The Reluctant Neighbour

Shannon was fidgeting and rocking her chair backwards and forwards, clunking it on the floor each time. Her feet were propped up against the railing and her jean shorts were bunching up around her upper thighs as she pushed back to rock the chair.

Rob was getting annoyed. He was deeply into the detailed engineering of the robotic elements of the design. Getting this part right was critical to the success of the project. Shannon's company, normally a mildly distracting diversion from the work, was not welcome at this time. Must be like having kids when they are becoming a pain in the butt, he thought.

He still didn't know why she hung out on his porch, even if they were neighbours. Tran Nui was a young adult playground and there were lots of them around. A random thought went through Rob's mind that there must be a beach somewhere in Vietnam specifically reserved for middle aged people. The youthfulness of the place was getting to him. The abundance of lithe tanned bodies was picturesque and he couldn't deny the visual appeal. It was just that being, on average, twice the age of most of the beach residents was making him feel like an alien from another planet.

Shawn, another engineer with the company, had suggested Tran Nui as a good place to work on designs after the contract was signed with the Chinese auto company and before they could begin work proper. Going back to Toronto was an option, however Rob took a good four days each way to get over the jet lag during which time his productivity cratered. The engineering firm that Rob was a partner in couldn't really afford the time for him to be nodding off by one thirty in the afternoon. Thinking back now, however, a recommendation for a quiet destination from a twenty something engineer was probably not the best advise. Generally, however the kids at the beach resort left him alone. He was the old guy they couldn't quite figure out why he was there.

Still, it was truly a beautiful place and for the most part he was in isolation which allowed him to get his work done. Except of course, now there was Shannon fidgeting on the porch of his hut. When she first arrived ten days ago she had glanced at him from her adjoining porch, grunted a perfunctory hi and then cleared out as fast as possible, striding quickly down the beach in the direction of the beach bar.

'Hi' was all he ever heard out of her when their paths crossed in the first few days. He was barely aware of her existence and he was certain that few of her thoughts were lost on him. All was good.

Further down the beach a bunch of young people were setting up a volleyball game. Not wanting to sound too obvious about his need to get her off of his front porch, Rob casually glanced over at the youthful tanned bodies and as gently as possible said to Shannon:

"Hey, looks like a game being set up. I bet they could use some more players," Rob glanced expectantly at her and then over to the net.

"Are you trying to get rid of me?" she snapped back, her eyes widening and flaring. This was followed be even more fidgeting. So much for the subtle approach he thought. Was he about to get a lesson in parenting that he never had the need for?

"um, no ... just thought it might be getting a bit boring sitting beside an older guy wrapped up in his um .... laptop," Rob awkwardly replied, somewhat taken aback by her irritability. What was up with her and why was she taking it out on him.

A feeling of tension settled over the porch. 'I could get this atmosphere in a conference room at the office. I don't need to travel halfway around the planet for this,' Rob thought. Never having had children he was at a loss as what to do or say next so he went back to design specs. Well sort of, his awareness of the icy atmosphere was throwing him off his game.

***

Earlier

The first time communication between Rob and Shannon went beyond a perfunctory 'hi' was five nights after she had arrived next door. The bar had been rocking that night. For a couple of hours , Joel, an Australian backpacker, had been lining up tequila shots on the table that Shannon had been sharing with him and two other Ozzie girls. Shannon had failed to notice that Amy and Ruth had stopped taking shots. She had missed their perplexed looks directed at her. She was too far gone at that point.

The two other girls had no idea how a five foot one girl could drink so much and still stand until they realized that Shannon couldn't. Shannon had previously ignored all drinking games during undergrad. That night, however, had been enchanting - with soft winds blowing through the open air bar, the sound of the waves crashing on the beach and her animated, lively Australian drinking mates made her forget her normal inhibitions. She became seriously, stupidly intoxicated.

Amy and Ruth, with sheepish help from Joel, walked, or more precisely dragged Shannon back to her porch, found her key in her purse and flopped her onto the bed. When she seemed to be deeply sleeping and out of immediate danger they quietly left.

Rob had heard the commotion of their arrival at about one in the morning. Kids, he groaned and pulled a pillow over his head. He tossed and turned for awhile, trying to get back to sleep when he heard Shannon's door slam back against the hinges then awkward noises as someone lurched out onto the sand. There was a moment of quiet and then the sound of violent retching reached him.

