Southend U3A

Easter Cruise - Maureen Rampersaud

April 2012

'Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Well, another fine day, and we've been fortunate in securing a well-situated berth for the Athena.'

God....she knew why this man had got the job. What a smoothie! That voice could tame all the lions in the Colliseum. Talking of which . . .

'Well, we are now ready for the All Day Rome trip. Please remember to have your identity cards and excursion tickets to hand. This time it is the turn of our A deck passengers to disembark first.'

She did wonder, as she sat in the bowels of B deck blackness, tuned to channel one, if the cheap seats would ever get to go first.

The Spring sun's warmth bathed her face as she turned to marvel at the iconic, ancient Colliseum that seemed to sneer at the little, insignificant cars and people at it's feet. The local guide was in full swing,

'They started in the morning with the battles of the wild beasts;, during the lunch break, when it was quiet, they threw the Christians to the lions. They didn't have much in the way of prisons in those days. Then the finale was the Gladiator fighting, but not many actually died because they were so expensive to train.'

She allowed the group to wander away from her. She just wanted to savour the peace for a moment and soak up all the history of the place. She closed her eyes.

The roar of the crowd forced her to open them again. She was no longer sitting on the steps, she was in the arena. She looked down at her ragged clothes and shaded her eyes as she turned to look at the overflowing audience that were baying for her blood. Her attention was drawn to a cage being winched up from below. The excitment increased, the crowd went wild.

Her heart was galloping like a runaway horse, but as the cage door slowly opened, it was a male lion that emerged. He paced around her before emitting a roar towards the crowd, who became eerily silent. She didn't move a muscle, so petrified was she. The lion's foul breath was on her face and she closed her eyes tight.

'Come this way, our restaurant is just across the road, and please be careful of pickpockets. Last week I found a pregnant girl's hand in my jacket. I told her 'I am not the father, it's not my job to support your child!''

We laughed at his joke and followed him dutifully.