It Didn't Happen

The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

This is a work of fiction. The events described here are imaginary; the settings and characters are fictitious and are not intended to represent specific places or living persons.

*****

I was sitting outside Marco's uncle's café in Naples late on a balmy summer evening.

Marco and I had a standing joke. As usual he asked me:

"Roger, are you still wearing long socks?"

"Of course. You know why."

"They'll get you into trouble one day."

That exchange happened every time Marco and I met. So far my long socks had kept out of trouble.

I hadn't expected to be in Naples again so soon. I had stayed with Marco over the New Year, and he had visited me in England at Easter. We had thought, now that we had completed our advanced specialist training that we would not see each other again soon. But my father had pulled some strings. He had been sent to Aden for a few weeks on business and had arranged for my mother and I to meet him in Cairo, with a free flight on an RAF transport plane.

He had found 1st class cabins for us on a Dutch liner returning from Indonesia. We had joined the liner at Port Said and Naples was the next port.

The ship, or at least the 1st class part of it, was under occupied. I had spent most of my time on board in and around the swimming pool. The only people near my age were the stewards and stewardesses who had plenty of free time with so few passengers. I had enjoyed their company and had improved my few words of Dutch into some proper conversations, even if they preferred to practise their English.

My parents had arranged to visit Pompeii and Herculaneum before going on to another of Marco's relations for a sumptuous meal in Amalfi. I had seen too many Roman remains on my several visits to Italy over the years we had known Marco's family.

On the other side of the square there was a commotion. I heard a woman swearing loudly in Dutch and obviously upset. I stood up to see a tall young blonde woman being teased by some local men. One would pinch her bottom and when she turned around, another would pinch again. It might have been harmless fun between friends, but her distress seemed genuine.

If she had been local I would have ignored her predicament. But a Dutch woman must be from the ship. I crossed the square, not noticing that Marco was close behind. As I reached her, I could see that she was crying.

I shouted, in Italian, at the men, telling them to leave her alone. One of them turned to challenge an obvious foreigner interfering with an Italian male pursuit. What he might have said or done stuck in his throat. I was angry, and my size can be intimidating. I am tall and muscular.

Marco added a few words, quietly in the local dialect. He knew the man and addressed him by name. I understood Marco to say that the joke had gone too far and his English friend was not someone to challenge. I had brushed the men aside and put my arm around the woman's shoulder, telling her, in Dutch, that she was OK now, she was with friends.

As I started to speak Dutch she relaxed. When she recognised me as a passenger she threw herself into my arms and cried on my shoulder. I half-carried her across the square back to our table. Marco said a few more calming words to the men before following us.

I recognised the woman as the baby of the stewardesses, probably about nineteen or maybe twenty years old. At twenty-eight I felt ancient holding her. She wouldn't let me go and I sat down with her on my lap. Her words were very slurred, so indistinct that I had some difficulty understanding her.

Marco ordered some black coffee. I had to hold the cup while she sipped it. Gradually she calmed down. Apparently she had been with a group of stewards, including her brother. This had been her first voyage and she had never been to Naples. The stewards had been to several bars and had bought her several drinks before they decided to go to a night club. They were told that it was for men only. She didn't want to spoil their evening so she thought she could get a taxi in the square. But the men had started pinching her and wouldn't stop...

I explained to Marco in Italian.

"Stupid brother!" Marco said. "This is Naples. A woman out this late, on her own, is considered fair game. He should have known better. What are you going to do with her, Roger?"

"Try to sober her up. I think she has had more than a few drinks and possibly stronger than she expected. Then? A taxi?"

"No taxi. They charge the earth at this time of evening. I'll run you two back to the ship - as long as she isn't sick in my car. Do you think more coffee would help?"

"I don't know."

The woman whispered in my ear.

"Marco," I said, "She needs a toilet. Is your sister around?"

"No. She's with our parents. And my uncle doesn't have any women staff working evenings. Can you get her to the back of the restaurant? There's a staff toilet that would be more discreet than the customers' one."

"I can try. At worst, I could carry her."

"It looks as if you might have to, Roger."

