* * *
Another day went fast and just after closing the medical center in the afternoon, Sofia received a message from Denise on her pager ‘Emergency. Call me’. She dialed the back office number and her friend answered right away.
“What’s the emergency?” Sofia asked.
“Nothing too serious. The guys are having a boy’s night out. We need revenge.” Denise answered cheerfully.
“Are you kidding? You scared me! I thought there was something serious going on.” Sofia retorted.
“It is serious, from my perspective at least. Come on, you know me. In a real emergency you would have heard a code alpha by now.”
“All right. What do you have in mind?”
“Girl’s night in my cabin. I was thinking about some snacks, drinks, maybe movies and lots of girl talk.” She suggested.
Sofia hadn’t done that in a long time and the idea was appealing. Definitely more interesting than the wardie or the crew bar.
“Done. We can use my cabin, it’s a bit bigger. Bring the snacks and I’ll take care of the drinks. I’ll invite my nurses and you invite whoever you like.”
“Perfect. Is nine good?”
“Yes. That will give me time to do a few arrangements.”
If there was something that crew members appreciated was a good party. It was hard to have a decent social life onboard and when something happened, even if it was just with a small group of friends, it was always very exciting and people did their best to have a great time.
Carla and Keira were the first to arrive and Mary was on duty but she promised to show up for a can of soda and a little chat with the girls. Sofia’s steward kindly arranged for glasses and ice. The guy who worked in the crew bar helped bringing down some supplies and Natalie, Allison and Alice brought snacks. Amy arrived right after, carrying a bottle of Shiraz.
Keira turned on her iPod on a nice ambient lounge playlist and conversation went on, most of it about work because working every day of the week made it hard to come up with any original subject. Crew members in general didn’t have the faintest idea of what was going on in the world. The news, the movie theaters, radio stations and so on were mostly out of reach.
Denise and Sonya joined them shortly after and even Tania, the night manager, paid a visit under the condition of not drinking because her shift started at eleven. Sofia was happy with the company. That get together was exactly what she needed after a few days of intense work and general insanity.
“It seems like I’m the only one here on a ship for the first time, so let’s play a game. I want to hear your crazy stories, good or bad, of things that happened onboard. The winner of the best story gets a gift from me.”
“What’s the gift?” Carla enquired.
“Depends of how good the story is.”
“Fair enough,” Natalie said. “I’ll start.”
Sofia lowered the sound of the speakers and sat on the bed with her legs crossed, between Amy and Allison.
“About three years ago I was working in the tour office on a ship that was doing the Baltic Run. One of our ports of call was Warnemünde in Germany. From there we used to operate tours to Berlin by train. One afternoon we were all in our positions at the desk selling tour tickets and this lady approached Lynn, who was working next to me, pointed at the brochure that described a river boat tour and asked if it was still possible to see dead bodies in the water. Poor Lynn looked at all of us and then back at the lady and asked her if she could rephrase because she didn’t understand the question. The woman asked again if it was possible to see dead bodies in the river and Lynn, with all the politeness in the world, explained that the war was many years ago and no, there were no dead bodies. The lady moved on and read the description for another tour. Her next question was if in the Jewish Museum were any demonstrations of how the Nazis killed the Jews. At this point Josh and Martin had disappeared into the back office because they couldn’t hold laughter anymore.”
“Are you for real?” Sonya asked.
“Oh yes. I saw the entire scene; otherwise I probably wouldn’t have believed it either.” Natalie replied. “But wait, it’s not over. Lynn, again very politely, told the lady that the Jewish Museum is about the history of the Jewish people in Germany and there is very little dedicated to the Holocaust. We were expecting her to leave, but no, she still had more questions. Her last pearl of wisdom was if it was necessary to take her passport to go to East Berlin. Lynn looked at her like an idiot, not really knowing what else to say and I guess the woman realized Lynn’s confusion so she didn’t say anything else but she left without booking any tour.” Natalie ended.
“That’s incredibly stupid. How can a person be that ignorant?” Carla replied.
“When you think you’ve heard everything they always come up with something new. But that’s one of the biggest examples of pure stupidity I’ve heard in a while.” Denise declared.
“I couldn’t do that job.” Sofia added. “If I was there I would have slapped that woman. But for our entertainment, that’s a really good one. Thanks Natalie. Who’s next?” She asked and served another round of drinks while a bowl with nachos was passed around.
