want to tell his co-workers that he was flying to an unknown island to stay for two weeks with five people he’d never met. But nobody seemed to notice him as he rushed out of the office, past the dozens of cubicles to the stairwell. Harold always took the stairs; it prevented him from being stuck waiting with someone in front of the elevator in one of those uncomfortable silences. The ride in the actual elevator was an even more likely place to be assaulted - if not by conversation, then by some embarrassing bodily function.

Harold quickly found a taxi outside, which was the only way he travelled; he didn’t dare take public transportation. He usually didn’t have to worry about the drivers, most of them didn’t speak English anyway, and those that did had no interest in him. He looked...

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