Written By Brad Harness
I considered this request from Henri and his girlfriend Francine. They asked me to go ashore tomorrow with them and show them around a bit. I liked to walk and needed exercise, I thought, my hand feeling the recent growth of my belly, fed as it was with all sorts of tasty calories. Officially, as crew, we are not
supposed to get involved with the cruise ship’s passengers. But this was merely as a tour guide.
“Alright, then. I’m in. I will be your tour guide tomorrow at 10am till noon.”
Henri looked pleased, and Francine blew me a fake kiss with her red-painted lips.
I returned to my cabin and turned in.
The next morning, I awoke to the regular noises of this massive ship coming alongside at the cruise ship terminal in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
There were plenty of passengers watching as this 1,000-foot long lady was expertly laid into her berth. Hawsers were dropped onto the bollards on the jetty and then doubled up for safety. Crewmen attached rat guards near the jetty end to keep any new visitors ashore. On the jetty, forklifts appeared and moved dozens of skids of fresh food into position for loading. Further along, two gangways were lowered into place and awnings spread to shade the crew from the coming heat of the noon-day sun.
An announcement told all aboard that disembarkation would occur on Deck 4 forward and aft, across those gangways. Just then my phone rang, and it was Francine.
“Bonjour, Bobby. I hope you are ready to give us our tour?”
This lady was on the ball.
“Yes, definitely, I will meet you on the jetty in about ten minutes.”
“Parfait!” she replied.
Down on Deck 4 the crew was corralling those heading ashore into lines so that their identification discs could be scanned. It was all very high-tech these days, compared to when I started my comedy act aboard cruise ships.
Soon enough, I was on the jetty amongst the masses of humanity who had spent hard-saved earnings on this trip of a lifetime. They had today to explore the island capital and weren’t going to miss out.
I looked around, having a hard time recalling what Henri looked like. But Francine, well…she looked…Unforgettable, so I concentrated on finding her. And then there she was!
Next Week: Part 4
