~The Recipe~
~Kendrick Lamar~
•••
"I'm a whole ass wreck and a half." I yawned, looking in the mirror and slightly rubbing my eyes. It was like 4:45 in the morning and I was taking my rollers out and getting ready to do something to my face so I at least didn't look like I had been crying in my sleep.
I had my phone playing music low so it wouldn't wake up Steve, but loud enough for me to feel the vibe of Kanye's 'Graduation' phase.
I made sure to pack anything that would entertain me during the nine-hour flight--my tablet complete with all of my Star Wars and Batman movies including Batman vs. Superman (because Henry Cavill was a god), my chess board, and a multilingual encyclopedia that I was required to have for my job.
I wanted to say goodbye to Steve but I didn't know if he was angry with me...or if I was angry with him. I didn't think I was...there was no reason to be but lately, I'd just been angry with everyone. Including myself.
Just to be safe, I taped a small little yellow note to his door.
'Back on Sunday. Have a little fun when I'm gone; but not too much and definitely not in the apartment.
Kisses, xx, RB...
Post Scriptum, please record The Walking Dead for me'
I scrawled a little cute smiley face on the bottom of the note and partially pretended that it would magically heal the cracks before there was a knock on my door.
I went to go open it and there stood two large men, clad in professional looking suits complete with a single clear curly earbud that lead somewhere into their jackets and a pair of sunglasses. They were both quite tall, though one was a white man maybe in his mid-twenties, early thirties with wavy dark brown hair, the other was an African American man possibly in his mid-thirties with neatly trimmed slightly curly hair and neatly trimmed beard. His ID badge read William Blakely.
"Good morning Ms. Bennett." The other one spoke with politeness but without any hint of a smile. "My name is Agent Dennis. This is Agent Blakely." He gestured his head back to the other one before looking back at me.
I gave a polite smile. "Good Morning." I looked back. "Let me just grab my coat and bags, I'll--"
"We can take your bags down for you." Agent Dennis nodded and I momentarily looked at him funny. "There's no need for that. I think I'll be fine." I gave a small smile that at least one person could tell meant I was irate.
Dennis visibly took a breath. He probably somehow knew that I was gonna be resistant for quite a moment.
Secret service detail was not my thing. I had it at least twice when I was a little kid and I hated every moment of it.
Still, Dennis insisted on their assistance and now they were carrying my backpack, suitcase, and my work bag downstairs to the huge and not at all conspicuous black Cadillac in front of the complex.
I sighed, gathering my coat and purse and looked back towards Steve's room one more time before closing the door and locking it.
"Rachel?" Mrs. Johnson's frail voice startled the hell out of me and I dropped my keys and looked over at the old woman looking at me with confusion from her doorway.
"Mrs. Johnson, wow, hi." I put my hand on my chest. I leaned down to pick up my keys.
"Who were those men?" She asked. "Where's Steven?"
I shook my head, slightly amused. The elderly woman had grown accustomed to Steven following me around everywhere I went so it must have worried her just a little to see me leaving early in the morning with two men clad in important looking suits and sunglasses. "Mrs. Johnson I'm going somewhere for my job. Steve isn't going with me."
"Oh...why not?" She inquired. I took a small breath and let it out with a small exhausted smile. "It's...far. Brazil." I shrugged as I finished locking my door, adjusting my hat. "Don't worry, I'm not leaving forever," I said. "Everyone seems to think I am." I muttered.
"Dear, I meant to ask..." she stepped farther out of her doorway and I glanced at her.
"How are you? I mean your family, how is your family doing?" She asked slowly.
I paused momentarily before putting my keys in my purse. I forgot that I'd told her about my mother. "They're fine." I replied shortly, taking a small breath. "She's fine, they're fine, I'm fine, everything's fine, it's fine." I muttered, pulling my hat lower as I turned away from her. "I have to go, Mrs. J. It was lovely speaking to you." I walked away without looking back, rude of me, it felt. Regrettably.
Stepping down the snow-covered stone stairs of the building, I watched as Agent Blakey opened the car door for me, standing beside it professionally. The sun was just beginning to rise.
