Two

Terra stood for a minute and wondered why a hotel on the sea would be named after the Spanish word for river.  But she had noticed strange hotel names all up and down this stretch of coast and had learned not to think much of it.  One nautical-ranch-themed hotel was called The Cowboy Seahorse; another hotel was painted bright green and according to the sign was called the Pink Hotel.  So a hotel called river near the sea was just the icing on the cake.

It was more than an hour until the official meeting time, and since Terra had covered the distance to the hotel much more quickly than she had expected to, she was at a loss for how to spend the interval between now and the time when she could enter the hotel.  She glanced back at the cats, many of whom were still sitting at the invisible barrier.  Some, however, had clearly grown tired of staring at nothing and had wandered off to do other things.  A few of the kittens were tumbling over each other and play-fighting in what appeared to be a game of ninja leapfrog.  Terra was briefly tempted to see if there were any snacks left from the bus trip to give to the kittens, but something about these cats now made her feel uncomfortable, and she settled instead for taking some photos of them.  In the isolation of the beach the only thing in her ears was the gentle whoosh of small waves lapping at the shore and the click-click-click of the shutter opening and closing.  She hadn't even suspected that anyone else was there on the beach, much less heard the footsteps walking up behind her.

"Hello."

Terra let out a tiny yelp of surprise and whipped around.  There stood a young woman, maybe in her early twenties, smiling warmly and twirling the ends of her long, curly hair between her fingers.  A rush of relief washed over Terra and she exhaled and laughed.  "Hi, sorry, you scared me," she said.

The woman widened her smile.  "I didn't mean to, I apologise," she replied.  "You're here for the course, right?" she asked.

"Well, the retreat, yes," Terra said, slightly confused that the woman had referred to it as a course.  "I'm Terra Kaneko," she added.  She started to extend her hand and then changed her mind when she saw that the woman was making no move to shake hands.

"Hello Terra, my name is Rose," the woman said, still playing with her hair.

"Rose," Terra repeated.  "Lovely name."

"It's the name of a type of flower," Rose said.

Terra didn't quite know how to respond to this startling revelation.  "Er, yes, so it is," she said. Duh, she added silently.

"You're a little early, but if you'd like you can come inside and I'll serve some water," Rose offered.

Wow, water— they're really rolling out the red carpet, Terra thought.  She noticed that something about the way Rose spoke lent itself to sarcastic responses.  Or maybe I'm just a sarcastic bitch, she thought.  She mentally scolded herself for always being so shitty with new people, and pointed out to herself that she was the one who showed up early and this woman didn't have to invite her in at all.  "Water would be great, thanks," she finally said.  She picked up her bags and followed Rose up the walkway to the hotel.  

Terra peeked back over her shoulder at the cats; most were gone now but a few still sat on the walkway, continuing to stare through the invisible barrier that for some reason they wouldn't, or couldn't, cross.  In fact, there were so few cats sitting there now that Terra wondered if she had imagined the earlier crowd of them, perfectly aligned as if they were forcibly pressed up against a glass wall.  It seemed ridiculous now to think that cats would behave that way, but at the time she was sure that's exactly what they were doing.  And they appeared to have a phobia about crossing the line— certainly there were no cats she could see on this side of the invisible barrier, none around the hotel or even further up the beach.  But cats are good at hiding themselves, Terra reminded herself, and she accepted the possibility that just because she didn't see any cats on this side of the imaginary line didn't mean they weren't there.  They were probably tucked away somewhere, sleeping.

When Rose and Terra reached the door of the hotel Rose pushed it and it swung inward.  There didn't appear to be a lock on the door, and Terra wondered how they kept the place secure in the winter.  She guessed that theoretically there wasn't really much to steal, but nonetheless she assumed they would want to protect the place from vandals and squatters.  I guess they just board these places up and hope for the best, she thought.  To Terra it seemed easier just to fit a lock to the door.

Once Rose was inside she held the door open with that same warm smile on her face.  Has she been smiling like that the whole time? Terra wondered as she passed over the threshold into what appeared to be a poorly lit sun room.  The place smelled funny, stale, almost like it had been empty a long time, but she knew that couldn't have been the case.  This town was absolutely overrun with tourists during the summer months, and she had no reason to think this hotel wouldn't have been stuffed to capacity like all the others.  Still, it had a lonely vibe to it, and Terra felt nothing welcoming here.

The room was mostly windows from floor to ceiling, which Terra thought would have turned this place into an oven in the summer, and in the off-season the clouds and dark sky served to make the spacious area dim and gloomy.  Terra couldn't see herself wanting to spend much time in here.  The tile floor was the same non-descript beige found in every elementary school, and the lounge chairs and tables featured those ornate wicker frames so popular in the '80s, with cushions that displayed a busy floral pattern in soft blue.  All in all, it looked like the sun room of a stereotypical no-star hotel, or what Terra would have called a motel back home.