'Ooookaay,' he thought. He knew what that was all about, thankful that similar substance abuse was a distant memory of his past.

The vomiting continued for close to two minutes. He started to stir. At first, he tried pulling the pillow down more tightly over his ears but the volume of the retching was only slightly diminished.

Suddenly, he bolted upright in bed as his first aid skills and awareness kicked in. He presumed this was his neighbour and quite possibly he was the only person in range and conscious of her distress. Passing out and choking on vomit was a clear threat to someone as far gone as she apparently was.

Rob pulled himself awake, dragged on his cargo shorts and padded out on bare feet towards the sound of the retching. It was his neighbour and she was on her knees, her face in the dim moonlight was hanging over a puddle on the sand. She was wheezing and gasping.

"Hi, I'm your neighbour, Rob Mclean. I am trained in first aid. Would you like some help?" He had recently re-certified in basic and advanced first aid so was well aware of the drill.

"What's your name," he asked when he received no immediate reply to his offer of assistance. He wanted to hear her talk to confirm the ABC's of her health.

She gasped, "Sh..sh.. Shannon," before vomiting again, mostly dry heaves. Her words assured Rob that her airway, breathing and circulation were okay. He did some secondary assessment and when not seeing any obvious signs of bleeding or other issues he gently put his hand on her shoulder to try to start calming her down. The vomiting gradually abated and her breaths slowly normalized to soft open mouth gasps.

"I'm a fucking idiot," she quietly spoke while staring at the sand .

Rob thought, 'Hey, no doubt about that!' But he cut kids her age some slack remembering back to his own youth and the wretched stuff he had done to his body.

"Do you think you can make it over to the washroom? You need to clean up a bit." He gently helped her stand up and she walked unsteadily over to the primitive resort's communal washroom. He sat her down on the edge of the toilet and then ran back to get a wash cloth and towel. Returning, he guided her to the sink, got the cloth ready with warm water and handed it to her.

Shannon got the drool and chunks off of her chin and throat -- ugh!, sheepishly glancing up at the middle aged man she had so rudely awoken in the middle of the night with her stupidity. It was like having her dad there however, a calming and patient presence. But he wasn't her dad, he was a total stranger, but she was too grateful for the help and too messed up to get very alarmed, even though all the training said she should be cautious. Some instinct told her she had nothing to be concerned about regarding her rescuer, but even so, her choice of rescuers was limited at that time.

After the residue of vomit was off her face she could still smell the sour odor. Looking down she could see it on her t-shirt. 'I've got to get this off,' she thought, and glanced at Rob. Both of them were looking uncomfortable.

Preserving privacy in a first aid situation was part of the training. Rob looked down where she had been looking and realized the issue at hand.

"Look. I'm going to hold this towel up and you can take off the t-shirt and I will wrap you in the towel," he offered.

She turned her back to him, pulled the t-shirt off and dropped it on the floor. Rob folded the towel towards her. A small groan silently passed his lips as he saw close up what he had only seen from a distance; the beautifully sculpted and tanned back of a gorgeous young woman. A small bra strap was the only thing interrupting the smooth delicateness of her skin. In wrapping the towel around her he held it against her chest until she slid out an arm out and clasped the folds in front of her breasts. For the briefest of seconds Rob had his hands in contact with the twenty two year old's soft mounds. 'Oh god, get me out of here,' he thought. 'She has got to be thoroughly creeped out!'

If you had of asked Shannon before this moment if she would have been appalled by him touching her, even so indirectly she would have screamed YES. Curiously, a still functioning part of her mind didn't really object and her body felt a slight shiver go through it. The shiver was not altogether unpleasant. Maybe it was the alcohol. Tomorrow she would be appalled by having been touched by him in such an intimate place as her breasts, even so lightly through the towel. But now, hmmm ... Alcohol and her distress for sure. His bare chest had also been in brief contact with her back, even if through the material of the towel. Yes, and that touch had been oddly calming ... and something else ... but she wasn't going there. Tequila will do strange things to you was the obvious explanation for the warmth she had briefly felt in her belly.

