When I left the flagship I thought I had left a lot of things behind, including the Grand Balls. Huge glittering affairs full of fancyfetti, glimmer curtains and what always felt like hours of decorating, although by the time I retired from the flagship the team had it down to a science; we could decorate the showroom in well under an hour. Even in the short time I have been away from the GWV, I had forgotten that I once knew how to do so many things that came with its territory.
Until, seasickness and heat dizziness ignored, I stood in at the edge of the dancefloor, unloading cartons of decorations to once again transform the showroom into a proper ballroom. The flashbacks came fast, but so did the memories – drinks on the house, literally climbing up walls to fasten things in place, getting tangled in streamers and losing breath blowing up balloons by hand when the helium machine broke down – those are all good memories, the ones I’m glad I remember, I’m actually surprised I didn’t tear up.
With the memories, came the muscle memory: glimmer curtains are for lining the hallways, glimmer chanaliers go above the second tier of seats etc etc…
Eventually, people started to notice that I knew what I was doing, although I will not go so far as to say I took over – far from it – I did find myself pointing to things.
The black and gold swirly things? They usually go best there, the dark will hide the tape.
Hey Shaughnessy, you figure that star banner will fit along the back wall?
Little things, of course all the others were doing little things too. Decorating for a ball is by far the biggest kind of team effort and everyone pulls their weight.
But as I was climbing over the furniture, fastening banners into place and humming along to the band as they warmed up and rehearsed, I was softly transported to another ship and another time, a ship I sometimes do not miss at all and sometimes miss so painfully that I cannot discuss it, a ship of which I am proud and also tend to hide…and I smiled, and kept taping up the banner in question, and smiled even more when I stepped back from my work and realized that the room – when finished – look awfully awfully familiar…
Cinderella, is once more ready for the ball…