One of our boys has gotten himself into a spot of trouble. I found out about it while listening to him explain the situation to Vern in the hall. They were standing just outside my door, so I had no trouble hearing what they were saying.

“So you went to the disco last night,” said Vern, the musical director, “and that's where you met the girl? And you were just kissing her when the security guard caught you?”

“Well, we were necking, sort of, you might say.”

“I see. That's not good, her being a passenger and all. Well, at least you weren't in her cabin. By the way, where were you when you were caught?”

“Well that's another thing. We had taken a little walk - to a storage area. You know, where the piano is stored.”

“A crew-only area!? That's not good at all! How could you do that? You know the rules about passengers in crew areas!”

Vern was getting worried now.

“We were both drunk. I forgot about the cameras,” said our boy in trouble. There are video surveillance cameras all over the ship. The security guard viewing the monitors must have seen him escorting the girl into the piano room.

“How drunk were you?”

“Really, really drunk. So was she.”

Another capital offense.

So things do not look good for our (still nameless) musician. He has broken several rules, any one of which can result in immediate dismissal. Consorting with a passenger. Bringing a passenger into a crew area. Being “really, really, drunk”.

And this comes at a time when we're already short-handed. Literally. Our drummer, Ron, has lost the use of one hand due to repetitive stress syndrome and has been ordered off the ship by the doctor (he only had four weeks left, and he will receive 80% of his pay for the remainder of his contract, so it isn't so bad for him). He leaves on Sunday. We still don't have an alto saxophone player. And there are all kinds of other changes to the orchestra being made at this time.

It must be stressful for our musical director. Especially since the musician-in-trouble was due to take over his role as musical director while he is on vacation over Christmas.

Isn't this fun? Never a dull moment on this ship!