"Vacation in Paradise" - 3rd WriteCampaign Challenge

OK, so it's time for the third and final challenge in Rachel Harrie's Platform Building Writers' Campaign. This time the challenge was called "Show Not Tell" and was described as follows:

"Write a blog post in 300 words or less, excluding the title. The post can be in any format, whether flash fiction, non-fiction, humorous blog musings, poem, etc. The blog post should show:

• that it’s morning, 
• that a man or a woman (or both) is at the beach
• that the MC (main character) is bored
• that something stinks behind where he/she is sitting
• that something surprising happens.

Just for fun, see if you can involve all five senses AND include these random words: "synbatec," "wastopaneer," and "tacise."   (NB. these words are completely made up and are not intended to have any meaning other than the one you give them)."

I chose not to try to include the random words since they were optional. (Though, as a lover of Indian food, the idea of a "waste o' paneer" was troubling in the extreme...)

Without further ado...

Vacation in Paradise

Lea groaned. The moist air weighed on every inch of her body. The sun seared her eyeballs as she stared into it, out east over the water. The sand beneath her bare feet gritted. Her teeth gritted. Everything was pain and misery.

She plopped onto the ground. How much longer would she have to wait here for Jacob to return? He said he'd be back before dawn, but that had been a lie. Curse the man anyway, and his infernal plans.

She considered going inland but the thought of passing by the decaying corpses of fish and birds which would await her there left her nauseated. "Probably washed up by that tropical storm that blew through," Jacob had said. "Don't worry, they won't bite." He'd grinned that infernal cocky grin of his as he shoved off.

Whose bloody idea of a vacation was this anyway? She wanted rum to drink, pool boys to ogle, and long afternoon naps. Only Jacob would think to spend a month on a blasted treasure hunt bound to come to absolutely nothing. What a disaster. Not once in these weeks had she enjoyed herself. And now it was almost time to head back to Chicago and spreadsheets and godawful staff meetings every bloody afternoon.

At last, at long last, she saw a speck on the horizon. The speck became a dot became a boat became Jacob’s boat, thank God. At least he hadn’t gone off and died and left her here to rot like those awful carcasses.

The boat came all the way in. She considered punching Jacob’s ever-present cocky grin off his face. But then he spoke.

“Sorry, dear.” He turned around, hefted something enormous -- a decaying chest -- into his arms. “Those silly pirates buried their treasure awfully deep, though.”

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If you liked this and want to vote for my entry, it is #68 in the list at the bottom of the challenge page.

Thanks for reading!