North Meets South, Worlds Collide - 73. Chapter 73

We visited with Ivan and Katya a little longer but separated after promising we’d get together again onboard. As we were about to separate, the officer that had been the first to respond during the “attack” on Katya came over.

He smiled at us. “Forgive the interruption, Mrs. Belov.” He turned to Ivan, “Mr. Belov…you’ll be happy to know that the Gisons have left the ship and on their way to Sydney.”

I smiled and told Ivan and Katya.

The crewman nodded to Katya. “If you want, you can press charges. We have it documented if needed.”

I told Katya who shook her head.

“It was just…” she shuddered, “so…it was just a second or two. He’s gone.” She told me and shuddered again. “His hand was in a very personal and private place.” She said to us. “And I’m not talking just a boob.”

“He was obviously not sane.” I smiled. “He should never have done that. Winning that money just re-enforced his belief that laws weren’t meant for him…or even common decency.” I put my arm around her shoulder gently. “I’m sorry.”

Katya nodded as Ivan took her and hugged her him. “It will be fine now.” She smiled.

“One thing, please…if you would,” Tony said to Ivan. “You’re a celebrity and you came here because you were…less known?”

Ivan smiled. “Like you, most don’t know who I am here.” He shrugged, clearly liking the idea. “I’m on vacation! There are some here that know, but they are more…” he thought of a word, “sophisticated and less likely to scream and pester me for an autograph.”

I smiled at that. “I know you made a little boy back home very happy.”

Ivan gave a gesture saying it was no big deal. “He is your family, right? Or soon will be. It was the least I could do for such good friends.” I smiled at Katya. “Do you feel like shopping more?”

She smiled a special smile I knew was only for Ivan. “We should probably go back to our cabin.” The way she said it left no doubt about her intentions. She needed more comforting in a way only Ivan could give her.

Ivan’s eyes lit up and then he looked at Tony and me. “Okay. We will be on the ship.” Suddenly he was in a hurry. “We will have dinner one night, perhaps in Brisbane?”

“We’ll do that. You know where we are.” Tony put his arm around me but smiled at Ivan as they hurried off. Then he looked at me. “We should probably head back to our cabin.” He waggled his eyebrows, but then remembered something. “We will…after we take care of something.” He took my hand and led me in a particular direction.

I was only a little curious until I saw the office we were going to. I grinned seeing the Travel Office and knew why we were here.

Inside, a lovely young woman in her late twenties greeted and spoke with us…or rather to Tony about future cruises on this ship.

“…we are often booked several years in advance, but…” she pointed out. “Even we do have the occasional cancelations for many reasons. I can put you on a priority notification when that happens and you could book a cruise then.” She said brightly. “As you’re both passengers and traveling as VIPs and now in our best staterooms, you will have an even greater priority.”

I grinned. “Do it,” I said making Tony look at me surprised. “We’re coming back to this ship.”

“Any particular destination preference or length of the voyage?” She asked.

Tony looked at me and when I didn’t answer, he just said to her. “No real destination preference, but we’d like more than a week.”

She nodded and typed in her computer. “It could be next month or next year.” She warned. “It all depends on the cancellation, but there will be one. I promise you that.”

“Fine,” I said again without looking at Tony which made him look at me questioningly.

She was very pleased with what was happening. “Alright, Mr. Delveccio and Mr. McKenzie…” she hit enter. “It’s in. You’re all set.” She stood and stuck her hand out as we rose from the chairs. “Enjoy the rest of this voyage and you will be welcomed back the next one.”

We left the office and I could tell Tony had something to say. “We need to go back to our stateroom.”

It wasn’t desire that was making him say that, but something was bothering him and Tony and I would be discussing it in private. That much he didn’t need to say.

After we were in the cabin and he shut the door, I turned. “What?” I asked.

“You tell me what,” Tony said. “You are never like this. You didn’t even question what we were doing. You’re changing.”

I nodded. “Of course, I’m changing.” I waved at him. “So are you!” I turned away from him. “This whole situation is changing.”

“Because of my illness,” Tony said to confirm what he knew.

