‘I’m glad to see you more covered up. Is the water warm?’ said a new voice, and I looked up to see Dawn anxiously watching me.
‘Lovely,’ I said.
‘I wish I could join you, but the chemicals, you know. I’d be out in a rash in no time. Did you see the fireworks over there earlier on? Dreadful pollutants. And the noise! It shouldn’t be allowed…’
I sighed and dunked my head under the water, and then I did a few lengths of the pool which didn’t take long because it was so small.
When I got back, Dawn was still there. Still talking.
‘…and Craig said I was too invested, and I should stop worrying about such things. And I said it’s all very well for you; you don’t care if the people next door have just bought a petrol car and have had barbeques nearly every week and I do. And then he said there’s nothing wrong with a burger occasionally. And then I said…’
I did another couple of lengths and then I floated on my back and looked up at the sky, still able to see Dawn out of the corner of my eye, still silently mouthing away about the ills of the world.
I swam over to the side.
‘I’m sure you’re right, Dawn.’
She smiled. ‘Yes, well, I wish other people thought like us. The world would be a much happier place. And don’t worry, I won’t tell a living soul what happened to your dress earlier.’
If I believed that I would believe anything.
‘And I’m looking forward to seeing Krk tomorrow,’ I said, ‘and the wine tasting.’
Dawn laughed. ‘That’s a funny sort of name, isn’t it? Krk. I thought it was a misprint when I first saw it. But then they don’t seem to go in for many vowels over here, do they?’
‘No, I suppose not.’
‘I wonder why. Have you seen my husband, by the way? Craig said he was coming up here for yet another nightcap. I told him not to talk to you in case you were embarrassed.’
She peered behind me into the pool as though Craig might be hiding in there.
‘I wasn’t embarrassed at all,’ I said. ‘Accidents happen, and no, I haven’t seen him, for a while.’
Dawn gave a disbelieving snort. ‘I would have been! I would have died if that had happened to me. Fine then, I’ll go and look for him, I can’t stay here chatting all evening. I wouldn’t stay in there too long; public pools are little more than petri dishes for germs. And you’re looking a bit wrinkly already.’
Dawn wandered off towards the staircase which led down to the lower decks, and I breathed a sigh of relief.
28
The following morning, we were due to leave Rab at seven o’clock, and bang on time the engines fired into life and we were off again.
We would reach Krk around midday and some of us had signed up for a wine tasting at a local winery, something that everyone seemed to be pleased about, except Dawn of course, who was very vocal about how far too much wine had been consumed on this trip already, and the captain was just enabling everyone towards cirrhosis and an early grave.
Krk was to be our last stop before we returned to Opatija and the coach transfer to the airport, so everyone was determined to enjoy themselves.
We arrived at a beautiful harbour where ranks of hotels and cafés looked out over a clear sea. Our tour guide was waiting for us on the quayside, this time another attractive brunette lady who greeted captain Rocco with a warm hug and double cheek kisses.
We couldn’t help it; we all looked back towards the ship to see if Anjelica was around to see this, and of course she was. She was standing on the top deck, leaning over the rail with an expression that would have curdled milk. She began berating her husband in fluent something that happily none of us understood, and the pair sprang apart.
‘This is your tour guide for the next part of our trip. Her name is Lola,’ Rocco said.
‘She wore a diamond,’ Don sang, and quite a lot of people sniggered.
This was too much for Anjelica and she flounced her way down the stairs, shouting all the way, eventually coming out onto the dock and making her way purposefully towards her husband and the hapless Lola, who went to hide behind a lamppost.
‘I see what you are doing. What you have been doing. Now it is all clear to me.Koji ti je kurac?What is wrong with you? Who is this woman? Now I know why you kept me at home all that time. You are?—’
She looked around and saw us all watching, some of us open-mouthed.
