The Timefull Cruise

There were hundreds of boxes, all battened down. I'm sure there was some system, but it would take me a million years to figure it out. I went down the stairs and wandered around the hold, listening carefully. I crept up and down, past rows of boxes and crates. After a while, I had seen and heard no one and I was absolutely sure Penny wasn't down here.

But I had heard a slight beeping somewhere. For some bizarre reason, I decided to check it out. Stubborn and curious, that was me. The beeping was coming from a large crate. I checked the paperwork and saw it belonged to a Wallace Park, Ph.D. The name meant nothing to me, but the crate felt warm and the hairs on my arms stood on end.

I went back to the entrance, picked a crowbar out of a tool chest and returned to the strange crate. This was why my friends said I was poor: I had trouble sticking to one mystery. I levered open the top of the crate, pushed the lid askew and peered inside.

I saw a machine about the size of an old Volkswagen beetle and about the same shape. It had glowing lights and digital displays. Things blinked and hummed and purred. It must have been generating one Hell of a magnetic or electric field as the hands on my watch were spinning. One display had numbers counting down and another had the day's date shown as year-month-day-hour-minute-second, only it was two days early. As I stared at the device, the countdown reached zero and the machine went "whoomp".

I figured this might be something I no longer wanted to play with. I climbed down and put the lid back on the crate, but loosely.

I left the crowbar by the crate and then exited the hold. As I climbed up the last stairway to the open deck I noticed it was evening already. I checked my watch, but the stupid thing was now four days ahead.

One of the crew caught me as I was climbing over the fence onto the deck. I pleaded curiosity, telling him I just wanted to see what was down these stairs. He warned me against such actions in the future and advised me to talk to an officer if I wanted a tour. I apologized and then asked him what time it was. He told me dinner had already started.

I ran to my cabin so I could get changed and head to dinner. Maybe Penny would be there.

V

I arrived at the dining hall to see that I was, in all likelihood, the last one to show up. I quickly checked my seating arrangement and then made my way to my table, rather self-consciously. Most people ignored my passage, although some nodded to me in greeting.

A flash of red caught my eye and I froze in place and just stared. It was her! That shoulder length, straight, red hair was unmistakeable, especially in a dining room where every other diner had grey or white hair. Well, except for a few holdouts who were clearly not facing reality.

I saw Penny in profile, with her cute bump of a nose, piercing green eyes and full red lips. She was wearing a smart, women's business suit. The green and white of her outfit suited her pale skin and hair colour very well. She was a vision. I tried to think of some historical character to compare her to and all my simple mind came up with was Red Sonya, a fictional character. Penny certainly wasn't as busty and she wasn't carrying a sword or wearing an impractical chain mail bikini. But Penny was definitely real.

I found that I had already walked half way to her table without knowing it. No one seemed to be noticing my passage; I was in a dream. I reached out and felt her silken hair, brushing it out of my way. Then I leaned over and kissed the side of her throat.

"What the Hell?" she yelled, as she twisted away from me.

She reached out with her hand and slapped me hard across the cheek. I stared at her and then at her table mates. Everyone seemed to be shocked by my actions. At least Penny had dropped her fork before she struck me, which was some small consolation to my embarrassment and anger at myself for upsetting this vision. Evidently she was a naughty little devil in private but a proper lady in public and I had crossed the line.

"I'm sorry." I backed away a few steps. "I'm sorry to have upset you, miss. I didn't mean any harm." Confusion and anger played across her face. I looked around the table again. "I apologize."

I left her table feeling as if everyone were staring at me. What exactly had happened?

Someone grabbed my arm as I walked by one of the tables. I turned to see who it was and saw Stan and his wife, who had been my table mates from the night before.

"Give her a few hours, son. Whatever you did to upset her, she'll get over it. We've seen the way she was staring at you last night on the deck," he suggested quietly, while his wife nodded in eager agreement.

I muttered a thank you and left the dining room. On my way back to my room I asked a steward about getting some food sent to my room and then I spent the remainder of that evening alone in thought. Something very weird was going on. Why did Stan and his wife think I'd spent time with Penny on deck? And he wasn't the only one who had odd recollections concerning Penny and I. What was going on?

