Blue Autumn Cruise (11 page)

W
e left the teen club and went to the buffet. We decided we’d get breakfast, and then Diana would go back and get food for Iggy.

While we were finishing our breakfast, Evan and Guy came over with their trays and sat at our table. I was dying to tell the boys about Iggy, but I knew it was important to keep it a secret.

“Morning!” said Guy, putting his tray next to mine. I tried to catch his eye, to see if he acted any different
since last night, and he did glance at me more often. While Guy had a normal amount of food on his tray, Evan had waffles, an omelette, cantaloupe, two kinds of sausage, a blueberry muffin, grits, and cereal.

“Look at all that food!” I teased Evan. “You’re a pig!”

“One of the greatest things about being on a cruise,” Evan said.

“How do you stay so skinny?” Lauren asked him.

“I guess I just use up a lot of energy,” Evan said, pouring syrup on his waffles.

I noticed Guy hadn’t started eating yet. Instead, he had his insulin pump and meter in his lap. He inserted a test strip into his meter, and then pricked his index finger and squeezed a tiny drop of blood from his finger onto the test strip. A number appeared on the meter.

“Is that your blood glucose level?” I asked.

“Yeah.” He typed the number showing on the meter into the pump.

“You’re telling the pump what your blood glucose level is?”

“Yep. Then I enter the carbs in the meal that I’m about to eat. Let’s see … I have scrambled eggs, which are excellent if you’re counting carbs, because they’re almost nothing, but I’ll count them as one; bacon, which is about one carb; cantaloupe, which is about
three; a Danish, which is about thirty carbs; and a glass of milk, which is about twelve. See, it tests your math skills. That adds up to forty-seven, so I input that into the pump, and then it translates that to insulin units and pumps it into me.”

“That’s pretty cool,” I said.

“Much cooler than having to stick myself to inject the insulin. It doesn’t hurt at all.”

“How do you know how many carbs each food has? Do you memorize it?”

“I used a booklet at first, but yeah, now I kind of know the foods I eat most often by heart. If I have to look something up I can use my phone and go online.”

“And you have to watch what you eat, right?” I said to Guy.

“Well, yeah, but I can bolus if I want to splurge on something like waffles.”

“Cool,” said Lauren. Then, suddenly, she said, “Guess what?”

Diana and I quickly looked at her. What was she doing? Was she going to tell about Iggy?

“What?” Evan said, taking a bite of his waffle.

“We found a wild iguana,” Lauren whispered. “We’re keeping it in our room.”

I let my mouth drop open, and I stared at Diana, who glared at Lauren.

“Lauren!” Diana said with fury in her voice.

“Whoa, really?” Evan said. “You’re kidding. Where’d you find it? Did you bring it from Grand Cayman? I heard they had a park there where they’re breeding them and releasing them into the wild.”

“I want to see it!” Guy said excitedly, tossing his hair back.

“What do you think you’re doing, Lauren?” Diana said.

Lauren shrugged. “They already know about the thing that Manuel and his American friend lost. I just thought I’d bring them up to speed.”

“But I thought it was obvious that we were going to keep it a secret!” Diana said.

“I thought that just meant the ‘rents,” Lauren said. “I didn’t know you didn’t want to tell the guys either.”

“Well, we know now,” Guy said. “So can we come see it after breakfast?”

“Sure,” said Lauren.

Diana stood up and threw her fork down on her plate, narrowing her eyes at Lauren. “I cannot believe you told them about it! What’s the matter with you?” She marched away from the table.

Oh no! I couldn’t figure out why Lauren decided to tell the boys, either. We hadn’t talked about it at all. And I didn’t know if Daddy and Lynn would think
it was okay for the guys to come to our room. I was staring at Lauren with my mouth open when the captain made an announcement. “Attention please. Today we will spend the day at sea. The weather is a balmy eighty degrees with scattered clouds. We will be heading northwest at eighteen knots with a light wind. Please enjoy all of our shipboard amenities.” The captain went on to describe a cooking class, an art show, and a yoga class that would be taking place today on the ship.

I noticed Diana over by the buffet getting food for Iggy, and I went over to talk to her.

“I’m sorry that Lauren told,” I said. “I have no idea why she did it!”

“What is wrong with her? Every five minutes she does something to make me mad!” Diana said. “I’m going back to the room. And don’t bring the guys to see Iggy. He’s a wild animal, and he might freak out with all of us in there.”

