BETWEEN TWO HEARTS
Chapter Ten
April 15, 1912
2:15 AM
Siobhan moved up the deck as fast
as she could, but sometimes her legs couldn’t carry her as fast as she wanted
to go. The slope of the deck was getting to be steeper by the minute. She
managed to clear the two decks that she needed to clear in order to get to the
stern.
She felt the ship groan
underneath her as she followed the crowd to the top of the forty-five degree
slant. It didn’t seem like the ship was going to stop moving up to a vertical
angle, and the slant was getting too steep to continue the climb. She made her
way over to the bars that lined the edge of the deck and used the traction
allowed by the assistance of them to assist in her climb.
She could only make it so far
before she was forced to stop and grab hold of the bars on the side in order to
keep her as close to the ship as she could get. All of the passengers around
her who didn’t have a firm hold on something attached to the ship began to
slide down the almost vertical deck.
She didn’t notice the groaning
beneath her until she felt the ship fall back.
She fell against the deck,
wrenching her right arm behind her when she hit. A sharp pain ran through her
shoulder as she cried out, but she let go just as easily. She hit the deck
while grimacing. "Ugh!" she managed to choke out as she landed on the
deck. She didn’t waste much time and, even though her head was spinning, she
managed to hurry to the back of the stern.
Cries came up from the people who
were left on board, thinking that they had been saved and that their prayers
had been answered. What they didn’t realize was the fact that the lull would
only last for a couple of minutes.
Siobhan grabbed onto the railing
at the end of the stern just before the incline started to rise again. Shouts
from those souls that managed to remain on the ship began to resound throughout
the air as the stern began to swing up again.
"Oh, God!" She tried to
grab the bars with her arms, but felt a sharp sensation race through her right
shoulder. Instinctively she let go and held on with her left arm.
It’s not going to stop…it’s
not attached to anything.
She managed to painfully swing
herself up to the point where she was straddling the bar. The incline got
steeper and steeper by the second and, just as it was about fully vertical, she
managed to pull herself into a kneeling position on the opposite side of the
bars.
In no time flat, the stern of the
ship was completely vertical. It was extremely surreal, noting the fact that
only a week or so ago the ship was known to be unsinkable. Now, in its final
minute or two, over half of her passengers were either in the water or about to
join the group already in the freezing cold ocean.
"Oh, no!"
"Hold on!"
"Help me!"
"Our Father…"
The hundreds of voices around her
began to cry out as the ship stood still. The air was thick with anticipation
of the final plunge, though the severed half of the ship seemed to have a mind
of its own.
Siobhan gripped the bar with her
left hand and held her breath. She had no clue where anyone was--her uncle,
Moody, Murdoch, Owen, Catriona…Harold…for all she knew, the people who she had
come to know during the voyage could all be dead. Of course, all except for her
love, who managed to escape on a lifeboat…according to his best friend.
The descent into the murky black
water began slowly and drew many a cry from the terror-stricken passengers. Her
heart began to beat faster as she realized that they were now facing the
inevitable. The grip on the bars holding her up tightened as she realized that
she would be hitting the water sometime within the next few minutes.
"Don’ worry, miss," a
man’s voice said from right next to her. She turned and saw a man wearing what
appeared to be a baker’s uniform. "Jus’ keep paddlin’ for the top."
She nodded and didn’t say anything.
When she was only a few feet from
the water, she stood up and prepared to get off of the ship and onto a piece of
floating debris--or, if she was lucky enough, to a boat. "Hold your
breath!" she heard the baker shout. The water came up too quickly…but
after it came over her feet, she panicked. She couldn’t get away from the
ship--her foot got caught on the bar, dragging her down with the wreckage.
Her mind began to race as she
went down with the ship. I must get my foot out.
She reached down and tugged at
her boot. She felt that one of the buckles was holding it down and managed to
get it loose, her foot coming out right away. Her lifebelt began to do its job
as she began to move towards the surface.
*****
"And there she is, Siv.
Titanic. She is almost ready to set sail."
Andrews held out his hand and
helped his niece out of the car. Siobhan took his hand and got down onto the
ground. It was apparent that her relative was extremely excited that his baby
was just about completed.
"She’s beautiful,
Uncle…" She trailed off in awe as she gazed at the gargantuan hull that
would soon hold many, many lives.
"Yes…we’ve spared no
expense, my dear. All the finest wood carvings, all the finest china…we have
even kept the Third Class passengers in mind; the Third Class areas are
equivalent to the First Class areas on board the other ships."
She took in everything that was
before her. "You must be proud, Uncle. She is quite a sight."
"Yes, she is. I am very
proud of her. So very proud."
*****
Siobhan was snapped back to
reality when her head hit something quite hard…almost like a wooden board. She
quickly realized what was going on and put her hands up, allowing herself to
feel the way around the obstacle and above the water.
Her head shot up above the
surface and she was hit with cries of pain. The people around her were flailing
their arms about while trying to get to any sort of flotation device.
"Help us!"
