Nadine Book 7

22. Cabins

It's early. I sneak out of bed and get my clothes on. I want to check out the spa. It's still closed. But I can get to the front part anyway. I take their pamphlets and a copy of any papers they have. They offer so much. Hot tubs for soaking, a steam room with aromatherapy, different baths and scrubs, body wraps, body masks, waxing, manicures and pedicures. I keep the pamphlets on everything. I can read them later. The other side of the lobby is the massage stuff. I take all those pamphlets too.

Right next door is a hair cutting place. You can get it styled or cut. I get pamphlets.

Next door goes to a chocolate place. Chocolate and wine. They have different wines. I get their papers. It's quite weird. I scratch my head and stare at it. It says flowers.

Marcus comes in. "What are you doing, angel?"

"I was getting the spa stuff. This isn't far. But I don't get it. It says chocolate but then has flowers. How is any of this part of a spa?"

He gives me and all my pamphlets a hug. "You're out of the spa. But this is for romance packages. You could add these to a spa or keep it a little separate like they did. But look. In this package, you get a dozen roses, 12 chocolate covered strawberries, a bottle of wine, and 2 wine glasses all delivered to your room. Packages are for different things. This 1 includes dinner for 2 at the fancy restaurant here. This 1 includes robes and a couples massage in their room. It's packages to help mates have a relaxing night or weekend alone."

I take all the pamphlets. I get to the bottom row, and there's a cabin. "Look."

He takes it. "They have more private cabins somewhere. Let's go ask at the lobby."

We take the pamphlets up to the room and Dipak is moving around. "I was looking for you sweetheart."

"Sorry love. I was at the spa."

"Don't go outside alone."

"I'm with Marcus."

Dipak rubs his eyes. "I guess you are."

Marcus laughs. "Morning. We're going to go ask the lobby about some stuff we found. We'll be back for breakfast."

"Alright."

We get to the lobby and I hand the guy the pamphlet. "Do you have these cabins?"

"Yes we do. That is 1 of our room types. We have a couple of different varieties of them." He gets more pamphlets for us. "Let me see if I have any open right now." He clicks on a black box. "Would you like to go see 1?"

"Yes please."

"Give me 1 minute please. I need to get a key. I'll meet you by the front door. You'll want to grab a coat."

We get our coats and come back. "Right this way please."

He leads us into this little thing with wheels. We get in and he drives. Marcus sits in the front with him. I get the whole backseat. Him and Marcus talk.

"Have you ever been here?"

"No. First time."

"I'll give you a tour. We do own the entire area. I believe it's 7 different mountains. We don't use it all, it's so no one can change the view or put a huge building right in front of us. We're only on this 1 mountain. This is the main resort. 95% of our guests want this. They want to ski, sled, ice skate, go tubing, swim, look at the stars. But the other 5% of guests come to be alone and enjoy the scenery. They don't want to deal with the people. A lot of them come with their wives for a quiet few days alone. For those people, we offer cabins. You can't see any of them from here. That would defeat the purpose of being alone. They are on the side. We have 25 cabins. They appear secluded. But really they're not, they are placed randomly on the side, so they don't see each other. Now what each cabin includes, varies wildly. Some are a basic cabin with a big bed and fireplace. A nice view." He stops the car.

"I like to stop here and show people the big house up there. Can you see it? Up there at the top of the mountain."

My mouth falls open. "That's massive."

"Yes it is. That is actually the biggest cabin we have. It's for entire families. It has 15 bedrooms. They can each be altered to have either 1 bed or 2. It has its own tube slide with tubes. There is actually a space to the side where they can sled or ski without having to go to the resort. There is a completely enclosed pool there. They have that to themselves while they're here too."

"I bet the view from there is perfect."

"The view is gorgeous. Sadly, I can't show you. It is currently rented, so we stay off the property unless we're called. So they keep the privacy."

"Now the people who rent cabins can still use the resort?"

"Yes. They give us a call at the lobby, and we can pick them up in 1 of these. They can spend the day shopping or eating or skiing. Whatever they want. They let us know when they're ready to go back. We take them back to their cabin. Also, anything that can be delivered to your room in the resort, can be delivered to your cabin as well. If you look at the spa, they offer in-room massages. That can be done in the cabins. Everything you can do at the resort, you can do from the cabin. Your room would be located differently."

