The Vacation. Part One.

Part Two.

The drive there was somewhat awkward and quiet and we managed a bit of small talk about the whether and some other things and were both relieved when she pulled up outside my place.

She followed me inside and I had one large suitcase and a smaller one to take and before we left we decided we better let everyone know about this and not just disappear out of the blue.

We each made several phone calls and let our family know where we were going and of course had to tell Nik and Lucky and once we did this we were out the door and off to the airport.

Gia made arrangements with Taggert to come pick up her car and take it home until they got back, so he was there waiting as we got out of the car with out luggage.

He was actually very supportive and thought it was great Gia was getting away and seemed happy that I was going along to keep her company.

He was also kind enough to help us with our bags and we made our way to where to the end of the airport where the private planes were chartered and went through the security process and then were shown to the plane and soon we were in the air.

It was a small, but luxurious Cesna, that was designed for long flights for very rich clients. Inside was a bar, a very large 27" tv, a fully stocked fridge and incredibly comfortable seating.

We were sitting side by side with the 8 other seats remaining empty and Gia asked if I wanted something to drink and I said maybe some juice, since I really didn't like the idea of being anything but focused for this long plane ride.

Gia got up and grabbed a small juice container from the fridge and she took out the ever popular bottled water for herself and then strapped herself in and got comfortable again.

It took awhile before either of us said anything, but Gia was looking out the window and saw this amazing view of this small island and I leaned over to look out the window and saw what was truly a beautiful sight.

The island, which was somewhere off the eastern seaboard, was almost perfectly round, yet was covered with lush green tree's and what appeared to be hundreds, if not thousands of birds all around it.

The plane was low enough thatcoulcould make out so much of this little island and the birds looked so pretty. I'm not sure what type they were, but there was sure alot of them.

Gia was really enjoying this and I was to and I pulled back from the window and sat back up in my seat again and we sat quietly again for another long period of time and then a movie appeared on the tv and we sat back and enjoyed Castaway for the next three hours.

I must have fallen asleep at some point, because when I woke up the plane was on the ground and Gia was nudging me to get a move on.

It took a little bit of time to readjust my eyes and body to being awake again, but soon I was grabbing my purse and following Gia off the plane.

We found our luggage and then Gia went to the desk to get the keys to the car she had rented and we piled inside and she drove away.

Gia sure had fun driving this very sporty little European car and was winding through the rather sparse traffic and was soon at our very fancy hotel in no time.

We got out of the car, grabbed our luggage and made our way inside and up to the main desk where Gia told the woman her name and reservation number and the woman punched it up on the computer, then smiled and handed Gia the key to room 1500 and she had a bellboy grab our luggage and we headed towards the elevator and then made our way up to the 15th floor and got out and walked down the long corridor to the door at the end of the hall and she opened the door and we both walked inside and admired the truly amazing suite.

Gia tipped the bellboy and shut the door behind him and she sat down on the edge of the bed and then lie down and let out a sigh, before sitting back up and looking back over to me, "Well, were here. What do you think of the room?"

"It's beautiful. It's bigger than my whole apartment. And look at this view. Wow. What a beautiful place this is."

"I know. I've always wanted to come here and I'm so happy I made it."

I got up and moved towards the window and had a better look outside and couldn't help but smile as I saw all the lush green tree's and beautiful ocean and long expansive beaches and even the heat didn't seem so bad the first day there.

"What do you have planned for this trip? You haven't really said." I asked as I walked around the beautiful suite.

"Tonight we stay in and try and recover from the jet lag, then tomorrow afternoon I have us booked on a small tour of the islands. I also have us seeing three concerts, the zoo, a circus, a scuba diving lesson, some surfing lessons and then many, many lazy days just lying in the sun soaking up the rays."

"You've thought of everything I see. I'm impressed."

"Thank you. I can be quite organized when I need to be." Gia then got up and grabbed the phone and the menu that was beside it and motioned for me to come over and have a look and I sat down beside her and we looked over all the mouth watering choices and we each made our picks and she called room service and they told us it would be anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour.

We passed the time looking at the amazing view and unpacking some of our more important items and before we knew it the food was here.

And the food was absolutely delicious. We were both eating more than we should, but loving every second of it.

The whole time we ate and talked and it was a really fun and relaxing time and I think we both needed that alot.

Since it was fairly late after the meal we decided to stay in for the night so we could get lots of sleep and be ready for the day Gia had planned tomorrow.

So we both fell on the couch, I grabbed the remote and turned on the tv and we spent the night fighting over what to watch.