I nodded in thanks as I climbed into the back seat. It was a very attractive vehicle, black leather complete with the miniature television monitor below the divider between the front and back seat.
"Are you ready, Ms. Bennett?" Agent Dennis inquired from the driver's seat through the window, looking at me in the rearview mirror.
I gave a brief nod before looking out the window at my well-lit apartment complex as we pulled off. Small white specks began falling from the sky and attaching themselves to the window and I creased my eyebrows.
Pressing the button to roll up the divider window between myself and the servicemen, I took out my phone and dialed Genesis' number.
It rung for a few moments before there was a click and an exhausted and unintelligible greeting on the other side of the line.
"Genesis." I said, dryly.
There was a pause then a yawn. "Rachel, it's seven AM, you know I have three kids. What's up?"
I didn't speak for a moment. "Genesis, I'm going to Brazil."
It was completely silent on the other end, aside from the shifting of the covers on her bed as she sat up. "You're what?"
"I'm going to Brazil." I repeated, slowing down. "For a few days."
Again it was quiet, though I could hear the creaking of the bed and the patter of her feet on the wood floor walking quietly to avoid waking anyone. "Rachel, are you fucking crazy? Our mother is dying and you're going on vacation?" She said in a hushed whisper. I slightly clenched my jaw and looked away. "Genesis, please watch what you say."
"Watch what I say? Watch what I--"
"I'm going to Brazil for my job. I have to work. It is important." I said with my teeth grit. "I called you so you wouldn't have a fucking heart attack." I said with slightly grit teeth. "If there's anything you need, then call Roxy. I told her what was happening yesterday."
There was a pause and now I was sure that we were both frustrated. "You're making this so much harder than it already is." I could tell her eyes were closed and she was trying not to yell or cry.
Wow.
I gave a small grunt. "I'll be back on Tuesday." I said dryly before removing the phone from my ear, hanging up and tossing it on the seat beside me.
Petty. I rolled my eyes. My siblings were a mess. My dad was a mess. Hell, everyone knew I was a mess, I'd been a mess since before I could even speak. The point was, my family was in shambles. There was nothing to do about it but wait for the inevitable.
"Wow, how'd you get to be so damn positive, Rachel?" I sarcastically and semi dramatically asked myself, looking out the window.
It took a half hour to get to the air base and another half hour for that damn jet to take off. As much as I'm on planes, instead of growing accustomed to them, my love for flying had always decreased.
To pass the time, I'd engaged in a very interesting game of chess with Agent Blakely. It turned out that he was very skilled and suddenly that one game turned into six. I also spent that time learning a bit about him--he
could speak some very good French. It caught me by surprise when he asked me out of nowhere how long I'd been speaking it myself. As it turned out, he learned from his French Canadian grandfather at a young age. He also disclosed that he became a secret service man because after being in the navy for seventeen years, what could you do?
Clark Dennis, however, was a much harder case to crack. In fact, he barely cracked at all. He didn't seem to smile much. He took his job maybe a little too seriously.
"Hour..." I looked down at my watch. "Six and you still haven't eaten, drunk anything, or used the bathroom. You are quite a man of reserve." I said, sitting across from him. He didn't turn to look at me, he just continued to stare out the window. I quirked an eyebrow. "I admire that. Kind of." I shrugged, but still no reaction. My eyebrows creased. As I'd seen before, he was kind of young for a position like this, and not to mention a little attractive. Just a smidge.
"How long have you been a Government Official Bodyguard, Agent Dennis? I mean I'm only asking because you look kind of young for a..." his face turned towards me and I stopped talking. He stared at me and I took a deep breath.
"You started as a government intern during college at Howard. They figured since you could speak anything they asked you to, they figured they could hire you as a junior consultant...but you were better than they thought. A young woman your age with a salary like that isn't a force to be reckoned with." He spoke dryly and I looked at him blankly.
"You really really take your job seriously..." I muttered. He didn't say anything else, he just looked back out the window.
I sat away from him for the last two hours of the flight.
Brazil was especially hot, by the time of stepped off the plane I already felt like I was dying of heat stroke. In the car, they had the air on blast and I had to put my hair up and strip a few layers.
