Glass Elevators

Duncan, Rebecca and I went to Family Fun Night onboard – a trivia game where we competed against 7 other teams to see if we could the top five answers most often chosen to a list of questions. We should have been the winners of the game for one of the questions was to have someone from the group come up and do a tongue twister. Duncan shot to the front, not even asking Rebecca or me if we wanted to be the contestant from our group. The tongue twister was “Smart fellow, fellow smart, you smart fellow, me fellow smart.” Our team got 50 points for his perfect rendition of an old family favorite. With all of that boost in points our team came in last. Two things were working against us. The first is that the British have different ways of translating what words mean. For example, to the question Name the top five job categories of people who wear white gloves to work? – we listed people like waiters, curators of rare books, etc. All of the top five answers included people who wear translucent gloves to work – doctors, dentists, etc. To all of the rest of the world, does white = clear? The other things that works against our team is that the three of us just can’t think inside of the box!

After that defeat where families with three to five year olds could beat us, we went off to tend our wounds by having a soft ice-cream cone and waiting for the evening Headliner Show. Killing time, I suggested to Duncan that we ride the glass elevators up and down the fourteen floors since they were essentially empty and could go from the top to the bottom of the ship with no stops. Rebecca watched us from the top floor. Duncan thought we should turn the event into a race, so he took one elevator, I took the other and we agreed that the first one to reach the 12th floor for the fifth time would be the winner.

We waved as we passed each other, him going so fast that i couldn’t catch him with me camera. Soon I couldn’t see him at all and wondered why he was hiding in the elevator. When my door opened there was Rebecca and him at my door motioning me to come out. The game was over. He had been told he couldn’t play in the glass elevator. “Who are you playing with?” the security guard asked. He broke out into a hearty belly laugh when Duncan told him, “My grandmother”, which only goes to prove that people who play in glass elevators shouldn’t wave at each other.

Arta