AN ADVENTURE TO REMEMBER AND A MEMORY TO FORGET
Chapter Sixteen
Harry’s POV
"God, I hope we haven’t
waited too long." It was a painfully slow process getting all the
passengers from my boat transferred into the other two lifeboats that had
paddled up. Once they finally got loaded into the other boats, two of the other
crew members from the other boats climbed in with me, and I began to scan the
water with my light, searching for anyone who might be alive. I was hoping and
praying that if Victoria was out there, she’d still be alive.
As we got closer to the site of
the sinking, we started passing more and more debris. A door here, a piece of
fabric there, some clothing, a suitcase, and a few chairs. It wasn’t until we
saw the first dead body, still clinging to a chair, frozen, that it hit me.
"Damn it." I looked
over to see one of the other crew members. He had seen the same thing I had. I
saw a horrified look on his face as he spoke. I could commiserate. No on the
job training could prepare any of us for this.
We inched closer and closer to
the site of the sinking. The closer we got, the more bodies we passed. I
watched as one of the crewmen leaned over the front of the boat, straining to
see any movement in any of them.
"These are all dead,
sir." I saw one of the crewmen speak as he held up the body of a woman,
still holding her baby. Both of them had died in the water.
"We waited too long. Damn
it, we waited too long." I looked at the rest of the crew in the boat.
They were beginning to lose hope. "Well, keep looking! Keep it up!" I
saw them gently rowing in the water. "Be careful not to hit them. Move
them if you have to." A few of the crewmen began to check the bodies.
"Hello! Is there anyone
alive out there?" I was yelling, hoping to hear someone answer me back. I
yelled two more times. There was nothing but silence.
Rose’s POV
I was lying on the door with
Jack. The words of Come Josephine in My Flying Machine were echoing in
my ears. I looked over at Victoria. She was lying motionless on the door.
"Jack! Oh, God, Jack!"
I pointed at Victoria. Jack slid off the door into the icy water and got on the
door with Victoria.
"She’s breathing, but
barely." He looked around. "If the boats don’t get here quick, she
won’t be for much longer." I watched as he picked her limp body up, trying
to breathe some sort of life into her with what little body heat he had. I went
to lie back on the door. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw flashing lights. I
thought it was just a dream, so I didn’t pay any attention to it. I saw them
again. I propped myself up on my side and squinted, straining to see what it
was.
"Jack! The boats!" I
pointed over at a boat coming back for us. "Over here!" I tried
yelling, but I was so hoarse, no one could hear me.
"Hey! Boat! Over here! Come
get us!" Jack tried yelling, but he was as hoarse as I was.
"Damn it. They can’t hear
us." I looked up at the boat and noticed that it was starting to row away
from us. "No! Don’t go!" I tried yelling again, but I was still
hoarse. I knew what I had to do. I slid off the door and into the water.
"Rose! What are you
doing?"
I looked back over at Jack,
holding Victoria. "Trying to save us all." I swam over to the
officer’s chair. I grabbed his whistle out of his mouth. I blew with all my
might. I kept blowing until the light was shining on my face.
I heard someone yell out,
"Come about!" I collapsed onto the chair, but I kept blowing. He had
to find us. They had to see us now.
Harry’s POV
I had just about given up hope.
"Go back that way." I pointed in the opposite direction from where we
were heading. As we were rowing back, I heard a faint sound. I shrugged it off
as my mind playing tricks on me. I heard it again. I stood up and turned to
face the noise.
I yelled, "Come about!"
I took my light and shone it in that direction. It came upon a man and a woman
lying on top of a door and another woman blowing on a whistle. "God, no,
please don’t let them be dead, too." I motioned for the crewmen to row
faster toward them. The whistling kept on going. We finally got over there.
"Holy hell! Rose!" I
helped pull her up into the boat. Her lips were blue and ice was forming in her
hair. She put her hand in mine, and I pulled her over. She was shivering as she
pointed at the other couple. "Vic…Vic…" She stopped to look at me.
"Victoria…Jack." I found a blanket and wrapped her tightly in it. We
rowed over to the other couple. Jack was holding Victoria.
"She’s not doing well at
all." Jack handed me her arms. She was ice cold. Her fingers were blue,
her eyes were closed, and she was very limp. I pulled her into the boat and sat
down, holding her tightly. Tears begin to form in my eyes. They rolled down my
cheeks, wetting her hair. "Tory, don’t you leave me! Damn it! You hang on.
I love you too much to let you go now!" I was handed a blanket after Jack
got in the boat. He wrapped himself up and leaned against Rose, who was barely
conscious herself. There was no movement from Victoria.
"Damn it, move this thing!
Get it back now! She’s got to see a doctor." I continued to hold her
tightly, trying to warm her cold body with mine, rocking her softly and trying
to get some sort of response out of her. I unbuttoned my heavy wool coat and
wrapped it around both of us. "Tory, I love you. Don’t leave me now."
