Over the next few days Flossie and Sterling busied themselves packing and re-packing, shopping for extra socks and sweaters and procuring the items necessary for taking Waldo on an ocean voyage. Guadalupe sewed a bright nylon dog vest with the words Servise Dog on it. Flossie didn’t have the heart to tell the quiet little maid that it was misspelled. When her brother-in-law pointed it out, she said, “Don’t worry, Sterling, no one will notice.”
On Thursday, after their weekly magic show at the Home for Hollywood Has-Beens, Flossie stepped up to the microphone and cleared her throat. “We’ve got some great news. My son-in-law, the sea captain, is taking us on a month-long cruise up to Alaska. We can stop and see my beautiful daughter in Juneau, and on the way back we’ll join a big group of magicians coming down from Canada.”
Waldo wagged his big shaggy tail and howled “Crruuisssse.”
“Oh yeah! And Waldo gets to come along. We’re going to pretend he’s Sterling’s service dog.”
Sterling stood ramrod straight in his spangled jacket, crossed his arms, set his jaw, and issued a loud “Harrumph!”
An old performer with dyed jet black hair, pouting ruby red lips and a powdered face that would have done a Kabuki dancer proud, tottered to the small stage and claimed the microphone.
Darla Darling’s reed-thin voice vibrated with excitement. “We will all miss you and your wonderful tricks.” She paused to pat Waldo on the head. “But what an adventure. I remember the days when Rolando and I used to perform our ballroom dancing act on cruise ships.” Her eyes took on a faraway look. “I enjoyed visiting all the ports so much. Take us with you in your hearts, and we will all be waiting to hear the stories.”
The recreation room resounded with applause. Flossie promised to regale them with all the details in a month. Waldo looked up at Darla and snuffled trriiippp.
***
Rudy answered the phone on the oak counter in the middle of the Silver Spoon Antique Shoppe with his normal greeting, “If it ain’t old we ain’t got it.” After listening for a moment, he shouted, “Hey, Goldilocks, it’s yer old grizzly bear callin’. He don’t usually call from the ship in the middle of the day. Hope nothin’s wrong.”
Rudy waited until she picked up the phone on her desk, then went back to tinkering with the broken hinge on a cabinet.
Little beads of perspiration dotted Goldie’s forehead. Rudy was right. Red almost never called in the middle of the day, and rarely phoned the shop. Her heart skipped a beat as she said, “Red, honey—is everything okay?”
“As glorious as anything could be. Listen, I just got a wonderful idea and I had to call you right away. We dock at San Pedro tomorrow and we still have an empty cabin from Vancouver to Juneau. I want you to call my mother and make arrangements for both of you to fly to Vancouver in time to meet us when we arrive. I can arrange for the two of you to board even though it’s in the middle of the cruise. We’ll put Mom in that spare cabin, and you, Goldie Girl, will spend a few romantic days at sea with me.”