The Road to Amazing

  At this point, I was thinking: Have Kevin and I really rented a house for the weekend from a crazy person? What if this wasn't even her house? Maybe her angel-guide had told her she had permission to start renting out the neighbor's house as her own.

  "Some people think the aliens build re-creations of these remote little towns on their spaceships," she went on, "so when they're finally abducted, the people don't even know it! The people of Amazing might still exist, their descendants anyway, living on some alien spacecraft!"

  I was back to being bored with Christie, and also a little nervous that she might suddenly pull a knife on me, so I said, "That's really interesting. Anyway, well, thanks for everything! We'll leave the key where you told us."

  I think she heard the dismissive, freaked-out tone in my voice, and I felt guilty again. I mean, I'd been the one to drag it out of her. Who was I to make fun of her beliefs?

  But she got my message. She exaggerated a nod and starting climbing into her car.

  Now I felt like I sort of owed her an apology.

  "I mean, maybe there are aliens," I said. "Who knows?"

  She slammed the door in my face, intentionally or not, and I watched her pull out and drive away. Her headlights swept across sword ferns coated with dust from the gravel road.

  Oh, well, I thought.

  I didn't go back to the Amazing Inn right away. Instead, I drifted over to the start of the dirt road to Amazing. But night was falling fast, and I still couldn't see any farther into the shadows. I wanted to walk down it a bit, to see if there was anything to see, but I hadn't brought a flashlight. Besides, I didn't want to leave Kevin to do the unpacking alone.

  * * *

  I carried another load of supplies into the house, and found Kevin in the hallway peering into one of the bedrooms.

  "What are you doing?" I asked.

  "Trying to decide who should get which room," he said. "I don't want anyone upset with us. I mean, come on, we have some pretty quirky friends."

  I nodded toward the kitchen. "Come on, help me unpack."

  "But—"

  "It'll be fine."

  He hesitated for a second, then he laughed. "Yeah, I'm being stupid."

  Out in the front room, we both sort of stopped and looked around, taking in the awesomeness of the house, and the fact that we'd been able to rent something so cool. I was twenty-five years old, and I'd long ago stopped thinking of myself as a kid, but I didn't really think of myself as an adult either. Seeing this great house, knowing we'd somehow managed to get it for our wedding, was making me feel more grown up than a checking account or a credit card ever had.

  "It's really happening," I said, feeling a little dizzy. "We're really doing this."

  "I know," he said. "Can you believe it?"

  By the way, I don't think I described Kevin. Basically, he was Zac Efron hot, with dark hair and a cute, impish grin. He was clean-cut and sensitive, and he wore contacts, and sometimes black-rimmed glasses, which I always said made him look like a hot TV nerd. None of this was the reason I was marrying him, but let's face it, it sure didn't hurt.

  Kevin stepped up in front of me — he was a little taller than I was. I put down the groceries I was carrying, and he took me in his arms. He bent his head down, nuzzling his face in my neck.

  "Mmmm," he said, "you smell like Russel."

  "You smell like Kevin," I said, and he really did: clean and masculine.

  "I love you."

  "I love you too."

  Then we kissed, and I thought to myself, I am the luckiest person alive. I definitely didn't feel dizzy anymore.

  You're skeptical, aren't you? You're thinking back over all the things I mentioned in this chapter — my reluctance to mention the wedding at first, the little moments of tension between Kevin and me, our disagreement over having kids — and you're thinking, "Something's going on. There's something he isn't saying."

  You might also be thinking: "There has to be something going on, because Russel is a neurotic nutbag who always over-thinks things. And now here he is doing the whole 'doth protest too much' thing, saying the opposite of what he really means."

  That's it, isn't it? You think I'm being an unreliable narrator. You know, when it turns out the person telling a story is lying? Sometimes they're not even aware they're lying.

  Well, you're wrong. There's nothing I'm not saying, and for the first time in my life, I wasn't being neurotic. The fact that the chapter opened with a dead end doesn't mean anything either. It wasn't a metaphor — it wasn't even a dead end. Remember? It turned out to be the parking lot of the place that was exactly where we were supposed to be.

