Chapter 6: The Cruise

Sunday, April 16th Los Angeles:

Early stood on his private balcony as the ship pulled away from the dock. Departure time had been delayed and it was getting dark. He'd made a reservation at the Signatures restaurant for himself, his niece, Kristin, and her husband, Mark. The college couple were the only members of his family who could get away on such short notice and they would be going only as far as Hawaii eight days from now. A few people threw those streamer things at the dock, but the lack of anyone to see them off ruined the image of the Bon Voyage parties of Black & White movies.

Dinner was everything one would expect from a restaurant that advertised it served cuisine from around the world, all prepared using the Cordon Bleu method. Early actually had the chicken Cordon Bleu. It was preceded by a shrimp cocktail served in a one of those special two part goblets where one part sits on ice inside the other, except these where both made of cut crystal. It was followed by a fruit salad with very special poppy seed dressing served on fine bone china. The main course, served on gold-rimmed plates of the ship's custom pattern made Early forget about just how many calories, fat and cholesterol the cheese and ham stuffed chicken represented. The service was impeccable and Early knew he'd be adding something to expected 20% of the ticket price tip his company had already paid.

After dinner Kristin and Mark had gone to one of the lounge areas to dance and Early returned to his suite to watch the sunset. By dark, they were out of sight of land and Early decided to check on his email. The first thing he discovered was that "For a nominal fee, guests may send or receive e-mail via computers on board." Who the hell thought nominal meant fifty cents a minute? The connection was as slow as a dial-up line. Still, when you considered where they were, it wasn't how well the elephant danced but that it danced at all. As soon as he logged in to the company he received a message that said, "Early, all your email is being diverted. If you expect any personal messages you'll need to notify them of your address on the ship. All your passwords have already been changed and you will not get the new ones until you arrive in person. Attempting to hack our system is grounds for termination. Now go have fun!"

The next week was one of the most relaxing of Early's entire life. It was a precious time to get to know Kristin and Mark. Early spent a lot of time in the hot tubs, and just sleeping on the deck chairs. He spent even more time avoiding other passengers. The ratio of single women to single men on the 700-passenger ship was nine to one. The only problem was that those closest to his age were either old enough to be his grandmother or young enough to be his daughter!

By the time Kristin and Mark left on April 26th, Early was rested out. Thursday night the 27th was a formal night and Early was lonesome. Ship to shore telephone service was available, at $7.50 per minute and Early couldn't think of anyone whom he would enjoy visiting at that rate. He'd played Civilization IV until he was winning in less than four hours and he wasn't interested in the fabulous shows provided by the ship. What he wanted was someone to share this time with and it pained him that there was no one. His elderly aunt might try to join him when they arrive at Tahiti, but that wasn't really the sort of companionship he wanted. He'd been amused when he read the ship's booklet to find that soliciting was reason to be put off the ship at the nearest port. Now, he briefly wondered if there might be player or two available among the staff.

The ship had a fully equipped casino, but while Early had no problem with gambling, he so hated to lose that casino games didn't appeal to him. Instead of dressing in his tux he decided to have dinner served in his suite for the first time. The food was exquisite, but the company was lousy. For the first time since that night at the restaurant, he wasn't able to dismiss the image of Susan's smile from his memory.