Mermaid and Fishermen

The night air was cooler than I expected but a cab pulled up quickly. Victoria and I didn’t have a clear sense of where we wanted to go so she asked the Driver.

“Have many people from our ship been in your cab tonight?”

“Yes, “ he replied.”but I have only fisherman in my cab tonight . You the first mermaids.”

Victoria twisted her face in confusion so I translated. “ So we are the first females you’ve had in your cab all night?”

“The guys from your ship they like go to hostess bars. You like go to host bar?”

“No, um where do the tourist usually go”

“Waikiki they get plenty to do over there nice beach ,shopping , dancing .”

We agreed and a few minutes later he dropped us off on a street teeming with people. It didn’t take long before we spotted 2 of our male coworkers Antono and Craig. Victoria nodded toward a young woman who was just standing in the street waiting for something.

“Is she a prostitute?”

Antonio confirmed her suspicions.

I had been wondering the same thing She was dressed like the whores on fictional cop shows but she didn’t seem to be wearing a wig. I’d never seen a female prostitute dressed like that before.

“Where I’m from the hookers mostly wear sweatpants and stuff” I remarked .”I think it’s because they’re trying not to get arrested.”

“I guess these girls must be more concerned with standing out.’ Victoria shook her head.

Antonio was a nice looking guy and he had a crush on me but for some reason I didn’t notice until much later. Maybe Victoria thought my lack of awareness of Antonio's affection for me was odd because after we finished chit chatting and the men went back to the ship she decided to clarify her sexuality. Apparently “God don’t make mistakes” and the only thing a woman can be to her is a friend. I was unable to muster a response to this bit of captain obvious style nonsense so we just kept walking silently for a bit. The nightclubs were pretty full for a Sunday night There were no long lines but there were also very few solid walls so we could see the people in there partying.

As we were passing the third open-air nightclub ,a handsome young man beckoned us to come on in. He looked kind of like Will Smith so we went in and sat down at a little table and started small talk. He worked on a ship too and seemed very happy to see us. He was asking us what we wanted to drink when a muscular Jamaican dude came over and started complaining about something. His accent was thick and there was dance music playing so I couldn’t tell what he was saying., but the handsome young man sitting with us didn’t seem intimidated by him. He just sat there and waited for him to finish his rant.

Victoria wanted to know “ What’s his problem”

“Oh, don’t worry about him. That’s a guy I work with. I’ve been knowing him a long time. He was just playing.”

She raised her eyebrow skeptically “ He didn’t sound like he was playing to me.

We went ahead and ordered some cranberry juice and continued with the chit-chat. Turns out he was from Chicago.

The muscular Jamaican dude came back and this time I heard every word he said.

“ I can’t believe this shit! How long we been getting down man!? How long we been getting down !? You just gone play me for these bitches?! !I tell you what I got your drinks!!” he shouted while slamming a collection of bills and coins on the little table.

With that Victoria and I got up and left. The handsome dude just sat there like nothing was happening. “How can a big strong buck like that be gay” she lamented. He was pissed off just like any woman would be.”

“ You ain’t lying girl I’m just glad we was close to the door.”

After that we just wandered back to the ship on foot there was no need to waste money on another cab ride.

“Well at least we can say we went out and saw the island”. I wasn’t sure what I expected to happen but it damn sure wasn’t almost getting beat up by some dudes jealous boyfriend! I guess you never can tell.