Storm of Life

While sitting on a balcony on the second floor of the La Vida Tropics resort in the Dominican Republic, Kalina Brooks is in deep thought about her recently failed relationship. “It’s been seven months since me and Patrick broke up. It’s been a long road getting back to myself and it hasn’t been easy, but I’m slowly getting there. I cried a lot of tears, went through my stages of grief…well, the majority of them anyway. Part of me is getting back in the rhythm of life, but another part of me is still missing, what is it?”

Kalina looked at the sunrise in the distance. On this morning the sky was partly sunny and partly cloudy and she felt like there was a deeper meaning behind the sky in front of her. As the wind blew lightly she looked down at the many people on the shore of the beach below. She saw families laughing and frolicking on the beach in a way that warmed her heart, but saddened her at the same time. It really did put a smile on her face to see so many families laughing and enjoying each other’s company. The sight of love and joy always brought her joy, but she could not help but feel sad about not having that same love in her life.

“This really is beautiful.” Kalina thought to herself. “These husbands and wives and sons and daughters all look so happy. I bet their time here will be memories that they treasure forever. I only wonder why my life hasn’t went the same way. I mean, everything was great at one point. I was engaged, I was faithful, and we were happy. How did everything go left? Why did things change between me and Patrick? Why did we grow apart? Why couldn’t we have stayed together?”

As many lingering painful thoughts raced through her mind, Kalina’s eyes slowly became teary. All she could think about was how unfair her life seemed over the past year. While glaring blankly in the distance her train of thought was interrupted by a knock on her room door. When she got up to answer the door she was greeted by what she thought was a handsome bellhop with confused look on his face. “Hi.” the man started. “Sorry to bother you but-.” Before he could finish he was interrupted by Kalina. “Um listen, I appreciate the hospitality cutie pie, but I don’t need any room service right now.” She then proceeded to close the door, but the man put his hand in front of the door to stop her. “Um no, that’s not why I’m here.” he began.

“Well why are you here?” Kalina asked with a slightly confused look on her face. The man extended his hand to Kalina and revealed a ring. “I saw you left this on one of the dining tables down at the bar. One of the managers of the resort told me he knew you and that this was the room I would find you in.” “Carl.” Kalina started. “He’s known me and my family forever and he knows I come here a lot and stay in the same room every time. He also knows that I left that ring on purpose so I don’t know why he told you where I was so you could bring it to me.” Kalina took the ring from the man as he stood with a curious look on his face. “I don’t get it.” He started. “That looks like a wedding ring. Why would you leave it.” “What’s your name?” Kalina asked the man. “Gabriel. Gabriel Price.” He replied.

“Well Gabriel, this was actually my engagement ring from last year. Me and the man who was supposed to be my groom to be broke up earlier this year.” “Oh…well I’m sorry to hear that.” Gabriel replied. “I appreciate that Gabriel, but I’m dealing with it.” There was a brief moment of silence between Gabriel and Kalina. Gabriel stared sharply at Kalina with his head tilted downward while Kalina was looking at the engagement ring in her hand and stroked the ring between her fingers. “Can I ask you a question?” Gabriel started. “Sure.” Kalina replied. “Why have you still been holding on to your ring all this time if your marriage isn’t happening and your relationship is over?” “Old habits die hard, mr. Gabriel.” Kalina said dismissively.

As the dialogue between Kalina and Gabriel seemingly concluded a female voice came on over the intercom located on the room’s ceiling: “Attention guest of the La Vida, we need everyone to report to the resort lobby immediately.” Kalina and Gabriel simultaneous looked at each other with a look of confusion. “Would you like to walk with me down to the lobby?” Gabriel asked. “Sure, why not?!” Kalina replied. They both left the room together side by side and made their way to the elevator down the hall. “So what brings you to the La Vida, mr. Gabriel?” Kalina asked. “I’m just here on a personal retreat. Ten years ago I met my wife here on a business trip and today is the ten year anniversary of when we first met.” Kalina looked straight ahead and shook her head in understanding. “That sounds romantic, where is the lucky lady?” Kalina asked. “She died two years ago.” Gabriel responded. His response struck such a powerful cord with Kalina that she stopped walking. “Oh wow!” Kalina began. “I’m so sorry to hear that. Here I am complaining about my problems and you’ve been through worse.”

