Surrender

Chapter 1

Just as she finished stuffing the last suitcase and closing it, Tamara heard the sound of a vehicle in the front of her house. She grabbed both suitcases from the bed and darted down the hall to the living room. She set the suitcases by the front door and peeked through the blinds to see if the vehicle she heard was the shuttle to the airport. After scanning the area in front of the house there was no one out there. Tamara returned to the bedroom to tidy up before leaving on her well deserved vacation. She began hanging clothes on hangers and placing them in the closet. She stepped into the bathroom to quickly check her makeup. “Damn girl, you really do need this vacation.” She said aloud to the person looking back at her in mirror.
         While silently criticizing her self in the mirror the telephone rang. As she picked up the phone before she could even say hello she heard; “Hey girl, are you excited about your trip?” the loud voice booming through the speaker of the phone said. Tamara rolled her eyes as she winced from the loudness piercing her eardrum. The person on the other end of the phone was Jeanine. Jeanine and Tamara have been friends since college. Tamara tells everyone that if it were not for Jeanine she would have never made it through college algebra; which is quite true. Jeanine is a large girl with a loud mouth who likes to exaggerate about her life.  And everything else she thinks she can get away with. She acts tough but her bark is worse than her bite. She is also very promiscuous. And that’s being nice. “Hi J, of course I’m excited”, she replied. “I have been waiting for this for a very long time. This vacation is well overdue.”
Everyone often wondered why the two of them are friends. They are like polar opposites of each other. Tamara is an introvert and some what conservative. She does not let too many people into her circle. Tamara is also very conservative when it comes to men. At forty years old she has never been married and doesn’t have children. Although having children has never been a goal for her. “Well, I’m kind of worried of about you going on this trip alone. You’ve only been there once and you don’t know anyone there. What are you going to do if something happens?” Tamara gave a quick laugh and responded “Something like what, Jeanine?” Jeanine fired back “like if someone breaks into your place. If you get robbed you or, she hesitated for a moment and then said, God forbid if someone raped and killed you. No one here would know happened to you.”  Tamara laughed it off. She could not tell if Jeanine was sincerely concerned for her safety if she was just trying to distract her from enjoying the vacation of life. After all she was use to Jeanine’s scare tactics every time planned something that didn’t involve Jeanine. The doorbell rang. “Jeanine, I have to go. The airport shuttle is here.”  “Alright girl, I love you. Call when you get there.”  “ I love you too. Bye.
The doorbell rang again. “Okay! I’m coming, I’m coming.”  Tamara yelled to the person ringing the doorbell. “Damn! Give me chance to get to the door.” As she opened the door, a short Mexican man was at the door. His skin looked tough as leather, like he’d been working in the Arizona heat most of his life. In a thick Spanish accent, he asked, “You have bags?” Tamara thought to her self, of course I have bags. Who goes to the airport without bags? She quickly cleared her thoughts and said, “Yes, they're right here.” She opened the screen door and reached down in an attempt to pick up the suitcases, but the driver quickly stepped forward and said “I get them.” As he grabbed the bags from her finger tips and swiftly walked to the shuttle van to load the suitcases.  Tamara hurried back inside to make sure the coffee pot was off and to set the alarm. She closed the front door and locked it. As she got in the van, she buckled her seat belt and looked back house with delightful smile.