Sardinia was really worth a visit. Our cruiser had taken a short route from Elba to the harbour of Alghero, located at the northwest of the island. It had reached its destination even before sunrise. I'd never been on Sardinia, but the excellent prepared and guided bus tour had been so attractive that I decided to come back to the island for a mountain hiking tour at a later stage. We returned to our ship late in the afternoon and had just 90 minutes to prepare ourselves for the distinguished evening on bord.
Dinner was again fantastic, but the conversation at our table was significant more casual compared to the evening before, almost erotically provocative. Our seating arrangement had changed too. Bruno and I had opposite chairs, escorted from our lovers the night before each on both sides. I recognized that I was now fully accepted as my uncle's substitute. During a silent moment I observed all group members one by one and considered whether all eight evenings of this cruise trip would follow the same procedure. We had reached already the dessert course of our menu -- corresponding to our Italian day a wonderful, tasty Panna Cotta, optically very attractive arranged with fresh red fruits, green pistachios and red sauce on a large plate -- as Kati took the word to all of us. "We have to elect our 'Evening Star' for tonight."
Everybody knew exactly what this meant. Only me looked with a big question mark on my face to Kati and the other members of our group. "What?"
"We determine now our 'Evening Star', my love. You will get it right in time, what this means, I promise." She looked rather provocative into my eyes. Without word I could translate her look into 'Young man, you still have to learn quite a lot!'. Then she looked around. "Who is today's bookkeeper?"
"I think, it's me now", smiled Bruno and took a small note book and a pen out of his dinner jacket. "Karl can't do it anymore." My aunt looked for a moment rather puzzled, remembering her late husband. My late uncle was obviously the original bookkeeper in this group before.
"And what is my part?" I was still clueless.
„Easy, my dear." Angela turned herself close to my side; she could almost bite into my earlobes. "We move our hands under the table and spread any number of fingers of both hands -- from zero to ten, whatever you like. Then Bruno notes from each of us, how many fingers are stretched in total. As Bruno is the bookkeeper he can use one hand only, So the total is any number between zero and fifty-five. The winner, whose estimation is closest to the real number of stretched fingers, becomes the 'Evening Star'. She smiled enigmatic, then her face moved forward and she bit me rather gently into my earlobe. "I hope to win every year. But I was never successful. Let's see how it goes tonight."
I didn't want to embarrass myself, so I kept my question for the meaning of 'Evening Star' for myself. I was sure that I would learn this later. The game was really funny. The estimations covered a wide range from eight to forty-nine. Kati's remark, that the worst thing with this game that 69 wasn't reachable, ended in warm laughter of everybody.
"Place your hands on the table", was Bruno's command. We all complied to it. Under some saucy comment, especially from the ladies, it became clear that Angela, my neighbour with her well-trained, athletic physique, had been tonight's winner. Her bold estimation of forty-nine was just four fingers away from the correct number of forty-five.
"I'm so excited", was her emotional reaction. "I was never the lucky one." She turned to me and gave me a kiss on my cheek. "You are my mojo, Christian. Thank you." She smiled broadly. "You will get your reward for this tonight." Recognizing her nervous excitement I got an idea how the evening would go on.
This evening replaced the gambling visit at the casino with a first class and entertaining show program in the ship's theatre which kept our own conversation rather limited. The obligate visit at the bar after the show was all the more so cheerful and frivolous, the 'official' end of this evening's part resulted in a very stimulating alcohol level. In a few quiet moments I looked around the well visited bar. It made me smile to recognize that our group of six wasn't alone in its intimate behaviour. Okay, many guests behaved appropriate, sometimes even distanced and formal. But I identified another mixed group at the other end of the bar which looked similar to ours. And then there was a group of four extremely well-dressed men who entertained themselves royally without any ladies around them. It was clear on what side of sexual entertainment these four gentlemen had settled.