“I have a cool story.” Keira claimed. “Some time ago we were sailing the Mediterranean and one afternoon when it was about time for passengers to return to the ship in Turkey, one of them was so drunk he missed the gangway and fell in the water between the pier and the ship. One of the security guys jumped right after him with a buoy and when he had the passenger secured in the water the others threw a rope ladder so they could climb up but the man was so drunk he couldn’t make the steps and he was too fat to be pushed. He gave it a couple of tries but kept falling. Since that didn’t work they had to put a rope around his waist and it took four strong men to pull him up. In the process a few of his ribs got broken and we had to take him to the medical center and put up with his hysterical thirty year old daughter who was shouting at us for hurting her daddy. It was surreal.”
“I must admit passengers can be hilarious.” Denise said, giggling.
“Now me.” Amy said with a promising grin. “About two years ago or so I was on a ship in the Caribbean and one night at two in the morning we had a man-over-board alarm. At the time we were a few miles out of Jamaica. We felt the ship stopping and turning around and when I arrived in the promenade deck the guys were lowering the rescue boats to go looking for whoever was missing. It turns out that a couple had met during the cruise, had too many drinks and decided to go up to one of their rooms and have sex in the balcony. I’m still not sure how they managed to do it, because the balcony is pretty high, but they fell overboard, from deck 9, completely naked and drunk into the water at two in the morning miles away from shore.”
“Oh God!” the ones that didn’t know the story exclaimed, “What happened to them?”
“They were too entertained to look around, but above them, on deck 11 there was another passenger on a balcony. He saw them falling and gave the alarm. Since the alarm was given immediately the deck crew had a good idea of where to look and the rescue boats were lowered quickly. The two of them were found alive, unwounded and fished back to the ship. They got out of it without a bruise, except to their pride.” Amy elucidated.
“That’s what I call luck!” Natalie responded. “I remember that story. We all got detailed emails the next day.”
“It was very embarrassing for them. But they made it alive. If that other passenger hadn’t seen them they would have been fish food. They would have drowned or died of hypothermia.”
“I guess they had the shag of their lives!” Sofia concluded and everyone chuckled and nodded in agreement.
“Wait, I remember another one, talking about man-over-board.” Denise raised her voice in excitement. “It was a few years ago. I heard it from one of my supervisors.”
“Tell us.” Everyone replied at once.
“There was a guy one night in the Casino and he won a crazy amount of money. N
ext morning his wife reported him missing. She said he had never returned to the room the night before. There was a big search all over the ship but no sign of this guy. He had last been seen very drunk in the Casino. The wife was never there. Apparently she stayed in the room and he went gambling on his own. The CCTV doesn’t cover all of the ship and security went through all the tapes but there was nothing conclusive. They found what time he left the Casino and the last video showed him wobbling through deck 7 on his own and then entering an elevator. The FBI came onboard the next port and conducted a thorough investigation but found nothing. No traces of blood, no signs of fighting, no witnesses. The people in the next rooms didn’t hear a sound. Everyone believed she took advantage of his drunkenness and pushed him overboard but if she did it, she got away with it. There wasn’t enough evidence to prosecute her.”
“What about the money?”
“She got it all.” Denise answered with a grin.
“Wow!” Sofia replied thrilled. “I’m so glad I had this idea. This night is turning to be really interesting. Anyone else?”
Carla rose from her seat. “I have a funny one, not as dramatic as yours, but still cool. Once in the medical center I had a lady who was in her honeymoon. She was massive and the husband was even bigger. She complained that they had the AC down to the minimum but the guy was still sweating profusely, especially when they were having sex. They had already asked the front desk about getting a lower temperature in the cabin but the engineers said there was no way to do it since it was already down to the minimum. She came to see us to check if there was any medication we could give him to make him stop sweating like that. The situation was getting so bad they couldn’t get decent sex with all that water and it was ruining their honeymoon.”
There was more laughter.
“They could have done it under the shower. At least the water would be fresh.” Allison suggested.
“I thought about it but they were too big and the showers too small. They would end up in the front desk asking for an upgrade to a suite to get a bath.” Carla explained. “I thought about suggesting a diet too, but that would probably be considered rude so I just politely heard all their complaints and let them go.”
