by Chanel Smith
“Would you like some more teaching or are you still thinking of Andrea or whatever her name was in Medellin?” she purred.
“At this moment, I don’t even know that there is a place called Medellin or Brisbane or California or…”
Her lips against mine stopped me from speaking, which was probably the best thing that could have happened. We stayed like that for several minutes, feeling the gentle breeze coming in off of the bay as it caressed our skin and stirred the passion or our kiss.
Without a word, Ellen stopped kissing me, gave me that look that so often started me reeling, took my hand as she started to lead me inside. “Let me see if I can teach you a few more things.”
Ghosts, demons, spirits, aliens, lake monsters, chupacabra, mythical and mystical phenomenon and all other strange and bizarre occurrences had left my thoughts completely as she led me into the bedroom of our suite and closed the door behind us.
Chapter Three
Imperial Hotel, Brisbane, Australia, Sunday morning
There is no better way to start a vacation than to wake up at eleven in the morning after having spent the night making love with the most beautiful woman on earth. I was refreshed in every possible way and I felt new energy surging within me, but I’d used up a good deal of fuel during the night and I was in need of some nourishment. Kissing the sleeping form of my gorgeous mate, I slipped out into the living room of the suite and called for our breakfast.
“We’re serving brunch at the moment,” the woman with the thick Australian accent told me.
“That will be fine,” I replied. “Bring me whatever you’ve got. I’m starving.”
“I’ve got just the thing,” she quipped. I could hear the smile in her voice.
With brunch ordered, I went back into the bedroom, noticed that Ellen was no longer in bed and, at the same instant, heard the shower running. You would have thought that I’d been spent, but the idea of a shower with Ellen was arousing. “Good morning, Babe,” I said, slipping behind the glass doors to join her.
I’d forgotten all about ordering breakfast until I heard the banging on the door of the suite. Wrapping a towel around my waist, I hurried to open the door for the room service waiter. “I’ve caught you in the shower then, have I, mate?” he grinned, pushing the cart into the room. “Go on and enjoy it and I’ll get this set up for you and the Mrs…”
“Thank you,” I replied, scurrying back into the bedroom. Ellen had already started getting dressed when I entered. “You don’t want to finish the shower?”
“I intend to scrub you from head to toe,” she replied. “And I will, but at the moment, I’m so hungry I could eat the crotch out of a low flying duck.” The last part she added with her attempt at an Australian accent, which, to my surprise, sounded pretty authentic.
I started to respond, but I had nothing. She winked at me and slipped out the door of the bedroom. Shaking my head, I slipped on some shorts and a T-shirt and tagged along behind.
At mid-afternoon, we checked out of the suite and were taken to the Port of Brisbane where the Eucalyptus was docked. The logo of the koala and kiwi stood out proudly on the bow of the cruise ship and I was already feeling the excitement of getting on board. Ellen and I had taken some cruises before, but there seemed to be something magical in the air as we started up the gangplank.
That magic was suddenly interrupted before we had ever gotten aboard the ship.
“I’ll not be ordered about like a commoner!” the elderly man in front of us bellowed. “I’ve paid plenty to board this wretched barge and I’ll be quartered where I asked to be quartered.”
The first officer reached to touch the elbow of the man and draw him aside from the entryway. Ellen and I froze in place and watched.
“Unhand me, you brute!” the man said, swatting at the officer’s hand as he stepped away. “First, you refuse my request and now you’re going to assault me?”
“I apologize,” the officer responded. “I only wanted to guide you out of the way so that this lady and gentleman behind you might be able to board.”
The elderly man turned and looked at us. “I’d flee from here as fast as you can,” he warned.
I felt Ellen squirm a little bit and I turned to look down at her. Catching me, she quickly hid the frown that had come across her face with a smile.
“What?” I asked. “What’s going on? What’s wrong?”
Thinking that I was talking to him, the elderly man turned on us. “It’s not a crack of your bloody business.”
