The Accidental Honeymoon (12 page)

“I guess I wasn’t expecting to have sex on our honeymoon night,” Ryan jokes.

Karin laughs. “I will have to say that this was the best part of my day.”

Ryan looks over at his new wife. “Can I confess something? I’ve really wanted you for a while.”

“I would have to confess the same thing.”

The couple relax next to each other, married and now, in love.

Half a world away, another man is looking into Karin’s eyes. But his eyes are filled with anything but love. “You don’t have anything on this fucking intern! What the hell is wrong with you idiots!” Tor Janz seethes as he lays into his editorial staff. “I have given you numb nuts three months to dig up any dirt on Karin Davis and I haven’t one good story from any of you.”

“Sorry, her digital presence online is rather pedestrian.”

“You couldn’t find one titty photo?!”

“Sorry, Tor,” the editor responds sheepishly.

“What about her ex-boyfriends. Do they have any dirt on her.”

“No, she is still friends with them.”

“What about her boss at that store. Where did she work again?”

“The North Face.”

“Alright. Did you talk to her boss?”

“Yes. Elliot Vogel. He said that Karin always showed up on time,” the editor answers as he looks at his notes. “Wait. I did get one thing from him.”

“What?! What?!”

“She used to show up late sometimes because he car would break down.”

“That’s your big scandal?! Three months and all you get on this chick is that he fucking car doesn’t work?”

“I can fluff up the piece.”

“I swear I’m going to come across this table and step on your head if you say another stupid thing in this meeting.”

“Sorry.”

Tor gets up from his chair and slams shut the conference room door. All the editors are practically shuttering in fear. “We need to dig deeper. I want you to use our overseas connections to hack into The North Face security cameras and computer systems. See if this Karin chick ever stole something from the store. Perhaps she fucked some guy in one of the dressing rooms. I want to find something! Anything!” Tor yells. The editors just look at him. “Stop staring at me like it’s a fucking statue convention and get to work!”

The editors quickly get up from their chairs and flee the conference room.

****

The President of Emperor sits in her office tracking the whereabouts of her boss via Ryan Wilde’s Twitter feed.
“Day six on The Octavian. Docking half mile from Palau. Another South Pacific Paradise Awaits.”
Michelle smiles. Though Ryan has assured her that he doesn’t need to be kept in the loop during his honeymoon, Michelle has sent him daily status updates. Right now, Michelle’s only other connection is checking the coordinates of her boss’s 450-foot yacht motoring somewhere in the South Pacific.

****

Karin was already stunned at the sight of
The Octavian
when Ryan flew her from Paris to Guam to rendezvous with one of the grandest private boats in the world. The mega yacht itself rivals the Presidential Suite at the Ritz in sheer opulence. Karin has now been on the ship for almost a week and has yet to explore all ten levels of
The Octavian
. Though exploring the ship has not been foremost on Karin’s mind. Right now, the newlywed couple has had two things on their mind since the wedding - fucking and surfing.

Right now, the couple if focused on the latter.
The Octavian
is too large to dock on the small South Pacific island where they are currently located. The couple uses one of the three ship’s twenty-foot motor boats to make their way onto the beach in order to catch some waves.

“I would have never thought of this. Great call, Karin!” Ryan exclaims as the motor boats make their way toward the beach.

“This is really my most surreal dream come true. I never thought I would be catching waves in all of these places.”

“I just wish I could surf as well as you,” the CEO confesses.

“You’re getting better.”

The couple gets to the beach dressed in their wetsuits, with their boards under each arm. The motor boat heads back to the mega yacht which looks like its own island from the vantage-point of the beach. The couple takes a moment to soak in the pristine island itself, located on an atoll inhabited by a small island nation of just 21,000 people. Palau is so tiny that it does not even have its down standing army. All Karin knew about this place was that Palau is considered the fifth greatest “hidden surf spot in the world.” She informed Ryan about that fact and he immediately placed the remote island on the honeymoon itinerary.

The couple settles on the beach and stare at the waves. The swell is a good eighteen to twenty feet. The largest waves they have encountered so far. Several other “globe trotting” surfers brave the monster waves.

“Those are some big suckers,” Ryan points out.

