Jamaica had been a disaster for Janice Coughlin. It shouldn't have surprised her, after all everyone knew her by her nickname of Jinx. As far back as she could remember, and even beyond, fate had seemed to hold a grudge against her. She wasn't clumsy or stupid, but everything that conceivably could go wrong always seemed to do so. Even when things did go right fate seemed to be just setting her up for another fall. This trip was turning out to be another example of that and bitter tears rolled down her cheeks as she thought of how unfair it was. She was on a ten-day company sponsored charter cruise of the Caribbean. She had won the trip in an interoffice raffle and had hoped it signaled her luck changing. When her best friend Sally Cummings had also won it seemed too good to be true.
Jamaica seemed to have been the proof that it was. Janice was a small woman and had cultivated an ability to be unobtrusive. She was the plain girl that no one noticed until some trick of fate thrust her into the spotlight. Nothing about her stood out except for her terrible luck. She was five four and of average build with brown hair, brown eyes and a pretty but not too pretty face. She dressed conservatively and spoke only rarely, which added to her ability to seemingly vanish at any gathering.
The first two days of the cruise had been uneventful save for the cruise line loosing her bags. Sally had laughed it off and joked about her bags getting a better berth than she had, but to Jinx it seemed an ill omen. When her bags turned up at noon the second day she had hoped that would be the end of her bad luck on the cruise, but she was so conditioned to things going inexplicably wrong that a feeling of dread had settled on her. Even Sally's ebullient good humor couldn't entirely dispel it.
The second day dawned bright and warm and Jinx had spent most of her time by the pool girl watching. Unlike the many guys on deck she was very discreet and it was rare that anyone noticed her checking them out. Jinx had known she was gay since a very young age, but it was something she kept well hidden. Her first relationship with another woman had been a comedy of errors and even her brief flings had been plagued by her bad luck. Since moving to Jackson two years earlier she had kept her orientation secret and had lived the life of a monk for the most part. She was pretty sure Sally suspected, but her only friend had never mentioned it and for that Jinx was grateful. With her now infamous reputation for bad luck, being out would have probably made it impossible for her to carry on so far from her home and family.
Jamaica had seemed like such a beautiful place and very friendly from all the commercials and ads she had seen. She and Sally had decided on shopping the first day and taking an excursion on the second. They had met on the promenade deck and descended to the gangway after breakfast. Janice had been wearing jeans and her favorite top. It was black and the sleeves consisted of solid fabric on the bottoms of her arms with crisscrossing laces over the tops. It was flattering and different and she loved it. Sally had worn a sundress and sandals. Once through the duty free shopping they had exited through the barbed wire gates and approached the line of shops. It was there that her troubles began, they were immediately surrounded by a crowd.
Items had been thrust into her hands, hands clawed at her pulling her this way and that, a steady stream of heavily accented voices called to her and in the press she lost sight of Sally. Jinx was prone to panic when her personal space was invaded. As the voices hawked junk she didn't have any interest in and the hands continued to pull at her she, felt a rising dread. The faces became distorted, filled with menace and the voices took on a strident tone that added to her fear. The sun, which had seemed so beautiful, became oppressively hot and in the press of bodies she felt herself beginning to have trouble breathing. She weakly asked them to leave her alone, but they took no notice of her feeble protests and continued to try to coerce her to buy something. The world began to sway and she lurched to one side before darkness overcame her.
She had come-to in the infirmary aboard ship. Sally was there and watching her intently.
"Are you all right Jinx?" she had asked.
"What happened?"
"You fainted. Luckily some of the other passengers were nearby and one of them picked you up and carried you back to the ship for me," Sally said.
Sally's face brightened and the worry left it as she spoke and Jinx sit up. Janice flexed her arms and shook her head to clear it. The Indian doctor smiled encouragingly and assisted her to her feet. Sally took her arm and steered her back towards the elevators.
"Good ole Jinx. You had me worried there for a minute, kid."
"I'm sorry. I know I ruined your day," Jinx said.
"Nonsense, you were only out a few minutes. Once I get you back to our room I'll go back. Tomorrow you and I can take one of the ship-provided excursions. How does petting a dolphin grab you?"
