The Island

On one random Saturday morning, 16 year old Jacob checked his mail and to his surprise he found an envelope covered in many strange colors. Jacob opened the envelope to find four plane tickets to a remote vacation island for himself and his family. He wondered if they had entered some kind of contest and won. A vacation seemed very favorable and auspicious since it was the summer and he had no other activities to do. He ran to his parents to sanction the family trip. He knew they would approve because it was a opportunity to spend quality time with the children that wants to spend less and less time with them. However his parents were more suspicious and wary about the mysterious letter. His father told him “What if it’s just a ruse to get our money or steal our identity? I don’t know son. I have to do a little more checking up on this.” the father ambivalent feelings showed in his expression as he looked at his disappointed son. He wanted to go on a trip and spend time with his family but he was uncertain of how genuine the free trip is.
The next day a tall skinny man dressed a suit with the same colors of the enveloped stood on the opposite side of the peephole Jacob was looking through. As he knocked on the door Jacob ran to get his father. His dad answered the door and invited the strangely dressed man into his home. Then the tall man said “ I am here to see if you’ll accept our offer to the all expense paid vacation.” The father then asked “Why are you giving us this. We did not enter any contest.” At that moment his daughter Jenny put her head down which the father noticed. “ Jenny did you have anything to do with this?” Jenny raised her head and slowly nodded. The tall man then started to describe the vacation island embellishing his story with descriptions of the beautiful weather, view and fun activities. He concluded by saying, “I assure you this trip is no stratagem to get your money. To assure you this is no coup to get your money we’ll offer you money to take the trip. You see the vacation island is a newly discovered island and we want to make it a hot vacation spot. It would only be fair to pay you to be the first to explore the beautiful island.” The father turned to his wife and they whispered to each other for a few minutes thinking deeply about the consequences and rewards because they did not want to make a arbitrary decision based on impulse alone. They turned to the tall man and said “It’s a bit spontaneous but we will accept the offer.”
When they got of the plane and arrived on the beautiful island, a man wearing ostentatious clothing of diamond cufflinks, an expensive suit, and gold Rolex watch gave the family a cordial and friendly greeting speaking to them with very florid language that sounded very pleasing to the family’s ears.
The father was becoming more sure that this whole disingenuous because of the obvious great amount of money spent on just the greeting process. The family along with five other families were escorted to an ornate dining hall with an elegant crystal chandelier dangling from the ceiling. The mother was amazed at the wood tables with detailed carvings they had sat at. When the family was finishing up the exquisite meal, the skinny man that had invited them to the island stood in front of everyone and made a poignant speech about family that obviously touched the parents and even their children. Jacob was so pulled in the speech that it took him a while to realize how effusive his mother had gotten. Her somewhat loud crying started to ruin the moment for him so he surreptitiously snuck away from his parents to explore the island.
To be continued