I tried standing her up. Her legs were like jelly. I lifted her in my arms and followed Marco. As we passed, Marco's uncle shook his head pityingly. Marco opened the toilet door. I carried her in and shut the door behind me.

I had to sit her on the toilet, lift her dress, take her panties off, and hold her in place. I stuffed the panties in my jacket pocket. When she had finished I dried her, washed my hands, and carried her back outside. Marco was waiting.

"I think you should get her back to the ship now, before she is totally out of it."

"Too late," I replied. "She's too far gone. Can you get your car?"

"It's there, Roger," Marco said, pointing across the square. "Let's go. We'll see each other again soon. I'm coming back to England next month for yet another training course."

"You've got a posting? That's good."

"Might have a posting in the UK, if I complete the training course, but my English has to be better. My parents want me to stay with you. The course venue is only a few miles away."

"Great. I'm sure my parents will agree, and..."

"I want to practise my English with your sister, Roger. Is that OK?"

"My sister! That's up to her, not me. I know she likes you, but she is her own woman. I wouldn't dare tell her what to do. She'd thump me. Watch out that she doesn't thump you. She has a mean fist."

"I'm sure she wouldn't..."

"I admire your confidence, Marco, but be careful. She has got a worse temper than I have."

"But I have Italian charm."

"Maybe. But don't try pinching her bottom. Helen's reaction would be violent."

"I won't. What do you think of me as a prospective brother-in-law?"

"You're serious, Marco, aren't you?"

"Yes, Roger, I wouldn't have said that if I wasn't."

"I'd be delighted. If Helen wants you, I would congratulate you both."

"I've asked her twice. She hasn't said no..."

"Nor yes?"

"Not yet. She suggested that the answer could be maybe and that maybe could change if I can get a good posting and prospects."

"Best of luck. But we should get this sleeping beauty back to the ship, and forget we ever saw her."

"OK, Roger. I'll forget."

"Promise? This is important."

"It is? OK. I promise. I didn't see her and nothing happened, but you had better sit in the back holding her. She is just a limp heap."

Marco drove us to the port. We had to argue at the dock gate. Taxis were allowed in, not private cars. But the guard knew Marco's parents and relented. Marco drove us close to the gangplank. I had to ease the woman out of the car and sling her across my shoulder in a fireman's lift.

At the top of the gangplank the Assistant Purser was standing watching me struggle up the steep slope. He should have asked me for my boarding pass. He didn't.

"What have you got there, Roger?" he asked.

"Passenger and luggage re-embarking," I replied.

"Can you put your luggage down and have a quiet word, sir?" he asked, pointing to a nearby bench.

I put the stewardess down as carefully as I could.

"Any explanation, sir? Why have you returned with our Cissy as your luggage?"

I explained how I had rescued Cissy from unwelcome attention, and that I had just brought her back to the ship.

"And that?" He pointed at the panties poking out of my jacket pocket.

"She needed the toilet, and help." I pulled the panties out and gave them to him.

"You haven't?"

"No, sir," I protested. "I have not. I would not. She is and was in no state to consent to anything. All I have done is return a crew member to this ship because she had been abandoned by her shipmates AND her brother. If necessary I have witnesses - my friend who drove us here, his uncle and the staff of the restaurant."

The Assistant Purser sighed.

"Then thank you, Roger. I appreciate what you have done. But what am I to do about your luggage? I should report her as being incapable on her return to the ship. That would be a serious offence and she has only just successfully completed her training. She could lose her job."

"Then don't. She did nothing wrong. Her shipmates did. They abandoned her in a rough part of Naples late at night when they had been giving her more alcohol than her capacity. She is the victim, not the villain."

"If it became known that she had to be carried up the gangplank, and particularly by a 1st class passenger, she would be discharged."

"She wasn't. I carried 'luggage' aboard."

"And you'd stick to that story, Roger? Why? What is she to you?"

"I didn't even know her name until you told me just now. She is a member of the crew, and the crew have treated me very well. I would have done the same for any member of the ship's crew in trouble on shore - male or female. Cissy is still just a teenager. She is, isn't she?"

He nodded.

"And this was her first time in Naples?"

He nodded again.

"Then you tell me. How do we get my luggage aboard officially with no adverse consequences for her or you?"