I took off my heavier gloves, took off her icy wet ones, and slipped them on
her freezing cold hands, hoping that any frostbite she got would go away. I
threw her gloves overboard, and I kept my arms tightly wrapped around her. I
kissed her forehead, hoping she’d wake up. I was beginning to lose hope when I
saw the slightest movement in her hands. She twitched one of her fingers and
brought her arms in closer to her.
"Mmm…" She was
mumbling, but she was alive.
"Tory! Dear God, Tory, wake
up!" I was shaking her gently, trying to get something out of her.
"Mmm…my…oh…" She
stopped talking and barely opened her eyes. She looked around before focusing
on me. Her face seemed to relax when she saw it was me. "Harry…I…" I
knew what she was trying to say.
"I love you, too. Now, you
hang on! Don’t you die on me. You’re going to marry me! You are not going to
die here, frozen in the Atlantic."
Victoria looked up at me, and I
could feel her body relax into mine. "Marry you?"
I nodded my head. "Yes.
Marry me?"
She smiled. "Yes."
I couldn’t have been any happier
than I was right then. "Not my idea of a nice proposal, but it’ll have to
do." She smiled. "Don’t talk anymore. You need to conserve body
heat." She nodded, and I held her closer. She sighed. I knew we were going
to get through this. I looked over at Rose and Jack. She was lying back against
him, and he was holding her, too, trying to do the same thing I was doing with
Victoria.
We floated around in the ocean
for a little bit longer before the sun started to come up. The Carpathia had
come to get us. The lifeboats were being brought in next to the metal stairs of
the ship. As passengers were being loaded from the boats in front of us,
Victoria was sleeping in my arms. I had yet to let her go since we had gotten
her on board. Rose was sitting up, looking around. She had begun to feel
slightly better, but Jack wouldn’t let her out of his arms.
When it finally got to be our
turn, I let Jack and Rose go in front of us. The crew on board was next, and
finally, I gently lifted Victoria in my arms and carried her onto the
Carpathia.
One of the officers on that ship
stopped me. "Name?"
"The Titanic’s Fifth Officer
Harold Lowe. This is Victoria Metcalfe. She needs to see a doctor
immediately." He nodded and pointed me in the direction of the ship’s
hospital. I motioned for Rose and Jack to follow us. The same officer stopped
them. I saw Jack look at Rose before he gave them her name. She nodded.
"Jack Dawson, and this is my
wife, Rose Dawson." The officer wrote it down and moved on to the next
group. I shook my head, and they followed me into the ship’s hospital.
I gently lay Victoria on a cot.
She barely moved.
"I rescued my fiancée out of
the water, as well as her friends, the married couple over there."
The doctor got up from his chair.
"Victoria, my name is Dr. Willard. Can you hear me?"
She mumbled something. He was
checking her out when he asked Rose, Jack, and me to leave the room. I shut the
door after we walked out into the hallway. As I leaned against the wall, Rose
spoke up.
"She’s going to be
fine."
All I could do was look at Rose.
"Why didn’t you tell him who you really were?"
Rose looked at Jack. "I made
a promise that when the ship docked, I was getting off with him." She
looked into his eyes and smiled. "Love’ll do that to you." She
stopped to look at me. "But I guess you already knew that."
I shook my head. "What are
you going to do if your family finds you?"
"They won’t. If they look
for Rose Dawson in the passenger manifest, they won’t find it. Only Rose DeWitt
Bukater will be listed as deceased. Rose DeWitt Bukater is deceased. Rose
Dawson is alive and well, thanks to Jack Dawson." She kissed him on the
cheek.
The door to the ship’s hospital
opened. "You may go in now. Your fiancée is going to be fine. She’s still
very weak from being in the water, but she’s going to be fine."
A wave of relief washed over me.
"Thank you, Dr. Willard." He nodded and moved out of our way so we
could go in.
"I’ve got other patients to
see. If you need me, alert one of the stewards." He walked off, heading
towards where the rest of the rescued Titanic passengers were.
I sat down in a chair next to the
cot Victoria was lying on. She had her head propped up on a pillow. Dr. Willard
had covered her with a blanket. I took one of her hands in mine and put it
against my cheek. It was warm. "Tory? Can you hear me?"
Her eyes fluttered, and she began
to stir. "Harry."
"Tory, the doctor said
you’re going to be fine." She nodded. "That’s good, because you’re
still going to have to marry me. Any woman I rescue out of freezing water has
to marry me. It’s a White Star Line rule, don’t you know?"
She laughed at me. "I’ll
marry you whether you rescue me or not." She sat up. "Oh, God! My
father! My sister!" She threw the blanket off of her and tried to stand
up. She was very weak, and collapsed into my arms. I struggled to catch her,
but I did. "I have to find my family." She started to wiggle out of
my grip. "I have to find them!"
"Lie back down. I’ll go find
them. Rose and Jack will wait for you."
"No! I have to go with
you!" She tried to get up again. I held her back.
"Tory, listen to me. You are
too weak to walk. You wait here with Rose and Jack. I will look for them and
bring them back to you." She looked at me. "I promise you. I’ll find
them." I kissed her one more time before I stood up. I was hesitant going
out the door, but I promised Victoria I’d find her family.