The Reef Roamer (The Roamer Series Book 1) (3 page)

***

The meowing of her cat, Muffin, brought Jayme out of her memories.

“What’s the matter, girl, you getting hungry?” Jayme reached a wet hand out to scratch Muffin’s head, knowing the cat would bounce away from the water. She grinned at the cat’s antics. Some things never changed. And some things did. That’s when she realized she was still dry-eyed. Reliving all the pain, all the heartache, failed for the first time to make her cry.

“It must be time to go back,” Jayme announced to no one.

CHAPTER TWO

Jayme paused outside the large double glass doors, a smile creeping across her face. The snow crunched under her feet as she shifted her weight from foot to foot while she took in the view on the other side. It may be winter outside; however, Katherine Konoly managed to make the travel agency look warm, tropical, and inviting. She remembered the day Katherine decided to open her own agency.

***

“You do more of the work around here than any of the other two agents put together, Katherine. Why don’t you open your own place? The commissions on me alone should pay your rent!” Jayme had teased in a hushed voice.

The two women had been friends since high school. Not best friends, though close and constant friends, the kind you could lean on when times got tough, and for a while they had gotten very tough for Jayme. Katherine had known Jayme needed some time away to heal her broken heart and knew just where to send her: Aruba. That was the beginning.

“You really think I should open my own place?” Katherine questioned, although the same thought had been on her mind lately. “What should I call this mythical agency?”

“I’ll think about it. For now, though, it’s time to travel.”

***

Jayme pushed open the large glass doors with
‘It’s Time to Travel’
etched in large letters surrounded by palm trees and exaggerated waves and stepped into another world. Large tropical plants, green, glossy, and lush, graced wide windowsills and tiled floor space alike; ferns draped over the baskets that hung from the ceiling; a small and flowing fountain tucked into a corner added sprays of humidity into the warm air. A merchandise exchange with the florist next door kept the plants fresh and lively.

Katherine’s desk, an oval sheet of smoky beveled glass set on four tall hand woven baskets, was flanked by rattan chairs with overstuffed blue and green seat cushions. The walls of her spacious cubical sported a full-sized tropical mural. The feeling her office space gave a person was one of sitting on a verandah somewhere in the tropics during the late morning hours, looking over acres of gardens to a cove of the deepest azure blue. Katherine had copied the idea from Jayme’s dining room and expanded on it. The result and ambiance were incredible.

Katherine looked up from her computer terminal as she felt rather than heard the presence. “Jayme! It’s good to see you! I was just thinking about you. One of my clients brought back one of your DVDs that I sent her home with. They are in love with Cozumel now. She said it was the most complete video travelogue she had ever seen. Although I must admit she was a bit unsure at first by ‘The
Reef
Roamer’, since her and her husband only snorkel, but you now have a new fan. She wants to look at all your DVDs eventually.” Katherine paused. “You know,” her fingers moved swiftly across the computer keys, “it’s been five months since you’ve gone anywhere. The last time was to Cozumel, and that DVD has been a hit across the nation. Are you ready for another assignment?”

Jayme laughed. “I haven’t even said hello yet and already you’re sending me away?” She settled into the comfortable chair across from her friend, resting her head on the back, staring momentarily at the fishnet-covered ceiling. The mood abruptly shifted.

Katherine was silent for a moment and then said gently, “The dreams are back, aren’t they?”

Jayme nodded, still staring at the ceiling. “My agent called last month and said the Abacos would be a good spot. He’s had a lot of requests, mostly from the Bahamian government, I think. The Abacos still aren’t very popular, although the diving is good, and they’re anxious to start drawing tourists in.”

Katherine took the change of subject in stride and let her fingers begin their dance on the keyboard. “How about…two weeks at the Vista and then two weeks on Fantasy Island? I can get you a flight in three days. This Saturday.” Her hands paused. Were they treading on dangerous ground? Katherine was well aware that the Abaco area was where Donald died.

“Two weeks in each place? I usually stay one week at four different places, for a better overall view and experience of the area. I can see all I need to in a week.”

“They only have the two places, Jayme. It’s a small island. Tell you what, though.” Her red tipped fingers began their dance again, paused, and then began once more. “There is an out island that is trying to establish a tourist trade. Let’s go for a week in the Vistas, a week on Fantasy, and two weeks on Holm Cay. Three selections instead of four. Holm Cay sounds like a real paradise. A visit from the Reef Roamer would be a real boost to them.”

“No one knows they’ve been visited by the Reef Roamer until after I’m gone,” Jayme protested.

“That’s the beauty of it. They all try harder with everyone who visits, because they don’t know who the Roamer is. It could be anyone. They hope that someday the Roamer will visit them.” The concept of the travelogue was Katherine’s, but the tag and the development of
The Reef Roamer
had been all Jayme’s.

“Okay, the Abacos it is. I’ll be back on Friday for my tickets.” Jayme stood, stretching out her back and mumbling to herself. “I’ve got to get new memory cards, thumb drives, blank DVDs, and some new battery packs, check the camera and the recorder, call the house sitter and the pet service…” She was still listing things that needed doing as she pushed the glass door open again, stepping into the chilled air.

Katherine smiled. Jayme would be all right; she just needed something to do. Four years ago it had been the same thing. That was when
The Reef Roamer
had been born.

***

They had been sitting across from each other at the weekly Rotary meeting having lunch. Katherine had been having lunch; Jayme had been pushing food around her plate. Jayme had put her fork alongside her plate, deliberately setting it perfectly square to the napkin. Katherine noticed Jayme’s hands were shaking. A glance at her face revealed a disturbing haunted look in her eyes.

“I can’t stay here,” Jayme murmured to no one and slid her chair silently backward, almost in slow motion.

