You can't just let her run off by herself in her current state of mind, Jack... She's upset and she could probably use some kind of reassurance from you that her love for you is not totally ill advised...
Ohhh... fuckin' forget her, Jack! She had no right to hurt you that way... And you know she's just HOPIN' that you'll come after her because it will prove she's got you wrapped around her little finger now...
For God's sake, Jack... you know she'd never believe that... she knows you too well... including how goddamned selfish you are! How could what she said have hurt you when you know damn well it's the truth?!! She's not expecting you to come after her and she probably doesn't want you to... Just don't leave her alone for too long...
I think if the chick ain't back in an hour beggin' your forgiveness for actin' like such a bitch... I say take off and leave her ass here... make her figure out on her own how to get back to L.A.!!!
OH... NOW YOU'VE JUST GONE TOO FAR, YOU ASSHOLE!!! I oughtta beat the shit outta myself for even contemplating that...
Jack Nicholson growled in frustration and turned around to start walking in the opposite direction up Arroyo Burro Beach in Santa Barbara from where Amanda Lewis had turned and run away from him. He'd watched her disappear among some large monolithic rocks that dotted the beach a few hundred yards from where they'd been standing.
He headed up the beach and took the path back up the bluff and decided he'd just wait for her in the bungalow. He was sure she'd come back as soon as she'd calmed down. He glanced back down the beach one last time to see if he spotted her anywhere, but there was no sign of her among the rocks... and he didn't notice that the tide was coming in...
**********
Amanda wound her way around the huge rocks looking for a spot to just sit and cry for a few minutes. She finally found a large rock nestled up against the bluff with a nice flat area several feet up that she could sit on and be protected from the cool breeze by the larger rocks in front of it. The sun wasn't yet high enough in the sky to help warm her; the rocks were still in the shade created by the bluff.
She carefully climbed up and was pleasantly surprised to find that the rock still felt warm. She figured it must've been left over heat radiating from it after being heated by the afternoon sun the day before. At any rate, she was grateful for the warmth, as she was chilled not only by the cool breeze from the ocean but also by recalling the cold gaze Jack had leveled at her while she was reminding him of his inability to be faithful to any woman.
Fresh tears filled her eyes and spilled down her cheeks as she briefly thought how cruel it was of her to throw that back at him... The expression on his face had seemed totally indifferent, but now she recalled seeing a brief flash of pain in his eyes. Amanda sat down and hugged her knees in front of her as she leaned her forehead on them and cried for a few moments.
She suddenly noticed how tired she felt and remembered that she hadn't gotten a wink of sleep the night before... Jack had made love to her until after two o'clock in the morning, when he'd finally fallen asleep from sheer exhaustion. But she'd laid awake all night, watching him, feeling sick at the prospect that she had less than twenty-four hours to spend with Jack Nicholson... the first man she'd ever loved... the man she'd given her virginity to... very probably the only man she would ever love again...
Even though she'd never believed he would ever love her... And now he professed to... But she was also well aware what type of man he was... or had been in the past. What was the likelihood that he'd actually change his ways for her? But he seemed to want to...
Amanda whimpered in confusion and lay back against the warm surface of the rock. A wave of tiredness swept over her and she couldn't keep her eyes open. She told herself that she'd just rest for a few minutes so her mind could focus better... Before she even realized it, she was fast asleep...
**********
Amanda twitched and shivered as a spray of cold water splashed onto her body. She almost thought she was back home in Tennessee and that her mother was rudely trying to awaken her again by throwing a cup of water in her face.
She'd taken to doing that when Amanda was a teenager after staying up late the night before when she and her father had gotten involved in one of their marathon games of Monopoly... that almost always ended in a tie! Both of them were ruthless and neither of them could beat the other unless one of them happened to get luckier with the dice!
They'd always asked her mother to play with them, and she had... in the beginning. But, her mother was not ruthless when it came to the game and she and her father had always managed to force her out first, which just pissed her mother off, so she quit playing after the first five or six times. She'd always stomped away from the table like a petulant child, yelling that the two of them always "ganged up" on her. Amanda and her father had tried not to laugh until she was out of the room.
Amanda took a deep breath and sighed as her half-conscious brain struggled to hang onto the warm thoughts of her father and take them with her into unconsciousness again so she could have a more pleasant dream. But she was suddenly jerked into wakefulness when she felt another spray of cold water on her body again. She sat up quickly and looked around, not remembering at first where she was or how she got there.
