Hutch
I knew I had to go see Capt. Ballard. Blu was in the Imax theater, Dana was taking care of some business of her own. I was fairly confident the captain would see me, even without notice. I was his only paying passenger, after all, but that was a situation he seemed to regret more and more.
He was stiff behind his well-polished desk in the little cabin, even smaller than the Presidential Suite I’d rented, a fact of which he was well-aware. But it was almost certainly the last thing on his mind.
“Thank you for seeing me, Captain.”
“Please, Hutch, sit down.” I did, adding a friendly nod. But I didn’t doubt that our civility would soon be severely strained. “How can I help you, Hutch? Everything ... satisfactory on your trip so far?”
“Actually, Captain, I’m afraid everything is not.” I wasn’t accustomed to beating around the bush. Getting right to the point was a business tactic that took my opponents off their guard and gave me the edge. And at that moment I had every right to believe that the man would wind up my adversary, at least before becoming my father-in-law. “I’m here to talk about your daughter, Dana.”
“Is that so?” His posture stiffened and so did his tone.
“It is. You see, Seth, I’ve developed very strong feelings for your daughter.”
He rolled his eyes. “Mister Hutchinson, really, she’s just a child!”
“No, Seth,” I said, straining the use of his first name, “she’s your child, and she always will be. But she’s a woman now, she’s twenty-one years old -- ”
“But that’s just the point,” he said. “You’re her ... ” It was hard for the man to say it, and I didn’t blame him. “You’re her first significant relationship, let’s put it that way. And I don’t doubt that you’re a fine man who can provide for her everything that she needs. She may already be in love with you, if I’m not misjudging that look in her eyes. But I don’t want her to marry the first man she loves, no matter how rich or convenient he may be.”
“Convenient?”
“Timely, nearby, you know what I mean. Come on, Hutch, we’re both men of the world. Would you want your daughter to settle down with the very first man she’s ever known? Is that what you’d want for little Blu?”
“What I would want for my daughter is to be with the man she loves, the man that loves her; at whatever age, within reason, convenient or not. I would want my daughter to marry a man of integrity, of honesty, of generosity, of capability. If she met this man at twenty-one or fifty-one, if she met him first or after a hundred lovers, it wouldn’t matter to me.”
The captain said, “With all due respect, you’re years away from knowing for sure what you’d want. Things change, my friend,”
“That’s right, Seth, they do change, every second of every day. That includes you, your daughter, your lives together. I put it back to you, Captain, that we’re both men of the world. And we both know the horrors that world has in store, for our daughters and even for ourselves. I’ve read what happens on cruise ships like this one, sexual abuses among the staff -- ”
“Not on Oceania, Mr. Hutchinson, never on Oceania.”
“And that’s great, Captain. But you can’t protect her from mishap, from disease.” I took in his somber air, staring off. “Is that how you lost your wife?”
He simply nodded. “Cancer.” The captain reflected, staring off into some sad distance. “I read up about you, Hutch, what happened to your wife in Colorado. I ... I’m so sorry, it’s ... it was just tragic.”
“It was a terrible loss for us,” I said, flashes of my ex-wife’s pretty face bursting in my memory.
“Did they ever catch the men who ...” He seemed to wrestle even to say it, and I didn’t blame him. He went on, “... The men who did it?”
I could only shake my head, a cold nausea turning in my gut. “Poor Blu is just terrified. This whole trip is sort of a baby step toward getting her back out into the world, getting us both out.”
Seth looked around his cabin. “Baby step? A whole cruise ship to yourselves? That’s some big baby.” We shared a chuckle.
“But it’s important, so that she can be a strong, independent person, and make choices for herself, good choices. We can’t hide them away forever, Captain. You can’t keep Dana locked up on this floating fantasyland for the rest of her life.”
“Don’t you think I know that?” The captain turned, clearly regretting his tone and his position. Both were futile. “I ... I knew I ... I know she’ll have to go someday, but ... I didn’t think it would be so soon.”
I could only smile softly, bittersweet. “Nobody ever does.”
I left the captain’s cabin and crossed down the long hall toward the elevator. Passing an adjoining hall I was suddenly visited by Caroline, whom by that time I simply thought of as the maneater. She approached me with her head down a bit, but not so far down as she would have liked.
“Mister Hutchinson,” she said, using my formal name even after having jammed her tongue uninvited down my throat. “I ... I see you’ve been to see the captain.” I glanced back and realized then what she had in mind by stopping me. She reasonably assumed that I was complaining about her, about her forwardness, her unwanted sexual assaults. Her job could easily have been lost with just a few words from a person in my position. And in fact if I’d had more time to think about it I might have flexed my muscles in just that way. But I had bigger things on my mind and in my heart.
Getting no answer from me, which was quite deliberate, Caroline went on, “I just wanted to say, um, I heard about what happened in Hamilton, I’m so sorry you had to go through all that.”
I shrugged. “Not your responsibility. Couldn’t be helped. But it all worked out.”
“I’m sure Fantasia Cruise Lines would help anyway it could -- ”
I held out my hand, hoping to put this exchange and any further exchanges of the sort to a quick and permanent end. “Look, Miss ... ”
“Caroline, please.”
“Caroline, I really don’t think any further assistance from the cruise line ... or any of its employees ... will be required.”
“But -- ”
“In fact, a distinct lack of any further ... interference into my private affairs would be most appreciated.”
“Oh, um ... ” But Caroline could only stammer, unable to misread my true meaning.
I went on, “I will appreciate it if you’ll make yourself available to look after my daughter as required for the rest of the cruise. She has some ... familiarity with you. Other than that, I’d appreciate it if you’d keep your distance from me, is that understood?”
“Um, yes, of course, Hutch ... Mr. Hutchinson -- ”
“Very good. I’ll have you summoned by ship’s phone if I need you.” I left her with that, but I wasn’t convinced that she was entirely neutralized as a threat to my relationship with Dana. Making sure that she wasn’t was my next move, and that meant finding Dana.