I will say our lifeboat looked spotless. I knew it was our boat because there was a big number twelve painted on the bottom of it. The boat hovered right above my head. I took a step back and clung to the wall. The only positive I could see was that Gina and her mother were down the hall from my room and therefore wouldn’t be in my boat. At least I could die without watching Gina do it better.
“Why are you back there?” Judy said from her position at the front of our group. “Get your buns over here so you can hear the man.”
I inched forward, maintaining springing distance should the boat break loose and fall. The man Judy referred to was a uniformed crew member who wore a life jacket, just like the one I clutched in my hand. He demonstrated how to put it on and secure it, but the instructions faded out as my face, with a will of its own, turned upward to stare at the large, heavy boat.
“Would you stop worrying?” Penny whispered.
“Did you notice they painted the numbers on the bottom of the lifeboats? That means they expect them to capsize.”
“What?!”
“How else would rescuers be able to read the number?”
Robby stepped back and put his arm around my shoulder. “I promise to save you if you go in. As long as I can do so without much effort or discomfort.”
“Then we'll both freeze to death. I couldn't have that on my conscience. Besides. Your mother would resuscitate me so she could kill me again. Thanks anyway.”
When the presentation ended, Judy suggested we go to our rooms, unpack, and relax before we changed for the wedding rehearsal. Dinner would follow in the main dining room. We had the early seating, so we had to get a move on it.
People crowded into the lobby to wait for the elevator, and just as many filled the staircases on either side. I looked at a floor plan of the ship that hung on the wall and decided to head down the hallway and use the back staircase.
As I neared the end of my trek, an inside cabin door opened. I wouldn’t have bothered to look if the door had swung open and someone had stepped out laughing or chatting. This door creaked open a crack surreptitiously and then a man’s face filled that crack. He had on a burgundy shirt and matching tie, short brown hair, and a crooked nose. When I turned my head to look, his eyes bugged out, and he slammed the door shut. Maybe he thought I was a member of the crew patrolling for people who skipped the safety training.
Up on the fifth floor, I had to trudge all the way back to the center lobby where the elevators were. In the hallway beyond, my room was the third door down on the left.
Penny's mother and stepfather had insisted on covering the cost of my cruise, since the most I could have afforded would have been a tugboat tour of—did Arizona have any big lakes? I wasn't sure, having only lived there for two years.
I'd gotten the best of the bargain because, once Penny married three days from now and moved with Kemper into the Honeymoon Suite, I’d have a cabin to myself. Robby and I had both lucked out because we had been the leftovers. The Douds had a room together, and so did the Mohrs, which was only proper for married couples. Gina was sharing living quarters with her mother. On one side of my room, Kemper and Tommy were together, and on the other side was Robby.
Before I could insert my key card into the slot, Penny opened the door for me. The stewards had brought my luggage and left it on a folding stand at the end of one of two full-sized beds. The room was decorated in neutral shades—dark brown carpet and curtains, beige bedspreads, and off-white walls.
Penny had a small suitcase in which she had packed enough clothing for two days, while the rest of her luggage awaited her in the Honeymoon Suite. She pulled her dinner clothes directly from her suitcase, while I unpacked my clothes into a dresser, hung my dresses and pants in the small closet, and tucked away my empty luggage on the floor.
“I’ll change in the bathroom,” she said.
“Don’t be silly. I’ll just step outside to give you some privacy.”
Past a small, plump love seat and behind the curtains, a sliding door opened onto a veranda with two deck chairs and a small table. I stepped outside and took a few gulps of fresh air. A small group of houses, shacks really, dotted a shoreline that crept past my vision. If the ship went down, and I had on warm clothes, I might even be able to swim the distance. The thought, ridiculous as it was, calmed me down.
“You could just jump into your lifeboat from here if we run into trouble.”
White, wooden partitions blocked off my balcony from those of my neighbors. Robby leaned over the railing to my left and grinned at me. He was in the middle of dressing for dinner, unless he planned to wear his green dress shirt half buttoned, which wouldn’t have bothered me at all. He kept fit. My gaze followed to where he pointed. One floor down from my room hung the lifeboats, covered with orange tarps and waiting for duty.
“That's comforting. Not. I'd probably knock it loose and go tumbling to my death, or else bounce off into the ocean.”
“I think if you stretch out as you fall you have less chance of bouncing.”
I grimaced. “Thanks. I’ll be too busy screaming to remember that.”
The sliding door opened, and Penny stepped outside in a long-sleeved peach dress decorated with little white flowers and matching peach-colored sling-backs. Her fine, blond hair hung straight naturally, so she never had to fuss with it. She wasn’t blessed with the cowlicks that made my auburn hair impossible to tame. I had just enough natural wave to make it look like I never combed my hair.
“Your turn,” she said, changing places with me on the veranda.
I told Robby I'd see him at the rehearsal and stepped back inside. The dress code for the regular dining room was dressy casual, which meant though jeans were frowned upon, I wouldn't be expected to wear a ball gown. I pulled my black knit dress and matching low heels out of the closet. It was sleeveless, but once I was dressed, I wrapped a red shawl over my shoulders, grabbed my black leather clutch purse, and called out to Penny I was ready to go.
She joined me, dripping with contagious excitement, and I forgot all about the possibility of sinking as we headed for the Queen’s Lounge.