Secrets in the Spa

“Annie’, called the woman in the bright red jeans as she came striding down the hall from the elevators, ‘Where have you been all day?” Annie pulled her key card from the slot in the door’s locking mechanism and opened her door a crack.

“Well, hi Sarashay. I’ve just come back from the Limerick in Lockstep Workshop downstairs. It was a blast. I’m thinking of going down to the spa for a bit. Where have you been?”

“Oh, Annie, I’ve just come back from the most remarkable class. I think I’ve finally figured out a way to get my novel back from those hoodlums at PA! I’m so excited. I can’t wait to get started on it.”

“Really?” said Annie. “That does sound exciting. I can’t wait to hear about this. Why don’t you come down to the spa with me? We can have a bit of a soak and maybe a drink or two or three and you can tell me all about it.”

“But I don’t have a swim suit with me. I can’t go down there in shorts and a Tee. I’d be embarrassed out of my mind.”

“Not to worry”, Annie told her. “I’ve just bought a new suit at the hotel gift shop. You can wear the one I brought with me. It’s clean. And now that I think about it, I haven’t worn that one either. I bought it at Kohl’s at the end of season clearance. I’m from Milwaukee. End of season is the middle of July. It’s brand new, too.”

“Hey, Annie, that’s super and awfully sweet of you.”

“No problem at all, Sarashay. I really want to hear about this PA business.” Annie and Sarashay entered her room and Annie shut the door behind them. She walked to the closet and pulled out two bathing suits in bright colors. “Here, try this one”, Annie said. She handed a lime green tank suit to Sarashay. “That should fit. We’re about the same size.”

“Geez, Annie. This still has the tags on it.”

“Go ahead and try it on, Sarashay. I’m going to go in here and wash off some of this makeup. I can’t have half my face floating away in the spa. It might scare the kiddies”, said Annie. She shut the bathroom door and called out to Sarashay. “Take the hotel robe from the closet. I brought mine with me from home. I’ll wear that.”

“Well, there’s one down in my room. I can go down and get it.”

“Nah”, said Annie as she stepped out of the bathroom, “Why waste time? This one’s here. Besides, I’d like to hurry up and get down there.”

“What’s the big rush?” Sarashay asked. “Are you going someplace else later on?”

Annie giggled. “No, I’m not going anywhere else, but I overheard Saritams talking to Ray Maestrowork and Three Seven. They’re headed to the spa, too. I’ve been wanting to get close to that man since I signed up for this conference. I keep signing up for different classes and he’s always in the room next door. I keep missing him. Maybe if I hurry, I can catch up to him in the spa.”

“Annie! Are you stalking Ray Maestrowork? Have you lost your mind?” Sarashay asked.

“What?” Annie blinked in surprise. “Of course I’m not. Now, if I really wanted to stalk someone, it wouldn’t be him. He has women hanging all over him. I’m talking about Three Seven.”

Now it was Sarashay’s turn to blink in surprise. “Three Seven? For God’s sakes why? The man’s British; you’ll probably never see him again after this week.”

“Exactly”, said Annie, “That’s why I want to meet him now. I may never get another chance. Oh, I just fell in love with his style in the Share Your Work forum. Haven’t you read any of his book? He’s up to Chapter 17.”

“Annie”, Sarashay shuddered in horror. “The man has the mind of a stone cold killer. Why on earth would you want to be alone with him in a spa that looks like a grotto in a cave somewhere?”

“Oh, I won’t be alone”, Annie said. “I’ll be with you. Are you ready?” Annie finished stuffing gear in a canvas tote. She wrapped a terry robe around her emerald swimsuit and picked up her key card from the end of the bed. “Let’s get down there. We mustn’t keep the man waiting.”

As the girls walked down the hallway to the elevator, they heard a door open behind them. After pushing the elevator call button, Annie turned to look down the hallway to see who was coming. “That’s odd”, she said, “I thought I head a door open.”

