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Costa del Sol
by Wendy Freebourne
Dawn liked to think she was the practical one. She’d known Hayley
since primary school. Neither of them had left Essex. They emailed
each other frequently and continued to meet up periodically.
I was looking for old school friends on the Internet and, guess
what, I found Paul Bostock,” Hayley emailed. “He’s
on the Costa del Sol, lucky bugger.”
Dawn clicked on the web site
link. There was a photo of a man in a Panama hat with a receding chin
and a huge moustache. She wouldn’t have known him from Adam.
“Are you sure it’s him?” she asked Hayley. As far
as Dawn was concerned, he could have been anyone.
Hayley sent a copy of her email to Paul and his reply. “Are
you Paul Bostock who went to Green Hill Primary School? I was Hayley
Dobbs, but I’m Mrs Collins now.”
“I confess, it’s me, living in paradise,” Paul said,
“And what are you up to these days?”
“I’m not going to write any more.” Hayley told Dawn.
“Jason wouldn’t like it,”
Dawn had another look. She remembered the blue eyes. It said he had
been living on the coast for ten years and there was a link to a newspaper
he edited called “El Sol de la Costa.” Dawn bookmarked
the address to look at later.
“He gave me my first kiss. I was about eleven,” she emailed
Hayley. “What a scream! I’ll write to him.”
What with Terry, the kids and
her part time job, Dawn didn’t get round to writing. But she
did look up the Costa del Sol just to check where exactly it was.
And she did have a brief fantasy about blue eyes and the Mediterranean.
No, I’m not exactly a Shirley Valentine,
she thought.
Two months later, Hayley rang up, excited. “Dawn, I’ve
won a holiday in Spain! I don’t even remember entering the competition.
They said it was a questionnaire I filled in, in Tesco’s.”
“Jason will be delighted,” Dawn said, feeling slightly
envious. “What’s the catch?”
“No catch, Dawn. It’s a week for two in a resort –
Torremolinos. You have to pay your own fare, though. It’s from
the fifth to the twelfth of May.”
“But Terry and Jason are going to Ireland on May the fourth,”
Dawn said.
“I know. Jace won’t miss that stag weekend. It’s
been planned for ages. He says I can go if my mum will have the kids.
Can you come? You only have to find the flight money. They gave me
the name of a cheap company that fly out there. It’s not as
much as I thought it would be.” Hayley sounded enthusiastic.
“If Jason’s letting you go, then Terry will have to let
me. His mum would have our two,” Dawn said, and added, “We
could look up Paul Bostock.”
“Oh yes, I’d forgotten about him being out there,”
replied Hayley. “We could surprise him. But we don’t need
to tell the boys about that,” she added with a giggle.
“This is the Costa, Hayley,” Dawn said as they drove
along the coast from Málaga on a coach with some other people
from their flight.
“I’ve got a reservation for Mr and Mrs Collins,”
their rep said, when Hayley and Dawn approached the hotel desk.
The rep pulled them aside.
“I knew there was a catch,” Dawn whispered to Hayley
through her teeth.
“The holiday is for a couple,” the rep said. “You
said on the ‘phone you were married.”
“I am,” Hayley told her,” but my husband couldn’t
come. So I brought my friend, Dawn.”
The rep was satisfied when Dawn confirmed she was married too. She
had a word with the receptionist, who booked them in.
Hayley and Dawn looked at each other and shrugged.
“Welcome drinks at seven-thirty and then a complementary dinner,”
the rep told her group.
Hayley ran round their room, testing the beds, checking the bathroom.
“Wow! This is a suite, Dawn,” she said wandering into
the lounge/diner. “Look, even a little kitchenette.”
“Hayley. I think this is a self-catering apartment,”
Dawn said. “There may be a complementary dinner tonight, but
after that, I expect we’ll have to fend for ourselves.”
“Tomorrow is a beach day,” the rep said. “On Monday
there’s an optional free trip to the mountains, a chance to
see the scenery and a tour of a local blanket factory. Tuesday is
a good day for shopping or sunbathing and Wednesday we would like
you to come to a tour and presentation. Lunch will be provided.”
“Might as well,” said Hayley.
“The resort shop is open from seven am to ten pm for all your
breakfast needs,” the rep continued.
“That answers that question,” Dawn said.
“This is the life,” Hayley sighed. “Will you
do my back?” handing Dawn the sun tan lotion next day on the
beach.
“It’s lovely and hot,” Dawn said. “Fancy
living here?”
