Beyond Friends Episode Fifty Nine "Vacation"
"Island In The Sun"
Friends Star:
David Schwimmer as Ross
Ross took off his sunglasses as he left the cabana Joey let him use. He toted a straw picnic basket with him. He shifted a towel under his umbrella and tried to shift his weight so he wouldn't fall over. He slightly squinted in the sun as he walked out onto the dirt sidewalk. He put the glasses back on as he walked down onto the beach.
"This is great." He said to himself as he looked at the vast dunes of white sand. "Its off season and there are no tourists at this time of year. There are more resort workers than any locals." He unrolled his beach blanket and it flapped around a little bit in the breeze. He lightly placed it on the sand. It was a little hot as he moved from one foot to the other. He pulled off his shirt and tossed it to one side. He looked around.
"All the beach to myself, what else does a guy need?" He said out loud. The crashing tides gave him no answer. He rubbed his head and looked down the shoreline.
"Oh my god." He murmured.
What he saw was a vision in white, and a straw hat. It was a blondish-brownish hair woman with a summer dress on. It swung lightly in the breeze. The woman had her hand on her hat to keep it from blowing away in the breeze.
"Who is that beauty?" Ross asked himself. "And are we the only people here?"
A few hundred feet down the shoreline Rachel pulled her hat closer to her head. It was her favorite big "tacky" hat, that she had when Ross and her got together at the beach that year he was with Bonnie. The bald chick, she was better known as. She shook some sand off her feet.
"This sucks, I'm going in. It looks like the wind is gonna pick up." Rachel said and picked up her book and moved toward a set of wooden stairs. The stairs would take whoever walked on them above the white sand and over the small puddles of sea water that gathered at the boarwalks edge. She gave one last look as she started the ascent.
"This really does suck, I should have come when there was more people. I was better off marrying Ross, and going to Niagra Falls." Rachel said as she reached the end of the stairs. "Cliched as it may be, at least stuff would happen there."
Ross watched the woman walk away, she looked like a total stranger but she had cause a pang in his heart. A pang of recognition. She looked a lot like someone he knew back home. He grabbed his towel as she was walking away. He shook off the sand off of his towel and then rolled it up without a second thought.
"Hey!" He yelled. She didnt turn around. "Hey!" He stood there for a second as she vanished from view.
"Great." He muttered. "Two people on the island and they cant talk to each other."
A day later
Chandler popped open his mailbox. It was a postcard from the island.
"Dear Chandler." He read. "Wish you were here. There are lots of nightclubs and all kinds of fun things. See you when you get home. Tell Ross hi for me if you see him. Much love Rachel"
He sighed as he put the postcard in his pocket. He looked up.
"I haven't seen Ross in two weeks." He frowned. "That is something to look into."
Back at the island
Ross had seen the woman on two more occasions.
At the fire laui luau. He had seen the woman getting a plate of pork poatallis in a buffet line.
"There she is. Maybe this time I will get to see her face." Ross said as he waited for her head to turn. As it did something got in the way. A portly looking retired woman stood in his eyeline to her.
"Hey, there, you want to dance sonny?" She asked looking into his eyes.
"No thanks." Ross said trying to get a view of the woman one more time.
"Come on, I don't bite....hard." She took Ross's hand and whirled him about on the dance floor. "Don't Bring Me Down" was playing. As they danced Ross grabbed looks at the girl but could not see anything more than the back of her head. He was starting to think that her head was all hair. The song was close to an end.
Rachel groaned as she threw her buffet plate away. She was interested in the pork poatallis but suddenly it looked so gross to her. People eat this? Sea air was supposed to give you an appetite, but it seemed to be taking it away. She'll fit into a size 8 bathing suit with no problem when she goes back home.
"I got to sleep." Rachel thought to herself as "Don't Bring Me Down" ended. "That songs gonna be in my head all night long now."
Ross's dancing partner let go of his hand and went on to the buffet table. He spun his head in search of the woman, but no sign. She was gone again.
"For gods sakes, this is a small island. No ones gonna get far." He told himself. "I'll just wait till she comes to me." He sat down.
The next occasion came on a tour of the old Guata^de^Mala village. It was a bus tour through an old settlement of Sau Paolo.
