“What?!”

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They landed in Male, capital of the Maldives, and were whisked away to a seaplane “taxi” soon after arriving.  They were being flown to the five–star resort Bette had booked, and which sat on its own private island.  As they flew over the atolls that dotted the archipelago of the country, Tina gasped, seeing but not quite immediately absorbing, the other-worldly scene below them formed by white, silvery splashes of white roundish islands dotting the deep blue, almost purple color of the waters formed by the southern part of the Arabian Sea and the outer reaches of the Indian Ocean. 

Twenty-five minutes into the flight, Bette signaled to the pilot to ask if he could do another long circle pass around before he landed the seaplane in the dock of their resort, seeing how Tina’s eyes pop at the wonder of the unique ocean-scape unfolding below them.   The pilot smiled, and nodded cheerfully, as he dipped the plane’s wings to execute another long pass over the atolls surrounding the resort Bette and Tina were headed to.   Something of a payback to the women, he thought, as they hadn’t minded him adding a load of supplies urgently requested by the resort, and which he had to pile around them.  They separated willingly, offering to help him secure the boxes: Bette shifted to the seat immediately behind him, and Tina moved two rows below, so that he could load a particularly large box onto the seats nearest the passenger door.

As he piloted the seaplane to trace another broad circle around the atolls, he realized that he had to hurry, though, as the afternoon was just about ending, and the pink-orange lane of early twilight had begun to appear in the horizon.  He’d have to fly back to Male immediately, instead of stopping, as he’d planned, by another resort.  No problem, he thought.  I can always stop by tomorrow.  Such was life in the Maldives!

After completing another flyby over the atolls, he took another descent approach to the resort, and soon landed the plane expertly.  After gliding next to the dock, he jumped out to tie the heavy rope/anchor of the sea plane to the dock. As he popped the passenger side open, he smiled at Tina’s excited chatter about the beauty of the ocean-scape he had just shown them.  Bette was nodding and smiling at the blonde.