Aunt Bessie's Holiday Read Free Page B

asked as Doona drove away,
following the slow-moving queue that was now snaking away from the check-in
area and towards the ferry.
    “It was part of the prize,” Doona
replied.   “We get use of a cabin on
board for the journey, both out and return.”
    “How very fancy,” Bessie said.   “I haven’t been on the ferry in many
years, but when I did travel across once in a while, I was always quite jealous
of the people who’d booked cabins.   In my imagination, the cabins were hugely better than the main seating
area with the squalling children and the huddled masses.”
    “I’ve never been inside one,” Doona told
her.   “But at least it’s a bit of
private space and they are all en-suite as well.”
    “What a nice surprise,” Bessie said.   “I didn’t think this holiday could get
any better, but it just has.”
    They’d reached the end of the new line of
cars and Doona switched off her engine again.   “I suspect we’ll be here for a while,”
she told Bessie in response to the question she hadn’t yet asked.   “I’m told they load the freight on
first.”
    For close to an hour the pair watched as
huge container lorries made their way into the belly of the ferry.   Some minutes later the front end of the
lorry would emerge, leaving its container behind.  
    “This is quite interesting,” Bessie said
after a while.
    “It isn’t bad,” Doona replied.   “And at least we don’t have children
with us.”
    Bessie exchanged glances with Doona.   In between watching the lorries, they’d
both noticed the woman in the car in front of theirs.   She was travelling with three small
children.   After the first fifteen
minutes or so, she’d climbed out of the car and tried taking a short walk with
the trio, but the oldest child, a small boy of four or five, kept running off
and dashing in between cars.   When
she finally caught up to him, dragging his two small sisters after her, she’d
returned them all to the car and shut them up inside.   For a moment, she stood outside the
vehicle with the three children shouting inside it.
    “Do you think she’s imagining just running
away?” Bessie had asked Doona.
    “I would if I were her,” Doona shot back.
    Instead, the frazzled woman went into the
boot of her vehicle and emerged with a box of biscuits.   Bessie and Doona could hear the tears
turn to shouts of joy as she showed them to the children.   While Bessie and Doona didn’t mind the
long wait, it was clear to them that the poor woman in front of them couldn’t
wait to get on board the ship so that she could let the children run around.
    “I’m even more grateful for that cabin now,”
Bessie remarked.
    “Indeed,” Doona replied.
    Eventually the long line of cars began to
move slowly towards the ferry.   Doona followed the car in front, making her way onto the ferry’s car
decks.   Bessie looked around.  
    “It’s not very passenger friendly,” she
remarked as several men directed Doona down the narrow corridor.   The cars were packed together tightly,
with barely enough room between them for people to get through.
    Doona and Bessie climbed out of the car
carefully.   Cars were still making
their way onto the deck, so the women had to move cautiously towards the
nearest stairs.
    “Help me remember that we’re on deck 5A,”
Doona told Bessie when they reached the stairs.
    “I’ll try,” Bessie promised.  
    They climbed several long flights of metal
stairs before finally arriving at a door that said “Passenger Deck.”  
    “Let’s find customer service,” Doona
suggested.   “I’m ready for a bit of
peace and quiet.”
    Bessie couldn’t have agreed more.   The main passenger lounge looked
completely full as groups of people claimed tables and chairs for
themselves.   In the small children’s
play area, it seemed as if twenty small children were fighting over half a
dozen plastic blocks.   A small sign
that read “Quiet Deck” was only just visible