Kim Volpone liked nothing better than taking a walk before breakfast. She was sailing on Paradise, a ship that was headed for her first stop, Southampton. A hard overnight rain had subsided and the sun had just popped through. The deck was almost void of passengers.
As she walked, she inhaled deeply. She loved the smell of the fresh ocean breeze. Forty years old and freshly divorced, she was cruising with her closest friend, Laura Bruno, and experiencing a sense of great relief that the nasty business of dividing assets was over. Her husband Walter had turned out to be a Walter Mitty type, pipe dreams instead of reality.
Midway through the walk, she stopped and looked out over the horizon. She squinted her eyes and blinked. What was that she was seeing? Was it some of the floating garbage that unfortunately found its way into these waters? Maybe, but something appeared to be moving back and forth.
About twenty feet from her was an older man standing with his arm around a woman near his age. Around his neck was a strap holding a pair of binoculars.
“Excuse me, sir, I don’t believe we’ve met. I’m Kim Volpone.”
“I’m Ralph Mittl, and this is my wife Mildred.”
“Would it be possible, Ralph, to borrow your binoculars?”
Reluctantly, he agreed. “Please be careful,” he admonished her. “They’re very expensive.”
“I will be,” Kim promised absently, as she took them from his hands. She put the strap around her neck and adjusted the lenses. When she focused on the moving object, she caught her breath. It appeared to be an arm flailing back and forth. She gasped, pulled the strap from around her neck, and handed the binoculars back to their owner.
“Look over there,” she said as she pointed. “What do you see?”
Surprised at the urgency in her voice, he took the binoculars, readjusted them to his vision and directed them toward the horizon. “There’s someone out there,” he exclaimed and turned back to her.
“I’ll keep watching,” he said. “Go tell a crew member to call the Captain. There’s someone in the water. He’s trying to signal our ship.”
Ten minutes later, a boat with four crewmen aboard had been lowered and was speeding toward whoever was in the water.