I raised my hands in surrender and took a step backward. “I wasn’t making it my business.”
“Sir, please,” the first officer said. He reached for the man’s elbow to guide him away and received the same response. He backed away for a moment, but only to nod toward one of the attendants, no doubt a signal to call for security.
“You’re not a Brizzy or a Pommie, so you must be a Yank. Just like a bloody Yank sticking your nose in where it doesn’t belong.”
“I wasn’t…” I started to respond, but he cut me off.
“While you’re navigating the map of Tasmania in a luxury suite, I’ll be stuck on a cot in the back corner of the engine room.”
“Please, sir,” the officer said with a stern tone. “I must insist that you leave the other passengers alone.” As he said it, he did take hold of the man’s elbow and turned him toward the waiting security officers who had just arrived to assist him. With plenty of protests and foul language, the man was led away by the two men. After traveling down a hallway, they disappeared with their unruly guest behind a door.
“Goo’ day,” the first officer greeted us as we stepped onto the deck. “I apologize that you had to witness that. Welcome to the Eucalyptus. Which stateroom have you been assigned?”
I started fumbling for the boarding pass inside my jacket.
“Cabin 9720,” Ellen jumped in, smiling at me.
As she spoke, one of the waiting attendants listened carefully and then snapped into action. “Right this way, mate,” he said to me with a broad smile.
“Enjoy your stay with us,” the first officer said, passing us over to the attendant. The bellhop, who was guiding our luggage up the gangway on the cart, trailed along behind us. After riding the elevator and passing through a maze of hallways, I wasn’t sure where I was or if I’d ever be able to find my way back. I was already consulting the deck plan that I’d drawn from my pocket and wasn’t making any sense of it.
“Here we are,” the attendant said, arriving in front of a doorway, consulting a card in his hand and pressing a code into the keyless entry pad. An audible click sounded and he pushed the door open and made his announcement as we entered the room. “The Theatre Suite.”
The view was breathtaking. Our suite was all glass on the seaward side and had a broad balcony that wrapped all the way around the bedroom, which was walled in glass as well. Our attendant explained the features of our suite, showed us how to reset the keyless entry code in order to enter our own, private code and filled us in on a little bit more information about the cruise while the bellhop unloaded our luggage. As the two were leaving, I followed them to the door to present them with a tip. Stepping out into the hallway, I leaned in to the attendant.
“What does navigating the map of Tasmania mean?” I asked.
The attendant looked past me to see where Ellen was and then responded in a low voice. “The map of Tasmania is shaped sort of like a woman’s…” He cut off the sentence and pointed downward.
“Gotcha, mate,” I responded, placing a twenty in his hand. “Thanks.”
Chapter Four
Aboard the Eucalyptus, Monday evening
The setting sun was spread out before us in all its splendor as Ellen and I leaned against the balcony rail of our suite at the stern of the ship. It was our second night at sea and everything was perfect. We had dressed and were planning on attending dinner at the captain’s table, but had a few moments, so we went out to watch the settin
g sun.
We’d watched Brisbane disappear from view the evening before from the very same place on the ship and had been lounging in the deck chairs on the balcony when the sun set the night before. I was pretty sure that watching the sun set every evening was going to be a part of our regular routine aboard ship. It wasn’t a bad routine to get into, as far as I was concerned.
I’m not sure why anything ever pops into my slightly off-plumb, mind, but the memory of the unruly elderly man entering the ship and Ellen’s hidden reaction suddenly made an appearance in my otherwise peaceful thoughts. “So, I need to ask you about something.”
Not expecting anything profound during that tranquil moment, she absently responded. “Sure, what’s up?”
“Yesterday afternoon, when we boarded the ship and that elderly man was raising a fuss. I happened to notice that you became tense for a moment and squirm a little bit, but when I looked down at you, you hid it. So, what was going on?”
“There was a bad aura to him,” she responded.
“You don’t squirm at a bad aura,” I countered. “Tell me the truth.”