VI

I woke up the next day with my cheek slightly swollen and tender, but with no other signs of the punishment for my transgression. I showered and dressed in shorts and a t-shirt. Then I took a deep breath, opened the door to the hallway and went to breakfast.

I dreaded seeing Penny or anyone from her table at breakfast, but I was fairly early and the dining room was only about one quarter full. I quietly ate my fill of breakfast, while I debated what I would do for the day. I decided that I needed some cooling down time, so once breakfast was finished I returned to my room to change. After putting on a set of swim trunks I grabbed a towel, sunglasses and a bottle of sunscreen. I planned to relax by the pool quite a bit, so I needed some reading material. Sorting through what little I had brought with me, I finally settled on Foundation by Isaac Asimov. It was wordy and long enough to keep my mind occupied while I relaxed all day.

Many of the hallways were empty and I guessed that almost everyone else was still busy eating breakfast. I found a comfortable chair by the pool, set my belongings down to mark my territory and then dove into the pool.

The water was warm and very comfortable. I swam a few lengths and then noticed that people were beginning to collect on the pool deck. I climbed out of the water, walked over to my chair and dried myself off. I don't have the best physique and as a result I've always been a little shy about being shirtless, but among this elderly crowd I felt quite comfortable. I stretched out on the chair, applied some sunscreen, put on my sunglasses and opened my book.

I was about one hundred pages in when a shadow covered me and I felt a tap on my shoulder.

"Some Canada Dry would be nice if you have any, please," I said.

"I didn't come bearing gifts, I came to apologize," responded a soft, feminine voice behind me.

I looked over my shoulder to see Penny. She was wearing a light green, single-piece swimsuit which rode high on her hips and low on her chest, with some sort of crinkled elastic portion directly under her breasts. Large sunglasses covered her eyes as she faced me and she held her white sun hat in both hands in front of her. Her fingers idly played with the brim while she awaited my response.

I sat speechless for a few seconds and I'm pretty sure my mouth was open the whole time. A small smile flickered across her face. I must have looked like a complete idiot. I closed my book, forgetting to bookmark where I had left off.

"No," I said as I finally found my voice, "I should be the one apologizing to you. I should never have kissed you at dinn..."

"Please let me have my say. It's Gerrald isn't it?" I nodded as I looked up at her. My neck was beginning to get stiff, but it was a small price to pay. "Look about that, I over-reacted. It was a simple kiss. You probably thought I was someone you knew and you were just saying hi. I slapped you over a simple misunderstanding. I am very sorry."

"I...I..." was all I could get out as my brain went off in two directions. She clearly didn't remember giving me the best blowjob I have ever had, or didn't want to remember or wanted to pretend like it never happened. I just wanted to keep spending time with her. "I...don't worry about it. You didn't hit me very hard. I should have said something instead of just kissing you like that, but..." How could I possibly explain my state of mind at the time?

"Thank you. I still think I should make it up to you, somehow." She glanced around and I suddenly realized this red-headed goddess was standing and I hadn't even thought to offer her a seat. I glanced around quickly and saw all the chairs nearby were occupied.

"Here, take my chair," I offered, starting to rise.

"No, I couldn't. Look, there's an empty one across the pool."

"Uhm, Penny, here why don't you sit on the end of my chair while we talk?" I sat up and moved my legs from the end of the long chair. She looked at me, but I couldn't read what was going on behind those big sunglasses. Then, to my great relief, she sat down where I had suggested.

"We still haven't figured out how I am going to pay my penance," she pointed out. "Look, tell me what you want from me. I don't like owing somebody something and I'll do anything to erase this debt."

I swallowed. "Anything?" I asked quietly.

She looked very concerned about the turn of the conversation and I had the impression she had said she would do anything merely as a figure of speech. She looked down at the chair between us, seemed to debate some inner conflict and then looked up and stared me in the eye. "I said anything and I meant it."

"But you'd rather not have said it, correct?"

She nodded quickly and I cursed myself for being the man I was. I knew dozens of guys who would have immediately ordered this poor girl back to their cabin. Luckily for her, I was the guy she had said it to and I didn't have the balls to take advantage of her.

"What time do you have?"

She glanced at her cheap wristwatch. "It's almost nine."