“Yes, the showers are quite small here.” Sofia observed.
“Well, I can guarantee you that they fit two people, of normal size of course.” Carla claimed with a naughty smile.
“Please don’t give us the details.” Keira replied in a begging tone.
It was already half past eleven and between snacks, drinks and stories Sofia realized how fast time passed and how tired she was but the she was having so much fun she didn’t want the night to end.
“All right. Those were all very cool stories. I need to take notes to remember later.” She said.
“I’m sure we could come up with a few more, if we think about it, but I guess it’s a good time for a movie.” Denise suggested.
“True. They were all great and since I can’t really pick one up I think we should all have lunch together somewhere ashore. Drinks on me.” Sofia offered.
“Perfect. Maybe Christchurch or Dunedin.”
“Deal. Let’s pick up a movie then.” Sofia had a look through the DVD’s on the desk and they picked a romantic comedy to finish a girl’s night in beauty.
11
Sofia had been onboard for over a month and a half and she was getting used to the concept of working hard, partying hard and sleeping whenever she could. It was like being in college again.
Travelling and partying were the highlights of life onboard. Travelling made life interesting; partying kept the crew away from suicidal thoughts.
It was Dunedin day. On cruise ships normal calendars don’t apply. Time is measured by cruise. Last cruise, this cruise, next cruise and so on. Days can be a port day or a sea day.
The plan for the day had been to go out and see a bit of New Zealand’s oldest city. Sofia had planned to walk the streets and see the fine architecture and spectacular scenery she had heard about. Thanks to Carla and Keira the plan had changed into going to bed as soon as possible. Why did they have to come up with a Naughty Nurses Party?
It had been a great party with lots of crew dressed up in their own version of a hospital gown (which would never be admitted in any hospital in the planet and could lead to death penalty in certain countries). People went through a lot of trouble to make it a wonderful night, especially the crazy nurses who had spent hours decorating the crew bar with stuff that was taken from the medical center. Mary kindly closed her eyes to the disappearance of a few items.
The party had started with tequila shots given by a cruise staff girl with a big syringe and it was downhill from there. People came up in all sorts of costumes, from a pregnant guy, to a half-naked nurse, a guy with a fake head shopped off, a nun on a wheelchair holding a bottle of vodka, pretense broken limbs and so on…
The DJ was great and had everyone dancing until Tania showed up and ended the party just after two in the morning. Afterward, Carla moved the event to her cabin with a small group of friends.
Sofia, who was normally proud of being well behaved and self-controlled had too much to drink and the next morning she couldn’t remember what happened in Carla’s cabin. Most memories were vague, her head weighted a ton and her body was sore. She remembered vaguely that at some point Denise and Diego insisted that she should go to bed.
She felt too sick for breakfast and went straight to the medical center after putting enough makeup on to make it look like she was alive. Mary came by with a mug of boiling black coffee and dropped it of in front of a very cranky doctor.
“Oh, bless you for that!” Sofia said and as she took the first sip she burnt her tongue. “Ouch! I always do that.” She complained. Like the hangover wasn’t bad enough!
“I heard you had a hell of a night.” Mary observed asking for more information.
Sofia looked at her with a very squeamish face. “I am so going to kill those two!”
“Why would you kill our lovely nurses? They are the angels of our lives.”
“Angels? Those two are demons! It’s because of them that I feel like the damn train ran over me.” Sofia complained but not hard enough to make the nurse feel sorry for her.
“Yes, I’m sure they opened your mouth and poured alcohol down your throat against your will.”
“I don’t like you.” She grumbled.
“Oh love, you’re going to like me a lot less when I open that door in five minutes. I just hope your partners in crime are in better shape than you, otherwise this will be a very interesting day.”
“You’re mean!” Sofia exclaimed.
“Yes I am. And I’m also sober, not like some people who party all night and come to work sleepy and hangover.” She said with a grin and left the room to open the medical center.
When things went wrong, they went really wrong. The one morning Sofia needed peace and silence the medical center was really busy. Several crew members had food poisoning after eating pizza leftovers in someone’s cabin. The thought alone made Sofia sicker. A waitress came up with an infection because of a cut she should have treated three days before, a cleaner had a broken toe, a security guy was hurt after a pretense fight with a colleague that didn’t go too well and a receptionist had severe tooth ache and had to be sent ashore to see a dentist.
