10. Whistling In The Dark

  

                                                   WHISTLING IN THE DARK
     

     No one said a word as they watched Cesaria walk down the deck. When she disappeared into the ship, Courtney let out a quiet moan. “That poor lady. She is so strong. We went through those riots and she helped us. She helped me. And now she is heartbroken.”
     “Oh for God’s sake! What's the big deal?”, snapped Gladys. “She can always fly out of Thira or Athens for that matter.”
     “But her family was waiting for her.”, pleaded Justin.
     “What makes you think she can just hop on a plane and fly back?”, demanded Courtney.
     “That’s what anyone else would do.”, sniffed Nadine.
     Courtney looked at Nadine with astonishment. “But she may not have the money!”
     “Or she may not have the time or the energy!”, Justin sputtered.
     “What’s next?”, snipped Gladys. “Are you going to tell me she’s dying of cancer? And what about the rest of us who paid good money we could hardly afford for a tour of that island and all the rest of them the Greeks are burning to the ground?”
     Courtney’s lips were trembling. She turned red. Dan reached out to distract her but it was too late. “I haven’t heard either one of you even acknowledge the fact that Buck carried you both out of a bus filled with tear gas and suffered tear gas poisoning as a consequence, let alone thank him for it. Who do you think you are? Some sort of - ”
     Gladys slapped her hand on the table. “Don’t you talk to me like that young lady!  Didn’t your parents teach you any manners?”
     Courtney’s eyes narrowed to slits. “Don't you dare speak of my parents!”
     Nadine closed ranks. “The last I heard, this is a free country and any one can say whatever they want, whenever they want and how ever they want!”
     Courtney was so taken aback, she almost smiled. “This is a free country? What do you mean? Greece? Or do you mean America? The last I heard it was five thousand miles away. And that country five thousand miles away is hardly free. Not anymore.”
     “Here we go again!”, exclaimed Sally. “Why can’t we all just get along? Now I want all of you to stop this bickering right now!”
     Bob reached over to Courtney and placed this hand on her arm. “Come on, young lady. There’s no need to get angry. Gladys and Nadine didn’t hear Cesaria go on and on about her family. They didn’t realize how much she was looking forward to seeing them.” Courtney looked at Bob’s hand on her arm. He retrieved it and blushed. “Cesaria would not want us arguing over her.”
     Nadine’s anger ebbed and flowed as quickly as her concentration. She gave Courtney a concerned look. “Now I remember you telling that senator and his wife, God rest their souls, about your financial troubles. That all sounded so dreadful. You poor dears must have been so ashamed.”
     Gladys shuffled her shoulders and took a drink of her Bloody Mary. “I remember the two of you complaining about the banks yesterday as well. I don’t envy you in the least. Bankers weren’t always like the way they are today. My God, my grandson can’t even get a loan on a home. He has his own business and the banks said they won’t loan to someone who works for themselves. Can you imagine that? Something very strange is going on. I’ve always had confidence in our major corporations and own stock in most of them, but the big man here was telling me some very disturbing facts yesterday.” Her eyes drifted to Buck then looked quickly away.
     Nadine fluttered her hands at Gladys. “A friend of my daughter’s bought a house for cash from a bank that had foreclosed on it, then a couple of months later, the bank foreclosed on my daughter’s friend! And it was the same MO as with Justin and Courtney here! The bank wouldn’t answer his calls and told him to go screw himself! When he finally contacted the media and hired a lawyer, the bank said it was all a mistake! It was an accident!”
     Courtney looked into Nadine’s vapid eyes and realized there was no malice in the woman. She sighed and let her anger go. “I said some pretty terrible things about the Baby Boomers yesterday, too. It’s not cool to strike out at other people who have nothing to do with your problems. I’ve learned so much in twenty-four hours. The people who caused our problems have painted targets on everyone else to keep us from striking out at them.”
     “That’s very adroit, young lady.”, sniffed Gladys. She looked around regally.        “Bullies do that in the school yard.” A knowing smile cracked her petrified face. “The politicians who wear lies and hypocrisy on their lapels so proudly these days would be beaten senseless in the third grade.” Her eyes returned to Buck. She offered him a shy smile. “Thank you for getting me off that bus, big man.”
