Bangkok to Singapore - Grounded: A Down to Earth Journey Around the World - page 85

Meanwhile, Rebecca realizes that if we're going to get on this ship tonight, one of us must deal with our
abandoned luggage sitting back at the hotel. She tells me she's going to catch a taxi, make the ten-minute
ride to the hotel, grab our bags while the cab waits outside, and then race right back. I wish her Godspeed.
“Wait,” I say, as she's turning to go. “You'd better give me my passport. And kiss me good-bye. Just in
case.” And then she's on her way.
When a man answers at the cruise operations office in London, I pour my soul out through the phone to
him. I have never been more earnest in my life. “Please,” I conclude, “I hope you can find it in your heart
to help me.” Somehow, this doesn't sound sappy. He asks me to hold for a moment and then clicks back
on.
“Someone's coming for you now,” he says.
I hang up. A minute later, I see a vision from on high: a man in a pressed, white cruise ship uniform with
golden epaulets. He's jogging toward me from the other side of the security checkpoint. I wave at him. “Mr.
Stevenson! Come with me!” yells Phil. “Quickly!”
I pass through the metal detector, hand the immigrations clerk my passport—thank God Rebecca re-
membered we might need them—and meet up with Phil, who's by now panting heavily. “We've got to
run!” he says between breaths. His walkie-talkie crackles: “Phil? Where are you?! We need to go now!”
I push to keep up with him as he sprints down a carpeted hallway, around a corner, and then onto the
long, narrow gangway. I'm stumbling over my flip-flops. I hear the cruise ship's horn blow—it almost
sounds like it's angry. When we reach the edge of the deck and step aboard, two terminal workers immedi-
ately lift the gangplank away behind us.
Phil and I lurch to a stop in the middle of the deck, doubled over, gasping for air. After a few moments,
I feel the ship moving.
Phil begins to get his breathing under control. “That's the strangest embarkation I've ever seen,” he
gasps. “I've never done anything like that.”
“Neither have I,” I say, my heart still racing.
He appraises me for a moment. “Where's your luggage?” he asks.