Thereistechnology on all the islands, though. Guests all wear rubber bracelets, color coded, and with chips in them that make them identifiable as well as accessing their credit card. There are tech huts on the guest islands where people can sign into computers to check emails or whatever. There are movie theaters and arcade games. There are televisions in the rooms. There are security cameras in many places.
But that is all tightly controlled by a very well-established and highly trained IT department. There are controls, checks and balances, and it’s backed by a very aggressive legal team should someone decide to fuck up.
The residential islands are a little different. We’re allowed technology. We have personal laptops and phones and internet and shit. But we also have checkpoints on the two residential islands where personal technology cannot pass. The security and legal teams that protect the guests of the Isle of Kala also watch over the residents.
The docks are one of the obvious visible lines.
One of the most interesting things about Kala is that the entire island chain is owned by a single family. They built this resort from the ground up. Through many decades, they’ve created this safe-haven paradise for the LGBTQIA+ community, and it’s grown exponentially.
That’s not to say there aren’t the occasional residents or guests who are straight. Nason and Miranda, for example. Straight all day long. There are guests, especially high-profile guests, who come to the island simply for its guaranteed privacy and escape from the world.
I’m sure there’s some safeguard in place, so those outside of the queer community don’t take the resort over. In a world where so many queer places get taken over by straight people for one reason or another, Kala remains loudly queer.
We’re a very small, tight community. Kala employs several thousand people, and they all reside right here on the two residential islands—Bane and Keone Reef. It’s a very tight-knit community where everyone knows everyone. Very small-town vibes. However, as the islands expand, the housing situation becomes a bigger and bigger challenge.
I’m excited to see this new island expansion project get underway. It’s still in the very preliminary stages, but I’m looking forward to seeing it all come together. There’s a large poster at the dock that I look at every time I get on the ferry. This is the first of its kind, announcing the project. There are three uniform-shaped outlines in the water beside the six islands of Kala. One is beside Bane, sandwiching the island between the new outline and Keone Reef. The other two outlines in the water are the new resort islands around the cluster of resort islands.
The banner reads:In Planning Now!
Under that is a call for action, asking residents to submit names for the new islands. As the ferry pulls away from the dock, I’m smiling at the poster. One of the things I love about this place is the community inclusion.
A massive resort like this, an entire island chain, and the vast majority of businesses all owned by a single entity, could be a very bad thing. There are the negatives of having a monopoly, like the lack of democracy and feeling as though you’re trapped with no choice.
I think you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who lives and works on Kala unhappy with the family who owns and operates the island, though. They’re good people. They’re the children of a time when the world was very dangerous to be anything but heterosexual, white, and Christian. Being none of those things and finding peace was hard to accomplish.
I’m a little rusty about the knowledge of where the startup money came from, but in an effort to create a safe place for theirfamily, the Isle of Kala was born. There are four generations of the family now, though the youngest generation is still in diapers. Every new generation builds on what their parents created, making this place bigger, better, more successful, and remains incredibly safe for our community.
It’s one of their promises to the island that, while this isn’t necessarily a democratic state, it’s also not a dictatorship. They want everyone involved in everything they do. Right down to naming the proposed new islands.
I wouldn’t give up living here for anything.
I’ve been working in the bar scene since arriving on Kala almost eighteen years ago. Generally, I work at the Hinky Dinky Bar on Etsumi, but I’ve hopped from place to place as needed. Sometimes to train or maybe to oversee a transition in staff. Once, to reinvigorate one of the bars that had seen a massive drop in visitors over a period of months, until nearly no one was coming in.
The ride to Etsumi on the ferry is only fifteen minutes, and then I’m heading down the road to the bar. Etsumi has a heavier female population than the other three resort islands, though they’re not restricted to Etsumi just as men aren’t restricted from Etsumi. As it happens, Etsumi tended to attract the female crowd, and that trend grew over the decades.
It’s grown just in the years I’ve lived here.
The Hinky Dinky is my favorite bar. I love the atmosphere. The vibe. As I near the entrance, I can already hear the band playing. I recognize their style as the island band, Whiskey Horizons. They claim to be punk rock, but their songs are more like love songs, only sung loudly and maybe a little angrily.
I step into the side door, and my eyes immediately land on Elijah sitting at the very end of the bar with Cash. The bar is semi-circular, with one end abutting the wall on one side. My hackles rise in response to the two guys there with them.
No, I insist to myself.Not mine. He can flirt with whomever he wants. Not. Mine.
There’s an animal inside me growling, telling me I’m wrong. I’m not wrong, though. I’m only feeling protective because that’s Nason’s son. I’m going to be wary of anyone interested in him because he’s… uh… family.
Right.
Elijah’s eyes meet mine and he holds my gaze while I head for the opposite end of the bar where it’s open. He smiles. A cute, smug look on his face. Probably because he’s remembering how I lost decorum a few days ago when he was baking cookies, and practically said I wanted his fine ass.
I take a breath and ignore the fact that he’s here. Probably in tiny, tight shorts because that’s his go-to. And with some fucking guy drooling all over him.
The bars on all islands tend to be a mix of guests, especially when we have live bands playing. Whiskey Horizons is one of three bands formed by residents of the island. This one is probably one of the best as far as lyrics go, though they don’t match the style of the music itself. It always sounds to me as if the writer’s muse doesn’t play well with whoever insists that this is the kind of vibe they’re playing.
“Hey,” Mike greets as I grab one of the charged readers from the port on my way by. I tap my bracelet on it so it identifies that I’m here, but that I’ve served the people who tap it following.
There is no cash exchanged. Everything is done by scanning the bracelets. Residents have bracelets that we wear when we leave the residential islands or need to purchase something. There is no physical cash on Kala. It’s all electronic.
“Hey,” I return as I glance at Elijah again. His back is to me as he continues to talk to the guys there. I can see them flirting from here.