We pull up in front of a big cabin. "This is still big."

"Yes, this is not a smaller cabin. This is a romance cabin. It is made for a couple. We have 5 of these. And they do stay fairly full. I'm surprised we had 1 open last night." We walk in. "Like I said earlier, we have different levels of cabins. This is our romance cabin. We put fresh roses on the table in the vase. Or whichever flowers they want. To the left here is the sitting area. It has a big fireplace and an overstuffed couch. It also has a drop-down screen for movie nights. The windows facing the view are large, as you can tell."

"The view is beautiful."

"Back this way is the kitchen. It is a gourmet kitchen. Some people enjoy cooking for themselves, others will request our cooks to come and cook for them. Now this side is the bedroom."

My mouth hits the floor. The bed is so big. Then there's a hot tub in the room.

"Now the romance cabin does have 2 hot tubs. This 1 here and there's 1 on the back deck. But what people love about this cabin is this." He opens a side door off the bedroom.

It opens to a pool.

"A private pool?"

"Yes sir. And the glass is advanced. It can tint if the sun gets too bright. We also keep it as no view in. That is per resort standard. It can not be changed by the guest."

Marcus laughs. "Yea I can understand that."

"I was telling you about the back deck. I'll show you that."

The deck is perfect. It's big with chairs and a swing looking out into some trees. There's a big hot tub back here. It's perfect.

"As you can see, it's a private outdoor area that faces the trees. You can feel alone out here. But really, the next cabin is on the side of the trees. We try to space them out perfect so that each 1 appears secluded. That's what the guest wants when they rent a cabin."

"You're not going to need a zoo, sir."

"No, no I'm not, angel."

We get so many papers then go up for breakfast.

After breakfast, Tye makes us do a couple rounds of laser tag. He loves that.

Then he drags us into another big room. "Welcome to the virtual reality simulator. Where would you like to go today? How about a space flight where you are attacked by aliens?"

Tye nods. "Ok."

She smiles. "Remember it's virtual. When the simulation is over, you will be right back here. Please take your weapons." She gives us all a black thing that fits in our hands. "Now these are not real. They are harmless. But if you point them at the aliens in the simulation and pull the trigger, the aliens will die and vanish. I'll set this for a medium difficulty and 20 minutes. Enjoy your simulation."

Suddenly, we're standing in a spaceship.

Elroy grabs Elek.

"It's not real, Elroy. It's a game. Sit down and close your eyes if you have to. It's over in 20 minutes."

I walk up to a door and it opens. There are boxes in it. I open 1, and it has a different kind of gun. I hook it on my shoulder. It's big. Dipak comes in and gets a bunch of little round things. He puts them in his pocket.

Then an alarm goes off. "Incoming alien attack. Proceed to command center."

"HOW DO WE GET THERE?" I scream.

Arrows appear on the floor. They point straight forward to a door at the end of a long hallway. We run in.

"WE'RE BACK IN SPACE."

Elek shakes his head. "It's a simulation. We're still in the room."

"Alien vessel is approaching. How do you want to proceed, captain?"

Dipak smiles. "Hit them with torpedoes."

Tre laughs. "Ready the lasers."

"Maybe we should try to talk to them?"

"Torpedo's ready."

Tye kisses my head. "It's only a game, babydoll."

Dipak jumps to the captain's seat. "FIRE TORPEDO'S."

Everyone cracks up laughing.

"Torpedo's away. Impact in 7 seconds. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. Torpedo hit unsuccessful. They have evaded it and are approaching rapidly."

"They are coming into main view in the center window."

"Ready torpedo's."

Marcus starts laughing. "You like torpedoes."

"Are they in laser range?"

"In range of lasers in 30 seconds. Please man the laser stations." 4 stations light up in green.

Tye and Johen about take each other out to get to 2 of them. Tre shakes his head and grabs 1. Dipak doesn't move out of the captain's chair.

"Incoming communication from alien ship."

He smirks. "Marcus jump on defense maneuvers."