“I told you that we weren’t going to talk shop until our feet touched the ground back in California,” she replied.
“I’m just asking a simple question, not talking shop.”
“I know that, Mon, but if I answer your question, then I’ll be talking shop.”
“So does that mean the guy had a haunting spirit or something?”
“If I say yes, will you leave this alone?”
“Are you going to say yes?” I teased.
“I’m not going to say anything if it drags you or me into thinking about or talking about all of those forbidden entities that I mentioned two nights ago at dinner.”
“If you don’t tell me, then I’m going to continue thinking about it.”
“Yes,” she sighed. “He had a spirit inside of him; a very evil spirit, but that is none of our affair.”
“What sort of evil spirit?” I asked, wrinkling my brow.
“See, I knew you would do this,” she sighed and turned away from the rail. “Let’s just go to dinner.”
When she turned and started to step away from the rail, I moved in front of her, wrapped my arms around her and pressed her against the rail. “I’m sorry. I’ll drop it. I promise to behave myself the rest of the trip. Besides, it’s no business of ours, right?”
“Right,” she grinned. “Only, now that you have brought it up, I’m having to struggle to keep from thinking about it.”
“So, maybe I need to take your mind off of it,” I grinned, leaning toward her, hoping to repeat the kiss we’d shared back in Brisbane. I drew away and looked down at her. “Did that help?”
“It’s a start,” she smiled.
“Well, maybe I ought to take you in the bedroom, strip off that sleek black dress and navigate the map of Tasmania.”
“Do what?”
“Navigate the map of Tasmania.”
“Do I really want to know?” she laughed.
“No, but I know that you like me doing it,” I teased.
“Okay. So, what is navigating the map of Tasmania?”
“When our attendant was leaving yesterday I asked him. He gave me a partial explanation, but I looked it up on Australian Slang earlier today. It’s a colloquialism that has to do with the triangular region between your thighs. It’s the shape of a woman’s bushy.”
Ellen closed her eyes tightly, winced and pushed me away. “I can’t believe that I let you tell me that. Let’s go to dinner before I feel the urge to toss you over the balcony rail.”
Trailing along behind her as she passed through the living room of the suite and opened the door into the hallway, I was beating myself up for the entire conversation, well, except for the kissing part. You can’t leave well enough alone, can you Mon?
Our dinner that night was to be enjoyed at the captain’s table. In our case, that wasn’t just a euphemism that was used for dining in the same dining hall as the captain, but we were actually seated with the captain of the ship at his table.
“Captain Benjamin Norris,” he said, presenting himself as he entered and Ellen and I stood to greet him.
“Pleased to meet you, Captain Norris,” I responded, grasping his outstretched hand. “I’m Monty Drew and this is my wife, Ellen.”
“Ellen,” he said, letting go of my hand and taking hers. He brushed his lips across the back of her hand as he bowed.
“It’s good to meet you, sir,” she beamed.
“Please, sit down.” He waved toward the chairs where we’d been sitting. “I think there are two other couples that will be joining us in a moment. Before then, let’s get to know each other a bit, shall we?”
“Sound good to me,” I replied.
“First off, is everything to your liking? If not, let me know. I am known to get my way on occasion. I might be able to fix something or fire someone if there is a need,” he chuckled.
“Everything is extraordinary,” Ellen replied.
“That’s what I like to hear, but only if it’s the truth and not just polite conversation.”
“It’s the truth,” I added.
“Very good,” he replied. “I don’t detect any of the common accents that we hear here, so I’m going to guess that the two of you are from the U.S.A.”
“We’re from California,” Ellen answered.
“I’ve been there once,” he replied. “Lovely place, though it doesn’t quite measure up to where we’re headed.”
“We’ve seen pictures,” Ellen replied. “If it is half as lovely as the photos, then it must be gorgeous.”
“It’s twice as lovely,” Captain Norris responded. “God finished up making the world with New Zealand and did his finest work to top it off.”