Keira was late to work and Mary got mad because she had to stay longer after doing the night shift. Ryan made it very clear that he didn’t give a damn if the entire world was being attacked by aliens as long as HIS medical center operated properly, therefore hangovers and personal dramas didn’t have a place past the door during opening hours. On any other day Sofia would have agreed entirely.
By the time the morning shift was over she was very grateful. The yogurts in her fridge saved her from starvation because there was no way she was going to waste precious sleeping time going for lunch. Never had that bed felt so good and not even the rolling noises of t
rolleys in the corridor every few minutes stopped her from sleeping like a baby. And like a baby she woke up three hours later, not to eat, but to return to work. The afternoon was not easier than the morning and at one point she really felt like it was all a punishment for her excessive partying the previous night.
Denise paid a visit to her cabin after work. She didn’t look great either.
“Hi. How was your day?” She asked with a faded voice.
“Crap. And yours?”
“Crap!” Denise answered and sat on the bed. “Except lunch break.”
Sofia gave her friend an inquisitive look.
“I was going to sleep but Diego kept me awake, which I’m happy with but now I’m really tired.” Her friend said without getting into unnecessary details.
Sofia put a pillow underneath her head. “I’m glad one of us had something exciting to do today. I slept the entire lunch break and my body still feels like I’ve been beaten. Did I do anything stupid last night? I can’t remember half of it.”
Denise chuckled. “You were okay until Aaron started mixing double vodkas in your drinks. Then you kept drinking and we didn’t stop you because you were so funny. After the disco we all came to Carla’s cabin and you were almost letting Aaron kiss you so Diego and I brought you to bed to make sure you wouldn’t do anything you could regret today.”
“Did your boyfriend see me naked?”
“Of course not. I don’t need competition. He waited outside while I helped you. Do you really not remember?”
“Only a few flashes. I’m mad that you guys didn’t stop me from drinking that much and make a fool of myself. And I have a gigantic hangover. I’m not drinking anytime soon.”
“Didn’t you say that after New Year’s Eve?”
“Yes, but now I mean it.”
Denise giggled again. “Well, don’t worry about making a fool of yourself because everyone was drunk too and they won’t remember what you did. Plus, this is part of being a crew member. You couldn’t go through a contract without at least one night like this.”
“Whatever!” Sofia replied dryly and pulled the covers over her head.
“Dinner?” Denise asked waiting for her to stop behaving like a child and eventually she got her head out of the covers.
“Can’t be bothered. I don’t think I can move out of this bed.”
“I have an idea.” Denise picked up the phone and asked the room service supervisor to get some food delivered to the cabin.
“Nice. Are you friends with everyone onboard?” Sofia asked happy that her friend’s acquaintances were bringing food. Her stomach had been making funny sounds for a while.
“With everyone except my own supervisors. There are some good perks, especially when you have the right friends.” Denise answered smugly.
Sofia tried to remain awake until dinner arrived. After a monumental hangover all day she learned her lesson about drinking and working. “I’m getting too old for this. Far goes the time when I only needed a few hours to recover. Now it takes me two days.” She muttered.
Kieran hadn’t sent an email in a while and Sofia was starting to worry, not knowing what to make of his silence. She called Ailish but all her friend knew was that either he had been working all the time or his car broke in the parking lot.
Sofia tried to call him just to say ‘hello’ but the voicemail came up after a few rings. Sending him an email felt wrong so she left him a voice message.
When she returned from lunch with the girls in Christchurch she checked her emails and there was one from Kieran. Only two lines saying “I’m working all I can because I can’t stand being this lonely. I guess saying I’m fine wouldn’t be realistic. Love. Kieran”
For the first time since leaving Dublin, Sofia wondered if it had been a good idea to stay away from him after all. Her intention had been to make him see that he needed help to get over Jamie’s death and stop blaming himself. If after all that time he was still working like a mad person and hadn’t done anything for his own good sake then the plan was failing. She tried to come up with a good reply. Nothing seemed better than the truth.