“Good morning.” Hayley looked up to see an ebony figure
in a flowered shirt.
“Look, lovely watches.” He flashed a dazzling smile
at them.
“How much,” said Dawn, examining one that caught her
eye.
“For you,” he said, “six Euros. Cheap.”
“That is cheap,” said Hayley. She bought one.
“You should have haggled,” said a man’s voice.
“No one pays more than four Euros. It might work for a few
months, if you’re lucky.” On the next pair of sunbeds
were two men in shorts. Their tans suggested they had spent more
than a holiday on the beach.
“Do you live here?” Dawn asked.
“Yes. We’ve got a villa just outside Marbella. Been
here nearly eight years now,” said the taller of the two.
“I’m Mikey and this is Dennis.”
“I’m Dawn and this is my friend, Hayley,” Dawn
said, glancing down at her wedding ring.
“You must know our old friend,” said Hayley, “Paul
Bostock. He’s the editor of El Sol de la Costa.”
“I think you mean Costa del Sol News,” Dennis said.
“Don’t know him, but try ringing the paper,” Mikey
suggested.
Later, the men invited them to lunch.
“There’s a bar just up the beach. They do wonderful
grilled sardines.”
“No harm,” Hayley nudged Dawn. They agreed.
“Why are you here without your husbands?” Mikey asked
after they had finished the first bottle of red wine.
“We won a free holiday,” Hayley began.
The two men looked at each other.
“But it’s turned out to be a self-catering apartment.
Very nice, though.” she continued.
“There seem to be a couple of free meals thrown in and some
trips,” said Dawn, “and there’s going to be a
tour and presentation on Wednesday.”
Dennis and Mikey were grinning.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“Would you fancy going for a drive on Tuesday, Dennis asked.
We could show you our villa. No strings or funny business.”
“OK,” Hayley said, before Dawn had a chance to say anything.
When they got back from the blanket factory Hayley rang the Costa
del Sol News and asked for Paul Bostock. Nobody had heard of him.
They suggested ringing Costa Magazine. Costa Magazine hadn’t
heard of him either.
On Tuesday, the men came to pick them up in the evening. Mikey said.
“We’ve rung some people who might know your friend.”
“Let’s go for some drinks and then we’ll do dinner
at ours,” Dennis said.
Dawn had told Hayley she wasn’t sure about going off with
them. But Hayley said there were two of them and they would be OK.
Anyway, they seemed like nice men and they knew the girls were married.
They sat outside a bar in the port and drank red wine with lemonade
and ice.
“We’re not going to get helpless on this,” Hayley
said to Dawn, who was watching the men in case they slipped anything
in their drinks.
“Wow! This is lovely,” Dawn exclaimed when she stepped
into the marble-floored lounge of the villa. It was small but the
furniture was white leather and a huge plasma TV took up nearly
one wall.
The men cooked steaks on a barbeque and the girls helped with salad.
They drank more red wine, this time without lemonade.
Around ten o’clock, Hayley asked about their friends who might
know Paul.
“Oh, yes,” Dennis said, “we could go and see Larry.”
“What – now?” the girls asked in unison.
They got in the car and Mikey drove.
“He’s had an awful lot of wine,” Hayley told Dawn
as the car hared round bends, climbing upwards into the mountains.
Dawn gripped her seat.
Larry lived on the side of a hill in a white house with a pool.
“Wow!” Hayley said this time, as they were handed glasses
of wine.
“His name’s Paul Bostock and he edits El Sol de la Costa.”
Dawn said. “Only no one’s heard of it,”
“No. Sorry, I was thinking of Paul Rostock,” Larry said,
“but he’s not an editor. Don’t you mean Costa
del Sol News?”
“No, we’ve tried them,” Dawn told him.
“You know, Jim Banks might know. He writes for the Madrid
papers,” Larry said.
They took off in the car again, climbing more steeply now. They
turned down a dirt track on a hairpin bend and dipped down, round
and round, into a deep valley, the car wheezing as it went. Hayley
knew the wine had dulled her senses. She was enjoying the adventure
now. Dawn was still clinging to her seat.
On the valley floor sat a beautiful villa. Coloured lights lit waterfalls
in the grounds. The girls gasped. Jim Banks emerged from a heart-shaped
pool in a tiny pair of pants and several gold chains around his
neck. To Dawn’s relief, they were offered coffee and little
cakes. Mikey and Dennis declined the cakes.