  This wedding was exactly where I was supposed to be. I really did love Kevin with all my heart, and I had absolutely no doubts or hesitations about marrying him. Kevin was a little anxious, true, but I knew he didn't have any doubts about marrying me either.

  Of course now you might thinking: "If they don't have second thoughts about getting married, why is this a story? Why should I keep reading?" I told you earlier that I've been trying to make it as a screenwriter, and I know all too well that a good story requires conflict and drama. No conflict means no story. A happy, uneventful wedding is a boring wedding, except maybe to the people involved.

  Okay, this is a better point. Honestly, you should have started with this point and not accused me of being neurotic.

  But this is a different kind of story. Oh, plenty happens — you don't have to worry about a lack of drama. But it's also a story where the main character isn't conflicted (and isn't neurotic).

  Or maybe I am lying. If I really am a neurotic unreliable narrator, you can't believe anything I say.

  I guess you'll have to keep reading to find out.

  CHAPTER TWO

  A half hour or so later, the doorbell rang, and I went to answer it.

  Speaking of friends with quirks, the first of our guests to arrive were Gunnar and Min, two people who had known Kevin and me since high school. Min was with her new girlfriend, Ruby, who I'd never met before.

  "You're here!" I said to the three of them. "Come in, come in!"

  They all entered, eyeing the house, impressed. We didn't hug, because none of us were huggers (which I appreciated).

  Gunnar was the kind of guy who sort of blended into the background, at least at first. He didn't give a lot of thought to the way he looked or dressed. For example, he was the only person I knew who combed his hair with an actual pocket comb.

  But that was only the way he looked. When it came to who he actually was, he was the least average person I knew. There are people who operate on their own wavelength, and then there are people like Gunnar, who reject the radio spectrum entirely. A couple of years earlier, he'd even invented an iPhone app that had made him rich.

  As he walked inside with his bags, Gunnar was grinning from ear to ear, totally excited. "Did you know that this place doesn't have gutters?" he said.

  "What?" I said, confused.

  "Outside! It has a rain dispersal system."

  This didn't make me any less confused. "A what?"

  "It's a way to get the water off a roof without using channels and spouts. The rain runs down into these panels which then sort of flings it out over the yard as droplets."

  This was exactly the kind of thing I was talking about. This cool house with that amazing view, and Gunnar notices the gutters?

  "I can't wait to see how it works in the rain!" Gunnar said.

  "Well, we're sort of hoping it doesn't rain this weekend," I said, a little pointedly, "because it's, like, our wedding?"

  "Oh, yeah, right," Gunnar said, but he still looked totally excited.

  As he talked, I thought: Don't tell Gunnar anything about Amazing, Washington. I could see him becoming completely obsessed with the mystery of where everyone went.

  "It's perfect," Min was saying, and she really did mean the house. "And that is an incredible view."

  Min was sort of the opposite of Gunnar. Sh
e was this small Asian woman who made a huge impression, right from the beginning. She reminded me of one of those photos you see of a raccoon taking on a grizzly bear. She was incredibly smart, but more than anything, she had this air of authority about her. That was part of the reason why Kevin and I had chosen her to be the officiant at our wedding on Sunday — that and the fact that she was one of our closest friends. She'd registered online and everything, and Kevin and I already had the marriage certificate, so all we needed was for Min to sign it. We didn't even need to have an actual ceremony if we didn't want to, although that would have left us with some pretty annoyed guests on Sunday.

  "Thanks," I said to Min. "So how are you?"

  "Freaking out about the election, for one thing. Are people crazy or just stupid? After all this time, is it really possible that they don't understand what's at stake?"

  "I've already told her," Ruby said to me, "no politics this weekend."

  I smiled. "It's fine. She's among freaked-out friends."

  "Oh!" Min said. "Ruby, this is Russel. And Kevin! I keep forgetting you guys haven't actually met yet."

  "Nice to meet you, Ruby," Kevin said from the other side of the room. "Hi, Min. Hi, Gunnar."

