“Let’s walk down here,” Trisha said, pointing toward the end of the ship.
We strolled passed the deck chairs and over a shuffleboard design outlined on the floor. Some people were already sitting in the deck chairs reading books or playing games on their electronic pads. The notion seemed odd to pay all this money to sit and read but the lack of activity looked relaxing to me.
“What’s the first island we stop at?” I asked my friends.
“Maui,” Larry said. “I’m not going to try and pronounce the town name.”
We walked further on and found ourselves rounding the curve of the stern or rear end of the ship.
“Look, Susan, the sun is just gorgeous,” Trisha exclaimed.
We watched the sun commence its descent into the reflective shine of the ocean. Trisha and I pulled out our pocket cameras and took a few pictures. The reds and yellows seemed so intense. After a while, when the reds turned to purple and magenta, we snapped some more photos.
“Come on, you two, you’ll use up your SDC cards,” Larry joked.
“Nonsense. Oh, look over there. I saw some dolphins,” Trisha shouted, pointing at an area of the frothy water.
“Darn, I missed them,” I said.
“You’ll see more, later,” he said, moving away from the rail.
An older couple stood at the railing talking about this ship. My ears perked up when the lady said an odd thing.
“This was the ship, Leon, the one where two people fell overboard here two weeks ago.”
My curiosity overtook me as I edged closer to them. Trisha moved away to catch up with her husband.
“Excuse me. Did you say someone fell off the ship?” I asked.
“Don’t mind her,” Leon said. “There’s bound to be an accident or two just like when someone falls over Niagara Falls.”
“Were they found?” I pressed as I looked at the dark water.
“No, sad to say,” said the short lady.
I could feel a cold shiver brush by me until I heard Trisha calling me from a few yards away, “Come on, Susan. Larry wants you over here.”
“Have a good trip you two,” I said to the couple and walked toward my friends.
“Did you hear what they said?” I asked.
“Who?” Trisha asked.
“The couple next to us at the railing. Two people fell off the ship a couple of weeks ago.”
“I think I read about that at breakfast,” Larry said. “Two men I think.”
“Well, let’s not dwell on them. I mean, that’s a tragedy but we’re here to have some fun,” Trisha added,” Trisha added.
“You’re right. What’s in here?” I asked as Larry opened one of the double doors.
“Looks like a theater,” he said after we stepped onto the flowery carpet. The theater had hundreds of seats and looked like they could hold over a thousand people. The balcony seats above us lined the upper walls of the upper deck.
We wandered up and down the fifth deck, took the clear elevators in the ship’s center to the sixth floor where we found chocolate chip cookies in the card playing area and the balcony seats of the theater we saw from the deck below. Then toward the bow, we took the regular elevators near the theater down to the Internet Room and Library.
“I don’t plan to buy extra minutes as long as we find wi-fi stores on land,” I said.
“Me too. We have plenty of Gs. Larry?” Trisha asked, noticing he was looking at his business phone.
“I’m low. I’ll just buy a hundred minutes just in case,” he said and turned to walk into the Internet Room.
“Well, we can check out the library here and look, there’s a gift shop we can explore,” Trisha said, pointing to the store across the room.
We walked into the library and I leaned over the counter to speak to the officer on duty.
“What are the library hours?” I asked.
“We are open nine to three every day,” he explained.
“Thank you.”
We walked into the library to see what else they had. Fingering side to side against the glass cabinet, I looked over the book titles.
“Look, Trisha, two other books by the author I met on the plane are here,” I said, pointing them out to her.
“Looks like you can check out board games as well,” she said. “Let’s hurry over to the gift shop before Larry steers me away.”
“Good idea.”
We found items in the gift shop we weren’t allowed to take inside our carry-ons into the plane, such as tweezers and nail clippers. Since Trisha packed hers in her check-in luggage, I figured I could borrow hers if I had to. We looked over the expensive pullover hoodies and flowery blouses with the ship’s logo on the left chests. Then we saw them. The chocolate bars in the shape of our ship. I started pulling three, then four, and then six off the shelf.
“Just for gifts,” I reasoned to my friend.
“Sure. But they might run out. I’ll get some too.”
“What are you ladies doing?” Larry’s voice said behind us.
“Just gifts for those that can’t be here,” I said and brought my foil wrapped bars over to the checkout counter.
“Then they should have come and got their own,” he smirked.
Trisha, right behind me, love-tapped him on the arm.
“Silly,” she replied, grinning back at him.
After we made our purchase, we decided all this walking around the ship was tiring us out. We located the nearest elevator.
“I still have to unpack but I’d like to take a little rest before we go to dinner. Will we have to do the buffet again?” I asked. “After a while it gets old with all the people crowding around us.”
“I’d like to take a little rest before we go to dinner. Will we have to do the buffet again?” I asked.
“No, you can go to one of the free sit down dinners. You just have to pay for your drinks, liquor or pop,” Larry explained.
“Okay, why don’t I meet you outside your room, let’s say
