non-fiction

non-fiction

The guy named Cyrus comes to my mind now. A lot of things are starting to puzzle me like in a some kind of a detective novel with the only difference that in this story it does not mater who is the bad guy. The question is – who is not? I used to work for a big cruise company. An interesting job, very demanding and challenging though but it gave me an opportunity to see some of the most stunning places on earth. I was working as a bus boy, in a very fine and huge restaurant. I was already on the ship for 4 months when I have started to work with Cyrus. Before that, I was working with one lady from Croatia, let’s call her Amy. And that was the horrible experience. She has been headwaiter and I was under her command. First of all her way of doing the job was killing for me as a bus boy. She used to offer our guests with more and more food and desserts even when they were not asking for it. So I was basically running up and down, back and forth all the time. True, that was my job but in a more than 3 years of experience in that field I have never met somebody like her. That wasn't something that I couldn't handle and it was not the worst thing. She was sharing his cabin with her long –term man with who she was in a relationship with already for more than couple of years. But the problem was that they were not talking to each other for months. But there was something more to it. She used to tell me about all her bitterness and dissatisfaction with this guy without asking me do I really want to hear all that stuff. I understood that she is going through a very difficult period of her life but I never understood how they managed not to speak to each other for 4 months even though they were still sharing the same room, same cabin. She was swearing that that was the case and that they have not exchanged one single word for such a long time. I found this unbelievable. To go to sleep every nigh (true – on the separate beds) and to wake up every morning looking in the same person that you did not exchange a word with for 4 months?! Wow. I am not going even to try to imagine that. She has found a nice way to get rid of all her dissatisfaction and she was picturing me as a place where she could dump it out all. That is how I have found out about all the history of their relationship, all the dark secrets, some of them truly unspeakable. As I am recalling these stories I am starting to feel dizzy so I am not going to say anything about that anymore.

But after the 4 months the miracle happened. Amy and Berry, (let’s call him like that) the two of them somehow started to speak again. After such a long period of silence and not talking to each other I found this miraculous. But I think suddenly Amy started to realize all the burden and ambiguity of the things that she was telling me about for months before. And both of them and especially Amy (which has astonished me) started with hostile attitude toward me.

I could not take that so I have requested to start to work with somebody else instead of Amy. I was finding it unbelievable that she could take such a turn. I was the one on whose shoulder she was crying every day for so long. But let's be perfectly clear - there was never something more between us, we were just working together and I was just listening to her crying. I was the one listening to all that mean and unpleasant stuff that she had to say every day about Berry. I have not deserved such a sudden switch in her attitude toward me.

When I started to work with Cyrus, a great guy from Philippines - I felt like I got rid of the tons and tons of burden and heavy load. This guy was so easy going, so gentile, with a gift of genuine talent and kindness when dealing with people. Two of us were making such a good team working together , guests loved us, and the money was good. In that kind of job there is something called rating where guests are actually evaluating their waiters. And we were always on the top. Not among the fists, not among the best, but always the very best. Only thing was that Cyrus had a heart problem of severe kind. He was suffering from at a very early age of 25 from acute arrhythmia. And this problem was plaguing his life since the early childhood. Sometimes in his eyes I was able to see the fear. He would suddenly hide back in the corner of the pantry and than he would reach in his pocked for pills…

After Amy, working with Cyrus was a paradise. It was an August. My wife back home was enjoying at that time with her lover. I had bough the tanzanite earrings for her. After couple of weeks or cruises I went home. I made love to her and our son was conceived. After four more months I have found out about her infidelity and realized that she was not sure who the father of her baby is. And she had told me honestly that she is not sure whose child she was carrying. Because the time difference between me and her lover boy was only a week or so. She gave birth. DNA testing proved me as a father. After couple of months our marriage has ended. My son was found with congenital heart disease. Wherever Cyrus might be I wish him luck.