"Please, help us!"
She grabbed onto the chair which
she had hit her head on. She was barely able to feel the piercing cold of the
seawater that night--thanks to the brandy that her uncle had given her--but she
knew, almost instinctively, that she needed to pull herself up out of the
water. Who knew what sort of damage was already done?
She did not know where her uncle
had gone. She had no idea where Lowe was floating in the endless void that had
become the sea around those in the water. All she could do now was wait…wait
for the help that would hopefully come…but a part of her began to doubt what
she yearned to hope was the truth.
The voices slowly began to grow
quiet. All of Siobhan’s sense of time had become disoriented. Was it anywhere
near the morning? Was it anytime near daylight? She had felt the brandy that
was in her system wear off a while back. Oh, how she wanted the numbing feeling
in her body again. She did not like feeling pain throughout her body due to the
bitter cold.
She slowly turned her head to the
right and saw a lifeboat floating about fifty feet from her. At her first glance
she thought it was the lifeboat that had been sent back to save them. She took
a second glance. This boat was sitting rather low in the water. It also wasn’t
too packed…but were any of the lifeboats really filled to capacity? Maybe she
would be able to get on this one.
She silently slid into the water.
Her body was so stiff and numb that she slid in with ease--aside from cringing
due to the pain, thanks to her new surroundings--but her entrance was followed
by a slapping of the water from her flotation device. The noise didn’t faze her
too much; her mind was only on one thing--getting to the boat.
She got up near the boat but
couldn’t find the strength to draw the passengers’ attention to her. Her heart
sank as thoughts of death came flowing through her mind. She slapped the water
out of frustration; the sudden burst of energy coming out of nowhere. Her legs
began to paddle and her arms continued to move out of an effort to keep the
blood flowing through her limbs.
Suddenly, like an answered
prayer, she saw a face looking down at her from the boat. It was Owen. Owen,
she thought to herself, struggling to call out his name. She saw him turn
back and argue with the other passengers on board, but only a few moments later
she saw them form a human rope to get her on board. She was going to be okay.
4:30 AM
She was snapped out of her
reminiscent state of mind as she felt someone poking her in the ribs. "Are
you all right?" Owen brushed a piece of fallen hair out of the way.
"Yeah," she said as she
smiled at him. "Just out of curiosity…" She trailed off, not wanting
to say what she feared.
A smile came across his face.
"She’s right over there," he said softly as he nodded his head
towards the dazed woman sitting on the other side of the boat. She could see
that just beyond her friend Catriona, the very first rays of the new day were
beginning to peek over the horizon.
Siobhan knew that in a couple of
hours she would feel the sun shining upon her numb body once again. Oh, how she
yearned for that feeling.
Owen put his hand on her
shoulder. "It’ll be all right," he said. "Once we get on the
rescue ship, I’m certain that you’ll be reunited with that man of yours."
A grin came across her face.
"Aye…I sure do hope so. And
hopefully once we get to America, I’ll have someone meet me there."
"Anyone come to mind?"
"No. We’ll have to
see."
He would have continued the
conversation, but there was a cry from the other end of the boat. "There’s
a boat! With people!" She turned and saw that indeed it was true. Other
people began to realize that they were saved.
"Over here!"
"We’re saved!"
"Come about!"
People began to wave their arms
in the air in an attempt to gain the attention of the person who was manning
the boat. They seemed to have had success, as the more alert passengers saw the
approach of the boat move so it was coming towards them.
"Let’s get those who need it
ready to transfer," Owen said, trying to rouse those who weren’t doing as
well as the others. "Come on!" Siobhan took the hint and began to
move as best as she could around to the other passengers, trying to see who
needed into a dryer boat most. As she came upon those people, she tried to move
them up towards the front.
*****
The lifeboat came alongside the
half-sunken collapsible with just enough room for the people on board. Lowe had
to move a couple of the passengers already on Boat 14 around in order to give
them enough boarding room and, stepping over into the other boat--while hitting
a shallow puddle of water at the same time--he began to take some of the
passengers from the collapsible into his.
"Step lightly," he said
almost absentmindedly. After all, he had kept saying that a lot earlier that
morning. He took the great majority of the passengers and quickly helped them
in. They took seats in Boat 14, relieved to be out of the water that was in
their boat all night.
Lowe had just about gotten all of
the passengers in when he heard a familiar voice. "Go ahead, Owen,"
the female said. He snapped out of the passive state of mind that he had fallen
into. He reached for the male who was coming towards him and brought him over.
He could almost feel his heart stop as he saw who was behind him.
She was leaned over, feeling the
pulse on one of the three bodies that were left behind. He would have known
that red hair anywhere. That red hair that always had the faint smell of
juniper…that belonged to the Irish maiden that had won his heart in less than a
week.
"Siobhan?"
She stopped moving and slowly
stood up, turning around and meeting eyes with him. Indeed, it was her.
His heart almost stopped from
joy. She was alive…Siobhan Andrews, the keeper of his heart, had survived the
night.