If I'd have been more fucking weather prepared, then Mr. President wouldn't have to see his translator sweating from just standing there.
Rio de Janeiro was the prettiest place I'd ever been in my life. I'd been there a total of nine times in the span of it, it was safe to say I know it moderately well.
The hotel that we were to be staying at-- A Maravilha was one that I was indeed accustomed to. It overlooked what I thought was the most beautiful part of Rio--Praia da Barra da Tijuca. Tijuca Beach. My parents took me there all of the time when I was young. It became my favorite place.
Because most of the Summit's participants were staying at the hotel and the Summit was, in fact, being held there, the security was crazy hectic. Government officials from all around the world were in attendance. The flourish of languages was a bit overwhelming. I sat in the packed lobby for a whole hour and a half, jet-lagged as Lord only knew what, and extremely bored. The most of the buzz I could pick up was Korean and Japanese. Korea and Japan were probably very important in the Summit.
"Can I go outside?" I asked Agent Dennis, not meaning to whine.
"No." He answered simply and let out a sigh and sat back in my chair.
"Senhorita Bennett?" I heard and I looked up at the sound of a sweet Portuguese voice. A concierge was smiling down at me and I gave a half smile back. "Seu quarto está pronto." She said politely, holding out a key and a lanyard containing a pass with my ID photo on it. I gave a sigh of relief. "Muito obrigado." I thanked her, standing up and stretching my back a little.
A little beside, me a Japanese woman--I wasn't sure of her position--gave me a look before muttering to another woman beside her. "Tsune ni kare raga yoku shi imonowo toku ru."
I creased an eyebrow and returned a look. She raised her eyebrows, not knowing I heard what she said.
Always getting what they want. Meaning Americans.
I looked down at my lanyard and tapped the American flag and looked back up. "Oh us Americans." I sighed, slightly shaking my head. "Anataha nan wo kou ukotogadekimasu." I shrugged.
What can you do?
I mockingly (only a little bit) bowed. "Sayounara." What a Bitch.
Dennis, though not knowing what I said completely, looked at me disapprovingly as we neared the elevator. "I'm sorry. I get mean when I'm tired." I said sheepishly as we stepped into the elevator with two other secret service men. Their badges said Italy. I looked up at them and smiled. They did not smile at me but they did nod at Dennis and Blakely. Apparently, secret service was like a secret little fraternity.
We arrived at my room which was on the second to highest floor. Apparently, since America was the most powerful nation of the free world, they put President Thompson in the first Presidential Suite which meant his people stayed on the top suite floor.
I collapsed onto one of the beds face first before letting out a loud groan. My room had a wonderful view of the beach, but I was too tired.
"Your meeting with the president is in three hours, Miss Bennett. Remember to carry around your ID badge with you at all times. That is your pass into the Summit." Blakely said, putting my bags on the other bed.
"Okay..." I said loosely.
The Agents left and I sat up. I looked over at the balcony where there were beautiful plants to make it look more beachy.
I groaned and looked around the big room, trying to remember aspects of the Maravilha that I liked when I was around years ago.
I looked up. The floor above was the rec floor. The pool. I wasn't always quite sure on why it was on the top floor but it was a beautiful pool.
I changed into my swimsuit--I tried not to bring a bikini--and grabbed my ID and room key, treading to the upstairs pool.
It was empty, much to my relief and I got in.
My mom taught me how to swim in this pool, believe it or not.
In the deep side, I looked out the window at the sun nearly beginning to fall down behind the mountains.
The tale of the sun and the moon, she taught me.
"The sun loved the moon so much...that he died every night just so she could shine. It's a story about love and sacrifice."
Love and sacrifice.
What did I know about love or sacrifice? People sacrificed parts of themselves for me every day.
What was the last thing I sacrificed for someone?
I was in the very deep side of the pool now, hanging on to the side, watching the sun disappear behind the mountain.
"Você está perdido na tradução, you stupid girl." My words were a mutter, soft and bitter.
My hands slipped from the edge and I let myself sink below the surface and deep into the abyss.
•••