Chapter 12: Saralinda

Morning came, and I was itchy to get out of bed. I glanced at the clock, and it was only 6:45, but I wanted to see the sun.

Making love in the afternoon and again late into the night seemed to have tired Moira out. She looked like she might sleep until noon. I didn't want to wake her, so I carefully slipped out from under her arm, then tucked my pillow back where I'd been and slipped off to the bathroom.

I showered quickly, and dressed even faster, just pulling on panties, a skirt, and a blouse. I didn't bother with a bra or shoes. I slipped out of the door and into the bright, wonderful sunshine. I'd never felt this good. Ever. I wondered if this was what sex did for a person.

It was after seven, but nobody was about. I realized I'd never been awake this early on the boat. Did everyone sleep in here? Finally I found Michelle in the galley.

"Good morning, Michelle. Is everyone else still asleep? It's such a beautiful day!"

"Good to see you in a good mood, Saralinda. Actually, though, I think almost everybody is up already. A bunch of them are in the dojo."

"The what?" I laughed.

"The martial arts room, below."

"Below? I thought there was only, like, an engine room below."

Michelle laughed. "Boy, Moira's really fallen down on the job. You haven't been below deck yet? Just where do you think the crew sleeps, anyways. No, there's lots more below deck than above. You want a tour?"

"Yeah! But, um, don't you have to cook or something? I don't want interfere with your work.

"No, it's fine. Today's Wednesday – cleaning day, and my day off. There are no fancy meals today – just leftovers. I'm only in here because we're coming into Hawaii tomorrow, and I realized we still had a bunch of fresh fruit that we have to eat before we get there. So I was making a fruit salad for lunch, but it can wait. Come on, I'll show you around," she said, as she quickly rinsed and dried her hands.

"Let's start at the top," she said, once we were out on the deck. "Have you been up to the bridge yet?"

I shook my head, so she led me up the stairs to the top deck. It was smaller up there. In front was the bridge, where Tony was at the wheel. He showed me around, and even let me hold the wheel for a while, while Michelle ran back to the galley to get him another cup of coffee. I felt like a kid.

Behind the bridge was a gym room, with weights and treadmills and stuff. Beyond that was an open deck with benches around the sides and a hot tub.

"This is a great place to sunbathe nude," said Michelle. I giggled at the thought. "It's also a great place for dancing in the moonlight. Just don't get shit-faced drunk up here – the stairs back down are steep."

At the back of the upper deck was a helicopter pad! But no helicopter. "Gary sometimes rents a helicopter when we're in an archipelago – you know, a whole bunch of islands together – that way he can fly to different islands without taking the ship. We've done it in Hawaii and Fiji and Indonesia before," Michelle explained to me.

We headed back down to the main deck, and then Michelle led me to the stairs down to the deck below. The steps led to a hallway that ran the length of the ship, right down the middle.

"There's really only one full deck down below, on this ship, but it's big. Back there... , " she said, pointing to the back of the boat, " ... is the engine room, which we can't go into without Carol or Lin. Their rooms are the two back here next to where they work. Sid's and Ingrid's are these; Henri and Tony have the next two.

She led me forward. "This is my room on the right – I won't let you see it now, it's a mess. Jake's is across from me. Up here is the business office, where you'll find Kate most of the time. This... , " and she swung a door open, " ... is the lounge. Looks like the boys were playing cards again last night, to judge from the empty chip bags and the beer bottles. There's also a couple of X-Boxes and a big screen home theater and all manner of games and stuff. It's mostly used by the crew, but the girls come down too quite a bit, especially for movies." It was a big L-shaped room.

She led me back to the hallway, and continued forward.

"Here's the library." It was huge, and had books and computers, and had four big windows, and some comfortable-looking chairs and couches, and a couple of kind of private areas too. "If you want to check your email, or anything, we have satellite internet access. Kate can get you an account."

"I don't have email. We didn't have a computer, um, at ... at the place where I lived."

"Really? Wow. I thought everyone did. Jake could probably give you set up, or Kate could." Maybe sensing my embarrassment, Michelle moved us on across the hall.

"This is the shop and laundry." I was stunned – the room was as bigger than the library, and had three big windows. "Yeah, it's really nice, isn't it. This stuff was going to be crammed back next to the engine room, but Gary figured we spent about one day a week slaving away, so he moved it up here. You know he completely gutted this ship and redesigned where all the rooms are and everything to make it just the way he wanted. Anyway, in a couple of hours, everyone will be doing laundry and shit here. Henri works the shop, and he's got just about any kind of tool or gadget you'd ever need. He actually made a bunch of the furniture for the cabins right here. Oh, and over there are two sewing machines. And if you ever want to do some kind of – like – hobby or craft or something, you'd probably want to come down here. It's a really nice room, and that's what it was made for.

Then Michelle led me to the door at the end of the hall, put her finger to her lips to indicate quiet, and opened it. I was not expecting what I saw. It was a large, long room that went right up to the bow of the boat. Except for a little space just inside the door that was cluttered with people's slippers and flip-flops, the entire floor was some kind of mat. At the very front was almost like an altar, with a black-and-white photo of an old Asian man with a bald head and a wispy beard and moustache. There were flowers in a bamboo vase, and wooden swords hung on a rack. There was a paper lantern.

And between us and the altar were Gary and Henri, Jake and Tori, Ingrid and Lin, and Simone and Carol. They were all dressed in funny white suits. Everyone but Tory and Henri had these almost skirt-like blue or black things over the legs of the suits. And it looked almost like they were dancing in slow motion. I watched as Henri got up off the mat, then walked towards Gary, almost like he was going to punch him. Then Gary kind of moved, and grabbed Henri's wrist, and twisted, and the next thing I knew, Henri was back down on the mat on his front, and Gary was twisting his arm behind his back.