The cleanup done, Rob nodded over towards the toilet questioningly.

"Um .. yes. I probably should." Despite the dehydrating effect of all the vomiting she still felt the need to pee.

"I'll be outside the door waiting. If you feel faint, just yell."

"Okay, thanks."

Shannon emerged a couple minutes later and shakily stepped out the door. Rob guided her back to her room, fluffed up the pillows and helped her lean back on her bed. He was in full first responder mode and worked efficiently. The next concern was dehydration and related after effects"

"Do you have any orange juice or other non-alcoholic drinks?" he asked.

Shannon sheepishly shook her head.

"Don't go anywhere, I have some, will be right back."

'As if ..,' she thought, having barely made it back to the bed with assistance. Rob came back with a large glass of juice, sat on the edge of the bed and handed it to her.

Shannon felt that shiver go through her again as he sat down beside her. He watched the glass go unsteadily towards her lips , his facial expression willing her to drink and not drop the glass. She drank about half, handed him the glass which he put on the edge of the bedside table.

"I'll leave the carton of juice on the table beside the glass. Drink all you can. I'll leave now if you think you are ok. Try to go to sleep but keep drinking when you wake up. Are you ok?"

He had real concern in his eyes she could see, for what reason she had no idea. His eyes were a very deep blue in the dim light of the single bedside lamp. She felt uncomfortable by even registering that observation.

She groaned, covered her eyes with her arm and said, "I think I will be ok. Thank you, thank you so much for helping me, the dumb stupid knucklehead that I am."

"Don't worry, everyone does this once in awhile at your age," Rob said as he got up, moved to the door and turned to say good night, even though it was close to morning by now.

"Good night," she returned, her arm still over her eyes, as if to hide the discomfort and possibly, her embarrassment.

He was about to close the door when she said, "Um ...Rob, could you do one more thing for me?"

"Sure, what?"

"Could you pull my jeans off please? I'm afraid the contortions to do it myself will bring on another round of .. well you know what ..."

'Oh, crap,' he thought. 'What does a male first responder do when a female asks him to pull her pants off.' He didn't think that chapter was in the manual. Slowly he stepped towards her, eying how tight her black jeans were. This wont be easy he thought. Resting a knee on the bed he waited for her to undo the top button and pull down the zipper with one hand all the while holding the other arm over her eyes. Steady man, he thought as he reached up and took the edges of the waistband and along with some help from her slowly pulled them down over her hips while trying desperately not to look at her stomach and breasts as the towel separated and secondly, not to touch her panties while peeling off what felt like a second skin. How do they breath with clothes this tight he thought?

He was sure he felt a tremor go through her as she lifted up her butt to allow him to pull them off. He thought that the shiver was from the alcohol poisoning. She thought that the shiver of excitement was also from the tequila as she responded to the feel of a man taking her pants off. In the back of her mind another voice chirped, 'its not the tequila.'

'Go away,' she thought, 'That's gross!'

Her hand slowly slid away from her eyes which she focused on him slowly while whispering, "Thank you again."

With that Rob got out of there as fast as he could.

*****

Next morning at about 9am Rob was sitting on his porch working on his second cup of coffee. The morning had been misty and he thought perhaps the long string of warm sunshine and fluffy clouds resulting from the high pressure system was moving out. Being from temperate Toronto he really didn't expect fair weather systems to stick around more than a few day. This was Vietnam though, and he gathered that unless the monsoons had arrived this beautiful system could go on for weeks. Shortly after, the mist burned off and another glorious day was beginning.

Wifi in the resort was shaky at best and right now it was working. He was using the opportunity to communicate back to his office, sending drawings, text and further research topics back for the junior staff to deal with. He was a mechanical engineer by training but his interest was in aerodynamics, the heart of their business and that was what was motivating him professionally.

Drifting in and out of his thoughts was the basket case in the adjoining cabana. He had peeked in at around 7 and she was curled up in a ball at the top of the bed. A slight wheezing breath was audible and a gentle rise and fall of her exposed back indicated to him that she was okay. She needed to drink something or cramps would be setting in soon. When Rob was a teenager he had experienced waking up after a night of heavy drinking to vicious muscle cramps, mostly in his calves that would have him howling in extreme pain until the cramps subsided. Not a pleasant way of waking up. However, he decided that it was best to let sleeping .. um well, he decided on - kittens lie.