"Thank you for that 'or you', Roger. If it became known that I had bent the rules for Cissy there could be consequences for me as well as for her. None for you, of course. You are a passenger."

"So?"

"If Cissy were to be found, although off duty, in the passengers' area and incapable, by one of her colleagues... Do you understand?"

"I think so. For example if on my return from an evening in Naples I were to find a stewardess asleep in my cabin, and rang for a stewardess, that stewardess would probably arrange for the sleeping one to be discreetly removed... And if you just happened to make a note in that log book over there that a certain piece of luggage had returned to the ship a couple of hours ago..."

"A small tick is enough, Roger."

"Then my luggage will cease to clutter up this area and a tick will be made?"

"Thank you, Roger. But these should be correctly replaced."

He handed back the panties.

"They will be."

I lifted Cissy up and carried her to my cabin. I laid her carefully on my pristine bed, gently lifted her dress and replaced her panties before arranging her clothing decorously. I rang for a steward and stood in my cabin doorway, hoping that the bell would be answered by a stewardess. It was, a woman in the thirties.

I put my finger to my lips and whispered:

"I've just come back on board and found..." I stood aside and let her see Cissy sprawled on my bed.

"Oh dear! Are you going to..."

"Complain? Of course not. But I would like an unencumbered bed, soon, please?"

"Of course, sir. If you can watch her for a few minutes I'll get a couple of stewards and the encumbrance will disappear."

"And as far as I am concerned, the encumbrance was never here. You understand?"

"Yes, sir, and I appreciate that. She could be in serious trouble if a passenger complained."

"But this passenger has seen nothing and nobody."

"Thank you, Sir."

She returned with a couple of stewards and Cissy's limp body was removed.

After breakfast I was sitting close to the swimming pool, wearing my swimming trunks and a t-shirt. When the morning coffee and cakes were due there would be a rush from the pool. I might have it to myself for half an hour.

Just after the crowd had gone and I was about to enter the pool, a pale-faced Cissy approached me.

"Can I talk to you, sir?" She asked nervously.

"Of course you can, but I would prefer to be called 'Roger', not 'Sir'."

I waved a hand suggesting that we sat down. She perched gingerly on the deck chair as if it would collapse underneath her.

"I think I had better continue to call you 'Sir'," Cissy said. "I have been told to apologise to you..."

"You," I emphasised the 'you', "Have nothing to apologise for. If you want to talk about yesterday evening, I have deliberately forgotten everything, and given my word that I have - forgotten, that is."

"But, sir..."

"No buts. No 'Sir'. If you want to talk about something that has been forgotten, then it must be between Cissy and Roger and not on the record. Do you understand? Officially nothing happened. If something did, it could have serious consequences for you and others. So it DID NOT HAPPEN."

Cissy looked as if she would cry. I held out a hand to her. She grabbed it as if it was a lifeline.

"If I can't apologise, can Cissy say 'thank you'?"

"Of course you can, Cissy. If you want to, you can thank Roger, not a passenger who did nothing and saw nothing."

"But the Assistant Purser really tore into us this morning, Roger." My name was said reluctantly.

"I'm not surprised, that is if Cissy and Roger are talking about something that didn't happen. It didn't, did it?"

Cissy nodded.

"Then I can say that he and I might have agreed on an unofficial course of action. I helped you. He helped you, and your brother and his friends. He went out of his way for all of you and IF what didn't happen was discovered, he too would be in trouble."

"But he was really angry..."

"Of course he was. It could have ruined several people's careers, reflected on the crew as a whole, and the consequences for you could have..."

"...been terrible. I don't remember much except you confronting the Italians in the square, giving me coffee and taking me to the toilet. After that I don't remember much until you were putting my panties back on in your cabin, Roger. You were very gentle but not very skilled."

"The Italian lads were teasing you. They didn't mean any harm but any woman on her own in that part of Naples at that time of night..."

"...is likely to be a prostitute?"

"Yes, Cissy. They knew you weren't but they wanted to show their appreciation of you in an Italian manner. They went slightly too far because they were nearly as drunk as you. But apart from a few bruises you would have been OK."

Cissy grimaced.

"I certainly have the bruises. But why was the Assistant Purser so angry?"

