Vacation part two

Boarding the Ship, which Pooky had drunkenly dubbed “The Party Barge.” Blade and Julia stepped on the ship, The Thousand dreams. The commodore and the rest of HQ had pitched in to rent out the entire luxury cruse ship. They walked along top deck, glasses and cans and bottles abounded. Next to the pool, they found Josef sprawled on a deck chair; sound asleep, next to him was his pet, a 2000-pound Russian brown bear named Ivan, sleeping in the same fashion as his owner. Other than the two bears on the top deck by the pool, nothing else stirred. Every person other than the day crew was sleeping. The Pool boy and the janitors started cleaning up the mess; in the dining hall at lunch only the commodore joined them. “ You two should have been here last night, things got really out of hand.” The commodore explained, “ First there was the Vodka chugging contest between the bear, Pooky and Josef. Then Pooky decided to do a back flip off the life raft and lands on the drink table. Then there was a …” Blade cut the commodore off. “ We get it, things got really out of hand, so now everyone is sleeping off hangovers right?” the commodore nodded, “ Yep, say your farewells to Italy, we’ll be bound for the Caribbean before the booze heads wake up.” 1

At around 7:30 that night Pooky was dragging himself around the ship, He was a sight, He hadn’t bothered to change out of the fatigues he wore when he did the back flip into the drink table. So they clung to him tightly, splotches doted them. Before changing He ate a 16 oz. Steak in less than 10 minutes. After changing into a fresh set of fatigues he was ready to party again. On the back of the ship there was a pool that took up half the space, the other half was a buffet table and a bar. The whole thing was in an over hanged from the top deck. Pooky instantly hit the bar. “ Hey, Bartender, do you have…” At around 10 the party was really jumping. The DJ was playing everyone’s favorite songs, Lots of country, rock and roll, Metal and everything else that was on the request list. Blade was having the time of his life. At midnight Pooky was still sober, probably because he sent the bartender packing for being so slow. He himself took over the bar and mixed any drink you could name. At that time Julia nudged Blade and they left. Pooky and the others partied on. 2

Julia knew she should be happy or at least pretend to be happy, but there was her secret. She was pregnant, She hadn’t told Blade, her girlfriends or anyone. Because she feared how the Commodore, her father, would react she had come close to telling Blade twice but could never do it. Perhaps she would tell him in Jamaica. Until then she would have to hide her morning sickness and pray she wouldn’t show.3

The ship docked 100 yards offshore of a private beach in the sunny land of Jamaica. Pooky and Blade argued who should back flip off the ship into the warm water first, then whether or not the water was deep enough. Ivan beat them, bowling both of them over and soaking anyone on the lower decks, Josef dove in after the foolhardy bear. Quickly followed by Blade and Pooky, then the rest of the male section of HQ dove into the clear blue water. The female section preferred not to get their feet wet; they took a boat to shore. The men swam ashore and shook themselves dry. Again at around 7:30 the party was on. But before Blade could join in the Commodore pulled him aside.4

“Listen, Blade” the Commodore said, “ Pooky and I put our heads together and decided that you need some Alone time.” “Yea,” Pooky interrupted “ We figured that it wouldn’t be cool with your new wife if you hung out with us bachelors.” “ So,” Said the Commodore, glared at Pooky for interrupting. “ There’s this little canopy on the other side off the island, nobody else knows about it but me and Pooky, and we ain’t gonna tell nobody.” “ Yea,” Pooky said, “ so get out of here. Go have some Alone time.” They watched Blade go over to Julia and whisper something in her ear. She smiled and took off down the beach. Within two strides Blade caught up with her, swept her off her feet and ran on with her in his arms. In less than a minute they were on the other side of the Island. Both were laughing heartily, as they moved into the two chairs. A waiter appeared and asked for drink requests “ A Black Russian and a Havana, please.” “I’ll just have some orange juice, with ice, please.” The waiter nodded and went for the drinks and the cigar. For a while they just stared out into the sea. His hand found hers “Happy, Dear?” He asked “Yea, Blade I…” The waiter re appeared and cut her off, Handing Blade his Black Russian and his cigar and giving her the Orange Juice. “Ah, thank you.” The waiter left. Blade sipped his drink and looked for his lighter. “Sorry, you were saying?” She started her attempt again “I have something to tell you but you have to promise that you wouldn’t freak.” “I wouldn’t” “Well,” She started as Blade found his lighter. The lighter clicked, the cigar started to smoke and soon a bright orange tip. “I’m pregnant.” Even through the darkness she could see all of his white teeth as he smiled. He exhaled the smoke. “I already knew that.” Julia was heartily confused “But I, … How did you…?” 5

“You don’t survive long in this business if your not vigilant.” He said, still smiling “Oh you thought you pulled one over on your new hubbie, I let you have your fun until you got up the guts to tell me yourself.” “But, how did you find out?” He took a sip from his drink. “ You didn’t hide the test very well, honestly in your purse? Why don’t you just hang it around your neck.” “So your not mad?” “Honey why on earth would I be mad?” “I don’t know, because I hid it from you?” “ No, in fact I couldn’t be more pleased.” 6