The Vacationers

It was almost time for lunch, and Joan had a place in mind. They were driving farther north, to the water, but he wouldn’t say more. He put on the Maroon 5 CD and sang along.

“You know Maroon 5?”

“They’re okay, yeah,” Sylvia said. In her normal life, she would have made fun of him, but now she felt like a stupid American who no longer had the right to say if things were good or bad.

Joan took this as encouragement and turned up the volume. He danced in his seat as he drove, mouthing the words. Sylvia couldn’t tell if he was being serious or ironic, but decided it didn’t matter, some people were beyond reproach. They drove for almost an hour, on roads that made her wish she’d packed a Dramamine, before Joan made a sharp turn and the car started to go down the mountain instead of up. Tall pine trees lined the road on both sides, and the abundant sunlight was quickly gone.

“Are you going to murder me?” Sylvia asked.

“Hmm, no,” Joan said, and kept driving, now with both hands on the wheel.

They drove for a few more minutes before coming to a small, empty parking lot. “We walk from here,” Joan said. He hopped out and opened the trunk, removing a sizable backpack and cooler.

Sylvia had never been on an actual date before. She’d gone out with bunches of people, some of whom were boys, and Gabe Thrush had shown up on her doorstep a thousand times, but at no point had anyone ever called or texted or passed her a note that asked her out on a real, serious date. Even before Joan had yelled at her, she’d had no indication that this was an actual date. She wasn’t sure how to behave.

“So you, like, pla

“Did you want to eat sand?” Joan shrugged. He was a professional.

“Only if you packed sand sandwiches, I guess,” Sylvia said. She sounded like a moron. Get it together, Sylvia. The key to being cool was pretending that you’d done everything before; she knew that.

Joan pointed to Sylvia’s feet, clad in her dirty slip-on sneakers. “You can walk in those? It’s a little hike.” She nodded, and then followed him down a narrow path into the trees.

By the second hour, even beatific Terry seemed ready to get on with it. “Oi,” he said to Jim. “You sure you want to stick around for this?” They were perched on a bench in a park along the water. Fra

“Yes,” Jim said. “Please.”

Terry acquiesced. “Whatever you want, mate. I’ll just shut my eyes for a moment.” He lay down on his back along the wooden bench, and let out a satisfied groan. “That’s the stuff.” His enormous leather boots rested against Jim’s thigh.

Fra

Eventually, Fra

“Oi,” Jim said. “We’re back on.”

Jim’s biggest fear was that Antoni would take another route—have another destination, like a hotel, or maybe his house—but the car went back the way it had come, straight to the te

“Okay, there she goes,” Terry said, and Jim hopped back on. He was starting to feel like he’d lived his whole life wrong—maybe he should have been a motorcycle cop, or a private investigator. He’d spent too much of his allotted hours on earth indoors, staring at a page with words on it. Fra

Terry shouted something, but Jim couldn’t hear him. They were still slowing down. Over Terry’s shoulder, Jim saw the tiny rental car swoop over to the shoulder of the road and come to a halt. Jim knocked on Terry’s back and then pointed at Fra

She hadn’t gotten out but was squinting through the windshield. Jim took off his helmet and tucked it under his arm like an astronaut. He hoped that he looked handsome and rugged, and not like he’d just removed a scuba mask, but he feared the latter was probably true. Recognizing her husband, Fra

“Jim,” she said. “Are you following me?”

He crouched down, holding on to the bottom of the car’s window. “Maybe.”

“Have you been following me all day? On the back of that guy’s motorcycle?” Fra

“Maybe.”

“Why, if I may ask such a pedestrian question?”

“Because I love you. And I don’t want to lose you. Not to some te

“I keep fucking that up,” she said, once she’d climbed out. “I think we’re going to have to buy it when we return it. I’m pretty sure that I’ve ruined it completely.”

Jim put his hands on Fra