Very early in the morning of April 29th, the Disney Wonder docked at Nassau, capital city of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. And, unfortunately, we again experienced record heat.
I slept in. Since I am a veteran of cruising to third world countries, I decided that I need not leave the ship, in that the view from the ship was reminiscent of my previous visit to the Bahamas in 1975 (same pile of horse crap on the street included).
Nick and Bob had now embarked after winning the Offshore Grand Prix at Daytona.
The majority of the ship's company opted to take their chances haggling with the locals in the purchase of leather, jewelry and liquor. That left the ship to the few of us who were wise enough to stay on board.
Luckily for me, the Carters were as wise...in that some of them stayed on board.
Since, as I had mentioned, Aaron's stateroom was close to mine, I ran into him in the 7 forward stairwell. With him was a rather surly fellow who was his bodyguard, his tutor, and Aaron himself. Aaron is kind of a chameleon. Depending on what he is wearing, he can appear to be anywhere from 12 to 18 years of age. At this moment, he was wearing a yellow cap and appeared no older than 12.
He was waiting for someone, probably Angel who came by a little later. I took the opportunity to go to my stateroom and get the book that I had brought with me for him. Let me explain this. My grand niece (who wasn't with me and will probably never forgive me) told me that his fans "always" brought him a stuffed animal for a gift. I told her that there was NO way that I was going to drag a stuffed animal for a 14-year-old boy 2000 miles across the United States! We decided that I would give him a book on marine biology since he liked this and I had access to this kind of material (at least medical aspects).
So...here is this young man sitting on the stairwell complaining about muscle ache from last night's basketball match and here am I, a mature, highly-educated adult (I'm a doctor for goodness sake), wanting to give this book to him. What would I say? I was tongue-tied and frankly, star-struck. I must have sounded like Porky Pig. Before you laugh in my face, I would like to hear how any of you would start a conversation with him! I managed to say "excuse me". His response was "yes SIR?" which took me totally aback since I have not been addressed like that since I consulted for the US Navy.
I said: "This is for you from me and the family grand kids" His response was "for ME?!" with those trade-marked large brown eyes wide open. He really seemed to appreciate the gift. It was as if no one ever gave him something without expectation of something in return (hmmm�maybe he doesn't!). He flipped through it and gave it to his tutor. I told him that I would get an autograph later for the grand kids and left them alone. I will never forget the way he addressed me and the look on his face.