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Everlasting Reality Drama,
Our Soap Opera . . .
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Was there “Something in the Water”
In Puerto Rico?
Was there "Something in the Water" in Puerto Rico? There must be! What else could explain why four (well, three) sane professional ladies who took a vacation to Puerto Rico would end up acting as if they have completely lost their minds? Let’s see, while there, one is 'Running from the Puerto Rican police', two others find themselves in a 'Brawl' at the nearby casino. The last lady is so wrapped up in finding her a new sarong, that she is oblivious to what potential catastrophes surround her.
In my earlier days, I have gotten myself into some scary situations and thankfully I have come out okay. When I think about our recent vacation, I get chills. Things can happen anywhere, but no one wants to have problems in 'another country'.  Well, here we are at the first of many stops to our long awaited vacation to the Western Caribbean.
For this trip we are the fabulous four: Dia, the cool and always calm, rational thinking professional; then there's the highly intelligent, fly by night, fast thinking, always want to have fun and ‘a drank' Leah. Because Leah seems to be all about having fun, one wouldn't know that she's the first at the top of a career in her company where no other woman has reached or even tried to accomplish. Now there's Ky, whom we consider our little sister. Ky is the outgoing one, she is not afraid to venture off by herself and has worked for attorneys for over 15 years, yet she is the one who ends up 'Running from the Puerto Rican Police'. But as I said she is our little sister, not so much by age, but she can be a bit 'whiney' at times. Finally Vicky, that's me. I could say all these wonderful and great things about myself, why, because this is 'My Story', but I'll just say I'm a 'Big Flirt', I love having fun and I spend 'way too much money' doing it.
 We’re here strolling the narrow cobblestone streets of old San Juan while checking out the history and culture of one of the oldest cities in the hemisphere. There were landmarks such as the Governor’s Palace, La Fortaleza which was built in 1533, and the oldest drugstore in Puerto Rico. The numerous shops are packed with thousands of souvenirs all competing for business. There is a market stand as soon as we enter the shopping area where we all purchase bottled water which we all began to drink.
 We stop at one particular shop that seemed to burst through the walls with items to purchase. You couldn’t help but to notice the sign that read “Once Broken Consider Sold”. Yet at the time it seemed unimportant. The four of us walked through the narrow overcrowded aisle, constantly holding and touching items so they won’t fall. Dia and I were interested in a one of a kind sarong, while Leah and Ky were thinking of the friends and family left behind. They were in the middle of the store looking for small, easy-to-transport souvenirs. Every place Leah would visit, she would purchase a shot glass with a photo or name of the place she’s visiting. She has about three now (just kidding, she has many from all her travels : -).
All of a sudden, there is a loud crashing of glass and I pause.  The lady who is assisting me, says that she will be right back. Another employee hurries to the rear of the store. I decide to head that way also, with my mind telling me “Oh no, it’s one of us”. Before I can get to where the crash happened, Ky meets me in the aisle with this defensive look on her face. “I didn’t touch it, I didn’t touch it, it was leaning over and unsteady and it just fell.” This she repeated about three times. I tried to assure her that there shouldn’t be a problem. Well, Ky went back towards the back and my helper returned. The helper was just rambling on about the person breaking the shot glasses and not even saying that they were sorry, not offering to help clean up the mess or pay for it. She didn’t realize that we were all together. She became so irritated that she decided to grab a shot glass and put it on the counter, saying that the person would have to pay for the items that were broken.
I finished up my purchase and stepped outside. I took a sip of the water that we purchased when we first arrived in Puerto Rico. While standing there, I heard a voice in the crowd saying “Vicky”. I looked up and around but I didn’t see anyone who could be calling me. I thought, it must be for someone else because no one knows me here. Then I heard again, “Vicky”. I looked around more and still I saw no one. “Vicky” I heard again, this time about five stores away, I saw someone ducking back into the doorway. Very strange, I thought, yet I began to walk that way. The person stepped out of the doorway again and called “Vicky”. Now I saw that it was Ky who ducked back into the doorway. As I walked towards her, I turned back and saw the store owner standing outside the door with her hands on her hips looking around. Reluctantly, she turned to go back inside. I finally reached Ky and asked, “What’s going on? I didn’t see you come out of the store behind me.” She began to tell me, in her whiney little sister voice, that she snuck out of a side door in the store which led to an adjoining store and came outside. “But why?” I asked. “That lady wants me to pay for that glass; I didn’t even touch it; It wasn’t set up well, anyway; Is she looking for me? I snuck out of there.” “I don’t know, Ky, I’d doubt it, you don’t have to hide,” I said. Ky went on and on (like little sisters do).  Then all of a sudden here comes a police car slowly making its way down the street. We both pause and look at each other. I slowly turn my body to block Ky while she slides back into the dark doorway. As the police car passes us, their heads turn in our direction as if they are looking for someone. Now Ky is running scared. She is no longer interested in any more shopping or sight seeing. We are now ducking and diving between the doorways watching out for the police. Is this for real? Are the authorities actually looking for Ky for breaking a shot glass?