A minute later she left with a plate of veggies and fruits.

I headed back to the table and slid into my seat. “She’s really mad, Lauren. She doesn’t want us to bring the boys back to the room.”

Lauren tossed her head. “Well, there’s nothing I can do now. They already know. We might as well show it to them.”

“We won’t tell anyone,” Guy said reassuringly. “We promise.”

“It’s just the principle of the thing,” I said. I didn’t want to leave the group, but I felt like I needed to try to talk to Diana. “I think I’ll go now too.”

“Where are you going?” Guy said as soon as I stood up. He was looking at me in a way that made me feel confused and flustered.

“Back to the room.”

“Can we come see the iguana?” he asked.

“Let me go talk to Diana first. She’s pretty upset.”

When I got back, Diana had Iggy in the middle of the room, letting him eat from the plate of greens she’d brought him.

“He’s supposed to be a secret!” she exclaimed the minute I walked in. “Maybe those guys will tell their parents, and pretty soon all kinds of people are going to know about him.”

I sat down beside her. “Lauren was wrong to tell the guys about it, I agree with you. She should not have done that. But I think we need to go ahead and tell Daddy and Lynn about this. We could get in serious trouble by keeping this iguana. We might be committing a crime! We should turn it in.”

“I promised I’d tell them after Grammy’s birthday tonight. So that’s when I’ll tell them,” Diana said.

“We might as well let the boys see him,” I said. “They know about him already.”

By the time the boys got there, I had just barely persuaded her. Everyone came crowding into the small room, and Diana glanced up at them.

“He’s very cool,” said Evan as he watched the iguana crawl up to the top of Diana’s knee.

“He’s like my own little dragon,” said Diana, more to Iggy than anyone else. She gave him some watercress, and we all watched him eat. Diana gradually warmed up with all the attention, though she wouldn’t talk to Lauren, who looked at me and shrugged when she realized Diana was still mad.

After he ate, we sat around and let him perch on our shoulders and walk around on our arms and legs. Lauren took videos. Diana showed the boys how the iguana loved getting its chin scratched.

“We have to take the iguana out in the sun today,” Diana said. “We read online that iguana hatchlings have to have vitamin D.”

“Hatchlings?”

“That’s what they call baby iguanas. But we have to somehow keep him hidden while we do that.”

“I’m in!” Guy said. “We can sit near the pool and position our stuff around it so nobody can see it. This
is going to be cool. The day of the iguana. The iguana caper. The Iwannaguana caper.”

Evan laughed, repeating, “The Iwannaiguana caper!”

Evan and Guy stood up.

“We’ll meet you guys out by the pool,” Lauren said. “Find some chairs in the sun, and save us some.”

“Okay! See you in a little while.” Evan and Guy ducked through the door.

As soon as they left, I tried to talk to Diana and Lauren.

“I really think we need to tell Daddy and Lynn about it,” I said. “Maybe people are looking for it.”

“Do you think he’s really valuable?” Lauren said, videotaping as Iggy climbed over Diana’s knee.

I was also starting to get worried about Grammy’s birthday celebration tonight. I wanted it to be good. We needed to take some time to write her a poem or a song, not just spend all our time playing with the iguana.

Diana and Lauren were touching the lizard and holding him, and he seemed to like to sit on their shoulders and crawl on them. I couldn’t bring myself to touch him. I didn’t know how his skin would feel, and I was afraid he might bite me.

“Let’s just wait and see,” Lauren said. “It’s so cool to have him here to play with, isn’t it?”

“You’re such a worrywart, Stephanie,” Diana said. “Chill.”

Twenty minutes later, after we were all in our bathing suits ready to go to the pool, Diana slipped Iggy into her beach bag.

Having Iggy out by the pool was easier than we thought. We put five chairs together over in one sunny corner and piled all of our beach bags in the center of them. Then we sat on the lounge chairs and Diana opened her beach bag and let Iggy crawl out. The moment he crawled out into the sun, he blinked and settled in for some sunbathing.

“Wow, his skin looks darker when he’s out in the sun,” Diana said.

There were some potted hibiscus plants beside the pool, and Diana went over, picked a few of the crepey red flowers, and brought them back to where we were sitting.

“So this is what my mom did once when she was in Saint Thomas. She said iguanas love hibiscus flowers.” She held out a flower to Iggy, and he eagerly ate some of it. He was having trouble eating the big petals on the flower, so Diana took it back and tore it into smaller pieces. “Check it out! He does like it!”

