Dana

The next morning I was excited to see Hutch and Blu again.  The day before had only been our first day of the cruise, and it had been an amazing time.  Not only had I never enjoyed the ship so much in all the years I’d been on her, but I never enjoyed anybody’s company as much as I enjoyed theirs.  Hutch was charming and gentlemanly without losing any of his strength or personal power.  He had so much muscle he didn’t need to flex it, so much raw masculinity that his reserves were in excess.  The world was his and he seemed to know it.  And Blu was quiet and shy and courteous, but I felt like she was ready to open up to me even further.  And I wanted to think she was grateful for the sacrifice both her father and I had made the night before, but I wanted even more for Blu not to know anything about any of it.  I knew she had an inkling, of course.  But it had been a long time since I was nine years old, and the world had changed a lot since then.  Though for Blu Hutchinson, I knew the world was a more sheltered place, even her development seemed a little obstructed by it.  But I felt I could help that, I felt I was already having some kind of positive influence, and that was more than enough encouragement for me to keep trying, as if I didn’t have plenty of that already.

We took the rock wall, all three of us strapped into our harnesses.  We were perfectly safe, really, and for the first few feet Blu was confident.  I glanced at Hutch, his long and meaty legs stretching to get a foothold on one of the many colored metal nodules bolted to the wall.  He was a few feet above me, and my eyes drifted along the backs of his hairy thighs, muscles flexing, hard and perfectly shaped.  As he pulled himself up, I caught a glimpse of his package, massive and bulky under white briefs.  I shook it off and lifted myself another few feet, turning to Blu between us.  Blu’s eyes were wide, her hands locked on the wall.

“Blu, what’s wrong?”

“I’m afraid,” she said, Hutch stopping to lower himself to her.  But I held my hand out and shook my head, a signal for him to stop and let me handle it.  It was a bit presumptuous, but it was happening anyway.  “I’m gonna fall.”

“You’re not going to fall, Blu.”

“Yes, I am!”

“No, Blu, you’re not.”

“You can’t promise that!”

“Actually, this time, I can.  Watch.”  With that, I let go of the wall and leaned back.  Blu gasped, but I just swung from the cable attached to the harness.  I fell back to the wall, then kicked myself outward again.  “See?”

Blu turned to Hutch, who nodded and did the same thing, swinging idly out from the wall and then back, arms and legs dangling, an unbothered smile on his face.

Blu looked back at me, then at him, then at the deck just a few yards below us.  I said, “C’mon, Blu, this is best part!”  After another skeptical moment, I added, “You can do it, Blu ... trust me!  I wouldn’t lie to you, Blu, I promise I will never lie to you.  That’s one thing I absolutely can promise, and I do, Blu.”

“Swear to God?”

I knew how that ironic rhyme went on, and neither one of us wanted to quote it.  “I don’t think God likes it when you swear,” I said instead, swinging further and further out, arms outstretched.  “Look, I can fly!”

Hutch did the same thing, pushing further away from the wall and swinging from the cable.  “C’mon, Blu!”

Blu turned, glanced one more time over the side of the climbing wall, then closed her eyes and let go.  Her little body went swinging outward, arms outstretched, body leaning forward.  “Daddy!  Dana, help!”

“It’s okay,” I said, reaching out and taking her hand.  Hutch took her other hand and the three of us swung back and forth next to that climbing wall.  I laughed, and Hutch followed my lead.  Blu looked at us, the horror on her face slowly replaced with a creeping smile, her frightened gasp evolving into heightened laughter.

Our laughter rose to meet Blu’s, and hers to meet ours until we were all three of us swinging and laughing like three people too silly to know or care how to use a climbing wall properly.  And that’s just what we were.

I couldn’t help noticing my father standing behind one of the big windowed walls in the crystal staircase piano lounge, staring at me with a grim expression, turning away once he knew he’d caught my eye.

So I wasn’t surprised that, when Hutch and Blu and I split up to shower before dinner, my father approached me and escorted me to his cabin.  “Honey, honestly, I want to talk about this business with Mr. Hutchinson.”

“Hutch,” I said, knowing what that meant to us both.

He sighed.  “Right.  I know you’re having a good time, and I’m glad of that, I really am.  But I just want to remind you that, well, in another five days, we’ll be back in Miami and you’ll probably never see the man again.”

“You don’t know that.”

“So it’s true, you’re in love with him, you’re already in love with him.”

“It’s been known to happen ... love at first sight.”

“And you think this man feels the same way about you?”

“Yes, Daddy, I do.”  He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck.  “Don’t be mad at me, Daddy, that’s not fair -- ”

“No, you’re right, my angel, it’s not fair.  And I’m not mad at you, not at all.  If anybody’s to blame for this, it’s me.”

“Daddy?”

“I sheltered you, treated you like a child, not a woman.  So of course you see things the way a girl would see them, not the way a woman understands the world to be.”

“A woman like Caroline, you mean?”

“Well ... yes, actually, like Caroline.”

I took a step forward, eyes fixed on my father, using a tone of voice he often used on me to ensure my attention and my obedience, though I was only able to muster a fraction of his effect.  “Is that the kind of woman you want me to be?”

“Well, no, sweetie, no.  And remember, I count on you not to be that kind of woman, not aboard ship.  You have a responsibility, you represent me, the ship, the whole cruise line.”

I couldn’t hide my slumping posture.  “I know that, Daddy, and I’ve been doing that and I still am doing it.  But Hutch isn’t like that.  This isn’t some frivolous affair.”

“Not for you it isn’t, that’s what I’m saying.  At least Caroline has the experience to handle a man like that.”  Off my glare, he was quick to add,  “Emotionally, I mean.  But ... in this case, I’m just afraid you may be in way over your head.  And I’m afraid if you don’t get hurt now, or sometime in the next week, it’ll only happen sometime in the future, when you walk in on this guy with his next conquest -- ”

“He’s not that kind of man, Daddy.”

“But he is, Dana, they all are.”

“Are you?  Is that the kind of man you are?  Is that the kind of husband you were to Mom?”  My father didn’t answer, but the guilt on his face was all the answer I needed.  His twisting lips confessed it all, his arching brows telling me how sad and ashamed he was.  “How dare you?”

“I just don’t want you to be disappointed, dear.”

“Well I am, Daddy, I’m terribly disappointed.”