     Buck was staring at the smoking city. “All in a day’s work, your highness.”
     Nadine’s eyes and mouth snapped open so wide and so quickly you’d have thought someone had stuck a pin in her ass. She turned her back on Gladys and gave Buck a smoldering look. “You threw me over your shoulders! No man has ever thrown me over his shoulders!”
     “Well if it ain’t my lucky day.”, smiled Buck.
     Justin gave Buck a concerned look. “Have you recovered completely from the tear gas? You really got sick.”
     John leaned forward blocking Justin’s view of Buck. “I wasn’t sure you were going to make it at the fountain there, big guy.”
     “It never hit me that hard before.”, admitted Buck.
     “You mean you’ve faced tear gas before?”, asked Nadine breathlessly. “Have you been in many revolutions?”
     Lucia leaned close to Dan and whispered in his ear. “Am I crazy or all four of them fighting over Buck?”
     Nadine’s passion blew through a chink in Gladys’ armor. She shuddered and turned to Courtney. “You’re a spirited girl. I’m sure you’ll find a decent job when you get back home.”
     “She’s not going home.”, announced Bob.
     A startling smile exploded on Sally’s face. “Courtney and her husband are going to live and work in London!”
     “London?”, squealed Nadine. “I adore London! Trafalgar Square! Hyde Park! Westminster! Covent Garden! Piccadilly Circus! Piccadilly! I saw Claire Bloom play Blanche Dubois in A Streetcar Named Desire at the Piccadilly Theater!” She reached out and patted Courtney’s hand. “They told me to take a streetcar named Desire, and transfer to one called Cemeteries, and ride six blocks and get off at Elysian Fields!”
     Gladys rolled her eyes. “What kind of work will you be doing when you are in London?”
     “I don’t know yet.”, admitted Courtney. “My cousin lives there. She will find us work.”
     Nadine’s eyes grew wide. “You mean you don’t have anything lined up yet? Well aren’t you two brave. Oh, to catch one more glimpse of my salad days, to taste La Dolce Vita once more! Remember when we were young, Gladys and were filled with the same devil may care joie de vivre?”
     Gladys smiled and looked away. “Yes I do Nadine. Yes I do.”, She turned back to Justin and Courtney. “ Now children, you must be careful and proceed with caution. I think I may still have a couple of connections in London. Let me see what I can come up with.”
     “Oh my goodness!”, squawked Nadine. “My late husband’s business partner lives in London! I’m sure I can contact him!”
     An irritated look flashed across Gladys’ face. “Now I remember. A good friend of mine is good friends of the wife of the owner of several specialty boutiques in London. They met in Monaco many years ago. I will see what I can do.”
     Courtney looked down at her lap. “You two are very kind. Why would you want to help a couple of strangers?”
     John waved his arm. “Well I know I’ve always relied on the kindness of  - ”
     “Why, you’re not strangers to us, sweety, not after what we all went through yesterday.” Nadine removed her hat and fluffed her hair. “My late husband’s business partner, Miles is his name, has a cottage on Bishop’s Avenue in East Finchley. Richard Desmond lives on one side and the Sultan of Brunai lives on the other. If anyone in London can get you a job, he - ”
     “Sabrina! That’s it.”, snapped Gladys. “Sabrina and her husband run these marvelous boutiques in Belgravia. Let me tell you my dear Courtney, you wouldn’t have any problem at all being a shop girl in one of those establishments.”
     Nadine waived a hand at Gladys. “Don’t pay any attention to Gladys. The poor dear is delusional at times. East Finchley puts Beverly Hills to shame and Belgravia is just, you know, Rodeo Drive.”
     “Don’t you call me delusional, you empty headed hussy!”, scowled Gladys.
     As Nadine and Gladys brayed away, Justin leaned close to John and nodded his head. John leaned forward. Justin whispered. “You know as well as I do that accent isn’t anywhere near East Texas.”
