chapter four Begin the Beguine I still felt queasy as I stood in line for the ferry ride back to Cozemel. We've all heard about ferries sinking, and I never understood how so many people could die when they were so close to shore. After riding in the Nagifar it became clear. Packed in like sardines with only two exit doors at the front as the only way out in an emergency; even the best swimmer would never make it to the open water. As I was about to board, I noticed a handrail and stairs leading to an upper deck. I motioned to one of the crew to ask if I could go up there. He nodded, but then said, "It gets a little cold in the open air during a night crossing. "Sounds great", I said as he held back the rope so I could grab hold of the handrail and climb to the observation deck. And it was great. I even found myself looking forward to getting back on board the Grace of Ortese. I could see the flood lights of the cruise ship in the distance, and it looked magnificent. It wasn't until we got closer that realized this wasn't my ship at all, but a much larger cruise ship. On the stern of the ship, I could make out ASSB in large red letters. As the ferry pulled into a slip along side the massive cruise ship, I could see her full name; Argo's Song of the Sea Breeze. Back on the dock and after a little checking around, I discovered it was an ocean going liner on the last leg of a world wide journey. Cozumel was an unscheduled stop as several of the crew had become ill and had to be put into quarantine. There was a call out for all positions. I didn't mention a word about being a cook to the cruise director. In fact, which was not a fact at all, I told the nice lady I was one of the best waiters and bartenders Atlanta had ever seen. I also mentioned, which was the truth, that I had a senior life saving certificate and had spent a summer as life guard and caretaker of my neighborhood pool. I like to think I was hired on my merits, but the truth was, they were desperate. It didn't surprise me to learn the GOO and the ASSB were owned by the same conglomerate. It was a simple matter of returning to the GOO to collect my gear and have my records transferred to the ASSB. I stopped in the town square of San Miguel to send a couple of postcards home before boarding the Argo. The journey began well, and I quickly fell into a routine. My day started at five in the morning cleaning the pool and getting the deck area ready for the day. Once done, I could grab some breakfast which I ate pool side. I would be replaced at eleven which gave me just enough time to get ready to wait tables during lunch. After, I would head back to the pool for a few hours and then change again to wait tables for the dinner crowd. In the evening, I worked a bar shift in one of the smaller lounges. My inner told me I was on the right path, but in the back of my mind, I knew by staying busy, I wouldn't have to think about the vision I had while on top of the Kukulcan pyramid. Before I knew it, we had crossed the Atlantic, and were about to enter the Mediterranean Sea. In five nights, the ship would make port. The cruise ship would then spend several weeks being overhauled from top to bottom. This would leave me free, but I hadn't even thought about what I would do with my freedom. The day we entered the mediterranean went by uneventful. The evening began the same way. I had a couple of guys at the bar telling me tall tales as usual, and my cocktail waitress, Katie, bending my other ear about how bored she was. She was always bored. Katie was going to be a superstar. At least that's what she kept telling me. Workers wear a lot of hats on a cruise ship, or in Katie's case, a lot of shoes. When she wasn't wearing waitress shoes, she wore dancing shoes. She was one of the ship's many semi-professional entertainers. She had a long list of people I had never heard of who she said were discovered in a corus line. I wasn't paying much attention to any of them when I noticed a lady in the outer lobby area who looked lost. This wasn't unusual either. A person could spent months on the ship and still get lost, but my inner told me something was up. I left the bar without saying a word. I guess everyone thought this was kind of rude because they all stopped talking at once. As I reached the outer bar area, the lady had doubled back and was coming my way. I didn't need my inner to see the frantic look on her face. I asked if I could be of help. "I'm Miss Hart", she said, "my son Jason, he's only five. I let him stay up to watch the fireworks earlier, and I thought he would be out for the night. I just now woke up myself, and he was gone. Can you help me find him?" "I remember you", I told her, "and I remember Jason too, you were at the pool today, right?" I don't know why, but my familiarity seemed to calm her. It hit her who I was. "Oh, you're the lifeguard." As she said this, she reached out to me. I put my arms around her to comfort her, and as I was about to tell her, don't worry, we'll find him, I had a vivid image of Jason, and where he was. I turned to Katie, and in a calm, but very firm voice said, "Call the ERU