Michele Bravo and the Dangerous Moonlight, Ch 3

September 2, 1990

Four hours later, Michele opened her eyes and looked at the clock on the nightstand. Six thirty. In the morning. She wished she could roll over and go back to bed, but she had a lot of work to do. Nevertheless, it took her a couple more minutes before she could force herself to roll out of bed. She glanced at her cabin-mate – still dead to the world.

After grabbing a quick shower, Michele threw on black shorts and t-shirt and made her way to the aft dining room. (The liner had two dining rooms of course, one forward and one aft.)

A breakfast buffet lined the entire back of the room. Michele filled a plate with a couple of sausage, which she doused liberally with maple syrup, and scrambled eggs prepared with chopped onions and cheese mixed in. A cup of ice-cold orange juice topped off the deal.

The dining room was large and there was plenty of room to walk between tables. Michele glanced around as unobtrusively as possible, half hoping she’d see Robert Wade and half hoping she wouldn’t. He would undoubtedly be dining in his cabin, away from the hoi polloi.

And really, she told herself, what would you do even if you did see him? All she knew was that he was an actor, and cute. She’d have to do some research on his career so she could talk to him intelligently, if she ever did see him again. She took her tray to a table adjacent to a huge plate glass window that allowed her to look out over the blue ocean, and caught her breath. So beautiful.

And the food wasn’t too bad, either.

Back in her cabin, she fired up her laptop.

“Okay,” she told herself, wiggling her fingers in preparation. “Do it just the way the Red Queen told Alice. Start at the beginning, go on until the end, and then stop.”

So she started from the beginning, with her arrival at Pier 31 the day before the ship was to begin its maiden voyage. A Comstock representative had met her and escorted her to what he called the Green Room, where she’d met the rest of her fellow travel writer, and their role for the next evening’s festivities had been sketched out. She’d also received her information packet about the ship, which all the other guests would find laying on their pillows in their cabins, along with a couple of mints.

She then jumped to the next day, and wrote her sister of the party on the pier….and being someone who told her sister all, she mentioned her sudden attraction to Robert Wade.

The festivities had continued once the passengers had walked onto the ship. Their luggage had already been delivered to their cabins. They could go to their cabins if they wished, or visit one of the many conference rooms that had entertainment laid on. In one such room, 1920s silent movies were being shown to the accompaniment of a piano player. In another, there was dancing. In another, modern-day documentaries – how the ship had been constructed, a history of the Comstock line, and so on. Michele had spent her time walking along the decks, as had many of the other passengers, just walking arm-in-arm enjoying the moonlight and the glitter of the moon on the water.

Finished at last, Michele decided to add a note about her interrupted dream of the night before. She knew Alice would get a laugh from it.

That job complete, she powered off the computer and placed it in the cabin safe. Not that she expected her room-mate or anyone else to make off with it, but better safe than sorry.

Michele took a deep breath. Her first full day on the cruise ship, continuing her impersonation of a sophisticated travel writer. Time to start making the rounds of the ship.