It was finally here, my time to retire. I had been a Navy Seal for 10 years and my body and mind was in need of a rest; and by rest of course I mean an easy job like a security guard for a pharmaceutical company. The worst of anything that could happen at a place like this was some raging lunatic storming the front desk asking for a refund because the medicine his wife was taking turned her into a rabid zombie.
It was fading into dusk, and a sable pall was descending swiftly over the verdant island and across the water to a smaller, sandy spit jutting from the atoll like an undersea tongue, casting the formerly shimmering swells into a mass of rolling darkness. The soft light of the descending sun reflected warmly off the softly lapping waves, glinting with flecks of blazing orange and red and casting the sea into an endless expanse of fire.
It was towards the beginning of the Northern Californian school year, as Lori was tidying up the classroom after the children had left for the day. She taught the very youngest children, and today, being the first day of the school year, had been hectic. The last of the children, and some mothers, had departed. She was looking forward to going home to her bachelor pad, kicking off her shoes, putting her feet up and downing a cool beer.
The lock down is really starting to get to Master and I, sitting in day after day looking at the same four walls. Master sets himself up at this desk and plonks himself down with a heavy sigh. I make Master a cup of hot coffee and set it beside his laptop, I lean over and kiss him on the cheek. I turn away to head back out of his office, only to have Master grab my wrist stopping me dead in my tracks as that knowing look spreads across his face.