AMAZON JOURNEY (continued)
He stepped out of his cabin and hailed Solberg, who was a few feet away talking with some passengers. "Sven, seems somebody's probably missing a very nice little piece of luggage there. This isn't mine. But if nobody claims it, it stays right here! You can have what's inside!"
Solberg glanced at the trunk, smiled and said, "Hmmm. Yes! We must look into this right away! So sorry! Goodness!! It does indeed look like someone has made a mistake!" Solberg closed the cabin door.
He turned back to his suitcase to fetch the Scotch. Out of the corner of his eye he caught a slight movement of the curtains to the sundeck. And a voice that should not have been there, that he never thought he'd ever hear again as long as he lived, said softly, "You made the mistake, Thomas."
He turned slowly in the direction of that voice. She stood there, in the doorway to the sundeck, curtains on each side of her. Her ash-blond hair flowed down her bare shoulders and sundress. He locked on her limpid blue eyes and couldn't let go. He felt himself getting woozy. His feet felt cemented to the floor, his mouth filled with cotton. "Yeah, guess I did." He felt totally lame and stupid and incoherent. This was the best he could do?
"Well, I took the liberty of fixing it. Don't get used to it." Something different in her eyes, he hadn't seen it before. He didn't know what. It scared him. But he liked it. He liked it a lot.
"Glad you did." God, lame and stupid again.
"You weren't coming back, right?" She asked like she knew the answer. No lies.
"No, guess not. How'd you know?"
"I knew."
She walked slowly in from the sundeck, made her way around the living room, walked behind the bar, and turned towards him. He locked eyes again. She smiled. "Y'know, I'm not a stowaway. I don't think they like those here. I have my own suite. Just a Standard, though. Best I could do on short notice. Nice place." She smiled again. "But this one's lots nicer than mine."
"How'd the trunk get in here? How'd you get in here?"
"Oh, had a little chat with Solberg. Nice guy. Batted my eyes a lot. You'll have to tell him it's okay, he's worried."
She walked around the bar, eyed him for a couple of seconds, flashed him another smile, and said softly, "Y'know, you're really kinda cute when you're really, really flustered. I like that in a man. I'll have to remember that."
He smiled back, said "Please don't. I don't know if I can take this too often." He'd made a joke. Not a very good one, but progress.
He walked over to the luggage. "Drink?" She walked from the bar over to the luggage with two glasses.
"What do you have?"
"Scotch and more Scotch. End of story."
"I'll have one of those. Make mine light. Ice."
He went back to the bar, got some water and ice. Walked back to the luggage. Handed her a drink. They toasted, eye to eye but said nothing.
She took a sip, and another, gave him a slightly devilish smile. "Welllllllllll, guess we'd better have them get this trunk outta here, huh?"
He sat down on the steamer trunk, smiled back, lay down prone on the trunk, locked on her eyes again, and said, "Over my dead body."
"Hmmmm, tough guy, huh?" She looked at him through half-closed eyelids, and whispered, "Okay, let's leave it." And grinned impishly. "For now, anyway."
They walked out on the sundeck and watched the last of the Florida coastline to their right fade away to a horizon of endless sea.
"So, maybe you better tell me, just how long were you planning on being away on this little adventure?" she asked.
"Ohhh, maybe six months for starters."
She was silent for a long moment. "Six months. Hmmmm. Has a nice ring to it." She paused again. Smiled. "Yes. I do like the sound of it. Nice round number." |