"Cissy," I said, "this is your first voyage, isn't it? And you've never been abroad before?

"I've been across the border into Germany a couple of times, but otherwise, nowhere."

"Just think. If the worst had happened?"

"If I'd been raped? That what you mean?"

"Yes. What would come next?"

"The police?"

"The police, the Dutch Ambassador, the ship's captain... The ship might not have been able to leave Naples. The passengers..."

"The passengers would have been angry..."

"More than that. They would sue the shipping company for the delay. The publicity might damage the whole company and make passengers choose another shipping line..."

"Oh. All that for me?"

"All that because the stewards and your brother were very stupid. Some of them must have known the risks of Naples at night for a young woman on her own. They imperilled you and the whole shipping company. That is why the Assistant Purser is very angry about something that MUST be forgotten. He can't do anything officially because if he did he would admit that something happened, and that he cannot do."

"How do you know so much, Roger? You aren't much older than me."

"I've been to more countries than the years you have been alive, and some very different countries. But you ought to have known the risk you were taking. What would happen to a lone young woman drunk in Rotterdam late at night?"

"She might be raped..."

"And if she was alone, drunk, in some of the other ports you've been to?"

"Oh. She might be raped and killed."

"Exactly, Cissy. Now you know why the Assistant Purser was so angry. Your friends were more than stupid. They were reckless - with your life."

"And you saved me, Roger."

"I didn't have to do much. Those men didn't intend to do more than they did."

"But you did more than save me from them. You protected the rest of us, all the stewards out that night, and the Assistant Purser."

"Why not? It didn't take much to pretend that nothing happened. And nothing did. Remember that. We are talking about something that didn't happen, Cissy."

"But you're a first class passenger, Roger. Many of them treat us like dirt."

"I can't answer for them. I wouldn't. My parents wouldn't. We appreciate what you do for us to make our journey comfortable."

"I haven't, Roger. I'm not assigned to your part of the ship."

"So what? I didn't even know your name, Cissy. You were part of the crew in difficulty."

Cissy looked around before she kissed me on the cheek.

"Now you do know me, Roger. I owe you a lot. So do my brother and his friends."

"Forget it. As I keep saying, we are talking about something that didn't happen. Any acknowledgement might risk that something becoming a known event."

"I know. But as well as trying to apologise to you, I have been asked to give you this."

Cissy produced an envelope from the pocket of her uniform dress. It had a typewritten address to me, and was marked 'In Confidence' and 'By Hand'.

"What is it, Cissy?"

"Open it, Roger. I don't know what it says."

Inside was a stiff card with the ship's crest. The captain requested my company in his sea cabin at 12 noon, dress informal. There was no indication of how I should accept the invitation.

I looked at the clock above the bar. It was a quarter to twelve. I showed the card to Cissy.

She paled.

"The captain? He knows?"

"I would think so, Cissy. But not officially. I don't know where the captain's sea cabin is? Do you?"

"Yes. It's immediately aft of the bridge, a deck down."

"OK. I'll go and put some trousers and shoes on. Will you wait a couple of minutes and show me where to go?"

"Yes, Roger."

"And when I'm close, you had better vanish."

"I will. I rarely go anywhere near the bridge."

Cissy waited for me outside my cabin while I changed, including putting my long socks on. She took me to the companionway leading up to the bridge. She told me to ask the Officer of the Watch for the Captain's sea cabin. She turned and almost ran away.

I showed the card to the Officer of the Watch. He looked around the bridge as if checking that everything was in order. I followed him down the companionway. He knocked on the Captain's cabin door. He opened it, and announced me formally.

The Captain rose from behind a desk and extended his hand for me to shake.

"Drink, Roger?" he asked. "Your usual cold lager?"

"Yes please, sir," I said as I accepted the lager.

"Not sir. My name is Hans and I want to talk between Hans and Roger, not between a Captain and a Passenger. That OK?"

I nodded.

"Because I want to talk about..."

"...something that didn't happen?"

"Yes. Off the record, as journalists say. The Assistant Purser told me a fairy story which I have difficulty believing."

"What story?" I asked.

"Well, Roger, let's pretend. We will talk about non-events in Naples."