Chapter Five
The Captain’s Ballroom, onboard the Eucalyptus, Monday night
Ellen and I had enjoyed a delicious dinner along with Captain Norris and the two couples that joined us at his table. We’d drawn some interesting looks from the other four pairs of eyes when Captain Norris introduced us as paranormal investigators and we wondered if the meal was going to be a tense one, but Bernie Hill, who had a similar sense of humor to my own, came to the rescue.
“Ghost hunters, huh?” he laughed as he shook my hand. “I’ve heard of them, but never actually met one. Here we are meeting a pair of them, Jill. I told you there’d be plenty of luck on this cruise. Jill had had her heart set on going walkabout, but I convinced her to get on the boat with me.”
“That’s not true at all, Bernie!” she exclaimed, smacking him on the chest. It was a pretty good wallop and Bernie flinched a little, though he was a pretty stout sort. “It’s the other way around. I had to convince this bloke to join me.”
“Isn’t that just like a sheila, huh? Always gotta set the record straight, aye mate?” He winked at me as everyone at the table laughed and pulled their chairs in next to the table. “I’ll bet you’ve got some spine-tingling yarns to spin, huh?”
“I’ve been told that I’m not supposed to talk shop while we’re on the cruise,” I chuckled, glancing toward Ellen who smiled at me.
“Surely she wouldn’t mind if she told about one of your recent exploits. Everyone enjoys a good ghost story. Isn’t that right, mates?” He turned to the others at the table and made his appeal to them.
I really didn’t want to go against my agreement with Ellen, but everyone seemed to be waiting for a response of some sort. I looked at her and shrugged.
“Why don’t you tell them about the castle in Medellin?” she suggested. “After all, it is because of them that we are on this cruise.”
“A castle in Medellin? Medellin, Colombia?” Phoebe Crane asked. She looked at her husband, Walt, with a startled expression. “I’ve never heard of such, have you, dear?”
“I haven’t,” he replied. The consensus that a castle in Medellin, Colombia seemed a little bit out of place was agreed upon by all at the t
able.
“It is modeled after a castle in France—exactly like it, actually—but built in the 1920s,” I responded.
“Isn’t that the home of Pablo Escobar and the drug cartels?” Jill Hill asked.
“It was,” I responded. “But not anymore. Medellin had changed a lot since the 1990s. From what I understand, you’d hardly recognize it from the old Medellin.”
“Beautiful, beautiful place,” Ellen broke in. “It’s tucked away in a lush green mountain valley. Absolutely stunning vistas in every direction.”
“So, mate,” Bernie jabbed me with his elbow. “How about it, huh? Tell us about Pablo Escobar’s ghost.”
The entire table listened in rapt silence throughout the meal as I told the story of Ellen and I unraveling the mystery of El Castillo in Medellin. Once the tale was told, there were plenty of questions about our work, though I could tell that they were all still a bit skeptical about the legitimacy of our work. Polite opinions of the others’ doubts were expressed and things were beginning to get a little uncomfortable when Captain Norris changed the subject just as dessert arrived at our table.
“You’re quite a storyteller,” Ellen whispered in my ear as we joined our companions on the dance floor. “Perhaps you should write a book. I have connections, you know?”
“I don’t know,” I responded. “I prefer the drama of presenting my stories in live action.”
“I noticed that you left out how you were smitten by Andrea,” she teased.
“I haven’t been smitten by anyone since I met you,” I cooed, but I decided that I would counter her jab at me with one of my own. “Her name was Jovani, by the way.”
“You weren’t smitten by her, but you remember her name?” she laughed.
“First time I’d ever heard that particular name. It stuck in my mind,” I responded.
“Not to mention that you considered navigating her map of Tasmania, huh?”
“I thought we weren’t supposed to talk shop,” I responded, trying to turn away the bristly teasing that I was receiving. Though Ellen hadn’t accused me of ever being unfaithful, she did have a way of getting in a few good jabs when she had the opportunity.