     John leaned back and looked at Justin. He felt sad. Justin is a good kid, he thought to himself. He means well. He loves Jesus. He loves his wife and he’s gay. This poor kid’s so far back in the closet, if he tries to come out now he’ll be buried. He’s so confused, he’ll snap. And his wife is a sweet heart. She’d be crushed. On the other hand, she’s wasting her time. She’s young. She’s beautiful. She shouldn’t be stuck in a dead end. Suddenly John sat up with a start. Wait a minute. You’re not getting the least bit involved. You’re not touching this with a ten-foot pole.
     Justin leaned close again and whispered another question. “What was that Johann Sebastian Back routine that Dan was talking about? He was looking at the waitress. What’s going on?”
     “I guess Buck’s doing the waitress.”, mumbled John.
     Justin’s mouth dropped open. “The waitress? But she must be twenty years younger.”
     John shrugged his shoulders.
     “You’re not going to tell me that’s her name are you?”, murmured Justin.
     “No, no it’s just with Buck it’s the music and -”. Shit, thought John. How the hell am I going to get out of this?
     Justin set down his beer. “It’s the music and what?”
     “Never mind.”, fumbled John. “It’s private. It’s none of our business.”
     Justin pressed. “None of our business? Then how come you know about it?”
     John twisted nervously in his chair then leaned close to Justin again. “Dan told me about it.”
     Justin frowned. “Dan told you?”, he asked in a barely audible tone. “I thought you said it’s private. Music and what?”
     “Music and fucking.”, whispered John. “Okay? Music and fucking.”
     Justin gave him a startled look. John’s shoulders sagged in resignation. Justin leaned back in his chair. His eyes lost focus as everything sunk in. He smiled. “Awesome.”
     God damn it, thought John. Now you’ve gone and done it. Well at least this stops me from making a fool out of myself. He’s all yours kid.
     Lucia was enthralled with the two elephant seals bellowing and honking over Courtney. Dan was not. He had been watching John and Justin. Buck stared out to sea. Bob stared at Courtney. Sally was looking at Dan. She had a strange frozen, wide-eyed smile on her face. “It’s so sad we won’t get to see Rhodes but we mustn’t dwell on things we have no control of.” Her eyes blurred, danced nervously around then refocused. “Tell me Dan, have you been to Santorini?”
     “I have.”, he said realizing that he had not even thought about their next destination.
     Sally’s ossified grin began to loosen. “Is it a pretty island?”
     “Pretty?”, Dan's eyes drifted. “My God, it is one of the most spectacular places on the face of the earth.” That comment got everyone’s attention. He looked around. “Oh,  come on, you mean no one has ever been there?” Buck smiled. The others answered with silence. “Well surely someone has heard of it?” More silence.
     “Well go on, Daniel.”, prodded Lucia. “Tell us about it.”
     “It is an island in the Cyclades. It is the remains of an ancient caldera of the eruption thirty-five hundred years ago that destroyed the Minoans. You remember yesterday at the ruins, King Minos, the Minotaur, pompous assholes squashed like bugs. The whitewashed town of Thira clings to the crest of the crater a thousand feet above the Aegean. You can sit in a cafe and look straight down at our ship. It will look no larger than a postage stamp. I remember one cafe in particular where the drop off from the patio is straight to the sea. We must all meet there. The only way up to the town from the sea is by way of a narrow switch back path on the back of a donkey.” A look of horror crossed Nadine’s and Gladys’ face. “At least that’s all there was when I was there as a young man. I hear they have a gondola cable car now. Everything has been domesticated these days.”
     “Will we at long last be able to buy gold there?”, asked Gladys exasperatedly.
     “Fine jewelry, fine restaurants, cafes and bars and views unsurpassed anywhere in the world."
     Nadine finished off her Bloody Mary. “Well at least we’ll have something to look forward to besides, you know, Greeks.”
     Buck grunted and stood up. “I’m takin’ a walk.”
     “What was that all about?”, asked Nadine as she watched Buck lumber off.
     Justin shook his head. “Buck’s wife was Greek. Her name was Sophia.”
     “Well how in the world was I supposed to know that?”, squawked Nadine. Her eyes crossed as she looked around in confusion. “Oh dear, what have I said? Buck? Buck?” Nadine turned to the table. “Buck’s wife was Greek? Past tense? Is he a widower? What did she look like? Was she beautiful? Did anybody find out?”
