Would that be it? A bit overdone perhaps, but possible. The car drove by and I sat down again.
The eight o’clock sharp turned into eight-fifteen, and just as I reached for my phone to call the agent, the driver of the bus, who’d gone inside, walked toward me and from about thirty feet away he yelled, “Are you crew for that cruise ship?” With obvious distaste, he looked at my two bulging suitcases, knowing he would end up carrying at least one of them.
Somewhat taken aback, I answered that this was indeed the case, at which he started a lengthy tirade about some people wanting to be in a different hotel than the others. Nobody ever gave any thought to the bus drivers who had to pick them up. He had to drive all over the city to get me, and why was beyond him. Couldn’t I have stayed in the same place as the others? When finished, he put his hands on his hips and looked at me accusingly, as if ready to start again if I said one word. When this didn’t happen, he grabbed one of my suitcases, and with agitated movements, lugged it toward the bus. I know that when picking one suitcase from two identical ones, there is a fifty-fifty chance of picking the heavier, but I didn’t fail to notice that undoubtedly based on many years of experience, he selected the lighter one.
I decided not to bother and climbed into the bus and, as I expected by now, the thing was full with crew. They greeted me enthusiastically, which did a lot to improve my mood. They must have realized that I was still to be picked up and out of courtesy, and here I was quite sure the initiative did not come from the driver, had left an empty spot right at a front seat. I sat down next to an older gentlemen.
When traveling to a ship, my mind is usually occupied with all kinds of last minute things and a conversation with a future shipmate, who at that time is still a stranger, is not high on the agenda. This time it was different, because the man sitting next to me was a delightful fellow named Johnnie. He was a comedian, and one with an open mind for just about everything coming his way. I liked him instantly and we chatted amiably for the remainder of the hour-long trip to the ship.
After boarding the ship I went straight up to meet with my colleague and saw little of the comedian for a while. To be honest, I didn’t seek his or anybody’s company, being very busy. It was my first time on this particular ship and I had lots of things to pick up on. Building friendships would come later.
After a week or so I saw him in a bar sitting there with some of his friends. He waved when he saw me, and I assumed this was to say hello so I walked over.
“Would you join us for a drink?” he asked.
“No, I’m on my way to a meeting. Besides it’s a little too early for me.”
He smiled a knowing smile then winked meaningfully and touched the side of his nose with his finger.
“I understand, and certainly not when you’re in uniform. But I must say you’re fast in changing from your civvies. Too early for a drink? Well, let’s leave it at that. Dressed like that, you can’t play incognito anymore. Ha, ha!” He winked again and lifted his glass toward me.
“Cheers!”
A little perturbed and taken aback I looked askance at him, but then my beeper went off and I saw that I was late for the meeting. “Well, I’ve got to go.” When running off I wondered what in the world he could have meant with that last remark, but then dismissed it from my thoughts.
For the next day or two, Johnnie was far from my mind, but when I was walking on the pier in St. Maarten, somebody hailed me and right away I knew it was he.
“Nice to see you out and about, Captain. I just made a telephone call to my wife.”
With a wide gesture he pointed in a general direction, which I assumed to be the telephone booths. We chatted for a while and there was nothing unusual in his manner. Just as I started to think that I must have been mistaken, I mentioned my wife and that I had called her that morning. The smile on his lips suddenly froze and he pulled away from me a bit.
“You’re married then?”
“Oh, yes, and very happily so,” I replied. “She’ll be joining me on the next cruise, and I’m already looking forward to it. It’s a bit lonely, you know.”
To my amazement, I saw his smile slowly transforming into what looked like a snarl.
“You lonely? Give me a break! Well, good-bye to you, sir. There’s a rehearsal I have to attend!” At this he turned around, and by the way he walked, I could see that he was extremely agitated about something. Open-mouthed I watched him go, because I knew perfectly well there were no rehearsals planned that day. Maybe my pleasant first impression of this guy was completely misguided and most likely he was just a nutcase. I decided the best thing to do was to have the cruise director watch him. One never knows, after all.
I put him from my thoughts, but this time with a firm resolution to stay away because he was becoming a bit of a nuisance. Also it doesn’t pay to become too familiar and friendly with somebody you might have to send off the ship in a straightjacket a few weeks hence. Avoiding him proved not too difficult, because three or four days passed without my seeing him.
I was standing in the ship’s atrium, chatting with a couple of nice ladies, when from a corner of my eye, I saw Johnnie coming in my direction. I didn’t think he’d seen me yet and having had quite enough of him, I pretended not to notice him and I turned slightly away a bit to give this impression a little more credibility.
Just as I started doing this, I saw him stop in his tracks, his eyes open as wide as tea saucers, and his jaw drop like a brick. Then his lips started to quiver like he was struggling to say something. Was he having a seizure or something? That surely would explain his strange behavior of the past days. Should I call for a nurse and a few security guards? Then I noticed he wasn’t staring at me but at a gentleman who, with his back to me, was talking to someone I assumed to be his wife.
By now, I had completely lost track of the conversation I was having with the two ladies, and I noticed they’d started to exchange anxious looks about the absent-minded answers their captain was giving them.
Suddenly I saw Johnnie approach the gentleman, who until that moment had not even noticed him. But that changed rapidly and dramatically when he hailed him. I saw the man stiffen, then grab his wife’s arm as fast as he could and steer her down the corridor without even putting his half-finished glass of wine away. Johnnie hadn’t seen me as he walked by and with his back to me, I heard him mutter, “Oh dear, oh dear, and his wife is coming next week.”
Now I’d had enough. Not connecting what I’d just overheard and his strange behavior of the past few days, I wanted to know what was going on. I cut short the now completely one-sided conversation with the ladies and turned away. Behind me, I heard their sighs of relief and I was sure I would see comments about the company employing such a weirdo as a captain.
I walked over and touched Johnnie’s shoulder.
“What’s all this about? You act like…”
He turned around and when he saw me, he uttered a strangled cry, cutting my sentence short as he clutched his suddenly-pale face.
“Aaaghh! Who…?”
“What happened? Why did that man run away from you?”
“Oh dear, oh dear…”
I thought I might need some help here, most likely from the medical department. I figured without a question that this man had a problem and I’d have to deal with it sooner rather than later.
“Oh dear, Captain,” he began, but I cut him short.
“I’ve heard that ‘Oh dear’ enough times now. You’d better tell me what happened and what’s wrong with you!”
“Oh, dear. Oh, sorry, Captain, but I’m quite confused.”
I was really annoyed now, because even a child could see that. He continued, after vigorously shaking his head as if to remove some cobwebs that must be sitting somewhere in his brain. With his gray hair in disarray from nervously running his