“I haven’t worked for The Record for several months,
but I’ve never come across a Paul Bostock,” he told
them. The little cakes were delicious.
“It’s been very nice of you to help us,” Dawn
told the men, feeling drowsy as she spoke, but we really need to
get back. We have this presentation thing tomorrow.”
The men smiled at each other. Dawn wondered what that meant.
The drive down to the coast was dreamy. Hayley felt she was floating
on air. Dawn stopped gripping her seat. They pulled off the road
onto a small beach.
“Let’s get a little air,” Mikey said, “before
we take you back.”
Dawn wanted to stay in the car. “Come on,” said Hayley.
But when she tried to stand up her legs were jelly. “Dawn,
I think they put something in the wine,” Hayley whispered
in terror.
“S’okay,” Dawn slurred. “I’m too relaxed
to move.”
Dennis came to see where they were. When he saw them, he started
to laugh.
“Wass wrong,” Dawn asked.
“Jim gave you hash cakes,” he said. “You’re
just stoned.”
“You’ve drugged us,” Dawn said, pulling herself
up to her full height, “Don’t think you can take advantage.”
Dennis laughed even more. Mikey came over. “Shall we ravish
them now?” he asked.
Hayley clung to Dawn.
“No problem girl’s,” Mikey said. “We’re
a couple. Didn’t you realize that?”
On Wednesday morning they went to the meeting room. “This
morning we’re going to introduce you to the concept of time-share
holidays,” a young man in a linen suit told them all. “Then
we’ll take you on a tour of the resort.”
“What! – Shall
we miss this bit?” Dawn asked Hayley.
They made for the door but
another young man barred their way. “Sorry, this part is compulsory,”
he told them. The man in the suit was explaining the concept of
buying the right to stay in an apartment for one week per year.
“Only one week a year?”
Dawn said.
“Shhh, please. There
will be time for questions later,” the man at the door said.
“We’re being held
prisoner.” Dawn was irate now.
“Well, you can’t
really ask for your money back,” said Hayley, who was taking
it all in her stride. “It is a free holiday and we have had
fun so far.”
After the tour, where they
saw more luxurious apartments than their own, and lunch, they were
again addressed by the man in the suit, the sales director. He explained,
“If you buy a time-share, you will get other benefits too.
“Well, an extra week’s
holiday in another resort thrown in free,” said Dawn. “Not
bad.”
“In a moment, our sales
team will approach you individually and discuss the finer details
of our offers,” said the sales director.
Two men approached Hayley and
Dawn. From their seats they looked up to see Dennis and Mikey.
“Don’t tell me
they’ve got you hooked in too,” said Hayley. “Why
didn’t you say you were coming today?”
“We work on the sales
team,” Dennis said.
Dawn was furious. “So
you’ve been softening us up?”
Mikey lowered his voice. “Listen,
we couldn’t tell you we were salesmen when we met you. But
we can help you get the best deal out of this now you’re here.”
“You’re joking,”
Dawn said, “Thirty thousand pounds for the pleasure of one
week’s holiday a year. No way!”
“That price isn’t
fixed,” Dennis told her.
That evening, as Dawn and Hayley
sipped their Tequila sunrises in the Karaoke Bar, Dawn was looking
pretty pleased with herself. She had rung Terry at home and Hayley
had rung Jason and, between them, and with the guidance of Mikey
and Dennis, they had managed to get a pretty good deal by using
some money from Jason’s insurance policy, plus Dawn’s
savings from her job. They had one week in Torremolinos, one in
Tenerife and three free holidays like the one they were on to look
forward to, to be shared between the four of them, plus other perks
too. And all for a lot less than thirty thousand pounds.
“Let’s drink to
more time in the sun,” said Dawn.
“The kids will love it,”
Hayley replied.
“And as for Paul Bostock,
I think he was having you on,” Dawn said.
“He couldn’t have
been. I saw the newspaper online, Hayley told her. “Didn’t
you have a look at it?”
“No,” Dawn replied. “I never got round to that.”
Then she jumped up. “There’s
an Internet café next door. Come on.”
They typed in ‘El Sol
de la Costa’ and there it was. There were recipes for enchiladas
and fajitas. There was a report on dyeing and weaving in Tehuantepec.
“No wonder we couldn’t
find him.” Dawn poked Hayley in the ribs. “He’s
in Mexico!”
“How do you know?”
Hayley asked.
“Look at the address
on the web site.”
“Do they have time shares
in Mexico?” Hayley asked.
“This is paradise enough
for me,” Dawn replied.
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