     “Of course she was beautiful.”, chuckled Lucia. “Can you imagine anything else?”
     “So he’s a widower?”, asked John.
     “He’s got a hole in his gut.”, said Dan.
     “I sensed something tragic behind the wit.”, sighed John.
     Justin nodded. “Something tragic and something deep.”
     Sally put her hands on the table and stood. “You know, I need to stretch my legs. Come on, honey. Let’s go for a walk.”
     Bob didn’t look up at his wife. “You go ahead, Sally. I’m enjoying the sunshine and the company.”
     “A walk would do you good after all that food.”, said Sally.
     “No really, honey. You go ahead.”
     “A walk would do you good.”, repeated Sally a couple of decibels louder and a couple of notes lower.
     Bob finally looked up at his wife standing over him. A stifled rage boiled in him. He beat it down with all his will. He felt sick to his stomach. “You’re probably right, Sally.” He pushed himself to his feet and looked around at everyone. “My wife’s always got my best interest at heart.”
     As Bob followed his wife down the deck, Courtney looked fondly at the couple. “They really look out for each other. They seem so devoted.”
     Justin’s arms were crossed across his chest. The corners of his mouth were turned down. “I still think they’re kind of creepy.”
     Gladys straightened her collar, pulled at the cuffs of her blouse and stroked her pearls. “They’re liberals. Of course they’re creepy. Please don’t tell me you voted for Osama Obama, young man.”
     Justin kicked the deck boards under his feet. “It doesn’t matter who voted for who. Don’t you get it?”
     Nadine was pushing loose hairs back into her sun hat. “Don’t talk like that, young man. When that interloper is voted out of office, a republican will get the economy going again and you’ll both be fine.”
     Justin looked at the chair Buck had been sitting in. He sighed and slouched in his chair. Then he stood up and looked at his wife. “Come on Courtney, let’s take a walk.”
     Courtney smiled warmly at her husband. She looked around the deck then out to sea for another school of dolphins. She rose from her chair and took her husband’s hand. Justin looked long at her and offered a relieved smile. He kissed her. The two of them excused themselves and walked slowly away. 
     Lucia turned to Gladys and Nadine. “Do you really think you can help those two get jobs in London? I’m worried about them.”
     Nadine was touching up her lipstick. “When someone’s address is Bishop’s Avenue, there isn’t anything he can’t do.”
     “Nothing he can’t do, maybe.”, said Gladys nonchalantly. “But what will he do? Will he do whatever he can do if he doesn’t want to do it?”
     “You can’t expect an American college graduate to work as a shop girl, can you?”, asked Nadine with feigned incredulity.
     Dan frowned. “Whatever you both can do, you must. Those kids are desperate.” His comment was met with cold stares.
    “You two could give another performance of Shakespeare and I doubt you’d get through.”, said John. “Say, what is it with you two and Shakespeare? I’m intrigued. Have you been doing it long? There was definitely an undertone, if you know what I mean. Is it something on the order of Buck and Bach?”
     “What in the world are you talking about, young man?”, demanded Gladys. “Shakespeare, Buck, Bach? Are you on drugs?”
     Nadine cringed. “Buck! Buck! What have I said? I’m such a fool!”
     “I wonder if Buck has any idea how popular he is?”, laughed Lucia. She looked at Dan then at John. “It just happened a couple of times. We never even asked each other about it. It’s kind of magic.”
     Dan took Lucia’s hand. “I don’t think we should ask each other.”
     “Well you two seem made for each other.”, said John. “How long have you been together?”
     “A couple of days.”, sighed Lucia. "And we come from different worlds."
     John smiled nostalgically. “You know, you could have everything in common and it could end in disaster. I remember my affair with the piano player in a cabaret. He loved - “
     “Only a couple of days?”, squealed Nadine.
     Lucia blushed. “We shared a cab from Athens to Piraeus.”
     Gladys and Nadine seemed stunned. John continued. “The piano player loved classical music and I loved classical music. I was raised with classical music but when my parents went through a divorce - “
     “Please don’t interrupt, young man.”, snapped Gladys. “We’re trying to digest Lucia’s predicament.”