crew." (emergency response unit) "We have a possible drowning of a five year old boy in main deck pool." I left without saying another word. Out the bar, down the hallway, I took a little used side set of stairs. I grabbed the railings of the stairs, lifted my feet and slid down. Then across the pavilion, and down two more sets of stairs. When I reached the pool I dove in. I could see him at the bottom of the pool in my mind; I didn't need to look. He wasn't breathing when I pulled him out, and I immediately began CPR. After less than a minute, the ERU team showed up and took over. They put an oxygen mask on him and began setting up the paddles. About this time the mother showed up, but I intercepted her. "He's gonna be all right", I said, "but we need to let them do their work". Everything happened so fast. Only a minute before and three decks up, I had been holding her just as I was now, except now, I was soaking wet. "Clear", the rescue worked said as he applied the electric jolt. His partner checked the boy with a stethoscope, but nodded in the negative. "Clear", he said again, and this time Jason began coughing. His mother tried to pull away from me to go to him, but I held on tight. "They still have work to do", I told her, and then added, "I told you he'd be alright. "You knew", she said as she hugged me tight. She began saying thank you over and over, but then pulled back, looked at me in an odd sort of way and said, "how did you know?" Before I could muster an answer, one of the ERU guys came over to tell us the boy would be fine, but they wanted to keep him in the ship's ward overnight for observation. As they wheeled the boy away with miss Hart at her son's side, she looked back at me gratefully yet still with a puzzled expression. News travels fast even on a ship of this size. The next morning I was greeted with plenty of high fives, and congratulations. It continued throughout the day. Maybe it's because I wasn't used to such attention, but I kept getting the feeling people were looking at me just like Jason's mom did the night before. I was looking forward to a quiet shift in my quiet out of the way lounge. The place was packed. Standing room only. As I made my way to the bar, I ran into Katie with a tray full of drinks held high as she danced her way through the crowd. "It's so exciting, isn't it?", she asked. "What's so exciting?", I replied as if I didn't know what she was talking about. "They're all here for you to read them silly", and then added with annoyance, "You never told me you were a psychic!. I want a personal reading". With a wink, she added, "later". Our little exchange caught the attention of those around us, and I could hear a change in tone of the whole bar. I could feel every eye focusing on me. I quickly turned around and headed back to my caban. With only a day left before the ship was to make port, I planned to stay in my room, in my bunk, with the covers over my head until we did. But if there's one constant in the universe I've learned, even if things go your way, they never go as planned. The next morning, I was woken by a loud knock on the door. I was ordered to report to the director's office immediately. So of course, I went to eat breakfast first. When I finally made my way to the front office, I was told they were waiting for me in the conference room. Once inside, there must have been a dozen people sitting at a long table. I recognized a few faces, but I couldn't help think; boy, I've got a lot of bosses. The meeting went better than I expected, so after, I went by the cafeteria to grab some lunch. While I made my way down the serving line, Katie came up behind me. "So, how did the intervention go?", she asked gleefully. "Look," I said, "I'm sorry for leaving you in the weeds last night, but does everyone on this ship know about my personal business?" "Of course sweety," she replied making little air quotes with her fingers, "you're not the only one on board who 'knows' things." "It's funny you should say that, because....", I began to say but she cut me off before I could finnish. Still trying to twist the dagger a little, she asked, "Did they give you a real good chewing out for not showing up for your shift?" I had a good come back for that. "What they gave me was.... a mahogany and bronze engraved plaque, and..... called me a hero." Then I added, "They also said it was the best night the lounge has ever had. I don't think they even know I didn't show up for my shift last night." I could tell she wasn't altogether thrilled with my good fortune. "Management," Katie said making a simulated spitting gesture, "they're idiots. I'm surprised they didn't make you captain for the day and let you drive the boat." "It's a ship, not a boat" I said acting a little uppity just to tease her before continuing, "They did want me to dine at the captain's table tonight so they could have a public presentation of my hero plaque, but I turned them down. One of the guys from legal backed me up. He said it might not be good idea to make too much of it, or people might start asking how the boy was able to get into the pool area unnoticed in the first