A Pirate on Bequia

I watched through the kitchen window as a party of eight left the extension, it had been a very busy lunch-hour and I was looking forward to a rest. My sense of relief turned to consternation as a group of young people bounded down the steps – the lunch crowd was obviously still coming and the messy tables hadn’t been cleared. Leaning out the window, I assured the group that we would get the table ready but they had already taken matters into their own hands;

“Is it ok if we help?”

The speaker placed a pile of dishes on the counter and smiled. He was a handsome fellow and I wondered if I knew him, he looked familiar but I couldn’t place his face, nor put a name to it. When he returned with yet another load of dishes I noticed that he was wearing a piece of scrimshaw attached to a leather thing around his neck, and realized that it was without a doubt the fine work of an American artist named Sam McDowell. Sam, a friend of mine, owned a house at Paget Farm, and had gifted me with a piece of scrimshaw for my birthday, a piece almost identical to the one my new bus-boy was wearing. I held my pendant up, and remarked on the co-incidence, asking if he had purchased his pendant on Bequia.

“No” he answered, “I bought it in Carmel California”.

That clinched it, Sam was from Carmel, and we laughed as I explained that Sam lived on Bequia during the winter months. We were wearing similar pendants by the same scrimshaw artist, but had obtained them thousands of miles from each other. As I chatted with the young man I realized where I had seen his face before – Vanessa had a poster of her favourite movie star on a wall in her bedroom, and that’s why he looked so familiar.

“Wait, aren’t you Orlando Bloom, from ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’?”

He was indeed, the cast was on mainland St. Vincent filming ‘Pirates’ , and he had come to Bequia for the day. I explained about Vanessa’s poster, and that she was a huge fan. Mr. Bloom expressed interest in meeting her, and seemed disappointed to learn that my daughter was working that summer in Canada. His face then brightened as he said;

“Well, that’s only a phone call away! Can’t we call her?”

Telling the actor I would find out, I grabbed my cell phone and called Vanessa at work. She was employed as dining room hostess for a restaurant in Ontario, hopefully she would be allowed to take the call!   I was relieved when Vanessa answered the phone, but shocked when she broke into hysterical tears when I told her that Orlando Bloom was at the restaurant and would like to talk to her. I told Nessie I would call back in a few minutes once she had herself under control, a feat she managed in the allotted time.

Orlando Bloom sat at his table, feet propped up on the stone wall, and chatted with Vanessa for a good 15 minutes. That young man was incredibly charming, and made a home-sick girl from Bequia feel like a Princess. Quite a few well-known people have crossed the Pizzeria’s threshold over the years, many of them very nice, but none exuded the sheer kindness of the famous ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ actor.

Vanessa was fortunately not fired for making patrons wait for a table while she took a long personal call, but her fellow employees refused to believe that she had been chatting with Orlando Bloom! Once the actor’s credit card receipt had been processed by the bank, I took my merchant copy of the transaction and made a copy for myself, then blacked out the numbers and sent it to Nessie as proof that the famous actor had indeed eaten at Mac’s Pizzeria. After showing it to her co-workers she framed and then hung it on her wall in Canada, better than a poster by a long shot!

As for me, I got stuck with the humongous cell phone bill…….