Leah and Dia meet up with us and Ky is very anxious to get back to our ship. We still have a few more hours on the island, but now we must return. Ky is feeling very nervous and keeps looking around for the police to come and arrest her for the broken shot glasses. We tried to assure her that she was okay, but she wasn't hearing that. We must now get back to the ship. We oblige, or try to.
 When we first arrived in Puerto Rico and started on our way to the shopping area, Leah and I couldn’t help but notice the huge casino right across from the port. I have to be honest; Leah and I enjoy the thrill of the slot machines. Yes, we know the negative impact of gambling, but it is something that we do occasionally. All we had to do as we first passed the casino was to raise our eyebrows and smile at each other. That means ‘Later’ and no one else knows. As we hurried back to the ship the gleaming, dazzling lights from the casino began to call and draw us towards it. We have until midnight to board and it was about 10pm. That gave us very little time, but who cares. We keep in our memory what the Ship’s Assistant said during the meeting on the ship, “Make sure you keep your camera with you when you leave the ship, because the best picture you can take is the one of the ship pulling away from the port, When You Miss It”. That is definitely a photo we ‘do not want to take’.
We synchronized our watches, grabbed our water, and gave Ky and Dia our packages to take with them. Finally we were off. We begin slowly walking to the casino, then our pace picked up, because we know how fast time travels when you’re having fun. We made it to the door and at last we're in. “Oh my goodness, it’s extremely crowded.” We only had two hours and the time was dwindling down. Hurriedly, we began to walk down each aisle. I’m ahead and Leah is very close on my heels. We go aisle by aisle very fast with no open seats. Even when we see one seat, we keep moving because we want to sit together, we won’t separate while in another country. We made our second round in the casino for seats and now we are getting pretty anxious. I looked ahead and it appeared that in front of me there was another whole section that we didn’t check. So I began to move faster, with Leah still close in tow.
I noticed a lady walking towards me quickly. I’m thinking, she’s walking so broad like she owns the aisle and I think she should move over. We get closer and closer, but it doesn’t look like she plans on giving me any space. Well too bad, because I’m not moving either. Now we are about two feet away from each other and this heifer still won’t move. Okay, here goes, neither am I. 'SMACK', right into each other. Can you believe this? I bang my forehead with hers. Then 'SMACK' again, its Leah crashing into the back of me. Now this is just like an episode of the three stooges, with only two stooges (Vicky and Leah : -). But, What’s Up with this Lady? Both Leah and I fall back, what the... Now we're on the floor and look at each other and start screaming with laughter. We are laughing so hard to the point where tears are falling from our eyes and we’re falling over again and again to the floor from the laughter. Our stomachs begin hurting from the laughter. That's the deep down laughter when you can hardly catch your breath. Each time we calm down, we look at each other and burst out with laughter all over again.
But What’s so Funny and again, What’s up with that Lady? Now we realize the lady is laughing just as hard as we are and I’m sure her stomach is hurting just as bad. I can see the tears rolling down the lady’s eyes, just like mine. Why, because the Lady was Me! Can you believe it! I ran smack dead into my reflection in the mirror.  I was all ready to battle with Myself! Why, because my reflection would not let me through ‘the mirror’. If it wasn’t so funny, it might have been embarrassing.
Well it literally took about twenty minutes for us to pull ourselves together from that and those Zombies sitting in the chairs, kept pulling that ‘One Armed Bandit’. They didn't even seem to notice us rolling around on the floor. We finally managed to get about an hour of gambling in, but we occasionally would break out in laughter just thinking about our ‘Virtual Brawl’.
When we returned to the ship, still laughing of course, we shared our story with Ky and Dia out on our balcony. We began to roll on the balcony with laughter again. Now it was time and the ship was departing. The ship was only moving about five minutes when all of a sudden it stopped. We looked off our balcony and saw a small boat approaching the ship. Who was it you say, that’s right you guessed it, The Police! Where they coming for Ky? How nervous she was getting again. Before that point Ky had thought she had escaped the episode of the broken shot glasses. Well, I guess the police realized how impossible it would be to identify Ky from the many cruisers on the ship and soon released the ship to continue its journey to the beautiful Western Caribbean.
Well, Was there “Something in the Water” in Puerto Rico?
I think it was “In the Water”!
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