It was only after a brief look around that Terra noticed Rose was still standing in the doorway, still holding the door open, and still smiling that eerie warm smile.  She hadn't moved from that spot other than to turn her head toward Terra.  A shiver ran through Terra's body and she asked if everything was okay.  "Yes, of course," Rose replied.  "Please have a seat, I'll bring the water," she said.

Rose finally let go of the door, which slowly returned to its neutral position, and as she walked past Terra she gestured to one of the wicker lounge chairs.  "Please, do sit down," she repeated, and then she disappeared down a dark hallway into the main part of the hotel.  Terra took a deep breath and lowered her bags to the floor.  She walked over to one of the plate glass windows and stared out at the beach, which now looked farther away somehow.  She studied the walkway and the sand for any sign of the cats, but there was nothing.  She couldn't see far enough to her left to tell if there were cats still sitting at the invisible barrier, but she suspected they were all long gone by now.

Terra turned away from the window and studied the empty sun room.  It was a large room, and there were long tables stacked on one end that led her to believe it might have doubled as a buffet area in the busy months.  Even in her rubber-soled shoes her steps echoed off the tiles, and Terra had a sudden thought that there would be no one to hear her if she called for help.  Laughing at her own melodrama, she lowered herself into one of the lounge chairs and pulled her phone out of her pocket.  She called Mehmet again.  He answered on the fifth ring and she could hear the sounds of a busy office in the background.

"Hey, it's me again," she said.

"Oh, hey."

"Sorry I'm calling so much."

"No, no, it's great.  I mean, we won't get to talk for two weeks or whatever, so we should talk now as much as we can."

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

"So what's it like there?"

Terra paused.  "It's, uh... yeah, it's okay.  It's a little creepy, but yeah, it's fine."

"Why are you whispering?"

"Am I?"

"Yes, you are."

Terra giggled.  "I don't know, I guess it's just so quiet here I feel like I'm disturbing things if I speak too loudly."

"Well that's good, right?  I mean, it's peaceful.  Are you still the only person around?"

"No, I'm in the hotel now.  One of the organisers is here and she saw me standing outside and she invited me in.  But I think it's just me and her.  We're the only two people around.  The lights are all off and the place is completely quiet."

"Hmm, weird."

"What's weird?  It's the off-season."

"Yeah, but, aren't they supposed to be getting things ready?  I mean, certainly it takes more than just one girl on her own to organise the retreat and prepare everything."

Terra thought about it.  "Well, maybe they prepared everything yesterday so that it would all be ready today."

"But then, wouldn't they have all slept in the hotel last night?  Where else could they have possibly gone?"

Terra laughed, but Mehmet had a point.  "Stop trying to freak me out, " she said.  "Maybe they've all gone to lunch or something."

"Yeah, you're probably right," Mehmet replied.  "Hey, I need to go now, call me back again before it starts, okay?  I'll speak to you then."

Terra hung up the phone and leaned back into her chair.  As she closed her eyes to try to relax, it occurred to her that Rose had been gone a long time considering she had only gone to fetch water.  Perhaps she's going all out and bringing lemon slices with the water as well, Terra thought, and then immediately scolded herself for being so mean.  This wasn't supposed to be a luxury vacation, the whole point was—

"You know they won't allow you to keep that," a stern voice boomed.  Terra's heart leapt out of her chest and she clamped her hand over her mouth to stifle the scream that was trying to escape.  She quickly got up from her chair and looked around the room.  There, in the corner, was a man reclining in one of the lounge chairs.  She was certain he hadn't been there earlier, but she couldn't see how he could have entered the room after her without her knowing about it.  If he had come in from either the main part of the hotel or the beach, he would have had to have walked directly in front of her chair in order to reach the corner where he was now sitting.  And even if he had managed miraculously to traverse the tile floor in complete silence, how on earth had she not heard him open the door?

As Terra's breathing returned to normal, the man spoke again.  "I was just saying, they won't allow you to keep that phone with you.  You know that, right?  You have to hand in all your electronic devices," he said.  His hands were folded over his chest and he had a stern look on his face.  He was a thin, long-limbed man, older, with thick, unruly grey hair and a bushy grey beard.  She thought he would have made a good Santa Claus had he not been so thin.  The thought relaxed her a bit and she felt a little silly that she hadn't noticed a man who clearly must have been in the room long before she ever got there.

She finally found her voice.  "Yeah, I know, I was just making some calls now while I still can," she said, and laughed nervously.  She slowly sat back down in her chair, and noticed that even in her reclining position, she still had a clear line of sight to the old man.  How had she not seen him before?  All that time she had spent looking around the room, she was certain there had been no one else there.  No, he must have come in after she did.  But then how did she not hear him cross the room?

He sat up in his chair and slowly got to his feet.  He was even taller than Terra had guessed, well over six feet.  He looked at her with his sharp blue eyes and asked, "would you like something to drink?  Some water, maybe?"

