Page 88 of Old Girls on Deck
‘I’ll tell you who would mind, a great deal, and that’s your neighbour. Tom would probably blow a fuse. You’d have to start washing out your own recycling bins.’
‘Don’t be daft,’ Diana said blushing.
‘Oooh, tell me everything,’ Evelyn said, her eyes bright with interest.
I gave her a potted history of the Tom situation and she listened nodding and asking occasional questions.
At last, she shook her head. ‘The truth is, you find Raphaël attractive and that doesn’t apply to Tom. Am I right?’
‘I suppose so.’
‘Then there’s no discussion to be had, surely. You can’t continue any sort of relationship out of habit or pity. Everyone needs a bit of a spark in their lives, even someone as old as me. And believe me, that spark will give your life new light and energy. And no, it doesn’t have to be Raphaël or Tom or any other man for that matter. It might be a new interest, writing that book you were thinking about, travelling more, spending time with your son. You may live for another twenty or thirty years. Do you want to spend it stumbling around in the dark?’
There were no mishaps that day and we followed the herd back onto the coach and returned safely to the ship just in time for what Evelyn described as a little pick-me-up.
She took us to the top of the ship, where there was an open area in the shade of the massive red, white, and blue funnel, and tables and chairs had been set up, shaded by blue parasols.
‘They don’t always do this, and only when the ship is in port because if they did it when we were cruising, there might be a problem with the umbrellas being blown overboard. Isn’t this nice?’ she said. ‘Ah, there’s dear Costas coming to serve us. Such a nice man. His daughter dances at the Folies Bergères in Paris. Now what shall we have?’
After some discussion we had champagne cocktails and exquisite little cakes on a flowery stand.
‘I can’t believe tomorrow will be our last day,’ Diana said sadly. ‘We will miss you, Evelyn.’
‘I’ll miss you too,’ Evelyn said kindly, ‘and I’m so glad to have met you both. Perhaps we will meet again. You never know.’
Somehow, I doubted we would. And I was suddenly sad at the thought. She was considerably older than we were, and yet she was still a force to be reckoned with. She had not retreated from the world, she was still very much in it and intended to remain so.
‘I hope you have a wonderful time with Wendy,’ Diana said, raising her glass in salute.
‘Oh, don’t you worry, I will. I’ve decided that there are good things about every situation,’ she said, ‘yes, even missing the ship in Naples. We had an adventure didn’t we, a few laughs and some experiences we hadn’t expected. And it all worked out in the end, that’s the important part. I’ll give you a bit of advice, the world is full of kind people. They just don’t make it into the news. And exciting and outrageous things can happen at any time.’
24
That evening, as the ship left the encircling caldera of Santorini and headed on towards Athens and the end of our adventure, we went to have dinner in the Bizet restaurant where the catering crew were pulling out all the stops with a special farewell dinner. Unlike me, who would have served up a load of leftovers to my guests, the chefs on board had designed a seven-course menu which would be followed by an awards presentation.
We had known about this because Alfred had been discreetly leaving voting cards lying around our suite, and of course we had voted for him. Several times, in fact, because Diana had taken a handful of discarded ballots which she found on a side table in the Amité buffet and filled them in on his behalf.
There were categories for just about everything. Best cabin steward, best waiter, best entertainer, best talk, most enthusiastic crew member, the list went on.
Just as we were finishing up our desserts (vanilla panacotta with wild berry jus and shortbread biscuits which Eddy would have loved) Dick Dainty appeared at the top of the stairs, sharp and shining in his best evening suit.
‘Good evening, shipmates!’ he called and was not impressed with the initial response. ‘Let’s try that again, shall we? Good evening, shipmates!’
We all roared back our approval and he grinned approvingly.
‘Now that’s more like it. I hope you have had a wonderful trip. I know I have because you’ve been no trouble at all. Not like the last lot!’
He rolled his eyes at us and pulled a hangdog expression and was rewarded with some laughter and applause.
‘Now then. We know you had a great time and so did we, entertaining and looking after you. But tonight, there are just a few awards to give out to those crew members who went that extra mile. Or should I say extra kilometre? I’m never sure. So, let’s see, who is first? Ah yes, best cabin steward, and before I get any complaints, it’s not just for the men, it’s for anyone who you thought was exceptional. And the winner is Amil, from deck 4. Come on Amil, there’s your certificate, your gift voucher, and well done! Here’s a round of applause to go with it!’
We applauded an excited-looking young man on and off the stage and then Dick was back.
‘Best butler. This is for the posh people. And the winner is… Alfred from deck 11. And this is the third time he’s won so a special round of applause for him!’
‘We did it!’ Diana said. ‘We committed electoral fraud! How marvellous! I never thought I’d see the day!’
Alfred, still incredibly smart in his uniform and possibly rather embarrassed by all the fuss, came on and accepted a silver-framed photo of the ship and a certificate.