Authors: Eleanor Webb
The position was for a biochemical
research scientist working as part of the Marine Biochemical R & D
department, and Anne and Ms. Tomlinson began their tour there. The department
focus was on marine water cleanup solutions, an area of research right up
Anne's alley. The R & D department was located in the front of Building
Two directly behind the main building and was connected by a glass enclosed
walkway. As they walked to the department, Anne saw that a courtyard was set
up outside for people to take breaks and eat their lunches. Wrought iron
tables and chairs were set up for the employees. Several people were already
outside enjoying the sunny day as they ate their lunches. Flower boxes filled
with red geraniums and multicolored flowers flanked the edges of the exposed
concrete patio, and several Japanese maple trees dressed up the grassy areas.
The R & D department looked much as
Anne expected with several offices and a central lab area. Although Anne was only
allowed a quick glance into the lab through the door, she could see several
scientists were still at work. One man was busy typing on a computer while two
other people, a man and a woman, were busy working with beakers and Bunsen
burners. Out by the offices, there was a small lunchroom with vending machines.
It was empty except for a woman who was at a microwave oven heating her lunch.
Anne could smell chicken, and her stomach growled. On the far end of the
office area was a conference room complete with a digital whiteboard and a
table that sat at least ten people.
After the brief tour of the R & D
department, Ms. Tomlinson walked Anne back to the HR Department by way of
another glassed in walkway that connected the two white buildings. As they
walked through the third building, Anne was told that manufacturing took place
behind the office areas of that building but that they would not be touring
there because it was restricted. Coming back into Building One, they entered
the HR Department after walking past the Sales and Marketing Department and the
Customer Service Department. The Accounting Department, the Information
Technology Department, and the Executive offices were located on the second
floor, Anne was told.
"If we decide to call you back for
the final round of interviews, the final interviews will be held with Mr.
Winfield, Dr. Rudolph, Benjamin Stanford, our CEO, and I. Final interviews will
begin on the eighteenth. There are five applicants being interviewed this
week," Ms. Tomlinson informed her as they walked back into the HR Department.
"I understand that you will be staying with family in the Seattle
area?"
"Yes, I will," Anne said as
she walked beside Ms. Tomlinson into the HR lobby.
"Good. We have your cell phone
number in your file. You will be called to return again to meet Mr. Stanford
if we decide to call you back. Have a nice stay in Seattle, Dr. Conner. It
was a pleasure meeting you." She shook Anne's hand warmly before leaving
Anne to check herself out from the front reception desk.
With the rest of the day free from
interviews, Anne walked out to the rental car, took off her jacket, and steered
her car north for the three hour drive to Orcas Island. She stopped only once
to grab a burger and fries from a fast food restaurant along the interstate.
Anne arrived at the Eagle's Nest Inn
around three thirty that afternoon, dropped her suitcase on the bed of her old
room in the family's separate residence, changed into shorts and a tee shirt,
and went in search of her mother. She found her mother in the inn's large
kitchen discussing the meal for the upcoming wedding that was scheduled for
Saturday afternoon, only six days away. Not wanting to interrupt by drawing
attention to herself, she waited by the door and watched her mother and their
chef, William Becker, discuss the menu details and final head count. It
sounded like the wedding would be a smallish affair with about eighty guests. If
the menu was anything to go by, the wedding was also going to be an expensive
affair.
Anne had learned a few weeks ago from
her mother that the inn was fully booked with the wedding party and guests,
most of them coming up from Seattle, and they were taking up the majority of
the main building's rooms. Island vacationers took up the remaining rooms and
the cottages along the water's edge. The bride, Lily Carlson, chose to have
her wedding reception at the Eagle's Nest because she used to come up to the
inn as a child and then returned last summer with her boyfriend. Her boyfriend
proposed to her here at the inn. It all sounded romantic. Anne was happy for
the couple. She was also happy for her parents who had, over the years, built
an inn that drew such loyalty from returning guests.
Anne remembered the bride well. Lily was
a sweet kid who came from a wealthy Seattle family, the kind with whom Anne's
father would have gone out of his way to cultivate a friendship. The Carlson
family came for two weeks every summer since Anne was nine. Being the same age
as Anne and Carla, Lily Carlson often hung out with Anne and Carla along with
her older brother, a cute boy named Ben. Years later she began to come alone
with her parents when Ben finished college. Anne had not seen Lily since the
summer before she and Carla moved to Seattle to attend the University of
Washington.
It was even longer since she saw Ben. The
last time she saw him was the summer she turned seventeen and wore braces on
her teeth. She remembered that summer well because she developed the biggest
crush on Ben who just finished his junior year of college. He came back at
other times over the years, she was told, and stayed at the inn either with his
family or with friends. But she was not there during those other times. She
wondered what he looked like now. He was probably married with children. Anne
thought about the number of things she did to draw his attention that last summer,
shuttered, and hoped that no one else would remember any of it. How
embarrassing would that be?
"Anne, you made it. How was
traffic, Sweetheart?" Her mother broke into Anne's reverie by giving her
a hug. Anne jumped slightly then returned the hug wholeheartedly. The
discussion with William was apparently finished because he had gone back to
work preparing the evening specials while his assistants worked at fulfilling
the occasional late lunch orders.
"Traffic wasn't too bad once I got
away from Seattle. You changed your hair. I like it," Anne commented
about her mother's changed look. Her mother, Jane Petrovic, was twenty years
older than Anne and had the same light blue eyes and winged eyebrows. From
there, their similarities ended. Their chins and mouths were different. Anne's
chin was stronger and more square-shaped and her mouth was wider with fuller
lips. Anne's mother's hair, in contrast to Anne's dark curly locks, was a dark
ash blonde shade styled in an attractive layered cut that framed her face.