"How about you spend the morning chatting with me and then we finish with lunch. Once lunch is over, you have paid your debt."

She looked at me in surprise and then smirked. I was guessing that she knew I had her over a barrel and had failed to move in for the kill. "That doesn't sound like much of a penance, Gerrald."

"Consider it a reward for me instead, after being so grievously and unnecessarily wounded. I really don't want to see you suffer too much for something that I really can't fault you for."

White teeth flashed between her full lips as she smiled. "Agreed." She held out her hand and I shook it gently. "What shall we do first, oh warden?"

"How about a swim?" We set our belongings down on the chair and dove into the water side by side.

At first we contented ourselves with swimming a few lengths of the pool. Then it became a bit of a race, which she won. I retaliated by splashing her. After that, we splashed and played with a good degree of familiarity and a little too much innocent playfulness. It was fun, but would you want to be having 'innocent' fun with Aphrodite, after she rode up on the surf in front of you?

As our fingers and toes began to prune up, Penny suggested we dry ourselves off and have some refreshments. So we left the pool and soon enough we each had a lemonade in our possession, as we slowly walked around the pool area. I found myself smiling quite a bit and when I glanced over at Penny, she was doing the same.

VII

"It's eleven-thirty, Gerry."

"Trying to end your punishment as soon as you can, eh Penny?"

She furrowed her brow. "No. I just meant I'm getting hungry and I'm surprised you aren't. Did you even eat breakfast? I looked for you in the dining room before I came to the pool."

"I'm just teasing. You're free of me as soon as lunch is over, my dear. I am starting to get hungry as well. We should go get changed. Since I'm fairly close to the dining room why don't you meet me at my cabin?"

"Which room is it?"

What the Hell? "Tell you what, why don't we just meet at the entrance to the dining room?"

"Okay, I'll see you in a couple of minutes." She walked away and I watched the subtle sway of her hips until she casually wrapped her towel around her waist. Just before she left the deck, she turned, took a quick look around and then gave me a quick smile when she realized I had been staring at her.

Once she was out of sight I hurried to my room. Five minutes later I was dressed in comfortable slacks and a casual, collared shirt and waiting patiently outside the dining room. While I kept glancing up and down the hallways, I made sure that it looked as if I were reading notices on a bulletin board. My stomach was full of butterflies.

Then I heard her call my name and I turned to greet her in a sophisticated way I'd rehearsed several times while waiting.

"Wow," was all I said. Penny wore white shorts and heeled sandals that did a lot to showcase her lovely legs. An emerald green t-shirt covered her torso and she wore her hair up, leaving her elegant neck bare.

"How long have you been practising that debonair greeting, Gerry?" She smiled and I realized that she wasn't poking fun at me, well not completely.

"All my life. You're the first woman I ever got to use that on," I replied seriously and Penny blushed pink across both her cheeks. "Let's find a table for two."

We were soon seated and we lunched on a fruit and cold cut platter. Penny asked about my reading habits and I learned that she read science fiction as well, although she preferred more recently written stuff. We compared movies, politics, sports and home cities, where I was saddened to learn that Penny was an American and lived quite far away from me. If this was going to continue after the ship returned to dock, then it would require a lot of effort and money and would still have little hope of success.

It seemed like lunch took only fifteen minutes, but Penny's watch showed we had been seated for nearly two hours. I wasn't upset and Penny didn't seem upset by the lengthy lunch, either. Although, she did pretend that I had 'stolen' two hours of her penance time.

"You have been very naughty, Gerry. You only had me until the end of lunch and you've stretched it out as long as you could."

"I plead guilty, your honour, and throw myself on your mercy."

"No mercy. You owe me now, Gerry."

I took a last drink of my wine. "Fine. I'll pay any penance you decide."

She went very serious. "You mean that, don't you?"

"Of course I do. You and I are alike in that. I am at your mercy. What would you have me do, Your Honour?"

"You must be tested, sir," she said slowly. "What is a bolide?"

"It's a piece of space debris, like an asteroid, meteor or comet that enters the atmosphere. Is this an intelligence test or a trivia test?"

She stared at me, dumbfounded.