Then she recalled the argument with Jack on the beach and running to get away from him so she could be alone and sort out her jumbled feelings. Now she realized that while she'd been sleeping on the rock, the tide had come in and waves were now washing up against the rocks... she was trapped.
The waves were coming in too fast for her to try to climb down and make her way back up the beach... they'd surely throw her into the surrounding rocks and that was just asking to be killed! She looked above her and saw that she could climb a little higher so there'd be less likelihood of her getting soaked or washed off the rock by a wave. But even if she could make it to the top, there was still at least a good twenty or thirty feet of nothing but sheer dirt and loose rocks on the face of the bluff that would be impossible for her to climb.
Amanda realized she was, indeed, trapped... at least until the tide went out again and she had no idea how long that would take. She knew enough to know that there were usually at least two full cycles of high and low tides every twenty-four hours, which meant she would probably be stuck on this rock for at least another four to six hours... unless someone came looking for her...
But would Jack know where she'd ended up? He might believe that she'd kept going down the beach and ended up somewhere else... Would he even wonder why or care that she hadn't come back yet?!!! She figured she'd learn the answer to that depending on how long she was stuck on this rock...
She climbed up to the higher, safer spot on the rock and saw that she could go no further... the rock was too smooth; there was nothing for her to grip so she could climb safely. She sat down and leaned back on the rock while she waited... and hoped... Maybe Jack Nicholson would come to her rescue... again...
Only she had no idea how long she'd have to wait... or if he'd even come looking for her...
**********
By 9:30, Jack was pacing worriedly on the patio of the bungalow he and Amanda had been sharing at Pacific Views Inn & Cottages. It had been over two and a half hours since she'd left him on the beach... he'd fully expected her to be back already. He finally decided to go back down to the beach and look for her.
He headed out onto the bluff and glanced down the beach to the rocks where he'd last seen her. Then he froze in his tracks and his stomach tightened into a knot. The rocks were surrounded by the waves washing in. If Amanda was still down there, she'd have to have climbed onto a rock in order to get out of the water... and there was no other way off the beach at that point except straight up the bluff! Jack took off running along the edge of the bluff down toward that area of the beach where he was sure she was trapped.
Matt the massage therapist and Mark, the pool waiter who'd flirted with Amanda the day before, were walking from the employee parking area toward the main Inn when they spotted Jack Nicholson running along the bluff. They glanced at each other questioningly and then both took off toward him to find out what was going on.
"AMANDA!!! AMANDA!!!" Jack yelled loudly as he approached the area of rocks on the beach below. He slowed down and then stopped running and started making his way carefully along the edge of the bluff, peering over as far as he could as he continued to call her name. Finally, as he neared one of the rocks closest to the bluff, he heard a faint answer.
"Jack?!!! Jack, is that you?!!! I'm here!"
He could hear her, but he couldn't see her. "Amanda... where are you? I can't see you!"
He heard her voice again, sounding a little closer as he got right over top of the nearest rock. "I'm stuck on a rock! There's water all around me! I have no way to get down! The waves would throw me into the other rocks! And the waves are getting closer to where I am! I don't know what to do! I can't climb any higher... I've already tried!"
He could hear the fear and agitation in her voice. He was also getting dizzy from leaning over and trying to peer straight down a sheer drop of more than fifty feet, so he sank down onto his knees and crawled as close the edge of the bluff as he dared. Then he lay down on his stomach and scooted forward carefully until he was peering at Amanda about thirty feet down on the rock.
There was no way she could climb up, nor could he climb down. His heart was racing and he was genuinely scared for her. His voice shook slightly as he called to her. "Amanda... just stay where you are! I'm going to go get some help, OK?!!!"
"Just where do you think I'm going to go, Jack?" she replied sarcastically.
Her sarcasm felt like a knife in his heart again. "Goddamn it, Amanda... you don't need to act like a smart ass! I'll be back as soon as I can!"
Just then, Matt and Mark arrived. "Is something wrong, Mr. Nicholson?" Matt asked worriedly.
Jack twisted his upper body and turned his head to look up at them. "Nooo... nothing's wrong! I'm just getting a closer look at my girlfriend trapped on this rock... wishing I had a camera with a telephoto lens so I could get a picture of the pissed look on her face! Now... would either of you boys happen to have a camera? Or perhaps an idea how we might get her off this rock?!!!"
"FUCK YOU, JACK!!!" Amanda yelled from below. "Now who's bein' the smart ass?!!!"