Not ‘I have to leave’, or ‘I have to be someplace’, but ‘I can’t stay here’. Katherine frowned, as these thoughts sped across her mind, and then followed Jayme out the back door, unnoticed by most.

There was a light rain falling in the early autumn afternoon, more like a soft mist, and Jayme appeared not to notice as she sat down in the freshly mowed grass on the bank of the town Millpond. Katherine sat beside her and waited, watching her friend.

As if she’d known Katherine would follow, Jayme said, “I’ve got to do something, Kath. Anything. Sometimes, like now, I feel like I’m going crazy! Really off-my-rocker, screw-loose crazy. I’m going through the motions of living a normal life, and I don’t
have
a normal life! My husband is dead, has been for a year, however, it’s as though he’s just not around. I still see the same people, and they treat me the same as they used to; I do the same things and feel the same way. I live the same way, dress the same way, eat the same. Maybe that’s it. Everything is still the same. Wasn’t
something
supposed to change when Donald died? Am
I
supposed to change? Do you think I need a nice long vacation?”

That last question startled Katherine. “Maybe you do. Tell you what,” Katherine’s mind whirled, “I’ve always wanted to go to Aruba to see what it’s like, but I never seem to make it there. People are always asking me what certain places are like. For the most part I can tell them, because I’ve traveled a lot. I haven’t been
there
, though. So here’s the deal: you go to Aruba for me, I’ll book you into different places so you can test the variety of accommodations, like I would do, you take lots of pictures, go sightseeing, try the restaurants, the works, and then bring me back a report. I’ll give you my employee discount on the package and then buy your portfolio so you can write off the vacation as business. How soon would you like to leave?”

Katherine was so pleased with her idea it never occurred to her that Jayme would say no.

There was a long pause. Jayme turned, head tipped up, auburn hair sticking to her cheeks and forehead, green eyes squinting into the mist, finally noticing the rain. “Two weeks. I’d like to leave in two weeks. There are some things I have to do first. Is that enough time for you to make all the arrangements?”

“Plenty of time.” Katherine breathed a sigh of relief. “Jayme, not only is this going to be good for you, you’re going to have a great time and maybe meet some fabulous hunks!” She knew it was a mistake as soon as she said it.

“I don’t want to meet any men!” Panic rising from deep within, Jayme considered changing her mind about going.

“Then don’t, but do try to take some good underwater shots for me,” Katherine replied, not feeling the flippant tone she added to her remark. She hoped the comment about underwater shots would override the slip about men, which she thought was what Jayme really needed. She got to her feet and offered Jayme her hand. Smiling, Jayme grasped her friend’s fingers and stood.

“Thanks, Kath. I hope this works. I guess I’d better check my scuba gear too, huh?” Jayme raised a finely sculpted eyebrow at Katherine and gave her a wistful grin. Katherine knew Jayme hadn’t been diving since Donald’s death. She also knew how much Jayme had loved the sport.

During the next two weeks, Jayme chose and rejected several different cameras. She finally decided on a new watertight digital recorder, one that took memory cards that she could download to her laptop and then transfer to a thumb drive. They took up a lot less room than her old VHS tapes.

***

The trip to Aruba was more than successful. Three weeks after arriving back home, Jayme invited Katherine over for dinner.

“Well, do I get to see the pictures, or are you going to keep me in suspense?” Katherine joked, sipping her iced gin and tonic.

“Have a seat. The show is about to start.” Jayme switched off the light and hit the DVD play button on her big flat screen TV.

“Show?” Katherine was truly amazed over the next hour. Jayme had footage of inside every hotel and restaurant she’d been to in Aruba, plus street scenes of the people, shopping, tourist stops, scenery, and the diving. The underwater footage was the most spectacular Katherine had ever seen. Neatly edited with overlaid commentary in Jayme’s melodic voice, the final scene was a breathtaking sunset and ended with the comment,
“Sunset in Aruba. There’s none like it anywhere else in the world.”
Jayme’s throaty voice added a surreal quality to the experience.

Katherine finally let her breath out. “That was incredible. Absolutely incredible! That really makes me want to go there, Jayme, and see all of it for myself!” The travel agent’s enthusiasm was building, as was her excitement. “I had no idea you were doing a video. You’re really good! Wait until the others see this! Can I take it to the travel convention? Where would you like to go next? You
will
do it again, won’t you?”

“Katherine, slow down. You’re rambling. I gather you liked it.” Katherine nodded enthusiastically. “Good. I had a wonderful time doing it. It really was what I needed to pull me out of that funk I was in. It was terrific to dive again too. I hadn’t realized how much I missed it. Of course I’ll do it again. Bonaire next?”

***

The Reef Roamer
series added two more locations that year and three every year after. Soon after that first convention, the DVDs began selling across the state in dive shops and travel agencies that specialized in dive packages. A year later, Jayme had to get an agent to handle the sales and distribution, and the year after, the sales went nationwide.
The Reef Roamer
was well known in dive circles for honest comments and good advice.

Sam Perry, Jayme’s agent, called her one day with an interesting offer. “The Brighton Club for Divers, or B.C.D., wants you to speak at the Michigan Divers Convention next month. It’s good money.”

“B.C.D.? Clever…since B.C.D. is also an acronym for a Buoyancy Control Device. What do you think?”

“Don’t do it.”

Startled by Sam’s negative response, she asked, “Why not?”

“Look, Jayme, right now, only you, me and Katherine know the identity of The Reef Roamer. There’s a big mystique to that. I think that we’ll lose something, some element of surprise, of spontaneity, if people were to know who you are and what you look like. We might miss out on the lecture circuit, but we’d miss out on a whole lot more than money the other way.”

When Sam didn’t opt for the easy money, she trusted him more than ever.

“I agree, Sam. No speaking at clubs or conventions. Please send my regrets to the B.C.D.”