After a couple hours of this we decided to call it a night, so we got up and headed to our bedrooms.

We walked into what we thought was the first bedroom and looked around and the only door in it led to the bathroom and we were both more than a little surprised by the lack of another room, when Gia was sure she asked for a two bedroom suite.

I looked around the room and it was really a very luxurious and beautiful place, with marble walls, gorgeous antique furniture a spacious bathroom with a shower and a separate little whirlpool bath.

Gia wandered into the bathroom and I could see her eyes light up as she looked around and then she came back out, looked at me, trying to gauge my reaction to this little mix-up, "Well, somebody made a mistake as you can see. What did you want to do?"

"I don't know." I answered, while slowly walking around the room and I turned back to Gia and made eye contact with her, "Right now I would be happy to sleep anywhere. I can take the couch if you want."

"No, no, no. That's not necessary Liz. Were both adults here. I think we can share this bed without any problems. Don't you?"

"Yes, I don't have a problem with it." I replied, not quite sure about this whole situation, but so tired I just wanted to get some sleep.

"Good. It's settled. We will share the bed and then I will call and ask what went wrong tomorrow."

We didn't say much after that and both just grabbed our suitcases and brought them into the room and she took the right side and I took the left and we got out our necessities and I went into the bathroom first, brushed my teeth, washed my face and went back into the bedroom.

As I walked in Gia was just finishing getting undressed and I had to slowly slide past her naked body as she pulled on an old raggedy t-shirt and walked into the bathroom so she could do her thing in there.

I walked over to my side of the bed, removed my clothes and searched for my favorite little Mickey Mouse pajamas and was still searching through my stuff as Gia came back out of the bathroom.

Now, under normal circumstances all this seeing each other naked would not even be something I thought about, but I can't just forget the kiss or the feelings I was having and it was just a little different having her eyes on my body now.

Not that I felt the need to hurry and cover up at that moment, because I was so upset at myself for forgetting my favorite piece of clothing that nothing mattered.

Gia was watching me trying to figure out what the problem was and finally put down her suitcase and said, "Is something wrong Liz?"

"Oh it's nothing really. I just forgot something."

"Can I help? I've got alot of extra clothes if you need something."

"Thanks, I might have to take you up on that. Either that or I sleep like this." I smiled, pointing to my still naked body and trying to make a joke of the situation.

"Aren't we the little exhibitionist all of a sudden." she laughed, then knelt down to her suitcase and flipped through some of her clothes and then picked up something and tossed it over towards me.

I picked it up from the edge of the bed and held it out in front of me and it was a rather small little nighty that I doubt could even cover Gia's tall body, but it was a pretty white little piece and I smiled and thanked her and slipped into it and turned to look in the mirror and was quite happy with how it looked and sure loved how it felt against my skin.

Gia told me it was silk and I could see why everyone loved it now. Such a beautiful soft fabric that I couldn't stop touching or looking at.

I did manage to slide under the covers and Gia crawled into bed right after me and we lie there not really moving much, afraid to get to close or heaven forbid touch each other it seemed.

We did manage to have a nice little conversation and that did relax us both and I curled up on my left side and was facing Gia as I said goodnight and she smiled and said night and we both were asleep almost instantly.

The next morning I woke up to find the bed empty and Gia obviously already up and about and I got dressed and walked into living room and saw Gia standing up against the window just staring out into the beautiful blue sky.

She was dressed way more casually than I was used to, with just a nice fitting pair of faded blue jeans, an almost matching light blue t-shirt and she turned to see me walking towards her and she turned and grabbed a cup of coffee from a tray and handed it to me, "Good morning. I ordered some coffee and have some breakfast being sent up momentarily."

"Thanks Gia. That was nice of you."

"I didn't know what to order you, so I sort of ordered almost everything from the breakfast menu."

I couldn't help but get a kick out of that and took the coffee from her and stood beside her and slowly drank the coffee and waited for room service.

We had a fairly quick breakfast and then we both packed a few things for the day and we then headed down to the lobby where an elderly man was waiting for us.

He introduced himself as Tuu'paa Laikani and gave us a rundown about where we would be going today.

First it was a tour around the main island by car, then we would take a boat out to the hundreds of tiny little islands that surrounded Hawaii.

The first tour was very nice and we saw some of the mast exotic scenery and met some interesting people, but the real adventure began once we got on the boat.

It wasn't the biggest or the safest looking boat either of us had ever seen, but the captain assured us that it looked much worse than it was and that we would be perfectly safe aboard it.