“Yes!” I said louder than I intended to. I sighed realizing I wasn’t angry, just frustrated. “This whole thing is going to change both of us.” I turned to look at him again and thought what to say. “When you told me about the plane hitting the World Trade Center and you were in an office just below it…it changed you. You looked back on your life and realized you were missing out on something you wanted and needed.” I shook my head. “You changed! Now, we are facing something…and as much as I was dismissing it for a while…you made a valid point. I was in denial until you said what you did. I’m not now. It may not be cancer yet. It could be pre-cancer, but you said it yourself. Dr. Keogh found something. You said you feel it. There is something there that we will deal with. Now, I changed. I’m still me, but I see things so differently now.” I came closer to Tony. “I was in a comfortable place before you…but now I have you in my life and…” I waved at the stateroom. “I’m damned comfortable with you here. I had a wonderful life with you. I never dreamed I would find someone like you and have this life, but I do, because of you. My priorities have changed. Now my priority is you. Us. Our life together.” I wrapped my arms around him. “I don’t have to tell you anymore that I love you. You know I do, but I will say it every day often. That’s what we do in a committed relationship based on love. I was not comfortable before…why? I asked you a while back why you needed all this…you said to prove to your parents their sacrifices were paying off.” I chuckled. “A lot of my father’s teachings did sink in. His…we don’t do that because it showy…bullshit, that is silly. I was silly to hold on to that. I’m not now. You are my priority. Us. We have a damned good marriage…I know what’s in the bank. We are more than fine. So instead of worrying about the future and possible loss, I will enjoy us, together, now.” I watched as his eyes grow bigger. “I do love you, Tony…more than anything or anyone.”

Tony smiled and leaned in kissing me gently. “You know I do you, too.”

Then I looked around and realized, the stateroom was spotless again. “Damn, they are fast.”

Tony chuckled looking around with me as he nodded, then looked back at me grinning more. “Want to mess it up again now?”

I kissed him deeper. “Yes, I do.” I took his hand and led him to the stairs.

“Ya, know?” Tony began. “We’ve made love at least once or twice a day since we got together…sometimes more! That’s a whole lot of sex.”

“Your point?” I asked.

“Hell, one of us should at least be pregnant by now!”

Tony was right; we did have sex many, many times, made love often, too. There’s a difference. We did, however, go to dinner and enjoyed our other friends’ company on the ship. I saw Tony get on a computer and do something. He often checked the stock market, DOW Jones or whatever it’s called and things to do his job, so I didn’t question it. He had to keep up with global trends. I had an appointment at the Canyon Ranch Spa to have my tan added, not that it was really important to me now. We had a nice relaxing few days sailing from New Zealand to Brisbane. No rushing anywhere. We did enjoy a few nights of dancing and a show. Even a pretty damned good off Broadway of Rent! I’d never seen it, so why not? The performers were great!

We woke the day we arrived in Brisbane with a light blinking on our phone. That only happened when someone on the ship needed to speak with us, be it the crew on the Queen Mary or another passenger on the ship. I activated the blinking button to retrieve the message.

“My good friends!” I smiled hearing Ivan’s cheerful voice. “We are in Brisbane! We should get together and decide where to meet and where we can dine! We will be at breakfast about nine in the dining room if you want to do this.”

Tony looked as I was smiling. “Who was it, or is it who I think?”

“Наши хорошие друзья!” I saying our good friends imitating Ivan. “They are eating a nine. We gotta go.” Making Tony chuckle getting up so we could meet them. “I really like them!” I said to Tony as I followed him.

“You just love every Russian you meet.” Tony grinned as he commented turning the shower on. “We can’t take these two home this time.”

“We didn’t the last time!” I stated. “Sasha just followed us home!”

Tiny grinned at me. “You and lost puppies and any animal you find you want to bring home. The donkey you named Bucky.”

I knew he was teasing me, but I gave him back the angry Italian persona I learned. “Bucky was home, on Ios!”

He grinned knowing how I’d react. “You would have if you could. You know that.”

I looked at Tony who was smiling bigger. “You call Sasha a lost puppy,” I said, “see what happens. You’ll have a pissed off Russian at home.”

We entered right at nine, I’m never late, remember? Instantly we heard…

“Here! We’re over here!” The big Russian told us. There weren’t that many diners at that time. Most other passengers headed to Brisbane or elsewhere. Katya was doing the shushing thing to him, which he ignored. We got to them we got the given Ivan greeting he always gave us. “My good friends!”

I’m a fan of hugging and our new friends were fans, too. Ivan’s hug was always pretty strong, but he definitely meant it! Katya hugged us, too, but not like Ivan. We agreed to see Brisbane with our individual spouses and meet at eight thirty here, where again to go off the ship to The Black Hide for steaks. Ivan heard it was the best in town.

Tony and I got off the ship and I could tell Tony was happy at this stop on our voyage. It was a city! Bigger than Charleston, but not the size of Manhattan, but it was a city. With no rush to do anything we strolled around looking in many stores and saw exhibits. Our new perspective on our lives…we never hid our affection for each other, but we just didn’t care who saw us now or their reaction. We did buy a few things and I would have loved to go to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, but we were running out of time. I made Tony promise we would come again and go next time we were in Brisbane.

