I glanced out at the never-ending blueness. The water sparkled like jewels. I felt the salty breeze against my face as I looked down. Waves were crashing outward from the huge ship sailing through it’s waters. The back and forth motion didn’t bother me because I took Dramamine for the dizziness. My grandma on the other hand, needed to go back to our room. I told mom I was going to take her down there, and be right back. As I walked with grandma down to the Riviera Deck, I nodded to the excited people going in the opposite direction.
“Other than being sick, how has the vacation been going so far?” I asked grandma.
“It’s been more than I’d ever dreamed of!” Grandma gave me a huge smile.
Back up on the Sun Deck, I looked for mom. She had moved from the spot I last seen her at. I wasn’t worried though. Where would she go? It wasn’t like we could get lost. We planned to meet down in our room if one of us wandered off. I searched my half of the deck, but didn’t see her. Bodies were sprawled out all over the place sunbathing. Kids and adults splashed in the pool that was situated in the center of the deck. I decided it was too warm, and since I didn’t have my bathing suit with me, I couldn’t swim. So I walked back inside. Making my way to the glass elevators that were positioned on each corner of the Grand Atrium, I heard the soft music from the piano down on the bottom floor. After pushing the down arrow next to an elevator, I looked over the railing and seen women and men dressed up and drinking champagne. Some were standing while others were sitting.
Stepping into the elevator, I pushed the button marked Atlantic. The glass doors closed and I transcended down six floors. I stepped back out of the elevator as a family was stepping into it. I wanted to find a quiet place to sit and read and I knew just the place that I could do that at. I glanced through the windows of the library and seen that no one was there. I walked in and sat in a comfortable couch next to a window overlooking the sparkling ocean.
Lost in my book, I was startled when mom cleared her throat.
“Oh, hi mom. How long have you been standing there?“
“Just for a couple of minutes. I didn’t want to bother you because you
looked as if you were out of it,” she laughed.
“Well, you know me, I love to read,” I marked the page and closed the book. “Where were you anyway? I looked for you when I got back from the room.”
“I found Jake. We went to the restaurant to get a little something to eat,“ she sat down across from me. I looked out the window and noticed it was already getting dark. We decided to go to our room and get our bathing suits so we could get in one of the hot tubs. Jake, my stepfather, was also getting ready to go there. We stayed in there until it got so late we were sleepy.
The next morning when I woke up, I noticed we weren’t moving. We reached the first destination, Jamaica. I seen Jake and grandma already awake and I woke mom up so we could start getting ready. An hour later, we were walking off the main deck of the ship and onto the dock in Jamaica. It was a long walk to the opening where we could see taxis and tour guides. Mom and Jake discussed which one to take, and a Jamaican man came up to us and offered his service. It was for a reasonable price, so we went with him. I took my camera out before getting into the van so I could take pictures.
The tour guide drove us around the whole island of Jamaica hitting the main spots. A few times, we stopped and got out to take pictures of the scenery. At one
time, we stopped at a Buddhists temple. I walked inside and took some pictures. I admired the statue of Buddha. Walking back down to where the van was, I told
mom what I saw.
For our last stop, we were dropped off at the beach for an hour. The tour guide told us we could meet him past the market that was just down the road. We walked across the road to the entrance of Dunn’s River falls. We played around in the waterfall for almost the entire hour. We then hurried to the dressing rooms. When we were dried off and dressed, we met near the market. As we were walking through the market, I seen a lot of people. There were rows of booths with Jamaicans standing behind them selling things. I saw this lady that was making braids with beads and asked the tour guide if I had time to get one braid, and he said yes. We weren’t due back at the ship for fifteen minutes. So I walked over to the booth and sat down. The lady was nice and let me pick out the color of the beads I wanted to have and then she started braiding a strand of my hair. In seven minutes she was done. I looked in her mirror and admired my braid. She told me I could keep that braid in my hair for up to two weeks if I wanted. I was glad because I wanted to go back to school to show all my friends.
As we were walking back to the van, I slowed down to look at some items while
the rest of my family walked on ahead. I turned to run and catch up with them, but this Jamaican man stepped forward and started talking to me. He said that I
should stay there and live with him. I was shocked because I had no idea who this man was. I started glancing around to see if anyone was watching, hoping someone would help me if I needed it. I told the man I had to go, but he kept talking to me, saying I was pretty and that he would really like for me to stay there with him. Something told me I wasn’t the first female he’d attempted this with. Finally, I seen my step dad come toward me and told the man we really had to go. I waved goodbye to him and walked away. I went back to the ship with my family and waited to depart for five more days of island hopping and gazing at the sea.
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