"Accept communication."

The ugliest thing I've ever seen appears on the screen. "YOU SHOOT AT ME? NOW YOU DIE." The screen cuts off, and we see torpedoes coming at us.

"DIPAK."

"It's a game, sweetheart. Lasers try to blow them up before they get here. Torpedo's away."

I look out the window and see lasers shooting at the torpedoes. 1 of them gets blown up. Tye yells. "GOT 1."

There's still 1 more coming though.

Elek jumps in the other laser station.

Someone gets the last 1.

They blow up ours too, and we keep getting closer together.

They shoot 2 more. The boys get 1 shot and the other hits us. It actually feels like it shakes the ship. I almost fall over. "THIS IS SO REAL."

Elroy yells, "SHIELDS DOWN TO 10%. WE CAN'T TAKE ANOTHER HIT LIKE THAT CAPTAIN."

Then we crack up laughing so hard.

"THEY ARE SHOOTING AT US. SHOOT BACK."

The boys on lasers shoot back.

The other ship hits us.

"Shields are gone. We have become 1 ship."

Tre nods. "This is Dipak's way of getting a bigger ship."

"Alien invasion imminent."

Marcus holds up the black thing. "Point and pull the trigger at them."

Dipak pulls something out of his pocket. "I want to see what this does." He throws it at Tye and it explodes. It's a big blue fireball.

"Throw it at them, not me asshole." We all crack up laughing again. Tye runs down the hallway. "THEY ARE HERE."

I run out and Tye is shooting at them. Everyone else jumps in. They are just everywhere all of a sudden. Coming out of every door. It is so fun. We kill so many of them.

Then we're standing in the big empty room again.

"AWWW. That was fun."

I scream, "AGAIN."

"We hope you enjoyed your simulation. First place score was King Tye. Here is the scoreboard."

A bunch of scores pop up on the side wall. I am in last place.

Dipak stares at it. "How is it scored?"

"The alien invasion simulation is scored by hits on the lasers, torpedoes, and all handheld weapons. As well as hidden objects found and secret weapons. Points are deducted for attacks on your own people."

"Dipak, you might have won if you hadn't tried to blow Tye up."

"Yea, I probably would have. Let's do it again."

"Resetting simulation."

4 invasions later... I sneak out the door. "Do you have anything with big weapons?"

"Of course, would you like to change to that 1?"

"Yes please. Anything different."

I run back in, and they are looking for hidden stuff again. Then it goes to the main room. "I changed the simulation. She said this 1 has big weapons."

We stay in this room half the day. They get to drive and shoot all kinds of stuff. Then we play outside some more.

Then we get back to the ship for dinner.

Future me stands up. "I love that place. Did everyone have fun?"

I hear a thud. Tye and Elroy are sleeping with their heads on the table. Dipak nods. "They are dropping quick."

"I see that."

Johen stands up. "I'm going to be a grown up and take myself to bed."

Marcus and Dipak laugh. "We do appreciate that."

I fall sideways on Elek.

"TRE."

Tre gives Dipak a dirty look. "I can make it through dinner."

"From where I'm sitting, you're not going to make it."

Johen lays down on a couch by the door. "This is fine."

Dipak stands up. "Alright, that's enough. Come on. Bed. All of you. ELEK."

Elek jumps and it makes me jump.

Marcus stands up. "Yea you can eat breakfast at 3 am. Go. Everyone up."

"ELEK, if you fall out of that seat, she is going to fall with you. That will start the melt down. So unless you want to deal with it, wake up. TRE... GET UP AND GO TO BED."

"FINE." Tre walks out.

Elek stands up and pulls me up with him. Then he stands there holding me up.

I stretch big.

"At least no one is at the bottom of the pool this time." Marcus picks up Elroy. "I got this 1."

"I'll get Johen. Elek, she is sleeping standing up on you."

Marcus comes back and drags Tye out.

Then Dipak picks me up. I wrap around him. "Elek, go to bed."

Elek follows us.

We spend half the next day at META. We all drag Elek and Elroy on a bunch of rides. We get back on the ship for dinner, and it's a replay of the previous night. The day after, we wake up at home.