(no subject)

[nickandrovna]

It’s easy to start a conversation with someone who is reading a book. “Hey, what are you reading?” My neighbor looked strange. The kindest explanation would be that he was a gay, but that was not it. He looked like a pimp. He was from Santa Barbara as well, which made it even more interesting. I said: “I am from Russia. I am Russian spy, spying on you. Tell me all of it.” He said he is here with his company. They all were taken to a cruise on a company’s expense. On the other side of the bar right next to me “a politician” was talking to other two sober serious guys in suits. Black magic woman landed on a chair next to them and they talked to her for a while. And then she left them, approached us and asked me, pointing at my neighbor: “Whom are you talking to? He is a prostitute. A cheap one. Five bucks!” I was amazed by her temper. She said: “OK, I am leaving.” I said: “No, don’t leave”. And then - boom! She got closer to me and her hands were all over me for two seconds or so. I cannot say it was unpleasant. I didn’t move and didn’t utter a word.  And then she said what a Palestinian said: “You scare me”. And then to the pimp: “OK, I am out of here”. And she left.

I asked my pimp-neighbor for the explanation of what happened. He was intimidated, he said: “That was my boss”. So, she was a pimp, not him. I asked: “And who is that guy?” pointing at “politician”. He said: “He is my boss”. And then my male cheap prostitute neighbor excused himself and left.

I didn’t wait for long till serious guy in suit, one of two talking to “politician”, landed on a chair cleared by "pimp". “Hey, what are you reading?”
 
The number 25 was a lawyer. A serious lawyer from LA, educated decent person. In fact, two others – “black magic woman” and “pimp” - were lawyers too. The company they work for, company that took them for a cruise, was company located in suburbs of LA dealing with people's debts. And “the politician” was a director of this company, or better say, director of local branch of huge company dealing with people's debts. Many people nowadays lose their jobs and cannot pay their loans. That’s why companies that deal with people's debts are successful.

The lawyer number 25 unlike other lawyers in his company was educated person. Besides the law school he graduated from university, and his major was technical writing. Technical writing relies on ability to formulate things in the most precise, concise and elegant manner.  He started his career working as a technical writer for company that developed phone navigation system. It was big deal back then, in nineties.   Because that system was developed it takes long time and hard effort to get through the navigation and communicate to alive person over the phone when one calls to companies. And before that company's employees were answering each call themselves.

The lawyer number 25 was the most intelligent person in his company and many people there didn’t have brains developed enough to understand it. He knew poetry of Robert Burns, word “epiphany” and many other good things. So I stayed in that planet the longest.

It was his first time on such a cruise, and he said he wouldn’t take the cruise if not the occasion. The most fascinating experience he’s got on the ship was sitting at night at the back side of the ship's upper deck and looking at the darkness. You can see only waves, a perturbation of water on the ocean behind the ship and the rest you see is dark deep Universe. And you feel like you are small who knows what brought to existence who knows what for. I told him about theory of long immortal molecules that fight for dominance. That we are mortal mechanisms that help immortal molecules to survive.

I’ve met the lawyer number 25 the next evening. He was sitting at the bar same place and smoking a cigar. Cigar smelled like shit. He said they were busy the whole day; it is not work, but still kind of work.  I asked, what they were doing and he said: “Team building”. I asked, if he believes in team building. He said that, what is the best way to put it? Although he doesn’t like the whole thing, he is trying to get the most out of the situation. Lawyer number 25 thought about the situation the same thing as many other smart people would think on his place. He thought, it is not the best part of his career. And he planned to leave the company in a couple of months or so. I asked him what they did to build better team. He said that they were divided by groups and each group had to spend 50 dollars in the most efficient way. His team bought 50 dollar guitar and won a second prize in the competition. “Americans!” – I said. “Americans…”

Earlier that day I saw a bride near pool. There were a lot of young brides there on the ship. Beginning of the summer is time when a lot of people are getting married in America. Brides are easy to distinguish. Brides wear bridal veil and a crown. So this bride near the pool wore a crown and a veil and she put glasses with attached plastic nose on her face. And when I looked closer, it turned out to be not a plastic nose, but plastic penis. And that was exactly what I though:  “Americans…” 

It was last evening on the ship, so I said “goodbye” to the bartender number 10, nice guy from Romania, and the lawyer number 25. Lawyer number 25 said that I was the most interesting person on the whole ship. And I said that he was the most interesting person for me as well. I said the truth, but in reality I said it out of politeness. Because I didn’t hold the contest. I had different intent. I wanted to grasp the variety.