The Outdoor Pool and Bar

Alyse J. Taft

Alyse Taft stared at the bronze liquid at the bottom of her glass. She had been saying goodbye to her family for ten minutes before making her way on board, and this is the first stop she made; the Outdoor bar. At first she was worried that they'd card her but the bartender barely looked at her.

Her fingers played along the rubber armrests of her mechanical prison. She had been stuck in a wheelchair since birth, and looking now at the people walking around the pool and deck she felt a familiar pang of jealousy. Why could they walk? Why had she been forced to sit in this chair for the rest of her life?

She tipped the rest of the drink into her mouth. Being a parplegic wasn't why she drank, she drank because she could. She drank because the burn of the alcohol made her forget that she would never write a book as well-received as her first. She spent her life imagining amazing worlds but when she really needed it her mind was blank, uncreative. She waved at the bartender and watched as her glass was filled again.

It was funny, she had been on this ship for less than twenty minutes and she was already getting drunk.

She opens her bag and pulls the rectangular, flat stone out along with the note she'd spied her grandmother slipping into her bag. The stone was rough and engraved with the words, "Save Our Ship". She laughed at her grandmothers humor. As she had been growing up, her grandmother was one of the few people that supported her creative nature. When Alyse had published her first novel, her grandmother had likened it to sailing a ship into uncharted waters. Since then her writing career was always "their ship". Her grandmother, like her father, felt that this trip was just what she needed to revitalize her creativity. She didn't believe that, but she found her self lightly kissing the cold stone for luck.

Slipped the stone back into her bag, she unfolded the note:



She waved the bartender to fill her glass again. Luck ... wasn't what she needed.

It is only a matter of moments since the Captain's life-boat drill announcement that Danziger trots rapidly up behind Miss Taft. "Miss Taft, I'm Amaryllis Danziger, Ship's Doctor, well one of them. My crew and I have been assigned to help you with mobility issues for Life-Boat drill. With your permission?" Danziger has her pick of orderlies for this duty, and she has chosen the four strongest, smartest men on shift. Guys who can carry the VIP, her chair, and all the med supplies needed. They have drilled even prior to passengers coming on board. She trusts these fellows, and Danziger doesn't trust just anyone with her patients.

This is a drill and so it is up to Miss Taft if she accepts help, but Danziger hopes she does. It will be good practice just in case something untoward happens.

Alyse J. Taft

Downed her half full glass and glances behind her, "Amy? Is it alright if I call you that?", her voice slurred giving away her drunkedness, "Did you know that we're more likely to be hijacked by pirates than we are to sink?"

She slammed her glass to the counter with a loud clunk and began tapping the rim to alert the bartender.

"And," she waved her hand into the air, "if pirates did hijack this ship the last thing we'd be doing is heading to the life boats."

She lifts her glass to her lips and finds it empty. Not bad for her first time drinking. Maybe this would become a new past time. Right now, with a belly full of poison, she didn't feel so bad about her lack of creativity. In fact, she was looking forward to a trip of gambling, sleeping, and of course drinking.

"How about we start with you calling me Doctor Danziger, and progress from there?" Danziger says gently. Her eyes are briefly askance to the bar tender, who is rapidly closing down in order to get to his station for the drill. The roll down screen moves into place and locks the bottles safely in place. "The drill is mandated by maritime law, so we," she indicates her white clad cronies as well as herself, "will get in trouble if we can't convince you to play along. And no, if we see any pirates? That is a whole 'nother drill."

Alyse J. Taft

"Fine."

Something about what Doctor Danziger had said was sobering. It could have been the insistence on a formal title, but Alyse knew better. Growing up, she'd rarely felt constrained by her disability. Her entire life had been spent in a chair and quickly grew used to the condescension, strange looks, and exclusion that came with it. Now as she allowed her self to be wheeled away from the comforting liquids she felt that constraint.

She remembered her fathers finger on her forehead, "You are human because of this," his hand moved to tap her knee, "Not this. It's better to ignore someone who can't see the difference."

She remembered that day well. She was eight. A fellow student had begun calling her a robot and claiming that he didn't want her around because he was scared that she'd go 'terminator' on him. She came home crying and it took her father nearly an hour to get what happened out of her. After she told him, they both watched all of the Terminator movies back to back and when the next school day came, she went in dressed as Arnold complete with a horrible accent.

That was the last day she could remember that she'd let her disability really feel like a disability. So this feeling she had right now was strange, foreign, and probably the reason she wasn't feeling as cheerful as she been had a few moments ago.

She said nothing as Doctor Danziger went through the procedure. She just stared at the calm sea and blamed the alcohol for how bad she felt. Even when something in the back of her mind said it wasn't the drink.

Danziger had her porters grab the chair and mount the stairs, keeping the occupant level, she had them deposit her when she could roll on her own, but the crowd on the lifeboat deck caused her to push the chair, instead of having Ms Taft move it herself (in addition to the concern that Danziger had about the young woman drinking and driving.)

The day was bright, and the sky clear and unrelentingly blue, and the life vests were every bit as orange and the sky was blue. She donned hers and handed one to the woman she was accompanying. "In a real emergency..." she said sotto voce, "I could carry you on my back. I have a harness for that. We used them in the Marines, when we had bug outs from field hospitals." Not pausing she added, "and I have a transfer chair in your lifeboat, so that if your chair has to be left behind, you won't be S.O.L"

Children had found the whistles on their life vest, and parents were admonishing them to not blow into them.