About 10:15, a small figure shuffled out of the adjoining cabana. Shannon had put a plain white tight fitting t-shirt on over her top and had wrapped what was basically a flowered sarong around her waist that came close to the floor. Rob smiled at the cute outfit. Even in a very disheveled state she really matched that description as well, in fact she was adorable in her distress. Her size though what was he now noticed. She was tiny, barely cracking 5 ft. This hadn't registered much on him before, but then again, he really hadn't paid much attention.

"Good morning," he said, smiling at her.

"Yeah right. Could you turn down the sun a bit. The top of my head is about to pop off."

At least she was talking.

"Come over and sit down, Ill get you some more juice and something to eat."

"You don't have to do that."

"I know, but believe me all you want to eat is some simple foods so this is going to be toast and some mild fruit. You wont want to eat much more for awhile."

"Okay."

After giving her liquids, he fixed her a simple breakfast. She ate quietly on his porch while Rob went back to maximizing his time on the wifi before it went south, as it usually did when all the kids got up and indulged their Internet needs. During breakfast Shannon's Ozzie friends swung by to check on her. Rob was introduced as the gentleman who picked her up out of her vomit and got her back to bed. Joel eyed him a bit strangely to which Rob made eye contact and shrugged his shoulders and then went back to his laptop. Sadly for her they were pulling out that day. Much hugging and exchanging of email and texting addresses took place on his porch. Rob just smiled. Nobody writes out a street address anymore, he thought, as had been the case when he was their age.

That day he didn't see her much until about 6:30 as he was stepping onto the sand in front of his cabana on his way to the beach bar and restaurant for dinner, laptop under his arm. It was a vacation of sorts for him but not really as a boatload of work was coming down and this contract with the auto company was critically important to him and his partners in the company.

"Where are you going," Shannon said, stepping out of her cabana.

"Long Pho noodle house for dinner, and you?"

"Same." And she continued to walk about half a step behind him without saying anything.

Hmm, he thought, 'Am I supposed to ask her to join me or is she supposed to ask me.' If she had been at least twenty years older he would have known exactly what to say and do. She wasn't though, and a good part of their shared experience was along the lines of cleaning chunks of vomit off her chin and clothing. This history didn't provide much guidance.

Arriving at the noodle house after a silent walk she just simply sat at the other side of the table and then peered out over the ocean. The sun was going down behind them and the colours out onto the sea were beyond beautiful. 'I could really get to like this place', he thought. But something had to happen here conversationally. He was not going to sit through an entire dinner staring at a laptop or the ocean with another person sitting across from him. Ok, here goes, he thought.

"Shannon, did I hear you tell the Ozzies you were in a biology course? I never studied biology. I'm curious, what areas do they teach you? Is it all human or do you do animal biology? Do you chop up animal or body parts a lot?" Rob truly had little idea what a biology course entailed other than it was about animal bodies, humans mostly. Physics and math were his only interest in high school. Cutting up dead frogs didn't get him going intellectually.

Shannon shot him a suspicious looking glance, trying to gauge his motives for the question. All she saw was a very open and engaging look on his face. Nothing sinister. Okay, she thought, Ill talk to him. Her dad asked the same questions, not surprising as he was about the same vintage. She pushed that unsettling thought away for the moment.

Rob was uncomfortable but he tried his best to hide it. As they both got into dinner she began to open up about her undergrad work and became increasingly descriptive of course details, the labs, the different approaches of the profs and the general competitiveness of what most students, or at least those on the top half academically, thought of as pre-med. They all wanted desperately to get into medical school, and she was no exception. Her conversation was animated. He was mostly focused on her words but as she shifted closer to him the sarong like wrap she had on opened up over her crossed legs exposing most of her thighs. They were beautifully shaped, tanned and shimmering in the soft light of the noodle house. Rob groaned silently when this vision first appeared and he wished she would put her legs back under the table so he could better concentrate on her description of academic life. She didn't and as she started twitching her crossed leg slowly Rob had to stick a hand in his pocket to cover an embarrassing situation that was presenting itself in his shorts. 'Rob, really?? Grow up!' he thought.