When we boarded the ship again to change and get ready, even before the crewman took our cards to log us onboard, he smiled at us. He knew who we were before he got the cards. We made a memorable impression apparently. “You need to go to the concierge desk, Mr. Delveccio. The package you sent for arrived.”

“Great!” Tony said as he handed him his card.

“Package?” I asked.

“For Ivan and Katya,” Tony said smiling as we walked in the ship hand in hand.

When I saw the package, I remembered another package he had gotten for us to use. “Good idea!”

We met with Ivan and Katya to go to the restaurant. At Black Hide, we sat down as Ivan looked at the menu and frowned.

“I’m afraid my reading of English is worse than I can speak English,” Ivan said sadly. “You will help us translate this?” He asked Tony and me.

“I could, I figured you might have trouble,” Tony said smiling and brought the package out. “Here. Try this.”

Ivan looked at the package curiously. Opening it, he held the little device up with the look that said, what’s this? Tony reached over and turned it on.

“Go ahead.” Tony encouraged. “Say something.”

(This is the tricky part, but almost everyone knows about what’s going to happen before I write it.)

Ivan looked at Tony. “Хорошо, почему ты дал мне это? Что он делает?” Then the electronic voice came out of the translator. “Okay, why did you give me this? What does it do?”

Ivan looked as his eyes grew, startled, as did Katya's. “Я только что сказал?” The voice came back. “Did I just say that?”

Ivan’s eyes widened understanding enough English to know what was being said now held amazement. “Я просто так сказал! Это отличное устройство! Откуда это у Вас?” The translator came back with. “I did just say that! This is a great device! Where did you get it?”

(Now, just back to single language reading. You know what they’re saying and what language is used when.)

Katya took the device from her husband. “This translates Russian to English!?”

Tony nodded smiling. “And English to Russian.” He looked to Katya. “I know you said no business on vacation, but this is something a man wanted to invest in…and he is but needs more backing financially. We got the translator before Sasha and Alik came to live with us and…” Tony chuckled. “My Russian is better now, but I was in trouble a while. I had a six-year-old that didn’t speak hardly any English and, so I got this. It saved our lives, believe me.” He waved at the translator Ivan had. “You were looking for investment possibilities…” Tony waved again at the translator. “…here it is. They are working on an additional device…a type of scanner that will take written languages, scan them and translate them also to a language you can read. That’s in the works. We’d like it to do any language to any language, but that will take a larger database and memory.”

“This is incredible!” Katya said staring at the translator. “Where can we get one?”

Tony shook his head. “I’m giving that one to you.”

Ivan’s eyes grew and he handed it back quickly. “We can’t do that! This is too valuable!”

I nodded. “It is valuable, but if you get involved in this…you would be a part owner,” I said logically. “You can see it really works and it was worked on by me, Tony, Sasha, and Alik to get some things ironed out with sayings and other local colloquialisms.”

(The Russian word I used for colloquialism is разговор, that’s what Tony looked surprised at hearing.)

Tony leaned into me. “What’s that mean?” Which I quickly told him.

“Oh.” Tony pointed to me. “See, I told you he was better at speaking Russian…I didn’t even know the word for colloquialism in Russian until now.”

Katya and Ivan were laughing at us.

“It helps to speak with adult Russians, Tony.” I grinned. “I doubt Alik knows the word either.”

Ivan marveled at the translator shaking his head, still not believing the wonder of the translator. “This will be big, I tell you BIG!” He saw the waiter come over and held the translator up. “Теперь он может поговорить со мной и он со мной, и мы понимаем друг друга!” The translator promptly said. “Now he can talk to me and he to me, and we understand each other!”

Even the waiter was fascinated by what was happening. “Wow, what is that?” His eyes got big, too. The translator said. “Вау, что это?" Making the waiter's eyes grow even bigger. “Cool!!” The translator came with… “Классно.”

“Slang and what have you has to be programmed in, but…” I smiled as Ivan was studying the translator to see what buttons did what.

“The slang term Alik taught me was Прикольно.” A little too proud he knew the translator was off.

I rolled my eyes and grinned at Tony and pressed on. “Next we’ll get the scanner because the Cyrillic alphabet Russia uses is a bitch!” I growled. “I’m getting it, but not quite there yet.”

Ivan and Katya were laughing harder. “As I am not understanding your…A,B,C’s!” He said as he laughed. “I can see we are going to become very old, very dear, very, very good friends!” He said confidently as he nodding, looking at the translator.

I took Tony’s hand. “Sono sicuro che lo faremo.” I said softer, in Italian saying I’m sure we will. Tony smiled nodding, knowing what I meant. “Ti amo.”

Tony smiled more placing his forehead against mine. “Lo so.” (That was Italian. You know what we say to each other by now. I shouldn't have to translate it now.)