Page 16 of Goodbye To Tomorrow

"Someone is at the door; go check who it is." She said, burying her head further into the pillows.

I slowly and reluctantly stood up and staggered towards the door, counting my steps to wake me up.

"Who is it?" I said with an amount of sullenness in my voice as I tried to fight the sleep in my eyes.

"Room service, Sir," the voice inaudibly came from the other side, being padded by the thick wooden door.

The unlocking sound of the door lock came, and in one lazy pull, the door opened.

"Good morning, Sir, I am very sorry to have disturbed your sleep. I came to get your order for breakfast, Sir." The server said with a mild accent, stretching out his hand to offer me a menu.

I grabbed the list with my right hand and brushed my sleepy eyes slowly, with my left, before scanning through the list.

"We will have the continental breakfast," I informed him finally, handing over the menu to the young man.

"Thank you, Sir," he replied as he started to walk away.

I shut the door and sluggishly walked back to the bed.

"Room service wanted to know what we wanted for breakfast." I whispered into her ear before falling back to sleep.

About an hour later, two young beautiful ladies in server uniforms brought in our meal. Lazily, we got out of bed, having been interrupted for the second time that morning. Gracen and I took turns in having our bath to freshen up. The day began slowly; we were in no hurry to start up our fun trip due the previous day's exhaustion.

We ate our breakfast together. We chit chatted about how we would set out to get a feel for this part of the world. We unpacked and had a quick little nap. Evening came quickly. Dressing casually, stepped out for the first time since we arrived at the hotel. First thing that caught our attention was how busy it was outside; there were lots of guests around at different sections of the buildings, most of whom took pictures of the different wonders of the 5-star hotel nestled near the ski slope. We marveled at the number of people and how quiet it seemed from inside our room.

Gracen had her camera hung around her neck but she was more interested in watching than in snapping pictures. I could see the excitement on her face as we walked passed different attractions.

“It’s beautiful here; I can now see why a lot of people come to these mountains." Gracen said aloud.

“I agree,” I replied as we arrived in the large lobby that led outside. We were greeted by an opulence of creativity in arts and technology. The scenery was an interesting blend of both past and present; a gentle passageway between tradition and the present.

In a matter of minutes, Gracen was focusing and clicking her camera in an uncontrollable impulse to preserve precious memories of our excursion. The views were amazing to say the least, with top-notch and state-of-the-art facilities, specially designed to leave indelible prints in the memories of whoever visited.

We soon found an instructor who doubled as a guide. He gave us an extensive tour of some of the mountain slopes as well as a breakdown of Big Sky mountain history. Gracen snapped away.

After two hours playing tourist, we decided it was time to retire to our rooms for the evening. We generously tipped our elderly tour guide, who told us about tomorrow’s games. He suggested that we join in; that night we ordered room service because we were both too exhausted to do anything else.

*****

The next day was Saturday and we headed off to the games. They were being held in an indoor arena where the noise level was high due to the large crowd; all dressed in sportswear fit for the occasion.

Gracen and I joined the crowd at the indoor arena. The master of ceremonies was already speaking into a wired microphone from an upper level booth.

"Like I said, Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to our games and get-together events organized by the Hotel’s crew.”

“We are going to kick-start the events with a quick jog around the three-mile track from this end to that end and back,” he announced, gesturing with his hands

"Warm up people! Warm up!" His voice bounced around the arena as he did his best to cajole people.

The visibly excited crowd in our section began to jog, some lazily, others excitedly. Soon after, we were back to the initial spot panting for breath, amidst loud music blasting from the speakers.

"Don't worry; there is enough Boost and glucose to go around," The MC teased as the crowd gathered once more.

"It looks like some of you may need it," he hinted as he burst into a round of laughter. Some of the runners joined in on the good-natured jesting.

"As you can see people, there is a marked-out session for the events; please do not cross the line," the announcer cautioned.

"There will be a volleyball match, indoor soccer and lots of other exciting games. We are going to start off with a couple sprints. Volunteers please!" He screamed at the top of his voice into the microphone, trying to transfer his excitement across to the competitors.

---