We climbed up and moved to the front of the boat and sat down in the two chairs that were there and watched as the boat was pushed away from the dock and he turned on the engine and off we went.

I was surprised at the speed of this rather old looking clunker, but he sure made his way out to sea in a hurry.

He was pointing out all the different names for the little islands and we saw other small boats and people on a couple of them as well.

Gia and I had got up and were looking over the railing antchitching what we thought was a rainbow straight north of us and it was the biggest one we had seen and it seemed to cover the whole sky.

The boat took a sudden shift to the right and I fell straight to the ground and Gia was quick to follow and she landed half on my leg and half on the floor and we felt the boat spinning out of control and tried to get up, but it was so hard with the speed at which we were traveling.

I managed to look up and the captain was either asleep at the wheel or something much worse had happened, but he was not moving and his hands had the wheel at an impossible angle and we were just spinning and spinning like mad.

We struggled to get to our knees and then managed to grab the side of the railing and pull ourselves up and we stopped and I looked up at the man at the wheel and screamed, "HEY. WAKE UP!!!!"

His head lifted slightly and his arms lost the grip they had and he was then tossed to the ground and the boat was now heading straight forward at warp speed and he was on the ground holding his leg and Gia and I began to use the railing to pull our way up the small stairs and around to the steering wheel and we looked up in time to see we were headed right for land.

I looked for the gas pedal and it had a large piece of wood on it and we began kicking it as hard as we could and it finally got dislodged and I stepped on the break and tried to bring us to a stop before we hit land and was lucky enough to slow it down just as we slid up on shore.

Both Gia and I were pretty shaken up by this and we went over to check on the captain who had a serious cut in his leg and we found his first aid kit and helped bandage him up and he thanked us and then said he needed to get off the boat to check for any damage and said we should get out and stretch as well.

He then told us that there was a picnic lunch in the hamper under the cabin door and Gia opened it and found a rather nice and large picnic basket and she grabbed it and then saw a bottle of wine and some glasses and took them and put them inside and then she handed me the basket and slowly climbed down off the boat and we moved over to where we could find some clear space and sat down and wiped off some rocks and put the basket down and walked over to where the captain was looking over the hull and told us it seemed to have a minor crack in it and that he would have to get back to fix this as soon as possible.

We said we weren't getting on that boat if it was leaking and he told us that was okay, he would take it back to shore and send another boat to get us. He added that it would take about an hour and said we should enjoy the food and wine and take a walk around the island and he would see us later.

He got back up on the boat and asked us to try and give it a push, so we both leaned into the boat and it really didn't take much of an effort and it was back in the water and soon had the engine going and was waving to us and turned the boat around and took off like a dart.

We stood there watching him fade away into the distance, but then we saw his boat hit something in the water and I don't know what it was but it did some serious damage in a hurry and we watched the boat moving away and out of our sight before we could tell if it had sunk or managed to stay afloat.

Either way, this was not a good sign.

We stood there almost mesmerized by what we had just seen and as we turned to look at each it was painfully clear that we were in some deep trouble.

After we got our focus back, we headed back to the picnic and knew we had to eat something if we were going to be stranded out here for long.

I also made sure we ate sparingly so we could save some of this for later and when we were done we decided to have a look around while it was still light out.

Gia grabbed a large branch and I grabbed one of the forks in the basket and we did out best imitation of explorers and made our way around the beach part of the island.

After well over a half over we soon began to realize that this island was not so little. We were just now turning the corner and haer her half of it to explore yet.

There really wasn't much to see though. Now one sighting of anything remotely human and we could not see land from anywhere.

As we made our way back to our starting point, we stopped to look back out where the boat was last seen and were not surprised that we saw nothing at all.

I sat back down on the log and Gia sat down beside me and we had our first actual conversation since we landed.

"This isn't good is it?" she asked with slight smile, but with an even more serious tone to it.

"No, this is not good at all. We are going to have to do put our heads together here and create some makeshift shelter and maybe even go further into the woods and find some branches and wood to make a fire."

"You don't think were going to be stuck here do you? I mean, the guy had to have called for help and left an SOS. Not to mention other people knew we were out here."

"I hope so Gia. I do. But, we also know he was sleeping and the boat was out of control for a fairly long period of time, so chances are we are not where we are supposed to be."

"Great. Just great. I'm not ready to be on Gilligan's Island!" she moaned, kicking the sand at her feet at the same time.

"I know. Either am I. We just have to make it through the day, but it still makes sense to think ahead in case were not to lucky."