“Dear Kieran, I’m starting to wonder if my efforts to help you are doing more harm than good. I wanted so much for you to find your way again and it makes me very sad to see it is not working. I really don’t know what else to do. Staying away has been the hardest thing I ever had to do in my life, but I can’t go back to the person you are right now. I want the old Kieran back, the one I love so much.”
She felt a bit down for the rest of the day and Carla invited her to go and see a show in the main theater after dinner. It was the first time Sofia watched that kind of performance and she really enjoyed the Broadway style show with the catchy songs and dancers in sparkling outfits and wigs. The singers were not too bad either and it was pretty clear there was a lot of thought and production work involved behind the curtains, from the music to the lighting.
The show lasted nearly one hour and a half and the doctor wondered why it had taken her so long to start looking at the passenger’s entertainment schedule.
“Nice job those guys have.” Sofia said, referring to the dancers.
“Probably the best onboard.” Carla replied while they had a fruit juice in one of the bars because Sofia was determined not to get close to alcohol anytime soon. “They spend a lot of time in rehearsals but work very little hours compared to the rest of us. They never have to wear a uniform, have lots of deck privileges and loads of free time to enjoy them. Their life is so easy they are not even required to have emergency duties.”
Sofia looked astonished. “How come they get that life while everyone else works so hard?”
“I’m not sure why, but the fact is that dancers are only required to do what is in their job description and nothing more. I don’t blame them for taking advantage if someone offered them a nice life onboard. I wish I had that too. But it’s very unfair when you compare them to the rest of the crew. Everyone sees the dancers enjoying their lives, I mean they spend entire mornings getting tanned by the pool, while the remaining of the crew work every single day, in many cases for over twelve hours. When the crew see that and then they have to go to the crew mess eat crappy food while the dancers sit in the buffet upstairs, it makes people upset. Dancers are normally not very well viewed onboard.” Carla explained.
“That’s strange. I understand that the dancer’s job is what it is and their careers end early so they need to have some perks otherwise the company wouldn’t get anyone to do the job. But going to the point of not even having emergency duties when crew members who work so many more hours have a blue card and attend every drill even if they have to do it after working night shifts, is insulting. I can understand why the other crew would get upset.” Sofia observed.
“It’s not about them. They are people just like everyone else. They are here to make some money and have a good time. There’s nothing wrong with them and despite the mean comments you might hear sometimes there are some nice people in their team. What no one else likes is what they represent. They are the ones who have the life all of us dream. Of course it would be unbearable for the company to give the same to all of us, but the differences are so outstanding it becomes really hard to accept that some have so much and others have so little. We have crew who are almost slaves and crew who are treated like passengers. It’s very unfair but that’s the way of the world and ships are no exception.”
The two of them spent the night talking, mostly about ship’s dramas and relationships and Sofia started to see the mask that her friend created onboard. Carla was not really a shallow person who only cared about partying like there was no tomorrow. She was actually very intelligent and a lot more sensitive than she appeared. She adopted a new personality as a weapon to help her have what she defined as success on ships, which mainly stood for surviving every contract without getting hurt more that the strictly necessary.
People adopt different strategies in order to make
the best out of every situation and the ability to adjust to different realities is one of the most amazing human features. What Carla did was to create a character and perform a role, like in a full time movie. She was a smart, competent nurse with excellent social skills that made her very popular with crew and passengers. Most crew parties onboard had her participation because she understood how important it was for hardworking people to have those few hours of fun. On the other hand she didn’t let anyone into her personal territory. Even the people she genuinely liked were kept at a safety distance.
Sofia tried to find out why she preferred to be that way.
“When you fall in love you are giving someone a power over you that you can’t control. Of course you wish they will use it to make you happy, but that power can be destructive, and many times it is.”
Carla avoided getting too involved because she knew what the likely end was, so she didn’t allow anyone to hurt her. Sofia understood that perfectly. Some people give others the opportunity to break their hearts but hope they won’t; others don’t take chances.
The doctor was curious about her motives. Was Carla just being careful or was she so seriously hurt it changed her entire view of relationships?