Today, Anne's mother was dressed in
casual chic plum colored business attire that complimented her petite frame. Anne
felt like a frumpy Amazon standing next to her dressed in a pair of white
shorts, a mint green tee shirt, and canvas sneakers with no socks. Anne also
had scrubbed off her makeup leaving nothing on except for rose colored lip
gloss. She decided not to cover her lightly tanned skin with anything but
sunscreen now that her makeup was off. Her natural curly hair, which had been
pulled up in a twist for the interview, was now pulled out and left loose
around her shoulders with soft tendrils falling about her face.
"Yes, I did. I changed it last
winter. Are you hungry? Did you eat?" Anne's mother led her out of the
kitchen and into the dining room which was almost empty except for a handful of
guests and locals. Anne recognized some of the faces that belonged to people
who lived in Eastsound and some to returning guests. "You can eat here,
or I can have something sent over to the house," she said as she began to
fuss a little over Anne.
"Will you be joining me?"
"No, Dear. Jim is over at the
airport picking up the bride and groom for this weekend’s wedding. They are
flying in today, along with some of the wedding party and the bride’s parents.
They intend to stay for the week while they get ready for the wedding. So, I'm
holding down the fort until your dad gets back. But, if you are hungry, I'll
have Karen whip you up a sandwich and send it over to the house if you do not
want to eat here."
"No. That's fine, Mom. I ate on
the way up. Actually, I was planning on taking a bike ride to town. I can
pick up a bite to eat there if I get hungry."
"All right, Anne. How did your
interview go this morning?"
Anne filled her mother in briefly on how
it went then left the inn's main building when her mother was called away to
help at the front desk. Going out of the front French style double doors, Anne
stepped onto the wide front veranda that swept along the full length of the
building and around both sides. Outdoor wicker furniture was placed
strategically along the veranda for guests who wished to sit outside and enjoy
the view. The main part of the inn was a large two story plantation style
building covered in white clapboard siding with black shingles and shutters. Large
windows faced out the front onto the veranda and lawn. Six thick white square
pillars stretched up to the second story roof, and supported a second story
gallery that ran the full length of the building. A wrought iron railing enclosed
the second floor gallery and additional furniture was placed outside for guests
who wished to look out onto the sweeping front lawn lined with large oaks and
flower beds.
The main building was constructed over a
hundred years earlier by a wealthy Seattle shipbuilder who wanted a vacation
home on Orcas Island. He was originally from New Orleans and wanted to create
a vacation home that could rival any of the great plantation homes found in the
South. The house took five years to build and cost a couple of million back
when it was completed in 1897. It was reported that several heads of state and
wealthy industrialists had stayed at the home back when the shipbuilder, Thomas
Rhodes, owned the place. The house and lands were sold in the 1950s when the direct
family line died out and descendants of Mr. Rhodes from California decided that
keeping the home was not worth it to them. After the house was sold, several
cabins were added along the water's edge, and the place was turned into a vacation
and fishing resort.
The place changed owners several times
over the years until Jim Petrovic and her mother bought it when Anne was two
years old. Jim and Anne's mother were just married, and using all of their
savings and any capital they could scrape together through loans and private
investors, they turned the run down building and cabins around into a thriving
inn and vacation resort. When Anne was eight, the inn expanded adding the events
center, and she and her family moved from their suite in the main building into
the remodeled caretaker's house. Over the years, the inn also added a swimming
pool, a spa, tennis courts, and an art gallery-gift shop combination that featured
the works of local artists.
Now, rounding the corner of the wrap
around veranda, Anne walked back down the trail to the family's house to
retrieve some money from her purse. The inn listed Eastsound as its address,
but the inn and resort were actually two miles outside of Eastsound village
limits along the northwest shore of the island. She could see Waldron Island
off in the distance with the expanse of the blue waters of President Channel in
between. She also saw several kayakers out enjoying the calm water and a
fishing boat off to the right. Further down the channel on the left, she could
make out a sightseeing boat on its way north looking for a pod of orca whales
for which the island was famous. She could imagine the surprise and awe of the
faceless tourists when a pod was spotted. It never stopped thrilling her, and
she had seen them countless times.
After grabbing a twenty dollar bill and
stuffing it in her back pocket, she headed back to the main building to check
out one of the inn's mountain bikes. She decided to take the back staircase
that led up the southern elevation of the veranda instead of walking around the
pool area and cutting across the patio to the back entrance into the building.
As she walked, she became lost in her own thoughts recalling every nuance of
that morning’s interview.
Surely, they would not have given her the tour if
they were not seriously looking at hiring her?
Research companies guarded
their research as if they were Fort Knox.
Smack.
Lost in her thoughts, she did not watch where
she was going and bumped into a man on the veranda who was rounding the corner
to head to the back staircase. The force of hitting him would have knocked her
down if not for his quick actions to stop her from falling. Immediately after
the collision, strong arms enfolded her in a hug before they moved away. She
felt strong hands grab her arms to steady her. After the initial hard bump, her
fuzzy brain registered warmth, power, and the scents of the great outdoors and
a male body. She stepped away from him quickly and put a distance of about a
foot between their bodies, surprised by the sudden awareness she felt being that
close to him.
"Whoa, sorry," the man said. He
had a deep voice that made Anne’s toes curl and stomach flutter. The best way
to describe his voice was that he had a bedroom voice, kind of like that
singer, Barry White. What a voice! Her nerve endings came alive just at the
sound.