From The Everywhere Girl Diaries – a work of fiction
Fourth week of February, year one
Dear Diary,
OK, I’m just a little freaked out. Mr. Mallard called yesterday to talk about my trip to Dubai. He seemed extremely relieved that I had made it home safely – extremely relieved.
At first we just talked about his trip and I got him to tell me why he had two tickets to Dubai in the first place. Of course it had to do with a girl.
Apparently last March he was dating a woman he’d met when she gave him a parking ticket. He really liked her (my translation – she was gorgeous) but she did not seem to be easily impressed. On a whim he (rather fool heartedly he now admits) used his rather substantial tax refund to book Valentine’s night 2010 in what, at that time, was the only 7 Star hotel in the world – the Burg Al Arab in Dubai. He bought nonrefundable plane tickets; made the reservations, and then told her all about it over pizza and beer. He wanted her to be able to look forward to it for a long, long time.
To his surprise, she told him that she wasn’t interested and went on to make several disparaging remarks about people in that part of the world. He broke up with her the next day.
Always up for an adventure, he’d kept the plane tickets and gone anyway. He’d been able to transfer her ticket to my name and paid the extra money to change my travel dates since he had left here on Friday and stayed a day longer. He hadn’t stayed in the Burg Al Arab but found a nice, less expensive hotel that was still right on the beach. He’d done some sightseeing, sampled the local cuisine, and even checked out the Hammam pools (but decided against it).
At the end of his story he told me how he had intended to buy me a cup of coffee at the airport and that we would finally have had a chance to meet. Unfortunately, he’d decided to take a nap Sunday afternoon and had slept through his alarm. The entire time I was at the airport he was asleep at the hotel. He apologized profusely.
I didn’t tell him about the guy behind the plant, but I’m just a little freaked out. Who was he and, more importantly, why was he watching me?
From The Everywhere Girl Diaries – a work of fiction
Fourth week of February, year one
Inq link – here
Dear Diary,
I suppose I should have told my parents that I was flying to Dubai last weekend. It honestly never occurred to me until Mom called today to make sure I had gotten my Valentine’s box of chocolate chip cookies.
Her: What did you do this weekend, Honey?
Me: This weekend….? Hmmmm. Well, mostly I slept and studied.
Technically that was not a lie, plus, after the fact did not seem like a good time to tell her that I’d spent the weekend traveling halfway around the world.
I have, however, made a mental note to sit my children down on the couch when they are about five or six and make them promise that they will never, ever leave the country without telling me.
So, what did I do this weekend?
Well, Saturday morning I got on a plane, flew to Minneapolis, then to Atlanta and eventually to Dubai, arriving about 7:15 Sunday evening (Dubai time). Twenty some hours on the plane gave me lots of time to sleep and study, so that’s exactly what I did. I’m now caught up on all my reading in all my classes and I’m even two chapters ahead in “Pets in Society”. I know!
My actual time in Dubai was rather uneventful, mainly since once I got there I barely had time to buy a cup of coffee and a newspaper (the Gulf News), before it was time to fly home, this time by way of Kuwait City and Amsterdam.
The whole experience was rather surreal, especially being in a Middle Eastern airport like that. I know that I was just in Brazil, but somehow this was different. Mr. Mallard was right, though – it was good for me. Of course I never really felt alone or scared because I knew he was right there with me.
I’m sure I saw him. I kept seeing glimpses of this guy – behind a potted plant, just visible around a corner, pretending to read a paper and I could tell that he was watching me. He was trying to be stealth, but it was just so obvious.
He wasn’t exactly what I expected – older for one thing, and not nearly as, dare I say, dashing as I thought he’d be. I also thought he’d dress cooler, have brown hair instead of blond, and maybe would wear glasses. At any rate, it was just nice to know that he was there.
Right now I’m exhausted. I have a weird case of jet lag because I never even changed the time on my watch. I feel like I’ve been to the world’s longest party and now I need the world’s longest sleep. Move over Rip Van Winkle.
From The Everywhere Girl Diaries – a work of fiction
Second week of February, year one
Dear Diary,
Mr. Mallard called yesterday and is very happy with my reports on the businesses on Rainbow Rd. I didn’t think that the information was very important or valuable, but he continues to tell me that I have the ability to notice things that others don’t.
But telling me how wonderful I am isn’t the main reason he called. He called to ask me if I wanted to go to Dubai.
I really do know where Dubai is, but I thought he might be talking about a lesser known one – say in Kansas.
Me: Dubai, Dubai?
Him (laughing): Yes, Dubai, Dubai. You never know what’s going to come up in our line of work and I want you to start doing some things that are outside your comfort zone.
Me: Well, that makes sense, but couldn’t I be uncomfortable closer to home?
Him (again laughing): I suppose you could, but it’s just that I have a free ticket.
Me (hesitating): So, what will I do there?
Him: Oh, I don’t know – have a cup of coffee, buy a newspaper, whatever. You’ll only be there a few hours. You won’t even leave the airport. And, don’t worry. I’ll be there too to make sure you’re safe. You just won’t see me.
I leave on Saturday and come back on Monday. Wow, that’s like really soon. Busty is the only one I’m telling.
From The Everywhere Girl Diaries – a work of fiction
Second week of February, year one
Dear Diary,
I really like my classes this semester. My “Visual Images on the Web” professor is hilarious. For one thing, he keeps going off on these tangents and then he can’t remember what he was originally talking about.
For example, today he was talking about overuse of stock photos and suddenly he’s telling us how some famous companies got their names. Did you know that Google was originally named Googol or that Mitch Kapor got the name for his company from ‘The Lotus Position’ or ‘Padmasana’? I guess Kapor was at one time a teacher of Transcendental Meditation of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Who knew?
From The Everywhere Girl Diaries – a work of fiction
First week of February, year one
Dear Diary,
This week I’m checking out businesses on Rainbow Rd. Mr. Mallard likes to use the word “visiting” but we all know it’s more than that.
It’s a short little street, but nonetheless home to eight or nine small shops of one kind or another. They’re somewhat jumbled together – some set back from the street in a lovely little courtyard, others in second story spaces you can only get to by a staircase in the back of the store below.
So far I’ve shopped for French linens (ooh la la), determined the cost of 150 red helium balloons, and feigned interest in baseball cards. I ask a lot of questions and try to make small talk. I always try to bring up the subject of rainbows, which is fairly easy to do because of the name of the street. When I leave I write down my observations in a little notebook. Not coincidentally, it has a rainbow (and also a unicorn) on the cover.
I’ve written three of four pages about each place. It’s all random stuff, but Mr. Mallard says that you never know. So far, Over the Rainbow Balloons has seemed the least interesting. It’s weird since that’s the other rainbow business he had mentioned to me in December. Maybe I’ll go back tomorrow and make sure I didn’t miss anything.
