California Bored and Tourism by Rhonda Laurel Page A

lived in was unfathomable to her.
    Ah, the Red Folder Bandit arrived. Well, it
was actually Patty from Human Resources, nicknamed the Red Folder
Bandit because every time someone saw her with those folders,
twenty people would mysteriously disappear by the end of the day.
People feared Patty, but Faith felt sorry for her. She was a nice
lady and many had even attended the big barbeques at her home, but
the reality was that the law of the jungle prevailed in the
corporate sphere--kill or be killed. Patty’s alternative was to end
up fired too if she didn’t feel she had the stomach to do the
company’s bidding.
    After a grimace from a weary Patty, the
meeting began with the obvious…the company was downsizing in an
attempt to stay afloat. Faith felt like someone just blew a
bullhorn in her ear and a headache set in. She wasn’t that torn up
about the job going away but it was lousy timing. She had a
glorious vacation to sunny Hollywood, California scheduled with her
friends next month.
    Patty could have been speaking Mandarin for
all she cared. A ten-day vacation to Hollywood was the last thing
Faith should be thinking about. Could she get her money back? She’d
paid it in full almost two months ago. Would it be rude if she sent
a quick text to her travel buddy, Kendra, while the boom was still
coming down?
    When the theatrics in the conference room
subsided, she’d place a few phone calls and see how she could
salvage the California trip then think about how to salvage the
rest of her life.
     
    * * * *
     
    Faith held her hand over her cup as the
latest bout of turbulence rocked the cabin of the plane. She
normally enjoyed evening flights but found it hard to sleep. Her
friend, Kendra, sat next to her, sleeping like a finely manicured
baby. The trip was non-refundable and even though this sent Faith’s
stress level through the roof, Kendra was elated that her master
vacation plan didn’t derail. Kendra thought losing a job was the
perfect time to take a vacation. As Faith continued to explain her
scarce reality, Kendra pooh-poohed the conversation and said to
have a little ‘faith’. Pun intended.
    Faith flipped through the tour book she
bought at the airport bookstore, trying to focus on something else.
In addition to Faith and Princess Kendra, there were ten other
women traveling with them—Sandy, Debbie, Cara, Shannon, Jamie,
Isabella, Maya, Casey, Daisy, and Lourdes.
    She knew a few of them socially, but the
rest were fresh faces. Kendra had everyone excited about the
customized tour set up with California Scenic Tours. Apparently,
they didn’t normally do that sort of thing, but after a few days of
flirting with the manager on the phone, Kendra got what she wanted.
She even mentioned that if this guy were as cute as he sounded on
the phone, she would find the time to have a vacation fling. Leave
it to Kendra to have a man waiting for her when she arrived in a
new state.
    Faith glanced around at the sea of pretty
girls, all of them waxed, curled, and fluffed within an inch of
their lives, and here she was with cactus legs. It had been months
since her last trim and she’d need a blow dryer with a nuclear
setting to straighten the curls of her ginger locks. She didn’t
have manicured and polished nails like the others, she preferred to
keep them short to do her gardening. The fresh soil always made her
feel renewed and connected with the world around her. That’s what
she was hoping for, some kind of connection in California.
    Ever since Kendra put the trip together,
dreams of high tides rushing a strange beach and a feeling of
serenity plagued her almost nightly. That’s what she needed right
now, a big dose of clarity and serenity. She knew it would be a
matter of days before her and the Kendra clones clashed, having
mentally omitted half the things she saw on the itinerary. She
didn’t want to go to the hottest clubs in Hollywood and schlep up
and down Rodeo Drive, perusing stores she probably