  "Hi," I said to Ruby, shaking her hand.

  It's probably sexist to describe a woman as looking like an Amazonian warrior, but that's what I thought seeing Ruby. It wasn't only that she was tall and athletic (but she was), or that she had dark skin (Latina?), or that she had a no-nonsense haircut and wasn't wearing makeup. It was that there was a fearlessness about her, like she was unconquerable, with also maybe just the tiniest touch of crazy in her eyes.

  This made me smile. When it came to who Min was dating, I never knew what to expect.

  I was getting Gunnar, Min, and Ruby settled into their rooms when the doorbell rang again, and it occurred to me that this must be part of living on an island: things happen in waves, because of the coming and going of the ferries.

  "Nate!" I heard Kevin say. This was one of Kevin's best friends, his roommate from college. I'd never met him before either.

  "Well," Nate said, "ain't this a ripper of a place?"

  There was something about his voice that made me stop in the hallway. I knew Nate was Australian (which is why I'd never met him — after graduation, he'd gone back to Melbourne for med school), and he definitely had an accent. But he sounded sexy too, confident and cocky.

  Curious, I edged my way down the hallway to the main room.

  I saw Nate before he saw me.

  The voice was no lie. He had dirty blond hair, great posture, and the perfect amount of tan. He was also a little rough around the edges, rumpled in all the right places. There was a carefree, outdoors-y quality about him, like one of those guys you see climbing rock cliffs in car commercials.

  Nate's eyes found me lingering in the shadows, and his face broke into a grin.

  "Hey, now, there he is," he said. "You must be the ol' ball and chain!"

  I immediately bristled. I'd always hated that expression — "ball and chain."

  But this was Kevin's best friend, so I plastered a smile onto my face and stepped forward.

  "Hey, there, Nate," I said. "It's nice to finally meet you."

  "Likewise! And don't worry, mate, now that I'm here, we won't be having no run-away groom." At that, he grabbed Kevin with one hand on his arm and another around the back of his neck, pretending like he was going to take him down.

  And in a flash, I realized that maybe Nate wasn't as handsome as I'd thought.

  This had happened to me before — meeting someone, thinking they're hot, and then getting to know them (and not liking them), and thinking, "How could I ever have thought this person was hot in the first place?" But it had never happened this fast.

  Kevin laughed and said, "I don't think you need to worry."

  "Oh, yeah," Nate said. "I heard all the stories!" Then he winked at Kevin, and Kevin blushed and chuckled, and Nate laughed outright.

  I wasn't even going to try to parse all that.

  Min and Ruby stepped into view, with Gunnar behind them, and we made introductions all around.

  Then Kevin said to Nate, "Let me show you your room."

  I was determined to not let my annoyance with Nate color the weekend, so I added, "Yeah, and then we have something very important to do before dinner."

  Everyone looked at me like I was being completely serious.

  "Cocktails! What did you think I meant?" I said, and everyone laughed.

  * * *

  After the new arrivals had unpacked, we gathered for drinks and chips around the kitchen island. The wedding on Sunday was being catered, but Kevin and I had stopped at the grocery store earlier that day to get food for the rest of the weekend. So now we assembled a salad and got the take-and-bake pizzas ready while we waited for the next ferry, which wasn't due for another half-hour.

  "So what's new," I said to Min and Gunnar. "Tell me everything."

  "Nothing much," Min said.

  "Oh, come on," Gunnar said, busting he was so excited. "Tell 'em about your new job!"

  "What new job?" I asked.

  "She's working for Elon Musk!" Gunnar said. Elon Musk was the guy who created PayPal and Tesla. Needless to say, he was now amazingly rich.

  I looked at Min. "Really?" I said. "Why didn't you tell me?"

  "Because it's nothing," she said. "It's no big deal."

  "It's a huge deal!" Gunnar said. "It's the most expensive, privately-financed space exploration project in human history!"

  "Space exploration?" I said.

