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Lia 6.0: Haunted Dreams

On our cruise we were haunted by the demon of endless torment wrapped in the disguise of a girl child, Lia. This seemingly adorable six year old greeted us and everyone on her stateroom floor with chicken scratched love notes when we arrived on the ship. Her deceptive charms soon vanished. We rather quickly came to the conclusion that the entire Lia clan were on the ship with the express directive to torment us and keep us from the sleep we so desperately needed. The gleeful jungle gym in the hallway at all hours and crossing paths with them an innordinate number of times on the ship was just the beginning. Soon we were running into Lia's family on land as well.

On the day we drove to catch our volcano tour - a considerable distance from the port - we had to wait for our volcano tour. As we sat waitng to get on our tour van, Lia's father climbed out of a taxi followed by his little 'angels.' I have no idea the cost of a cab from Taraunga to Rotorua, but evidently no price tag is too great for their commitment to our perpetual torment.

In Napier we were enjoying Marineland before my big dolphin swim experience when directly behind us we heard some man yell "Lia!" Before we even turned around we knew that they had found us once again.

The final evidence of the twisted plot against us was when we were flipping through tv channels in our cabin and santa invited a little girl into his lap who announced herself as Lia. Our lovely shipmate had found her way into our stateroom as well.

I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to discover that Lia's family had followed us back to California, bought up the house next door, and got a job at the newspaper where I work with the primary duty of scratching her fingernails on a chalkboard all day.