“So did I”, said Sarashay. “I guess they’ll just have to wait for the next elevator.” As the door opened and the girls stepped inside, a shadowy figure slipped out from one of the rooms and headed for the emergency stairs at the end of the hall.

“So tell me about your limerick workshop, Annie. Were there a lot of people in it? What did you do?”

“Oh, there weren’t too many of us - only about 15 or so. We divided up into groups. The instructor started with a prompt word, the first person she passed it to had to make up the first line of the limerick and then pass it to the person on his left. The group with the most limericks completed at the end of the class won a prize.”

“That sounds like fun. Did you win? What was the prize?”

“Well, my group didn’t win the top prize, but everyone in the class received a really nice gift pen with the hotel logo on it and a new writing journal. The top prize was an autographed copy of the instructor’s book; it’s a limerick dictionary. The instructor also made us copies of all the limericks we made in class and we all signed each other’s copies so we’d have an autograph in case any of us ever made it famous.”

“Who was in your group?” Sarashay asked as they stepped off the elevator.

“Oh, let’s see; I had Rob Poetinahat and threedogpeople, Meany and drgnlvr.”

“Drgnlvr; I didn’t know she wrote limericks”, said Sarashay.

“Well, she doesn’t really”, Annie said. “She told us she’d always want to try but she wasn’t really sure about how they were constructed. But the first part of the class was about the meter and how to make them balance; the history and all of that.” She got rather good at it by the end of the class. Some of them are pretty funny. I’ll show them to you later on if you’d like.”

“I’d like that”, said Sarashay as they reached the spa doors. “So, who else was in the class?”

“Oh, there were pthom and Reph; Watcher and InkFairie; pconsidine and Zonk. Gee, I’m not remembering everybody right now. Let me think on it a bit. Let’s put our stuff away in the locker room and take a quick rinse. I can’t wait to hop in that water. Did you see the steam rising off the top of it? This is going to be marvelous.”Sarashay pinned up her hair and stepped into a fine pulsing spray as Annie stowed their robes and tote in one of the lockers. She gave her key to the attendant and signed herself and Sarashay in with their room numbers.

“Hurry up now, Annie. You don’t want to miss your chance with Mr. Three Seven.”

“Oh, did you see him?” Annie asked.

“No, but this is a big place and I wasn’t really looking that close. In fact, I just now remembered that you were going to look for him.”

“So tell me about your class, Sarashay. How are you going to get your book back from PA? I can’t wait to hear this.”

Annie stepped into the whirlpool and sat down with a sigh. Steam rose from the surface and the rest of the spa area was veiled in mist from the waterfall that poured into and around it.

“Get in and sit down, Sarashay. This water is absolutely marvelous. I want to hear about your discovery.”

“I was looking about for your Three Seven, but I can’t see through this waterfall. Actually, that’s just as well. No one will be able to hear me either. This is what we talked about in class. It was so exciting. Jaws was our instructor and he brought along three of his friends who are also attorneys. The gist of the program is this.” As Sarashay continued, Annie sat enthralled. Neither of them noticed the shadowy form slipping along the rock walled grotto and behind the waterfall to the far end of the pool.
“And that’s how it’s going to work”, Sarashay finished.

“That’s bloody brilliant”, said Annie. “I can’t believe no one’s ever thought of that before.”

“Well, perhaps they have. At least a few of them may have. Most of those poor authors are so discouraged and disillusioned they don’t know what to do next. The few fortunate enough to have discovered Absolute Write have the fine legal mind of Jaws to call on to make sure all their i’s are dotted and their t’s are crossed. I’m telling you, that makes all the difference in the world.”

“Won’t they have a fit when they discover their authors slipping off one by one?” Annie laughed.

“Oh, yes”, Sarashay agreed, “And hopefully, if it all goes well, they’ll be stuck with a big, fat class action suit just when their finances are at their lowest ebb. That would deliver the coup de grace and put those blood suckers out of business once and for all!”