“I have issues. Loads of issues!” Carla started, not feeling too comfortable, but at the same time she knew Sofia could be trusted. “My father left us when I was fifteen and we never heard from him again. My mother had to take two jobs only to pay the bills and life was very difficult for me and my sisters. I worked every weekend as a waitress and it was that money that put me through college in Cape Town. Mum never got over it; she was always depressed. Then she got addicted to pills and one day she took too many and died. My older sister got married and her husband abandoned her too. So now I’m helping to support my niece so she can have a better life than the one we had. My younger sister grew up almost on her own and ended up on drugs. She’s been in rehab twice but after a while she always goes back to heroin. She has AIDS now. So, well, I have issues. I find it very hard to trust people. People are selfish and careless.”
Sofia looked at her taken aback by the revelation. “I’m so sorry Carla. I don’t know what to say. That’s a heavy burden you carry.”
“It’s okay. Life is what it is and we live with what we have. I’m here. I survived and I will keep surviving.”
“That’s amazing. Tell me, have you ever considered getting a job in a clinic or a hospital ashore? You have so much potential.”
“No.” She answered immediately. “There’s nothing for me ashore. Here I have a job I love, a good salary and people who treat me well. I’m up for a promotion and hopefully I’ll be senior nurse soon. I have everything I need onboard and nothing out there; at least nothing I want. The outside world holds no interest to me.”
Sofia smiled with compassion. “I understand where you are coming from and honestly, you have all the reasons to think the way you do. But your issues with men… did you ever get hurt or you just learn from what you see?”
“I never allowed myself to fall in love. I don’t want to be that vulnerable. Look at your friend Denise. When I first met her in a previous ship she was bright and happy. Now she fell in love and you know she’s not happy with a guy who gives her no attention and doesn’t seem to care. I don’t want to end up like that. Most guys I met on ships are good fun but I could never take them seriously. All they want is someone to have a few hours of entertainment, probably until the end of the contract because life onboard can be boring, and if that’s how it’s going to be I rather play that game than being a victim of the system.” Carla explained.
Sofia nodded. “I see. But does it make you happy to have that kind of meaningless life? Don’t you ever wonder how it feels like to have something real?”
“For me it’s not about being happy. I have a lot of fun and no hassle like this. I’m not using or deceiving anyone, I am the way people see and my rules are simple and clear. No dramas, no surprises.”
For Sofia that kind of mentality was hard to understand, not only for the lack of morals but especially because after being in a relationship where the link between two people was real love, the idea of meaningless sex with random people seemed incredibly stupid.
“You know, I’ve only been here for a few weeks and I have to respect everyone’s choices, even the ones I don’t understand. But I really wish that one day you will find the right person for you and that you can find out what a wonderful thing real love is. Then you will understand all you’ve been missing.” Sofia said and Carla gave her a reserved smile.
“Maybe. We can always believe in miracles…”
They moved on to Stardust Disco for another drink and while Carla ordered a Cosmopolitan, her friend drank sparkling water and kept faithful to her non-drinking policy. They talked a bit longer and Sofia asked the nurse if she knew Mary’s story.
“It seems strange to me that someone’s been on ships for so long, you know? Either she loves this or she’s like you and doesn’t want to go back to land for a specific reason.”
Carla shrugged. “It’s a bit of both. Mary loves the ships and she also wants to stay away from home. I don’t think she feels like she has a home anymore.”
“What do you mean?”
“When Mary was in her twenties she was once engaged. Her future husband was killed in a car accident two weeks before the wedding. She was pregnant. With the stress she lost the baby. That’s what made her come to sea. She used the ships as a way to escape. She had an old father and a sister left in Galway. He father died years ago and her sister succumbed to pancreatic cancer I’m not sure when. Mary is alone. There’s no one left for her in this world. We are her family.” Carla explained.
“That’s really, really sad.” Sofia murmured, her heart contracting on her chest.
“Yes, it is. But Mary is a fighter. She fell, but she stood up and moved forward. I know she rarely goes to Ireland these days. She bought an apartment in Thailand where she goes for holidays and I know she enjoys herself everywhere she goes. She’s been through a lot, but today she’s a happy woman. I consider her an example. Life doesn’t always work the way we plan. Many times the first thing you learn when you grow up is how unfair life has been for you. But we have the choice to go on.”
Sofia finished her water and Carla took her last sip of the cocktail and put the glass on the table.
“There is always a story behind everything, isn’t it?” The doctor asked while they looked at the big bright moon outside the large windows before they called it a night.
Carla nodded affirmatively. “If you start talking to each crew member on this ship I can promise you will find material to write many, many books.”