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THE LONG WAY HOME FROM COSTA RICA
‘I just called the airline to confirm our flights going back
to Canada,’ Mike told his wife,
Bobbie, as he sat down in the lounge of the Costa Rica Plaza,
‘and all I got was a damn
answering machine that told me the airline had gone out of
business and we would have
to find another way home.’
‘My God, Mike, what are we going to do,’ she replied, ‘we
don’t even have enough
money to survive for more than a few days, let alone pay for
another flight to Canada.’
‘That means we’re screwed, too,’ said Brandy, one of the two
other young women at the
table, who had been talking with Bobbie - Samantha and I were
on the same airline and
we don’t have a lot of money left either.’
‘This really sucks,’ said Samantha, ‘I think I’ll just go and
call the airline and see if I can
get through,’ rising up and leaving the lounge.
Brandy started to cry - ‘My parents are on vacation in Europe
and Samantha’s are away
camping in Alaska - and it’s Friday night so we can’t even
call the bank until next week -
damn, I don’t have anything there either - I spent nearly
everything on this trip.’
‘Mike, I have to be back at the office by Tuesday for sure,’
Bobbie said, ‘I’ve already
been away longer than I’m supposed to be - they gave me two
extra days since you’re
always away working and we hardly get to see each other.’
‘Yeah, honey, me too,’ he told her, ‘if I’m not on that
company plane to the north this
Wednesday, I’ll lose two weeks work, maybe even more - there’s
got to be a way that we
can get another airline and get home - what about our credit
cards.’
‘We’re already up to the limit,’ Bobbie said, ‘well, pretty
close anyway - there’s no way
we can get two airline tickets back to Canada on them.’
Samantha came back to the table with tears streaming down her
face, saying ‘it’s true, we
are stuck in Costa Rica, the airline’s gone bankrupt’.
‘Damn, we’re really stuck,’ said Brandy, ‘we have hardly any
money and there’s nobody
we can phone for help.’
‘Wait a minute,’ Bobbie said, ‘we could try the Canadian
embassy - they could help us.’
‘They’ll be closed for the long weekend,’ Mike pointed out,
‘they won’t even see us until
Tuesday and that’ll be too late - we have to be home by then.’
‘Excuse me,’ a voice with a latino accent interrupted,
‘perhaps I could be of some help
with your dilemma - forgive me, I couldn’t help but overhear
your conversation as I was
at the next table - I might be able to help you raise the
money to get home even today -
my employer is a wealthy and influential man here in Costa
Rica - I think that he might
be willing to help you.’
The latino man returned after some fifteen minutes and sat
down at their table - ‘my boss,
Don Ricardo dela Rosa, is willing to invite you to his
hacienda this evening and he will
have airline tickets for all of you - the only catch is that
you will have to play one of his
special games - at least, the three women will.’
‘Yeah, right,’ said Samantha, ‘so we’ll have to screw some
latin millionaire to get our
plane tickets home - no thanks latin man!’
‘No, that’s not the case at all,’ he said, ‘there are many
beautiful women in Costa Rica
and my boss is very handsome - he could have any of them - he
will only ask the three of
you to play a gambling game - if you win you’ll have some
money as well as your plane
tickets - if you lose he’ll tickle you but at least you’ll
still have your plane ride home.’
‘Wait a minute,’ said Mike, ‘this guy you work for, this dela
Rosa, will play a game with
these girls and if they lose they get tickled but if they win
he pays them - and for sure we
get four plane tickets home - is that right?’
‘No way Mike,’ Bobbie said, ‘you know how ticklish I am - what
if he tries to get at my
feet?’
‘Yeah, me too,’ Samantha said, ‘nobody touches my feet and
lives to talk about it - that is
the most ticklish spot I’ve got.’
‘For me it’s my belly and my breasts,’ added Brandy, ‘I can’t
take it there.’
‘Let’s just see what his boss has in mind,’ Mike suggested,
‘if it’s a game that we can win
fairly easily it shouldn’t be a problem - you wouldn’t be
taking much of a risk.’
‘It’s easy for you, Mike,’ Bobbie said, ‘they don’t want to
tickle you - you’ll just get to sit
and watch.’
