free you up to deliver someone else’s.”
He clapped his hand on top of mine and let fly a happy stream of jibberish. I deferred to Dad for the translation.
“He says he’s got it.”
“But look how many other pieces he has to deliver.” I nodded toward the outer lobby, where our remaining bags were corralled in a roped-off area. “If I pitch in, we’ll have this stuff delivered in no time at all.”
The bellman shook his head. Dad offered a quick translation. “That’s a no.”
“What floor is that one headed for?” Wally called out as he strode toward us from the corridor.
“Third,” I said as I tightened my grip.
The bellman exerted his authority and tugged the handle away from me. I exerted mine and tugged it back.
“Out of the way,” Wally insisted as he knocked both our hands away, commandeering what amounted to a hostile takeover. “I’ll take it.”
“You can’t do that!” I protested.
“Fug yer gooney!” cried the bellman.
Wally paused. “What’d he say?”
“‘You can’t do that!’” Dad repeated.
Wally arched his eyebrows. “You can understand him?”
“Look, Wally,” I said in a breathless rush, “I can handle this. It’s very important that I handle this.”
“You have a good ear, Mr. Andrew.” Wally gave an approving nod, clearly impressed with Dad’s interpretive language skills. “How long have you been able to decipher the Scottish tongue?”
Dad marked the time on his wristwatch. “About three minutes.”
“How many bags do we have left?” Etienne asked as he sprinted down the corridor in our direction.
“Miceli! Did you know your father-in-law can understand the language, burr and all?”
“Seriously? I wish you’d said something sooner, Bob. I’ve been going around and around with the people at the front desk, and I still don’t know what they’re saying. You want to give it a try?”
Dad’s face brightened. “You bet.”
Etienne kissed my forehead on the way by while Wally charged down the corridor in the opposite direction, pulling Bill Gordon’s luggage behind him. “Hey, Emily,” he called back to me, “if you want to help out, there’s a couple of smaller bags in the corral that you could probably handle.”
“Thanks,” I said flatly as he wheeled the suitcase out of sight. “I’ll get right on it.”
_____
With Etienne preoccupied with hotel personnel and two whole hours to kill before dinner, I decided to bite the bullet and look into buying Dad a camcorder to replace the one he broke.
After taking a quick shower and freshening up, I purchased insect repellent and a fly swatter at the grocery market across the street, then hanged a left at a knitting store and walked a couple of blocks until I reached High Street, which seemed even more deserted than it had been before, if that was possible. Window shopping was obviously not one of the main pursuits of Wick’s elusive populace.
I found the jewelry shop halfway down the block, and next to it … a hardware store? I peered at the garden implements and boxes of casual china on display in the window, realizing this was the right place only after I saw Nana standing behind a sixteen-piece set of Corelle dinnerware, waving me away.
What?
I gave her a questioning look, to which she responded by raising a finger for me to wait.
“Is this the latest trend in merchandising?” I asked when she exited the building to join me. “Disguising a camera shop as a hardware store?”
“They got them disposable cameras all right, dear, and some real nice digital ones, but you don’t wanna go in there right now on account of the clerk’s a little overwhelmed. He don’t speak English real good, so we had to send a runner to fetch your father. And now we got another delay ’cuz your father’s a little winded.”
“Oh.” I craned my neck to watch the flurry of activity inside. “Well, if Dad’s inside, I’d better wait until he leaves because I want to surprise him with a new camcorder. Did you notice any camcorders for sale?”
“Yup. But folks was more interested in the hot ticket items.”
I smiled. “What’s considered a hot ticket item in Wick, Scotland?”
“SaladShooters and Chia pets. Back home, you can’t find ’em no time but Christmas, but here, you can buy ’em all year round. Isn’t that somethin’? Grace and Helen are lookin’ to have some shipped home to have on hand for family birthdays.”
“Have you bought your camera yet?”
“Nope. I couldn’t get near the checkout counter ’cuz the Dicks are hoggin’ the calculator, tryin’ to help the clerk figure out volume discounts.”
“So, you want to