On the Diamond Princess

Roger sat up in the comfortable bed on the cruise ship.  His ‘phone told him it was just after 2am but he couldn’t sleep.  An inside cabin on a cruise ship is probably one of the darkest places on earth, he thought.  The only glimmer of light he could see was the tiny red glow from the fire alarm.  There was no porthole, and not even a gap under the door to allow light to infiltrate.  In his bedroom at home, even on the darkest night, the yellow numbers on his clock radio made a difference and there was always light from outside elbowing past the curtains.

This was certainly turning out not to be the cruise he and Andrea had planned.  Things hadn’t been going well at home; the kids had all moved on and the spark had well and truly disappeared from what had become a fairly pedestrian marriage.  He and Andrea rarely spoke and a sharp word was never far from their lips.  They’d tried marriage counselling but both agreed that a well-meaning but glib young woman had no appreciation of what they were experiencing.

In a desperate attempt to salvage something from the thirty years they had been together, he had suggested a cruise.  All those years ago, they had planned a cruise for their honeymoon, but that had not eventuated so the idea of a cruise around Asia had a lot of appeal.  Unfortunately, Roger had allowed his prudent nature to prevail and he had ended up booking the cheapest cabin on the ship: Inside on Deck 5. Andrea had said, as she often did, that he was just mean.

The first few days had been fine.  They left Singapore in good weather, the cabin was comfortable and they had made a few acquaintances at their dining table.  Still, Andrea would choose to go off alone each day, to the Spa or the Gymnasium, or to a Cooking class or some mindless Trivia competition, leaving Roger to twiddle his thumbs.  In some ways, it wasn’t much different to being at home.

But, of course, things had changed as they approached the end of the journey,  They were a bit out of touch with international affairs but they had heard talk of some mysterious disease coming out of China.  They couldn’t imagine they would be affected until the captain informed the passengers that no port would allow them to disembark and they would be quarantined for fourteen days before they could head for home. In effect, that meant solitary confinement, in their tiny cabin, with one fifteen-minutes supervised walk on the deck each day, meals being delivered to the cabin by their steward and no real contact with other human beings.

As was her nature, Andrea began to complain bitterly, blaming Roger for everything that had gone wrong but Roger’s nature was to take stock and plan what needed to be done to survive this unpleasant situation.  The television was there as a back-up but Roger knew they would need plenty to read.  He began to download to their iPads the sorts of novels which would grip their attention for hours at a time.  Andrea hadn’t read a book since High School but she enjoyed detective programs on TV so Roger downloaded samples from various authors for her to try.  By chance, Andrea became absorbed by Anne Perry and there were more than thirty books in the series she was reading. That would certainly keep her occupied.

Their daily routine became comfortable.  They read, watched the TV news with their breakfast, read a bit more, exercised as best they could in their small cabin, walked on the deck when possible, watched a movie or two in the afternoon, had a glass or two of wine delivered by the masked steward, and  read some more.  Andrea found she enjoyed playing various games on the iPad; the cabin steward brought them some board games and they played them together.  Roger, after being accused several times of cheating , was delighted to hear Andrea laugh, a sound he thought he would never hear again.

One night he woke to find Andrea snuggling into his back, for the first time in years, and the next day she took his hand when they were walking on the deck.

The day came when it was time to go home or, at least, to Christmas Island for another fourteen days of enforced solitude.  Many of the passengers were whinging about it, but Roger was finding it hard to conceal a little smile.