Chapter 1

This time the argument was more violent than ever. Gloria Thomas, beautiful and spiteful, a raven-haired beauty in her late twenties, flashed a sneer at her stepchildren.

She sat imperially in her stateroom aboard the Caribbean Queen, a monolith of a cruise ship. Built to compete with the RMS Queen Mary 2 (QM2), the Queen boasted almost 152,000 gross tons; a height of 237 ft or 72 meters; four electric propulsion pods; a complement of 1250 officers and crew; and 2600 passengers. The Queen took in about $800 million dollars per year.

Gloria Thomas had good reason for her haughtiness. She was the young second wife of Captain Reginald Thomas. The first Mrs. Thomas, loved by all who had known her, had been a stunning and compassionate woman. She had helped her husband attain his present status by being the “quiet woman behind the man,” who also had the intelligence and ambition to run her own small food company before breast cancer took her five years before.

Reginald made the same mistake as so many men and grabbed at the first beautiful woman who had caught his eye, much to his eternal remorse. In short, Gloria was a witch who tried to manipulate everyone and everything within her reach…a divine sociopath.

The object of her current machinations was her stepson, Michael Thomas. Michael had the blonde good looks of his mother, but had inherited some odd gene that made him reckless, unreliable, and sometimes embarrassing. He drank too much; womanized too much; and often took cruises aboard his father’s ships, where the crew had to be on constant lookout.

Michael had succeeded in making a spectacle of himself yet one more time the week before. The cruise was over, thank goodness, and the ship was taking on passengers for yet another voyage to the Caribbean. It was time to “wipe the slate clean,” and Captain Thomas had given his young wife strict instructions to rein in Michael, who was just about her age.

“Michael, why can’t you conduct yourself with a little more decorum?” Gloria lit her third cigarette in the last ten minutes, completely forgetting the two sitting in the glass ashtray on the table in the stateroom. The rest of the crew and boarding passengers had been called for Muster.

The incident that Gloria referred to was an unpleasant scene Michael had had with a singer in one of the bands who worked for the cruise ship. Michael had been drunk and had grabbed the woman and kissed her and then had been punched out by her husband, the guitar player in the band. The band had threatened to pack up and leave the cruise ship without entertainment in their most popular nightclub. It was too late to hire another group, so Captain Reginald had personally offered the entire band a free cruise if they would stay on.

“You have a lot of nerve, trying to tell me what to do, you…you…gold-digger!” Michael leaned on the banister of the balcony just outside of the cabin. “You know you married my father for his money. I’ve never met a sorrier excuse for a woman in my life than you!”

Michael stepped inside the cabin, and Gloria and Michael glared at each other as Maria Thomas, Michael’s younger sister and the “peacemaker” in the family, strode through the door.

“What’s going on here? Are you two arguing again? You know that Muster will be over soon and the passengers will be returning to their rooms to dress for dinner after the ship sets sail. Can’t you two just get along?”

Michael gave Gloria an up and down look meant to undress her, and she knew it. Gloria walked over and slapped his face so hard her five gold bracelets flew across the room and put small scratches in the wall.

Michael slowly brought his hand up to his flaming cheek and gave Gloria a snake-eyed stare. Maria brought her hand up to her mouth to suppress the words of fury that threatened to spill out. No one spoke for a moment.

Gloria straightened her shoulders, twirled around, and marched out of the room. The thickened atmosphere seemed to follow her like a fogbank rolling out to sea on a chilly night.

“It’s a good thing you came in when you did, Sis,” Michael finally said when he had recovered his voice. “I was ready to deck her. I’m not sure how much longer I can take her insults.” He returned to the balcony and stood brooding, watching another cruise ship set sail, gliding majestically across the bay.
Maria put her hand on her brother’s shoulder as gently as she could. Her heart went out to him. Since their mother had passed on Michael had been confused and sullen. Maria felt responsible for him and tried to take the place of their mother. She searched for the right words to say to comfort her brother.

“Michael, you shouldn’t let her get to you. She knows what buttons to push to upset you, and you fall for it every time. Just ignore her. She’s just a tramp.”

Michael’s eyes teared up. “You can say that for sure. Mom was such a saint.” He raised his eyes towards the ceiling. “If she were here, none of this would be happening. I’m not sure how much longer I can take her, Sis. And I know she is embarrassing Dad.”

Maria nodded her head in agreement. “Well, try to watch yourself, Michael. Getting yourself into scrapes isn’t going to help the situation. Maybe Dad will come to his senses and dump the bitch.”

Just then the door to the cabin opened once again and Gloria sailed in.