     Lucia’s eyes widened. “Predicament?”
     “You’re asking me not to interrupt you?”, asked John.
     Gladys gave John a haughty look. “I hardly think this is the time or place to hear about your trysts and assignations.”
     John glared at Gladys. “When my parents went through a divorce, I couldn’t listen to classical music and put it out of my life until one day at a summer job when I was going to college, I was cleaning a house and the radio started playing Rimsky - “
     Nadine waived a hand at Gladys. “For heaven’s sake, Gladys, lighten up! We have gay friends. Why there’s my caterer and there’s your secretary, and my chauffeur and I not so sure about the gardeners, yours or mine.”
     “Rimsky Korsakov’s Scheherazade!”, shot John. “A symphony I’ve loved all my life and suddenly my love for classical music came back to me. I got home and started painting a canvass to Scheherazade and it was the best painting I’d done.”
     “You’re an artist?", Dan asked.
     “I am.”, John replied. “And I carried that canvass all through college. I had it when I was penniless and trying to find a job after I graduated, not so different from Justin and Courtney except I wasn’t enslaved with debt. It was during those hard times that I met the piano player. We hit it off just like the two of you yet it went - “
     “I was trying to ask Lucia and Daniel about themselves.”, said Gladys tersely.
     “Now Gladys.”, chastised Nadine. “The least we can do is be polite and hear about the young man’s peccadilloes.”
      John turned red. “Peccadilloes?”
     Gladys twitched with irritation. “It’s such a beautiful morning. There’s so many things we could do besides listen to - “
     “The water looks great.”, snapped John. “Why don’t you go for a swim?”
     Gladys slammed her glass down on the table. “Come, Nadine. We are not wanted here.”
     “Don’t be silly, Gladys.”, pleaded Lucia.
     Gladys stood. “Nadine, we have to prepare for lunch.”
     An idea suddenly flew into Nadine’s head. “We should find Buck! I must apologize!”
     “Oh, come on.”, said Dan. “Let’s all calm down.”
     “I am perfectly calm, Daniel.”, sniffed Gladys. “We will see you at lunch. I think twelve o’clock would be civilized.”
     “Toodles, everyone!”, whinnied Nadine as she got to her feet. “We’ll see you at lunch!”
     John called after the two duchesses as they waddled away. “We’ll get the whole crowd together! I’ll see you there!”
     “I’m sorry.”, said Lucia. “They’re really not all that bad. They’re just set in their ways. They’re used to the world running their way and it isn’t anymore.”
     “Ah forget it.”, said John. “They’re amusing, like a couple of Marquesas.”
     “Amusing while their heads are still on their shoulders.”, Dan grumbled. “Finish your story.”
     “There’s not really much more to say.”, sighed John. “It all went wonderfully for the first couple of months then it crashed and burned. I was so enthralled with the man, I gave him the Scheherazade painting. Not long after it was over with, I found the painting on my door step ripped to shreds.”
     “Why that’s awful!”, exclaimed Lucia.
     “Better the painting than me.”, smiled John. “But my point was don’t worry if you have little in common, if you come from different worlds. Look at Romeo and Juliet.” John paused and looked at them. “Well, I’m waiting.”
     Dan took Lucia’s hand. “Lady, by yonder blessed moon I swear, that tips with silver all these fruit-tree tops -”
     Lucia smiled and put a finger to his lips, “Oh, swear not by the moon, the inconsistent moon, who monthly changes in her circled orb, lest that thy love prove likewise variable.”
     “What shall I swear by?” 
     Lucia looked down at her feet. “Do not swear at all. Or, if thou wilt, swear by thy gracious self, which is the god of my idolatry, and I’ll believe thee.”
     “That’s fabulous!”, gasped John.
     Dan gave Lucia a lustful look then turned to John. “Probably the most famous dialogue in all of Shakespeare and in case you forgot, Romeo and Juliet didn’t turn out too well either.”