"Sansidor Paolo and his men camped here looking for gold in the hills of this quaint old country." The tour guide explained. "But what they found instead were savages and indians and such." She continued.
"I bet she was given the sixty second degree in this." Ross told a bus mate.
"Hmm." He heard a female voice. He looked up and saw the woman he had been looking for hunkered over a guidebook.
"Ohhh." He said.
"The savages fought a war with Paolo and his men but ultimately lost many lives and their land. They also gained the indignity of working for the spanish land rovers. Thats what the survivors did. Isnt history so cool?" She said.
"Wow, welcome to valley girl country." The woman said as Ross looked on. Damn hat was blocking her face again.
The bus pulled to an abrupt stop. It threw Ross forward on the bus into the next seat. He knocked heads against one of the passengers.
"HEY!" He said.
"Sorry!" He quickly apologized. He turned his head to look at the seat where she had been. It was empty.
"All offs whos going off!" The woman up front said. Ross got out of his seat.
"Do you have another job?" He asked her.
"Sure, like I am a counciler at a outreach center, why?" The tour guide answered cheerfully.
"Don't give up that job." He said flatly as he got off the buss. He left her looking after him with a strange expression.
"Keep my day job? Like what does that mean?" She said as she closed the door and drove away to pick up a new bunch of tourists.
That night
Rachel was watching a street performer as Ross was across the street reading a local magazine. Rachel threw a dollar into the street performers hat and clapped once the performer stopped. She then turned to leave when she saw Ross bye newstand.
"Ross?" Ross heard his own name. He looked up. There he saw the woman he had been trying to get the attention of for the last day in a half. It was Rachel.
"Rachel?" He asked. "What are you doing here?"
"Me?" She placed her hand on her chest. "I could ask you the same question Geller."
"I asked first. And by the way I didn't leave my friends, family and fiacee-which is me- in the lurch while I took a last minute vacation." Ross noted.
"After Chandler stopped the wedding I had to get away from you two." She explained. "It's not as bad as it sounds."
"Ok, go on."
"Joey came to look for me. I asked him if he stil had his cabana here." Rachel said.
"Wait a minute, Joey gave me his cabana. He told me that he thought I could use a break." Ross interrupted her.
"Huh, she must have had two and not told either one of us." Rachel thought.
"Yeah." Ross said. "Who ever thought his cruddy show was that successful?"
"He had a good agent." Rachel explained. "Even though he's had smaller roles hes still getting the same salary as if had a front burner storyline." Rachel stopped. "But you're not interested in that."
"It was sorta fascinating, coming from you anyway." Ross said. "Do you want to talk? Get dinner some time?"
"I don't know. What I meet some guy?" She said.
"What guy? The only guys here are old men and people who work for the resort who get in trouble for dating the guests." Ross said. They started to stroll along the streets. The same street performer who was performing before had begun his act again.
A few minutes later they were walking on the beach along the shore. Rachel had taken her shoes off and was letting the cold ocean water flow over her feet.
"I saw you here yesterday. In the giant hat." Ross said.
"Really? I didn't see you." Rachel smiled.
"I'm not surprised, that hat would have blocked out half the island from the sun for a month."
"Ah." Rachel said.
"What went wrong Rach?" Ross asked. "I mean beyond the whole Chandler thing."
"I called him. He knows I'm here." Rachel said as Ross reached out and wiped some hair from her face.
"You called him and not me?" He asked.
"I was going to but the phones quit midway through the call with Chandler." Rachel said.
"But I was the man you were gonna marry, I should have been first on your mind." Ross said noticably upset.
"I know, I was wrong." Rachel said. She looked up sharply. "Hey, it wouldnt have matter who I called first. About the time I called Chandler you would have been on your way here. I would have had no idea that you were not home." Rachel said. She laughed. "If we're gonna sit here and bitch about semantics, I'm going back to Joeys cabana."
"The first one." He said.
"Whatever." She said and race walked up the sand to the cabana. She then unlocked the door and entered it. There was a single rose on her bed. She went over and picked it up, careful not to prick herself.
"Oh Ross." She murmured. She went to the open door and looked for him. He was gone.
"Thanks." She said. She smelled the rose and closed the door.