“It’s ok, Kalina. We all have a struggle and yours isn’t any less worse than mine.” Gabriel’s words made Kalina feel better, even though his relationship ordeal was worse. During the short time they walked in the elevator Kalina stared Gabriel down with admiration. He seemed like such a strong and positive spirited person. When the elevator made it to the ground floor it opened to a packed lobby of what looked like hundreds of guest talking busily among each other. Standing on a podium by the entrance was the resort’s manage trying to get everyone’s attention. “Ladies and gentlemen may I please have your attention. We’ve just received word that tropical storm Brenda is gonna be throwing some of her landfall this way shortly.” The guest all gasped in awe while talking amongst each other. “I know, I’m sorry.” The manager started. “We weren’t expecting to get hit and we were told that the storm was gonna pass us but now it looks like we’re gonna catch some of its shrapnel. So we want everyone to collect their families and head to you rooms and stay there until the storm passes over. This resort was built as a sturdy building meant to be able to take on storms and hurricanes, it’s gonna be a rocky road, but we will make it, now off with you. Head on back to your rooms.”

The crowd started to disperse as everyone headed back to their rooms. “Well I guess you’ll be getting back to your alone time.” Gabriel joked. “How bout you?” Kalina asked. “Well ms. Kalina I’m alone in my room too.” As the two started to part ways Kalina suddenly had a thought. “You know, Gabe. If you want you can join me in my room since we’ll both be alone. I kinda could use the company.” Gabriel looked back at Kalina with a smile. “Sure Kalina, I’ll let you lead the way.” Kalina and Gabriel walked back to the elevator in an awkward silence with smiles on their faces, trying not to make eye contact with one another. There was a spark between the two that they did not want to acknowledge, but they both knew it was going to happen eventually. The elevator opened back up to the third floor where both Kalina and Gabriel looked out the hallway windows and noticed the sky becoming ominously dark with clouds.

“Wow, look how dark it is!” Kalina started in amazement. “Yeah you can tell the storm front is movin in-“ before Gabriel could finish his statement he and Kalina witnessed a great bolt of lightning shoot from the cloudy sky and touch the earth, followed by a loud clap of thunder. “Come on, let’s get inside.” Gabriel said with haste. Kalina and Gabriel finally made it back inside Kalina’s room. “Guess we’re really in for it.” Kalina chuckled. “I hope this thing passes us by quickly. “This is one way to have a vacation ruined.”

What started off as a somber tone of a getaway trip had now become plagued with worry of the storm that was approaching the resort. Kalina and Gabriel both sat down looking out the window and periodically glanced back at each other. “Gabriel, can I ask you a question?” Kalina started. “Sure.” Gabriel replied. “How…did your wife pass away?” Kalina asked hesitantly. There was a sharp moment of silence before Gabriel took a deep breath. “It was a car accident, Kalina. It was a rainy day and she started hydroplaning on the way home from night school and she went off the road, died instantly.”

“Gabriel.” Kalina began. “I can’t even imagine how awful that must’ve been for you.” The silence between Kalina and Gabriel was suddenly broken by the sound of heavy rainfall. Kalina and Gabriel stood up and looked out of the room window fixated on how heavier the rainfall was getting. Seeing how frightened Kalina was becoming from the ensuing storm, Gabriel pressed forward with their conversation. "Can I ask you a question, Kalina?" "Yeah...sure." Kalina replied reluctantly. "Why did you and your fiancé break up?" As Kalina prepared herself to answer Gabriel's question the wind outside of the room door began to pick up and the rain became gusty.

"Well. We were headed in different directions in our lives. His career was taking him to New York and mines was keeping me in Ohio-" "Ohio!?" Gabriel exclaimed while cutting her off. "I'm from Ohio too." A bolt of sky to land lightning struck, followed by a loud bang of thunder. Kalina was frightened, but did her best to focus on her conversation with Gabriel. "W-well..." Kalina began while trembling. "Columbus. Small world." Gabriel chuckled. "I'm from Cleveland." Kalina responded with a smile of interest. During their moment of somber joy the building they were surrounded by began to shake. With both of them looking around, Gabriel and Kalina both began to grow in worry. It was becoming clear that the storm was getting worse.

Kalina's belongings began to fall on the floor of the room as she shrieked in terror, yet she was still compelled to finish her conversation with Gabriel. "I thought we were going to be together forever, but we let disagreement tear us apart. It just makes me feel like love isn't worth it or I just wasn't meant to have it.” As Kalina fell over from the shaking caused by the storm, Gabriel stepped forward and caught her. "Kalina, life takes some unexpected twist and turns. You both did what you thought was best and maybe being apart really was best." "What are you? the expert?" Kalina asked angrily. "Actually, I kinda am." Gabriel replied. The heavy rain that had gusted their window for minutes was suddenly replaced by what sounded like rocks hitting the building. "Oh no!" Kalina started. "Its hail." Gabriel finished.