She had smiled and nodded, but now that she was alone in her cabin she wished she had never come. Her best friend back home had once voiced the opinion that she subconsciously brought about her bad luck. Jinx had denied it hotly, but now she wondered if perhaps she really did. She knew she wasn't comfortable around crowds. She knew that people pressing her for things made her scared. She had not expected the people here to be so aggressive and rude. Or had she? She just wasn't sure and that made her feel worse than knowing.
***
The trip to Dolphin cove had been entirely pleasant and had done much to make Janice feel better. The cute and playful sea creatures had kept her smiling with their antics and the people had all been extremely nice and polite. Sally had taken up with a tall man from Minnesota named Rich. He was the man who had carried Jinx back to the ship and they seemed to be really hitting it off. Jinx had consciously avoided them whenever possible for fear of something happening that would ruin it for Sally. She had mostly played with the dolphins, watched their tricks and caught both of the shows.
That evening she had dined alone and gone to the onboard show. Despite her misgivings she was glad that she had. The show was a Las Vegas style review and she had intentionally caught the late performance, as it was adults only. The dancers were all young and beautiful. Janice had never seen so many delectable asses in the same place at once and found herself craning her neck to catch glimpses of flesh, concentrating more on the sexy girls and their wild outfits than on the show. She had gone to bed and dreamed of the dancers and what she would have liked to do with them.
Now she stood on deck in her bikini bottom and a tee shirt, mesmerized by the beautiful water at Grand Cayman. It was a striking shade of blue that she had never seen before. She already had several pictures of just the water in her digital camera, but she had the sinking feeling no one who hadn't seen it with their own eyes would understand just how beautiful it was. Ferries were already carrying people ashore and she glanced at her watch. Jinx had signed up for the beginner's scuba course as her excursion today. Sally and Rich were staying aboard ship and Jinx felt sure they would appreciate the privacy having her gone would afford them.
She grabbed her bag and headed down to the zero deck where she stood in line for the next ferry. It was a small boat with two open decks and wooden benches. When it was full the little boat's engine began to chug and it slowly pulled away from the big cruise liner. The sun was beautiful and Janice felt her spirits lift perceptibly. Maybe today she would manage to do something without a fiasco.
From the dock she joined several others on a bus that would take them to the dive shop on the other side of the island. There were several men with tattoos all over their arms and the look of sailors. She assumed these men were going to the shop as part of the certified dive excursion. Three young men sat in back horsing around and generally making asses of themselves. She hoped they wouldn't be part of the beginner's course, but felt sure they were.
The dive shop was situated right on the water and as soon as the bus stopped an effeminate man in a lavender Speedo and diveshop T-shirt boarded the bus.
"Hello everyone, welcome to Grand Cayman and Tino's dive shop. My name is Carl and I'm one of the instructors here. For those of you taking the beginner's scuba excursion please exit to the left and head over to the patio. For those of you taking the two tank dive have your C cards ready and go into the shop. Don't worry about your equipment, we'll off load it and have it on the boat for you."
He then turned and exited and everyone filed off. Janice and twelve others made their way to the patio where tanks and vests sat on a row of wooden benches. She sat next to one and waited quietly. Soon a beautiful blonde woman in the skimpiest red thong she had ever seen and the ubiquitous dive shop t-shirt came out followed by several others. She was breathtaking, tall, tanned, marvelously fit, but curvy in all the right places. Jinx felt her heart flutter, but managed to keep her composure and not stare too much.
"Hello everyone, I'm Matty and I'll be your instructor for today's beginner's scuba class. The tall bloke to my left is Angus, and the guy over by the equipment shed is Brutus," she said in a charming Australian accent while indicating a pair of guys who looked to be every woman's dream.
Tall, tanned, rippling with muscles and darkly handsome, she could see the other women were staring, but she had eyes only for the beautiful blonde.
"This is Tory," she said, indicating a short brunette with a killer body, "And the wall flower behind me on the steps is Candy," she said pointing to a trim and diminutive redhead.
