“Sounds good to us,” Trisha said as she looked up at her husband for confirmation. He said nothing but nodded.
As soon as we stepped off the elevator, we headed down the hall to our cabins. She entered her room as I walked two doors down to my door. I waved my key pass over the electronic lock and walked into my cabin. Placing my purchased chocolate in the stocked fridge amongst the mini-bottles and snacks, I turned to open my suitcase to retrieve my flip-flops. My feet were sore from all that exploring.
I kicked off my shoes, drew out my book I was reading from my purse, and stretched out on the bed. I moved the bookmark to the back page. Soon a huge yawn overcame me.
I unhooked my small black dot earrings and set them on the nightstand. Then I puffed up the pillow to lie down. I was sound asleep when I thought I heard a light tapping on my door. Swinging my legs over the bed I rose and walked over to the door thinking it might be Trisha. When I opened it, no one was there. I reclosed the door and latched the lock.
I was almost to the edge of my bed when I heard the tapping again. I yanked the door open and found a lady steward placing the ship’s newsletter into the slot tray near my door.
“Hello, tomorrow’s itinerary,” she said.
“Thank you, what’s your name?” I asked.
“Lynn, I’m your steward on this deck.” She was short like my friend, Trisha, with a close-cropped style and straight black hair. I guessed her to be of Hawaiian decent.
“Thank you, Lynn. Have a good day,” I said, picking out the printed material. I closed my door behind me as I walked back inside of my cabin.
The time was now four-thirty, and since I was wide-awake, I decided to unpack my suitcase. The hour rushed by and I choose an outfit of a white blouse with small red flowers. That’s the only red I’ll allow next to my blond hair.
At five-thirty sharp, I stepped out of my room and made sure my door had locked. By this time, Lynn and her housekeeping cart had left the hall when I glanced both ways down the passageway. But when I looked again, I saw a tall slender man wearing a white jacket standing against the wall. He looked like one of those waiters who work in the buffet area. I didn’t care. He was just another steward to me. I turned and headed to my friend’s room and gave it a good couple of knocks.
Just before Trisha opened her door, I happened to glance down the hall again where the man had been standing and realized he was now gone.
“Well, are you ready for some more food?” she asked when she opened her door aside.
“Why not,” I said, grinning at the thought.
“That’s the way to think. What deck do we go to, Larry?” she asked.
“Seventh,” he replied.
When we arrived at the restaurant, we had to wait a few minutes in line. Several other people joined us before the rush in the evening. As I admired the decorative walls, I noticed the same male steward I thought I saw in my hallway. He stood posing by the central double stairway in front of our restaurant entrance. He didn’t move and stood off by himself. I turned to Trisha as we moved up a step.
“Trisha, do you see that steward over there?” I asked her, gesturing in the directions of the stairs.
“Where?” she asked, looking around me.
I looked again and the questionable steward wasn’t there.
“Never mind,” I said.
The couple ahead of us walked off with their waiter and then our greeter strolled over to meet us. He first asked us to see our room keys to log us in and if we wanted a table by ourselves or with others.
Larry said, “By ourselves.”
“Come this way, please,” our waiter, said.
We walked by the larger tables that held six to eight diners as our attendant guided us to a smaller table with four chairs. He proceeded to pick up the folded cloth napkin and laid it across our laps. What service! He presented each of us with a long thin menu in a plastic sleeve with a leather backing. I chose the salmon dinner and we handed the menus back to the steward.
“Would either of you like some wine?” he asked.
“No, but I’ll have a coke,” Larry said.
“Ladies?”
“Just water for me, Susan?” Trisha asked me.
“I’ll have water with a wedge of lemon,” I replied.
Our meals were delicious. My baked salmon was moist and tender. Our meal also came with the pie of our choice. I indulged and chose the chocolate cake. We were full by the time we left the restaurant.
“If we hurry, we can catch the stage show. It starts in fifteen minutes,” Larry said.
“Sounds like a plan,” I replied and we walked down the stairs to the sixth floor where we could enter the balconies.
Tonight the theater had acrobatics and the show lasted over an hour. I hated to see the program end as it was so unbelievable. As we filed out behind the rest of the crowd, I didn’t realize how much the ship rocked in transit as we tried to keep our balance. We made our way out to the elevators and discovered there were so many people waiting for them in the lobby, we had to wait for the third one before we could go up to our deck.
We stopped at Trisha’s room and I said goodnight. Walking on toward my cabin, I practiced walking like a duck to accommodate the movement of the ship’s swaying. As I entered my cabin and turned around to shut my door, I saw a porter standing against the wall in the hallway. Funny I don’t remember him there when I arrived at my cabin door. He must have snuck up behind me.
“Hello, are you my steward for the night?”
“Yes, ma’am.