Terra gulped.  Yeah, some water would be nice, if it would ever fucking get here, she thought.  She cleared her throat and said, "actually, I think Rose went to get some water.  I'm here a little early, you see."

The old man nodded and crossed the room slowly.  His shoes made tremendous clacking sounds on the tiles.  There's no way I wouldn't have heard that, Terra thought.  So he must have been in that chair before I arrived.  But if that were the case, then he would have already known that Rose had gone to get the water.  Terra clenched her teeth as the old man made his way toward the doorway that led into the hotel, the same doorway through which Rose had disappeared.  When he reached the entrance to the dark hallway the man stopped walking and turned around to face Terra. "You know, it's the name of a flower," he said.  "Rose, I mean."

Terra nodded nervously and tried to force a smile.  The man gave a single nod back and vanished into the darkness of the hallway.  Terra decided she needed some fresh air, and practically sprinted out the door of the sun room into the nearly warm afternoon.  Autumn hadn't quite taken full hold yet, but summer was definitely losing its fight.  Terra fumbled in her pocket for her phone, but just as she managed to grasp it in her hand she heard the unmistakable sound of a car approaching.  She looked to her left, and sure enough, a large van was slowly making its way up the pedestrian walkway.  It had to dodge benches and trees here and there, but for the most part the driver seemed competent and Terra was impressed how easily he navigated the narrow passage.  She released her hold on her phone and waited to see what would transpire.  She could hear the thumping bass of really loud music.

When the van pulled up in front of the hotel, a sliding door on the side flew open and an almost comical number of people started spilling out of the vehicle, backpacks in tow.  The music suddenly became deafening, a pounding dance mix that did not at all fit the look of the van's passengers.  They appeared to be a group of young hippies, mostly tie-dyed t-shirts and long hair.  Terra would have expected them to have been more into the Dead than the Vengaboys, but you never could tell with kids these days.  She thought the oldest of the group might have been near thirty, but most of these people appeared to be young students, perhaps with an average age of twenty.  They were bouncy and noisy and clearly glad to be out of the van.  She guessed they had come quite a long way to be here, and Terra, who normally didn't like loud people, was thankful for the lift in atmosphere and welcomed their jovial mood.  She even wanted to talk to them, but as they were all speaking Turkish she didn't feel comfortable.  She continued to stand near the walkway and simply watched as they emptied the van of their belongings.

 As the group started to make their way toward the entrance to the sun room, the door opened from the inside and the hippies were greeted by someone who, bafflingly, was neither Rose nor the old man.  It was a different young woman, with a large frame and a short haircut.  It was clear right from the start that all the people from the van knew her, and this was a sort of reunion.  A cheer went up, and the short-haired woman was suddenly smothered with hugs and greetings.  Great, Terra thought.  I'm the only outsider.  She slowly retreated around the back end of the van and made her way onto the sandy beach.  She retrieved her phone from her pocket and once again called Mehmet.

"Baby, you wouldn't believe it, this place is so fucking weird."

"Weird how?  Just new people?"

"Well, there's that, and... god, I don't know.  They're freaking me out.  They behave really oddly."

"Yeah, I can hear them in the background," Mehmet said.  "It sounds to me like they're just having a good time."

"No, not those people," Terra said.  "The people in the hotel.  Or at least, I think they're in the hotel.  Hell, I'm not even sure."

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, I don't know.  The whole thing feels wrong.  I want to come home."

Mehmet sighed.  "Well, of course I'd love to have you back here, but I thought you really wanted to do this.  And you took that endless bus ride to get there and everything."

"I do want to do this.  These things are great."

"So then give it a chance, okay?  I'm sure once you get used to them you'll realise those people are really nice."

Now it was Terra's turn to sigh.  "I know, I know.  Okay, look, they're going to make me hand in my phone soon, so I guess I'll probably switch it off now.  I love you, and I'll speak to you in ten days."

"I love you too, sweetheart.  Relax and have a good time, and I'll see you when you get back."

Terra switched off her phone and shoved it back in her pocket.  She had a fleeting idea that she might hide the phone there, and when it was time to turn electronics in she could lie and say she hadn't brought her phone.  But the old man already knew she had it, had seen her talking on it.  He'd even warned her about it.  No, she didn't think she could get away with not turning it in.  She sighed and made her way back up the beach toward the hotel.  She glanced up at the upstairs rooms, and in one of the windows she saw Rose standing there, one hand pressed to the window and that same exact smile on her face, the smile Terra had once thought was warm but now might describe as lunatic.  Rose was not moving, not shifting her gaze.  If she saw Terra, she didn't let on.  She simply continued to stare out the window, smiling.  Yeah, well, thanks for bringing that water, Terra thought.  She didn't even rebuke herself for the sarcasm this time.