“Twenty feet. I gotta think.”

“Have you ridden those before?”

“Oh yeah, it’s not as scary as it looks,” Ryan’s wife points out.

The couple begins to paddle out. The waves rumble under the two. Karin is the first to stand upright on her board. She confidently rides and surfs through the wave tunnel. Ryan has a little trouble executing as well as his wife. The risk taking CEO is never known for quitting. After falling off of his board, he gets right up and paddles out. Karin watches her husband as she walks onto the beach.

The young wife watches her man stand up on his board. The waves appear to be getting larger. Karin observes her husband’s stance on the board. She is somewhat surprised to see how well he has taken onto the board. Ryan begins to ride the large wave. Karin notices that her husband is a little wobbly on the board. He wipes out and falls off of his board. The massive wave crashes towards the beach. Karin waits for her husband to emerge from the water. Fifteen seconds later, he is still underwater.

“Ryan? Ryan?!” Karin screams. She begins to frantically run towards the water. Her board is still attached to her leg via the board leach. She quickly unhooks herself and runs into the water. She still can’t find Ryan.
He has been underwater too long!
Karin thinks to herself in a hot-white panic. The young wife continues to scream her husband’s name. She looks out and sees Ryan’s board. She knows that Ryan is attached to the board via his leach. She swims towards the board as fast as she possibly can. As Karin gets within arm’s reach of the board, Ryan finally emerges from the water.

“Honey! Honey!” Karin cries out. Ryan’s face is pale. He doesn’t respond to his wife’s cries. Karin grabs her man. Ryan coughs out water.

“Are you okay?! Can you breathe?!” Karin asks manically.

“I think I busted my leg,” Ryan answers weakly.

“Come on. I’ll help you back to the beach.”

Karin uses all of her strength to assist her new husband onto the sand. As the couple reaches the wet sand, Ryan tries to stand up. He hobbles on his legs and then falls to the ground. He continues to cough up water. Karin quickly looks over her husband’s body. She is in a panic. Then a voice screams into the young woman’s head. “You are his wife. Act strong. Be mature. Help him!”

The young wife calmly looks over her man and asks, “Can you breathe? Take a deep breath.”

Ryan takes a deep breath and coughs a little more water. “I can breathe. It just hurts.”

“Your chest hurts?”

“No. My leg. My right leg,” Ryan responds.

Karin looks around the beach. She notices a couple of locals standing nearby. “Is there a doctor around here?” Karin asks the local.

“The hospital is in town,” one of them responds in broken English.

“We need to take him there,” Karin tells them.

The two men run over to one of their friends who drives his old jeep onto the beach. The two men help Karin get Ryan onto the back of the jeep. The driver takes the jeep off of the beach and onto a gravel road. The road cuts through the palm trees and makes it to a clearing. Karin tries her best to secure Ryan as he bounces around the back of the jeep.

“I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry!” Karin tells Ryan.

“What are you sorry about?”

“I made you take this surfing trip. You almost died.”

“Life isn’t worth living if you don’t take risks.”

Karin wants to break down. Every cell in her body wants to break down. She doesn’t. She remains strong.

The jeep pulls onto a paved road. Karin looks up and sees the center of the island coming into view. There are several concrete buildings that signify the center of population of the small island nation.

“We are coming up on the hospital,” the driver tells Karin and Ryan.

The jeep pulls up to a small one-story building with a scattering of mobile trailers next to the structure. “Palau National Hospital” the wooden sign announces. The locals help Ryan off of the back of the jeep. He is placed in a wheelchair by one of the hospital orderlies. The young billionaire is taken to the hospital’s emergency room area, which is nothing more than an open barracks-like space with twenty or so modest beds. The area appears more like an army hospital than a civilian facility.

“How are you feeling?” Karin asks her husband.

“My leg really hurts.”

“How about your head and your lungs?”

“I think they are fine.”

After a couple of the emergency room nurses look over Ryan, he is changed into a hospital gown. Instead of a room, a couple of privacy partitions are pulled around the bed as Ryan strips down. The nurses place the gown on the young billionaire. He looks at his young wife and smiles. “Hey, at least I am conscious.”

“You were under water for a long time.”

