I hadn’t even considered that until you mentioned it.”
“I didn’t mention it in order to cause that kind of a reaction,” she replied, smiling at him. “I was thinking more along the lines of, if anybody could package all this energy, they would make a killing.”
“And they probably would,” he muttered, thinking it over, considering the idea, “because, of all the things you would want to package and to sell, what people here want and are looking for is peace, quiet, and a chance to de-stress from their lives. If they could bottle that, they would have something the world would want, and honestly, it’s something the world needs. ”