Page 50 of The Cruise Club

The lights in the auditorium of the Starlight Bar dimmed, and the crowd became hushed as Dicky started a routine that made fun of current events.

‘I thought I was in a relationship, but it turns out I wasjust a Netflix subscription. I was getting dumped every month!’ Dicky joked. ‘Have you heard the one about the ice bucket challenge that went wrong?’ he asked. ‘They used too much ice and are now auditioning for Titanic!’

Dicky raised his hand after several more gags, and the laughter died down.

‘Now everyone, this is the moment you’ve been waiting for,’ he said, ‘I’d like to invite those audience members participating to come onto the stage with their impersonation of our resident drag queen and host, Danni Del Rio!’

To one side of the stage Danni Del Rio, a vision in sequins, stood in all her finery with a fake smile on her lips as she watched Dicky perform. It had been the club owner’s idea to host this event, thinking it a novel way to fill the club with wannabe drag queens and their supporters, who flocked to Benidorm to find work in the many entertainment venues.

As the show began, Dicky encouraged the contestants to exaggerate and imitate Danni’s over-the-top outfits and garish makeup, even emulating her every strut and pose. Caricaturing Danni’s act, the wannabes lined up to await Dicky’s final decision and pick a winner. The crowd roared with laughter, but for Danni, it felt increasingly uncomfortable, her routine ridiculed cruelly. Unable to take any more, she stepped forward and began a fierce retort, but the crowd continued to laugh, not with her butather. Distraught and in a flash of rage, Danni stormed off the stage…

‘You did nothing,’ Melody said now as she stared at Dicky with icy eyes.

‘What do you mean?’ Dicky looked puzzled. ‘I rememberthe night, and it was all in good fun. It’s not my fault if Danni couldn’t take a joke and threw her toys out of the pram.’

‘Danni was my best friend, and I was in the audience.’

Dicky shrugged. ‘How was I to know you two were close? I didn’t even know you then.’

‘No. So neither would you know that Danni fell off our balcony in the early hours and was fatally injured.’

Dicky took a step back. His eyes wide as he stared at Melody. Shocked, he covered his mouth with his palm. Wracking his brains, he remembered leaving to join a cruise ship the day after the drag queen gig.

‘The club owner sacked her when she left the stage.’ Melody’s voice was flat. ‘He said she shouldn’t have spoken out and viewed her action as disrupting a great night. You walked away, basking in applause and your own glory, leaving Danni horribly humiliated and without a job.’

‘I had no idea…’

‘And you have no idea of the emotional, transformative journey that we go through. The double-edged sword that cuts deep.’

‘But… you can’t blame me, surely?’

‘But I do, Dicky. Danni was fragile, and it took great courage to hold down that job. She’d lost her family back home, through prejudice and backlash, just for wanting to be her true self. That job meant everything, and you took it away.’

Dicky didn’t know where to look, and he glanced at his watch, realising that he was soon due on stage.

Melody stood. She picked up a robe and walked to thebathroom. ‘Go on,’ she said, ‘entertain them, but perhaps in light of what I’ve told you, you’ll appreciate the true cost of a laugh.’

Dicky winced as Melody slammed the bathroom door.

‘On stage in ten minutes, Mr Delaney!’ a runner called out.

Dicky stared at his face in the mirror. The harsh lights reflected the turmoil that he felt. Self-doubt loomed as he swiped a finger across his heavily made-up cheekbone and thought of the thousands of times he’d stood in a theatre giving everything to each joke he told. Dicky turned pain and mishaps into material. It was his job.

‘I’m a comedian, for God’s sake!’ Dicky yelled and swivelled his head to the bathroom door. ‘It’s what I do!’

Without waiting for Melody to reply, Dicky straightened his collar, squared his shoulders and thrust back his head. Ready to face his audience and with a resolute smile at his reflection, Dicky marched out of the door.

Chapter Twenty-One

Sea days on theDiamond Starbegan with the aroma of coffee, freshly baked bread and savoury treats drifting from the Terrace Restaurant and Deck Café. After breakfast, passengers strolled around the ship as it sailed to its next destination. Many sourced a sunbed by the pool while others joined instructor Kyle on the sun deck for his morning session of Yoga for the Young at Heart or Senior Splashdown. In the sports zone, strangers became friends over mini golf while the Golden Oldies Gang gathered in the library for a game of Trivia.

‘It’s like a floating paradise,’ Sid said as he stretched out on a steamer chair by the pool and held a copy of theDiamond Star Daily News. ‘There’s so much to do.’

Fran sat beside him. She was studying a crossword. ‘We could stay here and sunbathe,’ she said, her pencil poised as she pursed her lips and looked thoughtful, ‘and you can help me with this crossword.’

‘Go on then, give us a clue,’ Sid said.

‘A drink that you might have on holiday. Eight letters. First four, C-O-C-K.’

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