Carla’s Tale – Part 4
Please make sure you have read Carla’s Tale Parts 1, 2 and 3 before reading this.
This was bad. This was very bad. Carla had dialled Paul’s number on her phone and it had gone straight to voice mail. She left a message – “Paul. PAUL. Call me back immediately when you get this. Help me Paul, help me, please. I’m in big trouble.” She was shaking like a leaf, and she took repeated drags on her cigarette to stay calm. An inner voice told her to lock the door, so she did. She looked out of the window again. Two policemen were escorting the family who had just joined the boat over onto the police launch, and they seemed to be treating them quite harshly. The family were of North African appearance. The mother turned around to see where her son was, and the policeman took hold of her head, wrenched it back into a straight-ahead position and pushed it forward so hard that she stumbled and fell. He didn’t even help her to get up, but just shouted at her. Carla noticed that the boy, who was about 9 years old, wore glasses which were much too big for him, and she thought they must have come from a charity organisation such as Vision Aid Overseas. The boy looked totally terrified. Then she saw Lorenzo produce papers for the policeman in charge to inspect. There seemed to be a heated argument going on over their content.
Carla was totally distraught. She had no idea what to do. She remembered her grandma’s old saying ‘If something seems too good to be true, then it usually is.’ She was right. Something was seriously wrong here. She slipped the photochromic glasses off, put them in their case, dropped them into one of the flight cases and got out her grandma’s old glasses to wear. She could see better with them, and they were her favourites as she felt close to her with them on. Then she heard footsteps coming down the staircase, and loud voices. “Police. Anyone here? Come out now. This is the police.” And they banged on all of the doors as they shouted. Carla’s heart almost stopped when she saw the door handle move, and she heard the voice shout, “Get me the key to this door. NOW!” Immediately her animal instinct survival technique kicked in. Fuelled by the sudden rush of adrenaline combined with nicotine, she became totally alert and knew exactly what to do. There was a small door leading from her suite to a steep staircase down to what Lorenzo called the diver’s wet room. It had wet suits, snorkels, oxygen tanks and all sorts of diving gear hanging up. A small door from it opened out to the sea, just above the waterline. A platform could also be lowered by pressing a green button. She would go down there, open the door and dive into the warm Mediterranean Sea. As long as she put her glasses into her bum bag first, she would be OK….. unless the police started shooting at her! But they were on the other side of the yacht – she might escape unseen. Or, she could just take her chances and surrender to them, but this looked like something really heavy to her and she wanted no part of it. Right at that moment her phone rang.
“Paul, Paul, oh mon Dieu, thank you, thank you, where are you? I’m in big trouble, I have to get off this boat, the police are boarding, where are you?” “Carla, stay calm, I can see you, I’m nearly there, I can see a police launch alongside, what do you want me to do? Are you OK?” “Oh Paul, I love you Paul, help me, please.” “It’s OK, ma chérie, I’m here, I’m here, now tell me what to do.” “Come to the opposite side of the boat to where the police are. I will open the diver’s door and jump onto your boat. I will have 4 flight cases with me. They have the full range of glasses in them. Oh Paul, please do it, and Paul, cover your face with something in case they see you. I’ll be waiting.” “OK, I’ll be there in one minute. Hold on – I’m coming.”
Carla picked up two flight cases, tucked them under her arms, then lifted the other two remaining cases and carefully carried them down the stairs. She heard the suite door being forcefully opened as she closed the door to the stairwell. She opened the diver’s door, pressed the green button to lower the platform, and stepped out onto it as Paul’s boat came alongside. How she wished at a time like this that she had 20/20 vision. She was terrified of losing her glasses, even though she was carrying 4 cases with over fifty pairs of top designer specs all in her own prescription! Paul’s boat was about a metre below the platform, and she noticed straight away that Mickey Mouse was driving it! If it wasn’t for the seriousness of the situation, she would have fallen about laughing. Then she remembered Paul kept a Mickey Mouse mask on the boat to amuse children. It certainly came in handy today! She closed the diver’s door and threw the flight cases down to him one by one, and then before she jumped down herself into his waiting arms she pressed the red button which raised the platform back up.. She gave him a big kiss and said, “Let’s get out of here, fast!” The engine on Paul’s boat was badly needing refurbished, and it belched out smoke, so he moved off very slowly with low revs so as not to attract attention from the noise and smoke.
They left the yacht unseen, and very quickly got around the other side of the island to be completely out of sight. At that point Paul gave the boat full throttle, and it surged ahead towards Sainte-Maxime and safety. Paul had already made alternative arrangements with a colleague to bring his passengers back from St Tropez, so now he had the rest of the day with Carla. When they were almost there, he slowed the boat right down until it stopped, looked at Carla and said, “I thought you were scared of mice?” She went up to him and pulled the Mickey Mouse mask off his head. The elastic broke and pinged his face. “Ouch!” he shouted. “Now you’re for it,” he added. He came up to her, reached out and carefully removed her glasses. He gently put them down on a seat, and she said, “What are you doing?” “This,” he said, and he took her face in his hands and gave her a long, gentle kiss. Carla immediately felt a tingling rush of pins and needles surge right through her. When she returned the kiss, they frantically hugged, kissed, and virtually tried to get inside each others body, or so it seemed to her. She’d never felt like this before. Never. “Do you remember what you said to me on the phone?” Paul asked. “Yes, I think it was ‘help’, or something like that.” “And what else?” “Ummm….. dunno. Give me a clue.” “You said you loved me.” “Did I? It must have been the fear talking.” By now she damned well knew what he was talking about, but she didn’t want to admit it and spoil a good friendship. “I think you should remember the old Chinese proverb, ‘In fear there is truth’,” he said. She just shrugged her shoulders. Then he said it, “I love you.” “No you don’t. I bet you say that to all the damsels in distress that you rescue!” “No, just you. I’ve always loved you from afar. I love everything about you.” “Even my glasses? I’m totally blind without them you know.” “Especially your glasses. I can’t explain it, but they have always made me want you, every minute of every day. And now you’re going to tell me I’ve just ruined a beautiful friendship!” “Come here,” she said, “you’ve just transformed a beautiful friendship into a beautiful partnership. I do love you. There, I’ve said it. I love you, love you, love you!” They kissed passionately, then Paul said, “I think we should get back now, I don’t trust these police, and there are funny people out there in yachts!”
They got back to the jetty at Sainte-Maxime, moored the boat, and walked up to Paul’s trailer home where he lived in the boatyard. “I need a drink after all that,” he said, pouring two cognacs. “Let me see those famous glasses that have caused all this trouble." Paul didn’t smoke, but Carla lit a cigarette for herself and opened the first case. “Are they all the same?” he asked. “Oh no, all different, but all in my prescription. Would you believe I now have a pair of glasses for every day of the month! I hope they don’t want them back!” She opened the other cases, and then came to the fourth case which had been added on the boat. “This one’s locked,” she said. “Let me see,” Paul said, “I can open this with a hammer and a screwdriver.” He got the tools from a tool box, and started to demolish the locks. Eventually the latches sprung up and he opened the case. When they saw what was inside, their jaws dropped to the floor! Unbelievable!
To be continued.