Mask on the Cruise Ship by Melanie Jackson Page B

him all the time.
    â€œSure, I’ll change her seat.” I flipped through the envelopes, pfft! pfft! “Here she is. O’HERLIHY, LAVINIA.”
    The first few passengers, checked off by Mother on her list, were waiting behind Ira for their tickets. Among them: Jack and Madge.
    Hmmm. Mother had arranged for all of us to sit together…
    Maybe if Jack and Madge didn’t spend quite so much time with each other, they wouldn’t be thinking about the possibility of FRENCH, MADGE.
    â€œBoo-wa-ha-ha,” I said, pleased with this, my second scathingly cunning plan of the day. Was I on a roll, or what?
    Rapidly I switched Lavinia’s ticket into Madge’s envelope and vice versa. I winked at Ira. “Boo-wa-ha-ha.”
    â€œHee-hee!”
    When the tickets in the shoebox had thinned to just a few, Mother told Madge, Jack and me to go ahead and take our seats on the train. She’d be right there herself.
    â€œI might buy some sunglasses,” Madge said, surveying a rack of them in a nearby shop. “I forgot mine on the ship, and people keep talking about how bright the snow will be out the train windows.”
    She waved aside our offer to wait for her. “It’ll take me a minute or two. I have to find just the right hue of frames so the glasses won’t clash with my hair.”
    I lifted my eyebrows at Jack. My sister was getting more relaxed about herself — but she was still fussy.
    The tanned, middle-aged woman from the pool was already in her seat — right in front of Jack. “Ah,” said Jack, as her features, going red, took on the appearance of a sunburn as opposed to a tan. He remarked to her, “If I’d known you’d be close by, I’d have brought a towel.”
    In the seats across the aisle from Jack, where Mother would be joining me, I snorted appreciatively.
    The woman burned even redder. “I — I misunderstood about the girl you’re hoping to marry. I thought she was,” the woman avoided looking at me, “much younger than you.”
    Though the tanned woman wasn’t including me in the conversation, I saw no reason not to jump in. After all, Madge was my sister. “No way she’s much younger than Jack!” I exclaimed, reflecting that Madge was only two years Jack’s junior. Incredible to believe Madge would be graduating from high school in a month. “I can’t imagine being as old as she is,” I added, shaking my head.
    Jack laughed. “You’re making my one-and-only sound like an aged crone, Dinah. I think there’s a bit of life left in the old girl.”
    I airily waved a hand at the tanned woman. “Yeah, you’ll see her in a minute. She’ll be sitting right beside Jack.”
    I stopped in horror. No, Madge wouldn’t be sitting right beside Jack. I’d switched her ticket. It’d be Lavinia who’d plop down beside him.
    â€œUh-oh,” I said and put on my phony bared-teeth smile. It was the only course of action I could come up with.
    Jack didn’t notice. His gray eyes were twinkling with amusement. “The ‘old thing’ I hope to marry some day should be along pretty soon,” he assured the tanned woman.
    It was then that Lavinia O’Herlihy, frowning in puzzlement at her ticket, walked up and slid into the seat beside Jack…
    Madge just made it on in time. She was explaining to Mother that she’d had trouble choosing between brands of sunglasses when the conductor asked her to take her seat. Glancing at her ticket, he instructed, “Down there, Miss,” and pointed a dozen or so rows along to the empty seat beside Ira.
    â€œBut — but — ” Madge, Jack and Lavinia protested.
    â€œPlease, Miss,” the conductor said.
    It was the kind of “please” you didn’t refuse. Madge moved to the empty seat. Above her, bright brass luggage racks reflected, one after another, the burnished