  Min shrugged it off. "Oh, they're making noises about a mission to Mars by 2030 — a private-public partnership. But it's just public relations. It probably won't happen."

  "A manned mission to Mars!" Gunnar said.

  "Wait," I said to Min. "Mars? By 2030? What are you doing?"

  "She's designing the ship," Ruby said.

  "What?" I said. Now it was my head that was almost exploding, but none of this surprised me in the least. I've already said how brilliant Min was.

  "I'm helping to design part of the ship," Min said.

  "A ship to Mars!" I said. "That's so cool!"

  "It really is," Kevin said, nodding.

  Min let herself grin at last, in an adorably sheepish way. "It kind of is, isn't it?" She looked at me. "But tell me what's going on with you."

  "Nothing's going on with me," I said. "My life is incredibly boring right now."

  "Except for the fact that you're getting married Sunday," Min said.

  My face burned red. Kevin glared at me too.

  "Oh, yeah," I said, trying to laugh it off. "Except for that. But seriously, tell us about this mission to Mars."

  So she did, and it was exactly as interesting as you'd think.

  At one point while Min was talking, I turned around and saw that Gunnar was doing something with the broccoli for the salad. He wasn't chopping it, which was what I'd asked him to do. No, he had taken the stalks and stuck them into glasses filled with blue liquid.

  "Uh, what is this?" I asked.

  "I'm trying to turn the broccoli blue," he said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

  I stared at him.

  "I found some food coloring in the cabinet," he went on. "I'm seeing if you can do the same thing with broccoli that you can do with celery. You know, how the plant draws the color up into its leaves?"

  This was so typically Gunnar. Min may have been planning a trip to Mars, but Gunnar was already living on his own little planet. Back when I'd been living with him and Min, this might have annoyed me a little, but now I felt nothing but affection for them both.

  "I've missed you guys so much!" I said.

  "I know," Min said. "We've missed you too. Why in the world did you and Kevin have to move to Los Angeles?"

  "It's working!" Gunnar said, meaning the broccoli. "No, wait, that's just the reflection off the bag of chips."

  "Hey," Nate said, "
did you guys know there are stairs down to the beach?"

  Nate was standing over in the doorway out to the deck. To be honest, I'd been sort of glad when he'd wandered away from the conversation. But I guess I had sort of been leaving both him and Ruby out, and that made me feel guilty.

  Ruby immediately perked up. "Really?"

  "Yeah," Nate said. "You wanna check it out?"

  "You kidding? I'm so there!"

  "But first," Nate said, approaching the kitchen and grabbing a beer, "one for the road."

  As he turned away, he flipped the bottle in the air — casually, but pretty darn expertly.

  "Oh!" Ruby said. "Like Tom Cruise in Cocktail!"

  He did it again, and it was all very impressive, not to mention light-hearted and carefree, but of course the only thing I could think of was "damage deposit."

  Soon they thundered off to explore the beach.

  The rest of us were silent after that. I felt a little less guilty about leaving Nate and Ruby out of the conversation after the deal with the beer bottle. But I didn't want Min to know that.

  "Ruby seems great," I said to Min.

  Min smiled and dipped a chip in some guacamole.

  "It's funny though," I went on, "and please don't take this the wrong way, because I love you like Lifesavers, but she seems a little different from you."

  Right on cue, Ruby and Nate shrieked somewhere out on the steps down to the beach — a fun shriek, not like they were falling off a cliff.

  "If by 'different,'" Min said, "you mean 'pretty much my complete opposite in every way,' you're right. She's either going to be the love of my life, or I'm making the biggest mistake of my life. Either way, it should be interesting."

  The four of us sipped and crunched.

  "Nate seems great too," Min said, and Gunnar nodded, but I didn't.

  "He's a really good guy," Kevin said. He bent down to search for something in the lower kitchen shelves. "I met him my freshman year, but we didn't become roommates until later. He's sort of an 'in the moment' guy, which is why it's so funny he went on to become a doctor. But he was the perfect college friend." He rattled the pots, frustrated. "Really? The money we're spending and there aren't any pizza pans?"