The sunseeker (standard:travel stories, 1902 words)
Author: Lev821	Added: Feb 22 2017	Views/Reads: 2171/1477	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Everywhere they go, the same tourist shows up. Who is he?

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story

away from a harbour, and there he was, on the shore, standing amongst 
those waving at people on the ship, but he wasn't waving, and Jaqueline 
guessed he was looking directly at them. 

Without answers, they knew they had to accept that he would be there at
some point, and wondered if they should approach him at all. Keith 
decided that he would try and find out who he was, and when they were 
on their next holiday in China, they were standing at Guangzhou's pearl 
river dock, waiting to board the overnight boat to Wuzhou when out 
there on the river, a man was driving a dinghy, with one passenger, 
with his yellow hawaiian shirt and mirrored sunglasses. Keith knew 
there was no way to talk to him, as the boat disappeared away beyond 
the corner of a small building, and he knew he wouldn't see him again 
until the next holiday. 

Soon after they had arrived at Ivato international airport in
Madagascar, they had taken a taxi to their hotel, and halfway there 
Keith had spotted the tourist simply walking along the pavement. 'Stop' 
he had said 'Stop the car,' the driver looking confused, yet the car 
was going slow enough to simply get out anyway, which is what Keith 
did, much to Jaqueline's surprise. The driver was surprised also, 
thinking he was trying to get away without paying, and got out of the 
car himself and started shouting at Keith who was standing in the 
middle of the road, trying to see the tourist who had gone, vanished 
into the streets. A couple of vehicles beeped their horns and Keith 
sheepishly made his way back into the taxi with an annoyed driver, 
knowing that for the duration of that holiday, he wouldn't see the 
tourist again. 

For their next excursion, warm clothes was the order of the day as they
headed up into the Arctic for an icebreaker cruiseship tour in the seas 
of Greenland, and in the middle of their ten day trip they stopped to 
walk one mile across the ice towards a designated wildlife viewing 
spot, overlooking the sea, where several chairs had been laid out and 
guides would talk to them about the animals. There may be seals that 
would come and say hello, and perhaps a few Beluga whales entertaining 
them as the cameras clicked away. 

However, on this particular trip, as they were heading towards the
viewing spot, icy snowy wind began to make an appearance, so much so 
that it made the people in front of them hard to see, but they saw 
enough that as the other people disappeared from view, they didn't seem 
to acknowledge the intensifying weather, yet it was enough for Keith 
and Jaqueline to stop. 

Through the blizzard, he emerged, still in his hawaiian shirt with his
sunglasses and flip-flops. The storm didn't seem to be affecting him at 
all. Keith and Jaqueline just stared at him. He then turned and walked 
back, stopping a little further ahead to check if they would follow. 
Keith and Jaqueline looked at each other, then at him, then began to 
walk towards him. The man walked deeper on into the icy storm. The 
blizzard seemed to get worse but they ploughed on through, the tourist 
stopping every now and then to look back at them, until after around 
ten minutes the large looming maw of an ice cave emerged in front of 
them. They watched as the tourist disappeared into it, and followed 
him. 

They came out of the icy wind, the snow howling past the entrance and
looked at each other again as if the other had answers to unasked 
questions. 

Jaqueline shrugged and walked into the cave. It wasn't dark, the walls
were icy blue, glistening, and they only walked in around forty metres 
to find not the tourist, but an elderly man, sitting on a rocking 
chair, staring at them. 

They could hear the storm outside and they could hear the slow squeaking
of the chair. 

"Mr Shaw" said Keith. The man just looked at them, a look of
disappointment on his face, in his wrinkled brown suit. "Befrienders" 
said the man, standing up. He slowly slid forward, and they saw his 
eyes were black, his mouth opening wider than normal for nothing to 
emerge. He raised his arms towards them, but Keith and Jaqueline saw 
that they had turned into snakes, writhing pythons, and it was too late 
to turn and run when the snakes sunk their fangs into their throats. 

Venom, or some kind of fluid flowed into their bloodstreams, and when it
found its way into their brains the vision came like a kaleidoscopic 
avalanche. 

Mr Shaw, sitting in his rocking chair in his care home, turning to look
at the couple who volunteered for a local charity where they would go 
around to various institutions and befriend people who had no-one, no 
family, no friends, no-one but their own reflections. 

When they befriended Mr Shaw, they discovered he was a rather wealthy
man, making his money from the import/export of copper and aluminium, 
and began to neglect their duties elsewhere and focus their attention 
on him, as he had nobody to leave his money to. That was, until he made 
two new friends. 

When he passed, Mr Shaw had left all his 24 million to Jaqueline and
Keith who did not hesitate to use it for holidays, which would have 
been fine, however, but upon his passing into the after-life, Mr Shaw 
discovered they were not real friends at all, they were just 
befriending him for his money. 

Could he forgive them though? he had asked himself. 

It was a question he did not have an answer to because he could not
decide, so over the years he began to appear to them as a tourist as he 
was his younger days, trying to work it out. 

In the ice cave in the arctic, he made his decision. 

Unconciousness swept over them and they collapsed to the floor. After a
few moments they awoke, as though they had been asleep for days. Mr 
Shaw had gone, the rocking chair had gone. The ice cave was normal. 

They both stood up and looked at each other. 

There was nothing to say. They knew they would never see the tourist
again, except perhaps when in the after-life themselves, but until 
then, he would not disturb them. 

They made their way slowly out of the ice cave. The blizzard had gone,
and the sky was clear blue. 

Yet, on the ground around four metres ahead, there was a snake, curled
up, looking at them. 

It uncurled itself by sliding away to the left, slowly, because written
on the serpent in bold white lettering was the word: 'FORGIVEN'. Keith 
and Jaqeline stood there for a few moments, watching as it vanished 
into the distance. 

"Shall we get back to the group?" asked Jaqueline quietly. Keith nodded.
"Yes". They walked slowly back, and found that time had hardly passed 
at all, rejoining the group as normal, nobody having noticed them 
missing. 

They sat in the chairs to watch the wildlife that decided to show
themselves as the guide talked his rhetoric. Keith and Jaqueline just 
looked and smiled at each other, Jaqueline resting her head on Keith's 
shoulder, holding gloved hands. 


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