The 21st century yuppie is an impressive being - big biceps and a big portfolio. Just a bit light on when it comes to quietness, gentleness. The crowd boarding the Nantucket ferry look well-heeled and smug in their Ralph Lauren Polo Shirt world. Most of the men on board are chunky, the women well-groomed, straight blond, tanned and toothy. All of them, men and women, are drinking Becks beer from small green bottles. And Nantucket herself? Soon to be taken over by a well-loved American icon and renamed Disneyland Maritime Inc.? My reflection in a grimy porthole startles me - I'm looking more and more like a Mexican desperado every day, just a little bit too blond. What I'd give to run into old Ahab here, or even just the mad guy who warned Ishmael off boarding the Pequod.
Well-heeled and smug they may be, but they're also, like so many Americans, friendly. The man in front of me in the slow-moving queue in the galley laughs and asks me if I've finished my soda yet (I poured it when I passed the soda machine at the start of the queue). I tell him he's lucky he didn't pour his beers back there, otherwise he'd already be under the table. Later, he says "enjoy" before walking off.
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