‘My employer, Don dela Rosa, is a very nice and fair man,’ the
man pointed out, ‘he only
has a great love of tickling young women - he loves the sound
of their laughter - I suggest
that the four of you take him up on his offer to have dinner
at his hacienda tonight - at the
dinner he will explain exactly what he has in mind and you can
then decide if you would
like to accept his challenge or return to your hotel -
meanwhile, if you’ll provide me with
your names, I can see that the airline tickets are prepared
for you this afternoon.’
‘Okay,’ said Bobbie, ‘I’m willing to have dinner with him and
see what he has to say as
long as I’m not obligated in any way.’
‘Yeah, me too,’ Samantha added.
‘Okay, me too,’ Brandy conceded, ‘but I’m trusting you guys.’
The four stranded tourists then provided their names to Don
dela Rosa’s assistant and the
arrangements for a pickup at six o’clock that Friday evening
were made.
At the hacienda, the four met Don Ricardo dela Rosa, an
elegant and handsome Latin
gentleman in his early sixties - the man reminded them of Mr.
Roarke, the owner and host
of Fantasy Island on television - in fact, Mike remarked
quietly to Bobbie ‘I wonder
where Tattoo is’ for which she gently slapped him - Samantha
said softly, ‘never mind
Tattoo, it’s the plane, the plane I’m after’.
The four were seated with Don dela Rosa and his assistant,
whose name turned out to be
Jose (go figure), for a wonderful steak and lobster dinner
with all the trimmings and fine
Mexican wines - apparently Don Ricardo owned several of the
wineries - dinner was, of
course, accompanied by great conversation in which everyone
got to know each other a
little better and Don dela Rosa was able to learn of the four
young peoples life and work
in Canada - the social worker, the bank teller, the store
clerk and the oilfield mechanic.
‘Well, my friends,’ Don dela Rosa began, ‘I have a proposition
for you - all four of you
must accept my offer or it will not be completed - to
demonstrate my good faith I have
had Jose purchase four tickets on the American Airlines flight
to Dallas on Sunday, and
the connecting flight from there to Canada - here they are’ -
he placed them on the table
for all to see.
‘I just called the airline to confirm our flights going back
to Canada,’ Mike told his wife,
Bobbie, as he sat down in the lounge of the Costa Rica Plaza,
‘and all I got was a damn
answering machine that told me the airline had gone out of
business and we would have
to find another way home.’
‘My God, Mike, what are we going to do,’ she replied, ‘we
don’t even have enough
money to survive for more than a few days, let alone pay for
another flight to Canada.’
‘That means we’re screwed, too,’ said Brandy, one of the two
other young women at the
table, who had been talking with Bobbie - Samantha and I were
on the same airline and
we don’t have a lot of money left either.’
‘This really sucks,’ said Samantha, ‘I think I’ll just go and
call the airline and see if I can
get through,’ rising up and leaving the lounge.
Brandy started to cry - ‘My parents are on vacation in Europe
and Samantha’s are away
camping in Alaska - and it’s Friday night so we can’t even
call the bank until next week -
damn, I don’t have anything there either - I spent nearly
everything on this trip.’
‘Mike, I have to be back at the office by Tuesday for sure,’
Bobbie said, ‘I’ve already
been away longer than I’m supposed to be - they gave me two
extra days since you’re
always away working and we hardly get to see each other.’
‘Yeah, honey, me too,’ he told her, ‘if I’m not on that
company plane to the north this
Wednesday, I’ll lose two weeks work, maybe even more - there’s
got to be a way that we
can get another airline and get home - what about our credit
cards.’
‘We’re already up to the limit,’ Bobbie said, ‘well, pretty
close anyway - there’s no way
we can get two airline tickets back to Canada on them.’
Samantha came back to the table with tears streaming down her
face, saying ‘it’s true, we
are stuck in Costa Rica, the airline’s gone bankrupt’.
‘Damn, we’re really stuck,’ said Brandy, ‘we have hardly any
money and there’s nobody
we can phone for help.’
‘Wait a minute,’ Bobbie said, ‘we could try the Canadian
embassy - they could help us.’
