Amber snapped her knee during the big show-stopper in “You Had Me At Hello,” the Jerry Maguire musical revue that’s had a packed house almost every night in the Pisces Ballroom Theater. She leapt off the rotating baggage carousel to be caught in her partner’s arms, but she overshot and took a hard fall. People said they could hear the bone snap.

“It’s all over,” she said when I visited her in her stateroom. “I’m useless now. I’m just ballast.”

Pat, the deckhand who was cooling her head with a wet towel, protested that that’s just not the case. But I didn’t correct her. She was speaking the truth.

“Put me in a liferaft. Tow me for a while.”

“No!” Pat screamed in such a way that confirmed they’d been sleeping together.

“It’s our code, Pat!” Amber hissed. “If I can no longer fulfill my duty to this ship, I have no business taking up valuable space on its decks. I don’t deserve this stateroom or your pity.”

“I won’t let you!” Pat said.

Amber looked to me for help. I nodded, then leaned out the door and had the ship’s officers take Pat to the brig.

“Captain LaFourge,” Pat hissed as my officers cuffed his hands. “If you go through with this, I’ll make sure you pay for it.”

“I understand,” I said. “And I’ll be ready.”

***

Amber couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful night to be cast overboard. There were more stars out than we’d seen the entire voyage.

“It’s like the sky got word, and they all showed up to watch you go,” I whispered to her as she situated herself in the raft.

“I’m sorry I failed the ship,” she said.

“The ship knows,” I said. “It knows.”

All of us stood side-by-side, the deckhands and showgirls and kitchen help, even some of the passengers, excited to watch a real cruise ship crew ritual up close.

We all stood at attention, in honor of the girl who’d been our friend and our family for months now. We didn’t turn away as the life raft was lowered to the sea. We didn’t turn away as it retreated behind us, as far as the rope would let it. We stood together for at least an hour, until we knew we’d paid our respects.

Two days later we pulled the raft back, empty.