A B C Anthony Bennett Champion

The hotel was typical of the genre - architecturally complex, with protruding wings and balconies at multiple, partly overlapping, levels, meant to evoke Babylonian ziggurats or perhaps Hopi pueblos, or in any event something intended to be intriguing and mysterious to the guests, few of whom had any knowledge of architecture or its history. The decor, similarly, had been designed, based on careful “market studies,” to generate an aura of “tasteful” excess and “subdued” glitz and glamor. An example, it occurred to Tobe, of a style which his grandparents would disdain as superficial and pretentious. Nevertheless, he and the rest of the crew found the setting and the amenities irresistibly appealing after five days at sea. The plaza between the dock and the hotel building contained an outdoor cafe and a very large swimming pool surrounded by lounge chairs. Tobe, Billy and Bobby headed for the pool while the others found a nearby table under a canopy and ordered lunch. As Tobe stepped onto a diving board he immediately noticed a beautiful, raven-haired young woman standing on the adjacent board staring at him and smiling. Then he noticed the pattern on her bathing suit - leaping dolphins, identical to those on his trunks, the pair Angela had given to him as a bon voyage present. In the case of the young woman's suit there wasn't much room for any pictures, but Tobe observed, trying not to stare, that dolphins seemed to be leaping up each side of her ample breasts with their snouts touching at the location of the nipple. “Hi! Nice suit!” Tobe said, waiving his hand in a tentative greeting. She smiled more broadly and formed her lips as if to speak, but said nothing, and Tobe dove in and swam several laps. When he came up the ladder, dripping, she was still there and walked over to him. “We have the same delfines on our swimming clothes,” she said in Spanish-accented English. “Did you buy yours in Italia?” “No,” Tobe said, puzzled. “My sister gave me these trunks. She bought them in Boston, I think. Uh, why did you think I got them in Italy? Or is “Italia” the name of a store?” “My swimming clothes - you say trunks? -were made in Italia. There is a little sign inside that so say. It is a country, not a store.” “Oh, I see,” Tobe said. “Maybe mine were made in Italy, too. I've never looked at the label. Did you buy yours in Italy?” “No, no. I do not go to — Italy. I buy here in Habana — in a very fashionable store!” She turned one knee to the side, slightly bent, and her shoulders, thrown back, to the other side, striking a model's pose — which very nicely displayed, as Tobe noted, her, ah, leaping dolphins. “You like?” she asked, without a trace of guile. “Oh, yes!” Tobe assured her, uncertain of what else to say. “Are you from Boston?” she asked. “Yes, I am,” he answered. “We — my friends and I — just came in today. This is the first time I've been in Cuba.” He pointed to the boat — el barco de vela — at the dock and explained briefly about their trip from Galveston. “Hablo espagnol un poco, mas mi cumpas hablan muy bueno.” He blushed, but she smiled and said: “You speak Spanish well, but please let me practice my little English. I want like to meet your friends — your equipo -crew.” “Sure!” Tobe said. “Oh, pardon me. I haven't even introduced myself. I'm Tobe Champion.” He held out his hand and she took it. “How do you do, Tobe Champion,” she said. “I am Katarina Petrovna Rodina.” “How do you do,” he said, responding to her formal phrase, and noticing her high cheekbones and bright blue eyes. “Katarina - ah, Pyaw-trovna -is that right? Your name sounds — uh, Russian,” Tobe said, stating the obvious. “Do you live here?” “Yes, I live here,” she said. “I am Cuban. Rodina is a Cuban name. My grandfather was Russian. He came here in 1964 as a technical adviser to our country. He married my grandmother, and my father was their only child. When grandfather had to go back to Russia, grandmother stayed here, and years later changed the family name from Gorodin to Rodina — to make it Cuban.” Tobe tried to absorb that, and she continued, volunteering information for which he had not dared to ask.