The Last Night of the Cruise

“Sweetheart! Sweetheart! Come here, quick! I’ve got it!!”

“Deep breaths, honey! Deep breaths. I’ll be there as soon as I put down the razor.”

“No, faster!! Fine! I’ll come!”

And she bounds into the small bathroom almost making me cut myself as I try to shave in the awkward space between the sink and the enamel throne.

“Alright, alright! Show me, what you got.”

“The Piano Bar!”

“A bar? I thought you were looking for places to have dinner!”

“We can have dinner before…” She says as she makes a cute pouty face.

I rolled my eyes and said, “Heheh fiiiine! We can go to the Piano Bar after dinner.”

“Yayyy!! Okay then. Gimme a few minutes in the bathroom so I can get this face mask off and then I’ll get in the shower.”

“Can’t you just take it off in the shower? I still need to finish shaving!”

“Shush! Now give me some space.”

"But what about dinner?"

"Well, you get to choose! As long as I get to go to the Piano Bar! Bye-bye!"

An hour and a half later…

“Welcome to the Carnival Cruise’s Piano Bar! Table for two?”

“Yes, please. Can we sit by the Piano?”

“Of course!”

As Akshara and I got to the table, the Pianist was just starting on Ode to Joy. My favorite. We took our seats swaying to the beautiful music. There was another couple sitting right by us and the lady looked at us and immediately got excited.

“Sassafras!”, she shouted with glee.

“Sa-what-a-what??” – That was me, of course!

“Sassafras! It’s the name of the leaves on her dress!!”, she says as she points at Akshara’s elegant dress.

And that is when it hits me that the design on Akshara’s dress had leaves on it. Akshara gets delighted too and twirls to show it off.

“Yes! I didn’t think anyone else would recognize! He didn’t, of course!!”

And there she goes again… Akshara is quite good at striking conversations with complete strangers, you see…

“I’m Akshara. I’m a botanist, that’s why the Sassafrass dress. How do you know Sassafrass?”

“Nice to meet you, Akshara. I am Jenny. We used to have a Sassafrass tree on our farm back in Florida.”

“Oh, that’s so nice! Thank you for the recognition. You made my day.”

Luckily, the waiter came by right then.

“Welcome to the Piano bar! What would you like to drink?”

Akshara doesn’t hesitate, “Can I get your Show Stopper please?”

“Sure! What about you, sir?”

“Can I get a… umm… do you have an apple wine?”

“Honey, it’s called cider.”

The waitress smiled, “Of course, sir! I’ll bring it back soon.”

I was just discovering the world of alcohol, you see. So, I didn’t know much about what I wanted. Akshara did though, so I kept mum and let her order my drink for me.

“Hey Akshara, I wanna ask him to play the Star Wars theme song.”

“What? Why?”

“Because the guy on the other side of the table is wearing a Star Trek pendant and it’s May the Fourth.”

“Oh, come on! You don’t need to incite a controversy right now. Just listen to the beautiful music he’s playing.” (The pianist had gone on to Piano Man.)

“Hey Frank!”

“What the? How do you know his name?”

“It’s written on the card by the piano. Hey Frank!”

Frank turned towards us.

“Hello sir. What can I do for you?”

“Would you be able to play the Star Wars theme song?”

“Honey, stop being so juvenile!”

“Sure, sir.” He smiled knowingly.

A few minutes later, a waitress came by, “Hello sir, did you request the Star Wars theme song?”

“Yes, but he hasn’t played it yet. Do you know when he’ll play?”

“Sir, we need you both to come with us.”

Akshara started. “That’s a very strange request, dear. Is everything okay?”

The waitress smiled, “Don’t worry, mam. Everything’s okay. We just need you to come with us to the kitchen area.”

“Okay.”

As we followed the waitress, Akshara and I, both looked at each other, wondering why they were taking us to the kitchen. We followed her through the double doors, past the chef and towards the back of the kitchen, towards the walk-in freezer.

“Um excuse me, why are we going to the freezer?”, I asked out of curiosity and trepidation.

“Unfortunately, I can’t tell you, sir. But I request you both to follow me in here.”, she said as she opened the door.

“I’m not sure we’re dressed for the weather in there.” I said, looking at Akshara’s delicate dress.

The waitress smiled at us again, “Sir, tonight’s the last night of the cruise and we will be reaching port tomorrow. We wanted you to have a night you’d remember. Please follow me through the freezer, we will only be spending a few seconds in there at most.”

We were still a bit worried, but her answer made us curious. And like the curious cats we were, we walked into the freezer hoping this wasn’t what the phrase “curiosity killed the cat” signified.

If you’ve never walked into one of these freezers, I’ll have you know that it’s colder in there than you think it would be. But thanks to the lack of a breeze, it’s possible to handle a few minutes of the cold without shuddering.

The waitress just walked us to the middle of the freezer then turned right. She walked us to another door that she knocked on twice. The door opened from the outside and another lady on the other side greeted us, “Come on in! I am your host, Linda.”

We entered a Family Theater like setting with about 20 people milling around to Star Wars music. The host continued, “Welcome to the Star Wars Marathon party! We have many Star Wars themed food items at the back and the bar. The waitress will get you the schedule for the movies. Feel free to get a drink from the bar. I recommend the champagne. The sherry notes from the oxidation will go well with the next movie – Rogue One and you get to keep the flutes as a memento. We’re playing all the Star Wars movies in chronological order, so you’re welcome to stay here through the night. And if you need to leave, please talk to one of the hosts. You will be able to come back. May the Force be with you!”

As we walked to our indicated places in bewilderment, we heard someone say, “Someone told me one of the cast members was gonna join us but couldn’t because of a sprained ankle or something.”

Akshara and I looked at each other and burst out laughing. We both liked Rogue One, so we stayed for half of the movie. And since we didn’t want to end the last night of the cruise in a movie theater, the hosts took us to one of the nicer rooms on the highest deck of the ship with a grand view of the ocean. As we fell asleep to the gentle rocking of the sea and the cool touch of the moonlight, we followed our tradition of murmuring the three important words every night:

“I love you!”