“Is Madame comfortable?” “Would Madame care for one or two lumps of sugar in Madame’s coffee?” “Is Madame sure she won’t get airsick?” “Has Madame ever flown before?”
Nina and Louise giggled at the joke and played up to it. Everyone was having fun. This, Vicki thought, is the way a vacation should be! All the fears and uncertainties that had crowded her mind for the past week vanished like magic.
The plane landed briefly at Miami, and then took off again for the short hop over the Keys and across the blue Straits of Florida to Havana.
They checked into a luxurious hotel, surrounded by vast green lawns and towering palm trees. Then quickly they unpacked their clothes and set out to see the sights.
For the next two days, Mr. Curtin escorted the three girls on a whirlwind round of fun and good times. He knew the old city thoroughly, but for Vicki and the Curtin girls it was a round of wonderful discoveries.
They went to the race track, the beaches, the historic old forts and the fascinating museums during the mornings and afternoons, and in the evenings to the theater and afterward to a night club where the orchestra played Spanish music and the dancers whirled and stamped their feet in all manner of Latin fandangos.
On the third morning—or maybe it was the fourth, Vicki had lost track of time in the wonderful world of Havana—Mr. Curtin said at breakfast:
“Today we’re going to see something that you’ve never seen before, a real Spanish-American market place down in the Old City.”
“What’s so special about it?” Nina asked.
“Some people call it the Thieves’ Market,” Mr. Curtin explained. “In the old days the pirates and freebooters went there to sell the loot they had taken from captured ships. And even today, it’s a place where stolen goods are sold.”