“How long?”

“Maybe a minute.”

“It felt like longer. For a moment, I didn’t think I was coming back up.”

A doctor walks over to Ryan’s bed. “Hello, I am Dr. Tabelual. So I understand you were in a surfing accident?”

“Yes,” Ryan answers.

The doctor takes a penlight and flashes it into Ryan’s eyes. “Follow the light,” the doctor commands as he waves it around in front of the patient. Ryan is able to easily follow the light. The doctor then takes his stethoscope and listens to Ryan’s heart and lungs. “Breathe deep for me,” the doctor commands. Ryan takes a deep breath. He coughs a little.

“You had water in your lungs?”

“Yes.”

The doctor takes note of that. Then he feels Ryan’s head and begins to inspect it for bruises. “How does your head feel?”

“My head feels fine.”

The doctor begins to press his hands and fingers all over Ryan’s body. When the doctor reaches his right leg, the young man winces.

“Okay, you have feeling in that leg. That’s a good sign.”

“Yeah, too much feeling!” Ryan responds. The doctor smiles slightly.

“Can you bend the leg?”

Ryan grimaces as he tries to bend his injured leg.

“It hurts.”

“Okay.”

“It looks like you bruised your leg. We will x-ray for any signs of fractures,” the doctor responds.

“Thank you, doctor.”

“Have you been on Palau long?”

“We just arrived.”

“Sorry to hear your trip started off on a bad note. The waves can be a little dangerous.”

“Yeah, I learned that the hard way!” Ryan responds.

The nurses then move the partitions away for another new patient who needs to be changed. Ryan gets his first look at the emergency room.

“Are we inside the hospital?” Ryan asks.

“This is the emergency room area.”

“Oh,” Ryan responds. The young man looks at the barrack structure and notices that nothing more than a shed like structure with unreinforced aluminum. He then looks over at several other patients, all locals who are being treated with more severe injuries.

“Is this a temporary area?”

“Well, it’s been temporary for almost ten years.”

“Really? Why?”

“After the typhoon destroyed half the hospital, we’ve had to make due with makeshift structures.”

“But this is a hospital?!”

“Yes. It is the only hospital on the island. But we find a way to serve everyone.”

“What about really severe cases?”

“They are airlifted to the Philippines.”

Ryan shakes his head. “I have to imagine that costs precious time. Do you ever lose people during the flight?”

“Yes,” the doctor remarks sadly.

Ryan sits up in his bed. He doesn’t feel the pain in his leg anymore. “Doctor, how much would it cost to build a first-class hospital on this island?”

The doctor is intrigued by this question. “Well, a 200 bed facility with the latest equipment. Something suitable for Palau would cost about seventy-five million dollars. Good luck trying to get that money from our government. We don’t even have a standing army.”

The young billionaire just shakes his head. He can not believe that such a small amount could ensure the safety of an entire nation of 21,000 people.

“Doctor, what about a 200-bed five-star facility? Something that would rival anything in Australia or the United States?”

“In the U.S., a 200-bed facility, with all the bells and whistles would cost twice that much. About $150 million dollars.”

The young billionaire looks over at his new wife. Karin is wondering what he is up to. “Honey, I think we should do something about this.”

Karin is shocked that Ryan is referring to the couple as “we.” She leans in and asks, “What do you have in mind?”

Ryan looks over at the doctor. “After my x-ray, I would like to meet with your health minister.”

“Why?” the doctor asks.

“My wife and myself would like the honor of building a new hospital for Palau.”

The doctor laughs. “Now, I am beginning to wonder if you actually did sustain any head injuries.”

“You don’t know who I am, I guess.”

The doctor looks at Ryan. He stares at the young man’s face. “You do look familiar. I feel like I may have seen you on TV. Are you a celebrity or something?”

“Well, perhaps a celebrity in Silicon Valley,” Ryan answers. Then he notices that the doctor is wearing one of Emperor’s Satellite Phones on his hip. The CEO points to the phone. The doctor looks at his phone. He picks it up. Then he looks at the young man. The doctor’s face turns white. “Are you Ryan Wilde?!”

The young billionaire extends his hand. “At your service, Dr. Tabelual.”