     “But they did!”, protested John. “They were perfect. The world destroyed them.  Hell, the world makes or breaks you, takes you where it will no matter what mighty plans you’ve made. I’m an artist and all I wanted to do with my life was make a living at it, maybe even get a little fame here and there but life intervened. I met my husband and for the first time in my life I was happy. I had done the impossible in love and the world lay at my feet. But then the unthinkable happened. Everyone around us started dying of horrible, incurable diseases, unheard of cancers, blotches all over body that rivaled the Bubonic Plague, sudden wasting that fit you right into Dachau, derangement, Turret’s Syndrome, bodies literally exploding from the inside out, and you never knew if you were next. AIDS was a war zone you couldn’t escape and why find out if you’re infected as long as you’re not sleeping around? What good would it do to know?” John paused and sighed. “So of course I lived like there was no tomorrow because there wasn’t. I was young. I was in love. I was probably going to die a hideous death at any time so why would I spend every waking moment trying to get into this gallery or that, fucking whoever I had to fuck to get somewhere in the art world? To quote Charles Dickens, It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.”
     Lucia looked at John. “I’m so sorry.”
     John frowned. “Sorry I had to go on dump.” He looked at Lucia then at Dan. “I should take a walk myself but before I go, let’s plan on all of us having lunch together. Let’s get everyone at the table. Think of the theater!”
     “I’m not sure we can get everyone at the same time.”, said Lucia.
     “We’ll need a good excuse.”, said John.
     Dan clapped his hands. “I’ve got it! We know the authorities, whoever they are will be waiting for us on Santnorini. We all have to get our stories straight. There’s nothing like fear to get people motivated.”
     “That’s perfect.”, smiled John. He rose to his feet. “We’ll spread the word. It’s a small ship. How about noon?”
     “That’s already been decided. Don’t you remember? And I will expect a command performance out of you.”, said Lucia.
     “And I of you.”, said John as he turned and walked away.
     Lucia and Dan were quiet for a few moments as they absorbed the events of the morning. Dan thought of Cesaria and his heart ached for her. He thought of Buck’s wife. He remembered how he had left Lucia alone in her suite. “I’m sorry about the note. I had to get out and get some air. I thought I’d get back before you woke.”
     “Your note was lovely but women are not fond of waking up to notes.”
     “I had to get some air.”
     Lucia looked into his eyes. “We’ve only just met but I feel you’re keeping something from me.”
     “John said we seemed made for each other but he could see we come from two different worlds.”          

      Lucia gave him an impatient look. “So you’re liberal and I’m conservative. Plenty of couples manage to get over that.”
     “Things are different now.”, Dan said quietly. “Our worlds are colliding.”
     “And we will survive, Daniel. We will survive.”
     He smiled and took her hand. “I’ve never met anyone who I wanted to both know more of and not know more of. I feel like we’re frozen in time.”
     "But we are!", exclaimed Lucia. "We’re on a cruise, floating along, rolling along, racing along. And we are getting to know each other in many more ways than one.”
     “You quote Reagan and I shudder.”, he sighed.
     She pulled her hand from his. “And you spout liberal gibberish and I shudder.”
     Dan was exasperated. “Why do you want to devour us? There is so much to go around. America is the richest country the world has ever seen yet you are out to take away what little we have left. Do you really want to turn out senior citizens onto the street? Why in God’s name would you do that? Is it blind arrogance? Blind Avarice? Blind vanity? You are predators.”
     Lucia looked at him as if he were a child. “You have to be stopped. If anyone is the predator, it is you because there are so many of you. You envy us. You despise us. You thirst after us. Do you really think if we give you anything, anything you will be satisfied? If we don’t keep a tight rein on you, you will devour us.”
     Dan felt the disgust rise in him. “What was that crap about Lady Macbeth? A ruse? Did you just make all of that up, sitting at the table rubbing your hands together and sniffling crocodile tears? I don’t think you give a shit about prison labor. You won’t be happy until the whole country is a prison camp. Are you happy with stripping the middle class of decent wages, benefits, pensions and health care? Do you think it’s right to shove what the public sector has managed to hold on to into the face of the private sector who has had it all stripped away in order to turn one against the other and strip from both what both fought a hundred years to attain?”
