Sun on the Rocks - The Emotion Scale, Page 4

  Chapter Three

  The following day, Clarity had a good breakfast compliment of the Aedes beauty care shop owned by Herbaline, and she read the pamphlet given by Manglove for those who took part in arousal sessions. General tingling under the skin should disappear after a day or two, if the sensation remains, please see one of our beauty care specialists or emoticians. Around ten in the morning, Clarity stepped out of the shop and took one of the Herbaline vans to the Beverly Hills hotel. The general tingling under her skin had disappeared, and her thinking was back to normal. The pool side of the Beverly Hills hotel and the bar and pool area was booked by Herbaline for the whole day. Regular hotel customers had a small area for them, and reception was telling them the event was just an exception, and that they could go to the Pink Flamingo poolside instead, if they wanted more space or less people around.

  The poolside barman, Fred, served a chilled apricot juice to Clarity, while she sat on the bar bench, watching a crew hired by Herbaline connect thick cables and cameras, getting ready to shoot the ad for a new company herbal lotion, 'she is there', meaning that the lotion, or the woman wearing it, made an impression on those around her. Fred had been working at the Beverly Hills hotel for about five years, in various positions, reception, concierge, coffee shop, and maintenance. After finding a book on how to prepare cocktails and noticing his friends liked what he prepared for them when they came home for a barbecue or a chill out lunch or dinner, Fred decided to give bartending a go.

  The barman pointed to a group of people brought in by the Herbaline van from its Orange County building. Some of the faces were familiar to Fred because they came every week. According to him, several people who came to relax at the pool had been living in the Herbaline building for months. Rumor was that there was a confidential project being put in place by the company, and that the official head of the outfit, Lyle Matchett, did not exist.

  "Months, living in a company building, you know, that's kind of strange."

  "What do you think is going on?" Asked Clarity.

  "Someone else may be pulling the strings in that place, it's not a normal place."

  He turned and glanced at a group of several people who were talking about the ad. One of the men in the group, a former car salesman, came to the pool every four or five days and usually had a drink at the bar, every time giving a tip to Fred of five dollars more than the previous time. After several weeks of this routine, Fred was getting about fifty dollars to prepare a drink from the former salesman. He showed Clarity a crisp one hundred dollar bill, which he took out of the cash drawer. The day before, a group of four Herbaline employees had chipped in that one hundred dollar bill. Herbaline was a place where the workers made money, and that was something suspicious to Fred.

  Clarity pulled aside the former car salesman, Grohn Jameson, inviting him to a drink prepared by Fred.

  "Oh, you went to the emotician lab, I've never been there." Clarity commented on the fact that there was no portrait of the company head, the current president and general manager, Lyle Matchett, available to those wanting to work for the company.

  "Have you seen Lyle Matchett?" She asked.

  "No, not many people have seen him, he's very busy."

  "You're ok with that?"

  "Yeah, some things are confidential at Herbaline, you just go on with your business and no one bothers you." Clarity stayed with Grohn exchanging small talk and the man invited her to the poolside for a drink. All the lounge chairs were taken except four. Grohn took two of them and offered one to Clarity. They exchanged experiences, listening to some mellow music. After a couple of hours, Clarity probed Grohn for a question that was hovering around in her mind.

  "Why are you working in this place, at Herbaline?" Grohn looked away, then pulled his lounge chair closer.

  "Good perks, I need a job, this place works."

  A woman dressed in a flowery dress, Susan, a former head of sales at a small wireless and cable communications company, approached Grohn. She sat on one of the remaining chairs and glanced briefly at Clarity. Grohn nodded, explaining that Clarity had been to the emotician lab. It was ok to share information about the company with her. Susan pointed to the empty lounge chair.

  "Ambi is not coming today," said Susan, "she refuses to go through company procedure and be involved with this ad and the new project, she just wants to leave the company. Stive called in person from Cayman the other day, to tell her she had to go back to the Orange County building. I think the van took her back, that's why she's not at the pool today. The driver said this poolside chair should remain empty." Grohn frowned, but wasn't completely surprised by hearing the news.

  "Yeah, well, if she didn't follow the procedures, that's normal."

  "Grohn, I'm not sure she'll be able to leave this place."

  Susan showed him an article, taken from a lesser known news site on the web, saying that there was an information gathering order placed on Herbaline from the bureau of business legitimacy and the federal trade commission, which questioned the business practices of the company.

  "Right, and?"

  "This is not good, Grohn, I'm not sure about Matchett, it's sort of strange we never see him or his picture. I think the rumors may be true. There may be no Lyle Matchett, there just may be this thing people call the hierarchy hemisphere ruling Herbaline and what it does, and deciding about all the people working there." Herbaline logo included a snow globe, and Susan thought this secretive group known as the hierarchy hemisphere completed the globe, making a full sphere.

  "Just want a job, Susan, it doesn't change much," said Grohn, "this is not a bad place, gives out a lot of perks." Susan ignored the answer and lowered her shades.

  Around seven PM, the crew filming the ad left the hotel and people began to leave the pool in small groups assigned to several Herbaline shuttles. Grohn said to Clarity they had to go back to the Herbaline building, which is where they were staying to complete surveys requested by the company.

  "You're staying in their building?" Asked Clarity.

  "Yeah, been there a few weeks, hoping for permanent employment, there's a trial and testing period, filling out surveys and interpreting them, then the company decides if they wanna hire you. You coming?"

  "I'll think about it," said Clarity. She texted her friend Lanai, letting her know that she should meet her at the Beverly Hills poolside right then and there. She wanted to be sure someone else knew where she was and what she was doing at Herbaline.

  The driver of the last Herbaline shuttle showed up at seven forty five in the evening to do one last round at the pool before getting back to the Orange County building. He had received clear instructions to leave the pool with anyone who had talked to the prospective group of employees. He walked towards Clarity, who was the only person remaining in the pool, and gave her a brief head to toe look.

  "You coming?"

  "Yeah," said Clarity. Clarity followed the driver and stepped into the van, followed by Lanai, who hopped in at the last minute, after insistently telling the hotel receptionist that she was a friend of one of the people in the van. Clarity breathed deeply with a sense of relief.

  "You made your way here," said Clarity.

  "I was finishing an article on Mayan and Egyptian similarities in culture and pyramid construction, that Miss Marples wants to put on the Malibu library page."

  The driver slid the door closed with a loud bang and left the familiar pick-up area of the Beverly Hills hotel. They were the only two people in the van.

  "Where are we headed?" Asked Lanai.

  "Orange County."

  Noticing that the driver lifted his head when Clarity began talking, the Malibu teleoperator stopped talking and began texting Lanai about what she knew from her poolside conversation. Her friend read the messages and remained silent but looked at Clarity somewhat apprehensively, like saying to Clarity that she was getting her into a new kind of trouble and she should have known of it before getting into a van heading to a company
building in the evening. Clarity dismissed her friend's slightly worried look and rested her head comfortably on the van seat, watching the evening traffic along the four oh five highway. She wasn't completely comfortable with all that she had seen in the past two days, but she wanted to know what Herbaline did under the official cover of a health company.