Gia didn't seem all that frightened, but moreso inconvenienced by the whole situation and I was hoping it stayed that way.

I had done a little camping with my family and even learned some things from Lucky while he was living out of the old railroad car, so I was hoping I could remember just enough to keep us alive for now.

"Okay, I'm ready to help. I am not completely useless. I learned alot from my brother as well when we were younger and I think some of it might come in handy. Like fishing without a rod. I bet you didn't know that about me?"

I was surprised but tried not to sound to surprised, "No, I can honestly say that is news to me. But, it's good news right now. We can use all the outdoors smarts we can come up with. First thing we need to do is build a fire. Dig out a small pit, surround it with some rocks and put the fire in the middle. That is pretty basic."

"Yes, I will go grab some branches and stuff and you can get the other part ready."

"Sounds good. Be careful though. Don't wander to far since we don't know what is out there." I said as I watched her walk away.

"Did you have to say that? Now I'm going to be a mess out there worrying about every little noise."

Again I had to laugh and Gia was not impressed and she gave me a very nasty look, then stormed off.

I looked around for something to use as a shovel of sorts and found a nice wide piece of wood and started digging a little circle into the ground and when I thought it was big enough I tossed aside the dirty log and went searching for some large rocks.

It took some time but I managed to get a nice circle of rocks to keep the fire contained and then was went looking for Gia.

I didn't see why she had to leave the area to find the material we needed, but when she came back she said she thought she saw something and went to have a look.

It ended up being just some leaves falling to the ground.

She did have a nice pile of branches with her and she through them into the center of the circle and we got out the lighter they gave us for the candles and lit the branches and watched the flame grow and even though it was a very nice day out, the fire was good for many other reasons, not the least of which was for planes to see from above and to keep any possible animals away and for warmth if the nights cooled down, since we only had the blanket that came with the picnic and the bikini's we were wearing under our light summer vests.

Once the fire was going we both sat down again and I noticed her finger had a cut on it and I asked to have a look and it was actually fairly deep.

"That looks like it would hurt. I think we better clean it out and bandage you up." I grabbed the first aid kit that I took from the boat and cleaned out her finger and put a bandage on it and she sat there the whole time and didn't say a word.

"Are you okay?" I asked, knowing full well she couldn't be feeling much better than I do about our situation.

"I don't know. The longer I sit and think the worse I feel and I can't help but wonder what happens if nobody comes to rescue us. What if were stuck here forever?"

"That isn't going to happen. We have to stay positive. I know this sucks. I do. We can do this you know. Were two smart, independent and resourceful women right?"

Gia shrugged and gave a sub par, "I guess."

I could see she was not ready for a pep rally at the moment, so I just put my arm around her and gave her a hug and she hugged be back deeply and she let out some tears and we sat like that for quite awhile.

She then pulled back slightly and then got up and walked towards the ocean then turned back towards me and took off her vest and then her shoes and looked at me with a much brighter smile, "Well, come on. Let's at least have a swim and have some fun before we have to think about the what if's."

I stood up and got out of my shoes and took off my little jacket and ran out towards her and we dove into the water and it really was quite nice and for about 15 minutes we had the times of our lives out in the open water, with not a care in the world.

We started to get a bit tired and headed back to shore and we took turns using the only towel to try ourselves off and it was very nice to be able to smile again and enjoy the water and make use of our bikini's at least.

By now it was getting a bit later and we looked at our watches and saw it was 3 PM and I told Gia I thought we should see if we could make a makeshift little hut or something in case it rained or worse.

This was not easy and we had alot of trouble finding ways to tie all the pieces of wood together that we managed to scrounge and thought might work. Eventually we started using some very strong bark off some of the older trees and it seemed to do the job, at least for the short haul.

We spent hours working on this thing and covered it with layer after layer of branches and leaves and it wasn't much big enough for the two of us to sit or lie down in, but we were both very proud of it and had a quick glass of wine to celebrate our accomplishment.

The night was getting darker now and it was well after 8 when we had finished our hut, so we opened up the picnic basket and ate a little more of the food and then sat down beside the fire and talked for a very long time.

I learned more about Gia in the next few hours than I had known since we first met. And it was nice to share this and I was able to tell her more about my life and my days as the bad girl of PC and soundound that highly amusing and it really helped take our minds off the situation and I know we both appreciated that.

It was after midnight when we both started feeling tired and we crawled into the hut and put the blanket on the ground and both lay on top of it, with our jackets covering us up and we soon found a way to relax enough to get some much needed sleep.