by V. Louro
* * *
Three days at sea and another one to go was a killer in every possible way. The many hours of work were not that bad, but the mental boredom was outrageous. Sofia felt like a wild animal trapped in a cage and couldn’t wait to get to Darwin and step on land. The fact that the ship had been rocking a lot was not a great contribution for her happiness.
In the evening she had to go to the gym alone because Denise was in a back office meeting. Her body was tired and sore of working so much and instead of the usual jogging she went for a fast walk on a treadmill.
Denise arrived a while latter with her I-had-a-crappy-day face and turned on the machine right next to Sofia’s.
“Don’t tell me, the meeting was bad.” Sofia guessed.
“I just spent one hour listening to Leah and Elaine, the first purser, telling off my entire team for things that are not going right.”
“What’s wrong with that?” Sofia asked, confused.
“The wrong is that they treat them like children and talk to everyone the same way and that’s unfair. If someone is not performing well, they need to talk to that person in private, find out what’s wrong and what they can do to make it right. If that still doesn’t work then send the person home. That’s what a good professional would do. Some of those receptionists are very good at their jobs. They know that, and being put on the same pile as everyone else only drives away their already low motivation. I have a team of people who mostly hate their jobs. Now Elaine decided to increase the number of hours they are working as a punishment, like they’re in kindergarten. Of course I’ll have to add hours to all the schedules, to the ones who do a great job and to those who are useless. Imagine how that will make them feel.”
Sofia looked at her dumbfounded. “That’s ridiculous. Can’t you talk to anyone about it?”
“No. I have to endure and so do they. Elaine is best friends with Leah, so from that side I won’t have any luck. I know Anne doesn’t agree but she was recently promoted and she doesn’t want to go against Elaine at this stage. The only person above them is the hotel director and he doesn’t give a damn either.”
“I’m really sorry for you and for your team, but stressing is not going to make it any better. Just enjoy as much as you can of the good things you still have onboard. Think about your friends and Diego.” Sofia suggested, trying to cheer her up.
“That’s another one. I must be a real idiot to be wasting my feelings on someone who is not willing to take a bit of his precious time and spend it with me.” Denise hissed back.
“Why not?”
Denise increased a bit of the speed and started running and talking at the same time, which made her really tired but she didn’t care.
“Diego has a routine. He wakes up and goes to work, goes for lunch and then takes a nap during his break. Occasionally he’ll go out in a port but most times he stays onboard. At three o’clock he goes back to work and as soon as the afternoon shift is done he goes to the wardroom to play darts and have drinks with Ian, Aaron and whoever else shows up. At some point he’ll remember to have dinner and eventually he’ll go to bed which is the only bit of the day I have him for me, and that is if he doesn’t decide to watch TV. In the rare occasions we go out in port together, there is always someone else. It’s never just the two of us.”
Sofia looked at her and saw her lowering the speed. “What about during the day? Do you ever spend time together? Do you talk?”
“Sometimes he calls me. Most times he calls Ian. Many times I’m in the back office and I hear them chatting on the phone.” Denise said gloomily.
“Aren’t you jealous?”
“It’s not his fault that Diego doesn’t give me the attention I need. Ian is a good friend.”
After a few minutes of bad quality workout because none of them was really in the mood, they moved to the next room to do some stretching.
“So why do you put up with it then?” Sofia asked.
Denise did some Pilates exercises. “First because as much as I hate myself for being that stupid, I just found out a little too late that I’m in love with him, and second because even if I’m not happy with him I would be unhappier without him. I’m having a horrible contract and the very little Diego gives me makes it easier to bear. He’s not the kind of boyfriend I would like to have and under any other circumstance I wouldn’t put up with it, but I’m not ready to lose him yet. I know it sounds pathetic, but I can’t survive until the end of my contract without him.” She explained.
Sofia stopped stretching and sat looking at her friend’s rueful gaze. “You sound like you know it’s going to be over.”
“I don’t know for sure if it’s going to be over and I don’t want it to be because I’m in love with that bastard, but I’m not dumb. I know if he felt the same way about me he would be different. Most likely this is just one of those until the gangway tears us apart thing for him, and if I get out of it with a broken heart too bad. I don’t really want to think about it right now. I’ll deal with it when I have to.” Denise responded with a sad voice.
Sofia didn’t understand that at all. In her opinion if a relationship couldn’t survive the long term it was simply not worth the time and energy on the short term either. She realized it was better not to share that opinion and upset her friend even more.
Eventually they stopped the workout that wasn’t doing them much good and Sofia suggested they watched the gorgeous sunset outside. It was very windy so they went up to deck 16 above the gym and sat on the floor behind the glass. There was no one nearby and the silence was only broken by the occasional whistle of the wind.
The sun was barely hanging above the horizon and what was left of the powerful light threw dazzling reflections of orange and red like a blood blanket over the ocean.
Denise threw in a deep breath of warm air that tasted of sea. “I swear if this was all there was to sea life I would never want to leave the cruise ships.” She murmured pointing her face towards the sun.
“Yes, this is such an incredible view. The sunset is so amazing it looks like a painting.”
They went on talking about the positive and negative aspects of working on ships until a middle aged passenger sat next to them without asking permission and started talking, not realizing that the girls in their gym wear were crew. Initially they glanced at each other thinking about leaving, but in one minute they realized the man was harmless and just wanted someone to listen to his stories. He was probably lonely and both of them knew exactly what that felt like.
He spent twenty minutes telling them about the great conversations he had with the universe and the secrets he learned from the comets that passed near the earth. He gave them a series of bizarre details that they both listened to enthusiastically and finished by saying that his alien friends had promised to pick him up from earth and give him a special position in their planet where he would be safe from all the human nonsense. He thanked them politely for listening and asked them to spread the word. They nodded in agreement and waved as he walked slowly towards the stairs to deck 15.
“Since he doesn’t smell like alcohol, I would say he’s either on drugs or has lost his marbles.” Sofia observed with amusement.
“Maybe he spends too much time watching TV!” Denise giggled.
“Do you get a lot of crazy people like him?”
“At a rate of three thousand every cruise we do get a lot of nut heads, but to that level is rare.”
“Well, at least we had some fun!” Sofia snickered.
Alone in her cabin after Denise left because of something important she had to do, Sofia started studying her Lonely Planet guide for Australia and New Zealand. With different color post-its she marked the places where the ship was going to dock and read the relevant chapters, highlighting important details. That was the best way to use the little time they had in port properly and she wanted to have a chance to enjoy every minute in case she never had a chance to return.