An irish Lovestory - the summer of Life

The Ferry

Luke has slept very little during the night and so it is not surprising that when the alarm clock rings the next morning he is very tired. Mary picks them up and takes them to the large dining room for breakfast. Carlotta hardly says a word, but no one minds. She has always been very taciturn, especially towards Mary. Luke still has a headache from last night's little celebration and silently pushes croissants into himself. James and Orion are also very quiet by their standards, only Mary is chattering away happily as usual until Carlotta, her mind completely elsewhere, bangs on the table. All heads turn abruptly to her. "Mary, just shut up, please!" The one addressed tears open her eyes in fright. "What's gotten into you..." she starts, but Carlotta silences her with a nasty look. Before anyone can say anything, she gets up and goes back into the guest room.
Luke apologises to Mary and runs after her. In the guest room, Carlotta rushes around frantically gathering her things. Luke gets in her way and holds her by the shoulders. "Carly, I don't know what you're so charged up about, but you're being really obnoxious right now! Mary can be a real pain sometimes, but at least she agreed to host us both here for the night." Carlotta glares angrily at him. He melts under her bright green eyes and can't help but pack his things.
Mary and her cousins still accompany them to the harbour, but don't even wait until the ferry has left. No sooner are Carlotta and Luke on the ferry than they disappear again. Orion and James would like to wave to the two of them, but Mary thinks they deserve it after the way they have been teasing each other.
Carlotta also disappears below deck and stays there until they have left the harbour. Luke literally tries to tease the reason for her behaviour out of her. But Carlotta remains stubborn and keeps her mouth shut. "Man, Luke, I've got other problems than Mary right now, and so do you, by the way!" she says, a little bitchy by her standards. Luke asks quite uninhibitedly, "Tell me Carly, could it be that you're on your period?" Carlotta shakes her head, she really doesn't have her period. "Your mother will kill you, no, she'll kill us both as soon as we get home! Then on top of that I'm going to Ireland to see my own mother and after the family court hearing I'm still not sure if that's really such a good thing." Luke tells her that it is her decision and that his mother will not kill them. That doesn't really reassure her, but at least she stops bitching like that. "Sorry, I'm just a little worried, maybe a little too much," she says, but Luke waves it off. He forgives her for everything sooner or later, even when he lies in bed next to her all night and gets her elbows in his face while she rolls around.
The crossing to Barcelona is otherwise uneventful and the two spend the time on deck. When they disembark in the port of Barcelona, they can only look around the port of Barcelona a little before they go straight on to the next ferry. Evening falls and the two of them spend the time on deck until dinner, so that they can sail towards the sunset. At the same time, they also use this backdrop for a few photos, which they can then upload to Instagram after the holiday. If they did it now, they would be tracked by the police and the holiday would be over before it really started.
Around half past six, they get ready to go out for dinner. It's not a fancy restaurant, but at least they wear clothes that can be worn like that and not just a skirt and T-shirt, or jeans and T-shirt. Carlotta still puts her red hair up and puts on a knee-length green shimmering dress, while Luke puts on long jeans and a better T-shirt. Then they go below deck to the ferry's dining room and eat their evening meal.

To entertain the passengers, a large sound system is placed on the ferry in the evening to encourage people to dance. Some of the older passengers start dancing a little stiffly. Only when the music gets a bit faster do Luke and Carlotta get up on the dance floor to perform a lively Irish dance on the ship's planks. After the song is over, they just stay on the dance floor and dance some more, without really paying attention to the steps. But somehow they manage to dance a cha-cha-cha and a disco fox without consulting each other beforehand. After the fifth song, they go to the bar to get something to drink. Since they are adults according to their identity cards, they are allowed to drink harder and Luke in particular takes advantage of it. This leads to him quickly pulling Carlotta back onto the dance floor and encouraging her to salsa, but she can't complain. He loosens up and has no inhibitions about dancing in front of all the people.
A young passenger who has an Instagram livestream going on also takes them in. What neither of them knows is that this guy is an old buddy of Helen and Charlie's from the time when they still lived in Spain and Helen is watching the livestream. Didn't Luke's mother call her at home just now and ask her if she knew where they were? Helen briefly considers whether she should call Mrs Giesma and let her know, but then decides to take matters into her own hands. She leaves her parents a message saying that she is going to visit her buddy Marco. It's not quite a lie, as she has written Marco a message telling him to see where they are going. He immediately replies that he would do it for her and is very much looking forward to her visit.
Helen leaves the same night, but not without calling Johanna and telling her that she knows where Carlotta and Luke are. Johanna is immediately wide awake and says that she will quickly pack up a few things and then be ready to leave.
Night also falls on the ferry at some point and Luke and Carlotta go to their little sleeping cabin while Marco follows them unobtrusively. "Tomorrow at noon we'll arrive in Cádiz, there we just have to go to the holiday village on the mainland and then we'll have the rest of the holiday free!" says Luke, as if he's done it many times before. Carlotta still has a few doubts about the plan, but doesn't let it show.
They spend the night relatively restless, as there is quite a swell. The next morning they are not the only ones with bags under their eyes and, judging by the smell, some have thrown up during the night. At breakfast it is surprisingly quiet, even though there are some families with younger children on board. Marco sits down at the table with Luke and Carlotta and starts talking to them in Spanish.
"Tienes suerte de que no estemos en el Pacífico, las olas son realmente extremas allí.* You are lucky that we are not in the Pacific.
You're lucky we're not in the Pacific, the waves are really extreme there. ", he greets
he greets the two. Luke just nods, unlike Carlotta he doesn't understand a word. The boy adds:
"Por cierto, soy Marco.* I'm Marco, by the way." Carlotta says what their names are and that they are from Germany. Marco immediately starts speaking fairly fluent German to them. "My parents own a holiday village in Cádiz, we often have German visitors there." Luke raises his eyebrow, he is not at all comfortable with Marco showing up here now of all times. Carlotta, however, seems to like Marco.
After breakfast they go for another walk around the deck and about half an hour before arriving in Cádiz they pack up their things and prepare the car.
Marco is already standing on deck, waiting for him to finally be back in Cádiz. His parents drove here a few days ago to welcome the first visitors while he was still at school in Barcelona. But now he is also on holiday and can join them.
As the car pulls away from the ferry, Marco asks them if they could give him a lift. They open the door and he gets in. As luck would have it, Marco's parents own the holiday village, which includes the Giesmas family holiday home. They let Marco out at the registration desk and Luke drives on to his family's house. He gets out and takes the key out of a flowerpot next to the door. "Wow, I wouldn't have thought of this hiding place either!" says Carlotta with irony in her voice. Luke looks at her with a grin and unlocks the door.