place." There was a moment of silence as we continued down the serving line. Katie was the first to speak. "Well, I guess that's it then." "Well..." I began to say, but she cut me off by again, this time giving me a hug. "I really am happy for you, and everything turned out good," she said as her demeanor turned nostalgic. "The ship docks tomorrow, and ...and, I'm going to miss you" "Well," I began again trying to get to the real news. "There was one more little thing that was brought up during the meeting" "I knew it," she said perking up, "you did get a chewing out didn't you?" "Not exactly" I said as I motioned for us to take our trays over to a table so we could talk privately. "There was this freaky guy at the meeting, I mean, he wasn't freaky, well actually he was, but his name was Freaky, or something...." "You mean Freakly...Matt Freakly?" she asked very excited. "Yeah, that's him", I said nonchalantly, "you know him?" "Know him!" she said trying to catch her breath. "He's only the lead choreographer for the whole cruise line. He's also...", she empathized the next part, "....The Top Talent Scout for Las Vegas!" "Yeah whatever," I said fiegning boredom. I may have even yawned before I continued. "They're gonna turn our little lounge into, get this, a psychic bar. I think they've started the remodelling already. The idea is to build an entire act around 'reading' the guests." "You lucky dog" Katie said jealously, but then it occurred to her, "Do you need an assistant?" "No, no I'm not going to need an assistant." I said. "Oh come on" she said pouting, "I'd make a good assistant." "I'm sure you would," I said laughing, "but I'm not going to need an assistant, because I turned them down." "What!?" Katie said not really believing what I had done. "Katie..." I tried to explain, "it's just not me." "Man, I would kill for that kind of a chance" she said. "I know you would Katie," I said finally building it up to what I wanted to tell her, "....that's why I... I recommended you for the position." "Me?" she squealed, "but, but, I'm not psychic!" "I don't think that really matters." I told her. "The truth is, I got the impression if they thought I was psychic, or if I thought I was, then they wouldn't have wanted me. But, back to you, the job is yours if you want it. Freaky boy said he could do something with you." "What! He knew me? Tell me everything! What exactly did he say about me." She was so happy and excited, and I didn't want to bring her down, but she asked, so I told her exactly what he said. "He said, I think I can do something with her." Far from disappointing her, she mouthed the words silently as if I were Moses coming down from the mountain bringing the word of God. She became so excited she couldn't sit. She paced back and forth and around our table as she spoke. "There's so much to do...", she said counting items on her fingers as she paced, ".....choreography, lighting, there's the routine to build, oh, and, wardrobe...", then she paused as she exclaimed rather loudly, "shoes!" "Shoes?", I questioned. Katie looked at me as the uncouth clod that I am. In that moment, it was clear to both of us, it would be a waste of time for her to try to explain her love of the entertainment business to me. So, she gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek and then whispered in my ear, "Make sure you come by the lounge tonight, I want to see you again before the ship docks". "I will" I whispered back, returning her kiss on my cheek with a kiss of my own on her lips. "I'll be waiting for you", she said and then added I thought rather seductively as she began to leave, "I'll be there all night". You bet I went by the lounge that night. The remodelling was well under way. Workmen were everywhere rearranging stages, tables and chairs. Katie was there, but she was surrounded by an entourage lead by Freakly, who in between directing Katie, also took the time to bark orders to the workmen. I decided to go out to the main deck to gaze at the stars. I had a good feeling Katie would get her star someday, and my inner told me, we would see each other again. It was an overcast moonless night as I stood at the railing looking out over the ocean pondering where my journey would take me next. The ship had docked earlier in the evening at the port of Civitavecchia, Italy. Although the official disembarkment wouldn't begin until the next morning, I could see flood lights on the dock below as workers had already begun the loading and unloading of supplies. I had packed up my gear earlier, and everything I owned save the knapsack on my back was to be shipped back home. The lights of the ship and the overcast conditions blocked my view of the coast and the hills above. I could only imagine the beautiful villas and resorts overlooking the Mediterranean sea. I imagined what it would be like to be at some gala affair high atop the hill looking down on the sea and all the ships parked in the harbor. I suddenly felt small. I stayed there the whole night waiting for the sun to come up. As luck or some might say fate would have it, about an hour before sunrise, it began to rain.