‘They’ll be closed for the long weekend,’ Mike pointed out,
‘they won’t even see us until
Tuesday and that’ll be too late - we have to be home by then.’
‘Excuse me,’ a voice with a latino accent interrupted,
‘perhaps I could be of some help
with your dilemma - forgive me, I couldn’t help but overhear
your conversation as I was
at the next table - I might be able to help you raise the
money to get home even today -
my employer is a wealthy and influential man here in Costa
Rica - I think that he might
be willing to help you.’
The latino man returned after some fifteen minutes and sat
down at their table - ‘my boss,
Don Ricardo dela Rosa, is willing to invite you to his
hacienda this evening and he will
have airline tickets for all of you - the only catch is that
you will have to play one of his
special games - at least, the three women will.’
‘Yeah, right,’ said Samantha, ‘so we’ll have to screw some
latin millionaire to get our
plane tickets home - no thanks latin man!’
‘No, that’s not the case at all,’ he said, ‘there are many
beautiful women in Costa Rica
and my boss is very handsome - he could have any of them - he
will only ask the three of
you to play a gambling game - if you win you’ll have some
money as well as your plane
tickets - if you lose he’ll tickle you but at least you’ll
still have your plane ride home.’
‘Wait a minute,’ said Mike, ‘this guy you work for, this dela
Rosa, will play a game with
these girls and if they lose they get tickled but if they win
he pays them - and for sure we
get four plane tickets home - is that right?’
‘No way Mike,’ Bobbie said, ‘you know how ticklish I am - what
if he tries to get at my
feet?’
‘Yeah, me too,’ Samantha said, ‘nobody touches my feet and
lives to talk about it - that is
the most ticklish spot I’ve got.’
‘For me it’s my belly and my breasts,’ added Brandy, ‘I can’t
take it there.’
‘Let’s just see what his boss has in mind,’ Mike suggested,
‘if it’s a game that we can win
fairly easily it shouldn’t be a problem - you wouldn’t be
taking much of a risk.’
‘It’s easy for you, Mike,’ Bobbie said, ‘they don’t want to
tickle you - you’ll just get to sit
and watch.’
‘My employer, Don dela Rosa, is a very nice and fair man,’ the
man pointed out, ‘he only
has a great love of tickling young women - he loves the sound
of their laughter - I suggest
that the four of you take him up on his offer to have dinner
at his hacienda tonight - at the
dinner he will explain exactly what he has in mind and you can
then decide if you would
like to accept his challenge or return to your hotel -
meanwhile, if you’ll provide me with
your names, I can see that the airline tickets are prepared
for you this afternoon.’
‘Okay,’ said Bobbie, ‘I’m willing to have dinner with him and
see what he has to say as
long as I’m not obligated in any way.’
‘Yeah, me too,’ Samantha added.
‘Okay, me too,’ Brandy conceded, ‘but I’m trusting you guys.’
The four stranded tourists then provided their names to Don
dela Rosa’s assistant and the
arrangements for a pickup at six o’clock that Friday evening
were made.
At the hacienda, the four met Don Ricardo dela Rosa, an
elegant and handsome Latin
gentleman in his early sixties - the man reminded them of Mr.
Roarke, the owner and host
of Fantasy Island on television - in fact, Mike remarked
quietly to Bobbie ‘I wonder
where Tattoo is’ for which she gently slapped him - Samantha
said softly, ‘never mind
Tattoo, it’s the plane, the plane I’m after’.
The four were seated with Don dela Rosa and his assistant,
whose name turned out to be
Jose (go figure), for a wonderful steak and lobster dinner
with all the trimmings and fine
Mexican wines - apparently Don Ricardo owned several of the
wineries - dinner was, of
course, accompanied by great conversation in which everyone
got to know each other a
little better and Don dela Rosa was able to learn of the four
young peoples life and work
in Canada - the social worker, the bank teller, the store
clerk and the oilfield mechanic.
‘Well, my friends,’ Don dela Rosa began, ‘I have a proposition
for you - all four of you
must accept my offer or it will not be completed - to
demonstrate my good faith I have
had Jose purchase four tickets on the American Airlines flight
to Dallas on Sunday, and
the connecting flight from there to Canada - here they are’ -
he placed them on the table
for all to see.
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