    Lucia gave him a stern look. “It’s working, isn’t it? And when they whine and snivel, take more away. When they offer to compromise, refuse and claim both sides are intractable.”
     “Any fool can see both sides are not intractable."
     “That’s not what the papers say.”, she scoffed. “That’s not what the liberal press says. That’s not what the majority of Americans say.”
     Dan slammed his hand on the table. “And you sour the working class to democracy and open the door to fascism.”
     Lucia smiled innocently. “Fascism? Are we back in Italy again?”
     He reached out and took Lucia’s arm. “So there’s a plan for the new master race: become unimaginably wealthy by bankrupting the country, saddle its citizens with suffocating debt, sink them into endless war then use the threat of national insolvency as an excuse to eviscerate the government, destroy the educational system, steal what common wealth the people have left and use the threat of national security to create a police state to perpetuate your power.”
     Lucia pulled her arm away. “There’s a tipping point.”
     Her comment took him off guard. “A tipping point? Is that what you’re planning for, global warming?”
     She shook her head. “If global warming descends upon us the way your liberal scientists predict, who will be in the position to survive it? The poor? The middle class? You?”
     Dan fell back into his chair. “How about Plague? So, the four horsemen of the Apocalypse are galloping down upon the world and you are spurring them on, yet you think you will be able to survive behind your walls and moats?”
     Lucia glared at him. “We will survive. You’re screwed.” She looked away and sighed.  “Who knows? Maybe there will be some other way the population can be reduced to a manageable level, some way not so violent.”
     “Something that’s probably in the works already, no doubt.”, Dan spat.
     “No doubt.”, said Lucia bitterly.
     “Something like mass sterilization in a couple of generations? How many did it take in mice?”,           

     Lucia smiled bravely. “I think that might be preferable to war, disease and starvation.”

     “You won’t think much when your head is on a pike.”, Dan growled.  They sat opposite each other spent and deflated. He searched for her beautiful eyes cast glumly downward. Her shoulders drooped. Her head hung. She wasn’t attacking him. He felt sorry for her. She was as lost as he was. He felt lust for her. Why were they saying these things to each other like a couple of sock puppets, a Punch and Judy show for the benefit of their masters? He felt overwhelmed by her presence. He felt inadequate. He felt superior. He was confused. “When I realized the restaurant was in bad shape, when I realized the business was all that was between me and the street, all my arrogant disdain for it vanished. I tried everything to keep it afloat. My employees tried everything, but it was in vain. When I met you, I was lost. The last thing I ever expected was to meet someone as wonderful as you and - and fall for her.”
     Lucia shook her head. “When I met you, I was lost. I tried everything to keep my marriage afloat. I really was conflicted about the business. I didn’t know how much until I met you. You’re the last person I expected to fall for. I can’t comprehend my feelings for you, but they are overwhelming. My entire life points in the opposite direction as yours. We shouldn’t even be talking to each other.”
     Dan put his hand on her shoulder. “Yet we quote Shakespeare! How is it that we quote - “
    “Are we dreaming?” Lucia took his hand.
     He closed his fingers around hers. “Are we whistling in the dark?”
     Lucia face flushed. “I like that tune.”
     He kissed her. “And I like it in the dark.”
     She put a hand on his head and curled his hair in her fingers. “We have a very fragile ecstasy.”
     He ran a finger down her arm. “And we’re no spring chickens.”
     She put her hand in his shirt. “We don’t have as much time as we used to have.” 
     He breathed in her ear. “I’m fucking crazy about you, Shakespeare notwithstanding.”
     She kissed him. “Shakespeare notwithstanding?”
     He slipped his tongue in her mouth. “Screw Shakespeare.”
     She nipped his lip. “Screw me.”
     He kissed her neck. “Where? Here?”
     She caught her breath. “Anywhere, but quick!”
     He nibbled her ear. “Somewhere in the dark. I want to feel your legs in the dark.”
     She gasped. “A lifeboat, a closet!”
     He stood and pulled her to her feet. “Let’s find a closet!”
     Her eyes were wild. “Standing up among the brooms and mops!”
     They raced hand in hand into the bowels of the ship.