We spent awhile sitting in the sun with Iggy. He was skittish and liked to be able to run into Diana’s beach bag. He sat at the edge of it in the sunshine, and whenever someone walked by and cast a shadow, he ran back inside.

We hadn’t been at the pool long when Luke came out with a couple of friends and threw his towel on a lounge chair near us. One of his friends yelled, “Geronimo!” and jumped into the pool, and the others followed him, sending up walls of water and splashing us.

“Luke!” we yelled in annoyed voices.

“Be careful not to let Luke see Iggy,” Lauren said to Diana. “He loves critters. He’ll become obsessed, and he might tell Mom and Dad.”

Diana nodded, catching Iggy and putting him back in the beach bag. Once Luke and his friends were occupied playing basketball in the pool, she let Iggy out again.

A little bit later, I saw Daddy and Lynn coming up the stairs to the pool.

“Diana! Daddy and Lynn are coming!”

Quickly, Diana scooped Iggy back into her beach bag and zipped it up. She gave me a threatening look. “Now don’t tell them!” she hissed.

“Hey, kids!” Daddy said. “This ship is so big, we never see you! Are these new friends of yours?”

Evan and Guy quickly scrambled to their feet and introduced themselves, shaking hands with Daddy.

“Nice to meet you, sir,” Guy said.

“So what kind of trouble have you kids been getting into today?” Daddy asked. “I bet you boys have been back to the buffet a few times!”

“Yessir,” said Evan. “We’re eating as much as we can.”

“Tonight is our celebration for Grammy’s birthday,” Lynn reminded us. “Do you girls have your gifts ready? Remember, your gifts don’t need to cost money. They just need to have TLC.”

“Right.” Lauren nodded. “We’re going to write her a poem this afternoon.”

My heart was beating furiously, and I tried not to look at the beach bag.

“So, I’m so glad you girls are hanging out together, and that you’ve made some friends,” Lynn said, touching Diana on the shoulder. Diana pulled away.

There was an uncomfortable silence. I swallowed and stared at a spot on the ground. Would Daddy be able to somehow tell that Guy had kissed me? Lauren and Diana stared at the pool, and Guy and Evan shifted their weight from one foot to another, their hands in their bathing-suit pockets.

A moment later Lynn took Daddy’s hand. “Let’s leave the kids alone, Norm,” she said. “I can see it’s making them antsy for us to be here at the teen pool.”

“Yeah, this is the TEEN pool,” Lauren said jokingly. “Only TEENS allowed at the TEEN pool.”

Lynn and Daddy headed back to the stairs. The minute they left, I watched Diana heave a sigh of relief. I was feeling guilty, though, knowing that we were
keeping a secret from them. And I knew they wouldn’t like it that I had kissed Guy.

There was a moment awhile later when Iggy was startled by a shadow and went skittering across the pool deck. Diana jumped to her feet and raced after him.

Iggy ran up to a step and tried to make the leap up the step but missed, and that was when Diana got him. She raced back to our chairs and put him into the beach bag, zipping it up.

At that moment, the American we had seen talking with Manuel walked by with a tray of Cokes for some people a short distance away, and he gave Diana and her beach bag a searching look, but he didn’t stop to say anything.

“I’m going to take him back in,” she said. “I don’t know whether he’s had enough sun, but I’m afraid he’s going to get away.”

Lauren and I were left with the boys, and eventually we started talking about our families.

Guy lived with his mom, who hadn’t remarried, and Evan’s parents still lived together.

“So, what’s it like to have a stepfather and a stepmother?” Guy asked. “I keep wondering what it’s going to be like if mom meets someone. She’s been dating on one of those online dating sites. She hasn’t met anyone she really thinks is cool so far, but you never know.”

“It was a real adjustment at first,” I said honestly. “I had wanted things to stay the way they were. Even if Mama and Daddy weren’t still in love, I didn’t care! Now I know it’s not good for them to be together. And I’ve started to get close to Diana, and that was unexpected.” I could have said either an unexpected bonus or an unexpected challenge, and I decided just to leave it open-ended.

At that moment the American waiter who had walked by with the sodas came back with his empty tray. He stopped beside the potted hibiscus and stared at us for a moment. He didn’t say anything to us, but I could feel my face going hot, and I became uncomfortable beneath his gaze.