The Yellow Hibiscus

Tempest Flash Fiction Under 1000 Words

Chapter 49

Ten-thirty came and went, with no word from Willoby. His cellphone went to voice mail. Determined to get out of Hawaii, I packed and headed out, glancing back, my eyes focus on the telephone on the right nightstand. It wasn’t hanged up properly. “Darn it!” I thought, heading towards the nightstand. “What if Willoby was calling me? He would call your cellphone,” my inner sanity alerted me. Probably the chambermaid accidentally knocked it off while cleaning.

I placed it back and head downstairs. Thank god we had traveled light. I frantically scouted out the lobby, in case something had come up, and he needed to be less conspicuous. It was sparse with only the night manager on duty. I figured I’d head to the airport and Willoby would meet me there. He probably thought I’d figure out that much. I was about to return the keys to the night manager and request our room bill, when two rough-looking guys bumped me aside, stepped up to the manager and said, “We are looking for Mrs. James Riley,’

That was the pseudonym Willoby and I used!

“We have been calling her room but getting a busy signal.”

My heartbeat sprinted, pulling my body along with it. I immediately coiled around and marched slowly in the opposite…