"Look, I don't know the definition because I'm a genius. There was an old Jules Verne book about a meteor that crashes somewhere in the U.S. It was constantly referred to as a bolide in the story. I looked the word up while reading the story."

"But it is an odd word and you read it in one story. I know you're not an astronomer, although you could be an amateur one. You read that word in a story, looked up its definition and remembered it because it's an unusual word."

"Well, I do that."

"So do I," she whispered. She seemed deep in thought while she slowly finished the last of her wine. "First, stop calling me 'Your Honour'. Call me Penny. Second, you are condemned to spend the rest of the afternoon with me and you must dine with me this evening."

"A condemned man never before ate so hearty."

"Where's that from?"

"I have no idea. Would you like to take a turn upon the deck?" I asked, trying to be playfully charming.

"Yes."

We left the dining room, passed through several hallways until we were on deck and then slowly began following the railing around the ship. There was a light breeze, the sun was high in the sky and the waves splashed against the side of the ship without making it sway. Penny's hair began to unravel a little, so she removed the berets and let the wind take it.

"So, why exactly did you decide on a cruise full of elderly people, Penny?" I asked.

She bit her lip. "Well, I didn't arrange it, my ex-boyfriend did. He's a bit of a control freak, always asking me where I've been and who I was with. I was getting tired of it very fast, but he wasn't taking the hint. Wally's actually a brilliant physicist and tends to think everyone else is stupid. With me he figured things were best if he made all the decisions. So, one day he told me that we were going on a cruise. We fought about it, but he'd already bought the tickets. It's funny because he kept saying how this cruise would fix our relationship. Well, I broke up with him. He gave me my ticket and told me he expected me to be on the cruise with him. I was furious. I contacted the travel agent and cancelled his ticket."

"Understandable."

"When I showed up I saw my fellow passengers and was pleasantly surprised."

"Oh?"

"Well, after breaking up with Wally I didn't really want to jump into another relationship."

"Ah."

She glanced at me. "I'm actually glad I met you, Gerry. Again I've been pleasantly surprised about this cruise."

"Well, that's better."

She smiled at me. "You don't mind hanging around with damaged goods?"

I started laughing and the laughter became so strong that I was soon bent over double, with Penny nervously asking if I was okay.

"I wasn't laughing at you or your ex-boyfriend troubles, Penny. I was laughing at me," I said once I had calmed down. She arched an eyebrow at me. "My buddies bought me the ticket for this cruise. I doubt they looked into what kind of cruise it was. As for damaged goods: I've been off work for awhile and my buddies decided I needed a good vacation shortly after my girlfriend and I broke up."

"Well, you don't have a job and you just ended a relationship. That's not so bad, is it?" she asked with concern.

"Oh, I have a job. I'm on leave." I mentally debated telling her the truth. I liked her a lot and if this relationship went anywhere, it could be destroyed pretty easily by lies and concealment. "I killed a man, Penny. I wasn't handling it well so my superiors put me on leave, indefinitely."

"Oh. Oh. You're a cop, then?"

I nodded. "Actually, I'm a detective." She seemed to be handling it pretty well. She hadn't taken a step back or run off.

"So this guy you killed, was it an accidental shooting or was he a criminal?"

"He was a pedophile and he was trying to make off in a car with a kid in the back. I didn't think. I pulled out my gun and put a bullet in his head. After that everything becomes rather hazy, but apparently I pulled the kid out of the car. When back-up arrived they found me hugging the kid and the perp conscious, but dying. There was a bit of a fuss over the fact that I didn't try to call in for an ambulance. There was an investigation in which I was cleared of charges."

"So he deserved to die. You're a nice guy and you were having trouble dealing with taking a life and I take it that your girlfriend left you because you were emotionally devastated?"

"Yeah, Millie was never the motherly type. I wasn't much fun to be around, so she left."

"What a bitch! Whatever did you see in her in the first place?"

I looked at Penny and saw tears welling up in her eyes. "I'm sorry, Penny. I shouldn't have put a downer on this day. Let's go and play shuffleboard or billiards or something."

A few minutes later we both cheered up as we tried the different games available on the ship. The afternoon became happier for both of us as time went by. As dinner approached, we split up so we could each get changed in preparation for dinner.