The room window was then shattered by the force of the wind gust mixed with hail. Kalina and Gabriel both screamed out loud as they quickly ran towards the bathroom door. As they made it inside the bathroom they could hear screams in the hallway from the other side of the wall. “Are you ok?” Gabriel asked Kalina. “Yes.” Kalina replied. “Did you hear the screams? I hope everyone else is ok.” “They will be.” Gabriel began. “It’ll all be over soon, we’re just gettin a small piece of the chaos.” “Sounds like our love lives.” Kalina said angrily. Gabriel focused on her inquisitively. “Kalina what do you mean by that?”. “You know what I mean, Gabe. What happened to us wasn’t fair. I lost the man I loved and you lost the woman you loved for unfair reasons. Look at us, we’re in pain and we’ve been in pain for a long time, yet it seems like the good times we had just came and went, it’s not right…it’s just not right.”

Kalina began to tear up again amidst the sound of hail and thunder that was rocking the building. Gabriel, who was previously fixated on the impact of the storm could now only think about Kalina’s pain and how relatable it was to him. “I know exactly what you mean, Kalina, I really do, but as hard as these storms of life seem, we have to have faith in a silver lining. We have to believe that there’s beauty in these ashes.” “And what if there is no beauty in these ashes?” Kalina asked. Gabriel took both of her hands and looked her in the eyes. “Then atleast we can say we tried.” The shaking and hail that was impacting their building suddenly started to pick up even heavier than before. While staring hard at each other with glimmers of hope in their eyes, Kalina and Gabriel embraced one another and held each other as tight as they could, bracing themselves for what seemed like a forceful impact coming upon them.

In the peak of their terror, what they thought was going to be a big bang slowly started to turn into calm. The storm was now subsiding. The hail started to slow down, the thunder was becoming quieter, and the lightning was becoming less frequent. This was it, the storm was over. As the room became silent Gabriel was mentally preparing himself to get up and go assess the damage on the other side of the door, but quickly realized that Kalina was still hugging him tightly and would not let him go. He was caught off guard by her embrace of him, but at the same time he subtly was enjoying her embrace, lightly cracking a smile over her shoulder. When Kalina finally released him she looked upon Gabriel’s face with a smile of relief. “Are you ok?” Gabriel asked her. “I’m fine, how bout you?” Kalina asked. “I’m more than fine.” Gabriel replied with a smile on his face, staring into her eyes.

Gabriel helped Kalina to her feet as they left the bathroom. When they stepped back into the room they saw a big mess. Kalina’s belongings had been knocked over and scattered every which way around the room and there were fragments of hail all over the place. “Quite a mess.” Gabriel chuckled. “At least we’re still alive.” Kalina replied gratefully. Gabriel and Kalina could then hear a lot of voices outside the room door and went to investigate. When they left the room they saw more devastation, but also saw dozens of guest celebrating in the hallway. They were all happy that they had just survived this storm. Everyone then began applauding as if they had just seen an amazing broadway musical. Kalina and Gabriel then left the crowd and walked back into Kalina’s room.

“You’re right. This is gonna be quite the mess to clean up.” Kalina laughed. “No matter, I’ll give you a hand.” Gabriel rebuttaled. “And if I’m not being too forward, maybe after this mess, I can take you to dinner later.” Kalina simply looked up and gave Gabriel a smile, to which he smiled back.

10 Years Later

On a warm summer Friday evening a van driven by a valet pulled up in front of the newly remodeled La Vida Tropics resort. The driver was accompanied by a family of four in the back seats. When the van came to a complete stop the family began to exit the vehicle, starting with two children. “Greg come on.” said the little girl. “I’m coming Kelly.” replied the little boy hastily. Coming out of the van behind Greg and Kelly were their parents, Gabriel Price and Kalina Brooks-Price. “Y’all stop runnin’ so fast.” Kalina said while Gabriel helped her out of the van. “Y’all heard your mother, slow it down.” Gabriel added. Gabriel and Kalina both looked up at the building with joy in their hearts. “Glad to be back in our favorite place?” Gabriel asked with a smile. “Wouldn’t have it any other way.” Kalina replied.

The family made their way up to their room. It was the same room where Kalina and Gabriel first met each other. When they entered the room the kids automatically put their bags down and started jumping on the room’s beds in excitement. Kalina and Gabriel both went to the balcony together and embraced each other as they looked out at the beautiful sunset. “The greatest day of my life was finding you here ten years ago.” Kalina said with a smile. Gabriel then kissed her forehead and looked in her eyes. “And I will forever bless the day that we found each other.”