Written
by Kathleen
Based on some situations originated by James Cameron.
"Big boat, eh?" Bert Cartmell asked
his daughter teasingly.
"Daddy, it's a ship!" she corrected
him.
Just then she heard a series of beeps and
turned around to see several vehicles, specifically Renaults, drive up. A man,
a very well dressed man, got out of the car and looked up happily at the ship.
Cora saw him help a beautiful girl with hair a splendid red, hidden under an
enormous, gaudy hat that matched her outfit. Cora was amazed. She had never
seen so many nice clothes, or trunks! They had at least ten trunks per person
and Cora saw three!
"Come on," Bert told her. They were
next in line for the inspection queue. Cora hated every bit of it. She wanted
to shout at the man conducting it, "We'd more likely catch disease in
America than here ye bleeding bloke!" But she held her tongue.
"Hurry up!" Bert said, pulling her
along. Soon they were walking up the gangplank, boarding the Titanic, and
boarding their destiny.
*****
The next day, Thursday, after the Irish
passengers had boarded at Queenstown, Cora made a friend of an American man,
traveling home to something called Wisconsin. Cora didn't know where it was but
it sounded...nice.
"Can I draw ya and you daughter?"
he asked Bert. Bert nodded and helped Cora up onto the rail. To Cora's delight,
there were dolphins swimming below, and she had a bit of fun watching them. As
the man, he was called Jack by his friends, finished, Cora hopped to look at
it. It was fabulous! Down to every detail it was she!
"Ah, forget it boyo. You'd likely have
angels fly out o' your arse to next to the likes o' her," an Irishman they
called Tommy joked.
Cora looked at Jack and saw he was looking
up. She looked up and saw the beautiful first class girl from the Renault. She
didn't have a hat on anymore, and she was quite pretty without it, too. Despite
her beauty and her top position, her eyes told her real feelings. She was
melancholy. Quiet, melancholy, and sad. Lonely and depressed were good words to
describe her, too. Suddenly, she locked eyes with Jack, but looked away quickly.
But to Cora's surprise, she looked back at him. They looked as if they alone
shared a secret. It was if they were the only ones, a secret they told each
other with their eyes. To Cora's dismay, a man, the man she saw get out of the
Renault with the girl, came up and grabbed her arm. She whipped her arm away
and spoke harshly to the man before stalking off. Cora could tell she did not
like the man. She sighed and walked away with Bert.
*****
On Saturday night, after dinner in the third
class common room, Cora saw Jack again. Actually, she danced with him. But she
saw that he had somehow met the sad first class girl, whose name turned out to
be Rose.
As she twirled around with Jack, she saw out
of the corner of her eye that Rose looked like she was having the most fun she
had had in years. Soon the song ended and Jack went up to Rose.
"Come on," he said. She seemed a
little surprised and protested a few times, but finally gave in. He noticed
that Cora was looking a little glum, for she had liked dancing with him.
"You're still my best girl, Cora," he said. Cora grinned and went
back to her Daddy. She sat in his lap, holding her doll, clapping her hands to
the music and giggling at Rose and Jack, who were dancing.
The night soon wore away, and the fateful
Sunday took its toll.
*****
"What? What's this all about?" Bert
asked the steward groggily as he sat up in bed.
Cora slowly opened her eyes and looked out
into the hallway. There were streams of people running around and there were
even a few rats.
"What's happening, Daddy?" she
asked him.
"I don't know, dear. Let's get dressed
and go up on deck." Cora agreed and quickly pulled her dress and coat on,
followed by her hat and mittens. They hurriedly ran down the hallway, only to
be stopped by a gate. A locked gate. The steward on the other side said that it
was not their turn to go up to the boats yet and to please stay calm.
"The bloody bastard!" Cora scoffed.
"Don't use such talk, dear. We'll find a
way up." Cora saw that Bert didn't look as assured as he sounded.
"Let us up, ye bloody bloke!" Cora
shouted.
"Ye can't keep us locked down here like
animals, the ship's bloody sinking!" Cora recognized Tommy's voice. She
saw that he was right by the gate, yelling in the steward's face.
"Woman and children only! No men!"
the steward shouted. "Unlock the gate," he said to another steward
next to him.
The steward unlocked the gate and a few women
near the front got through, but then some frightened men started to barge their
way through. The stewards and crewmembers tried to hold them back, and one man
got hit in the face with the butt end of an ax, and they ended up relocking the
gates.
Cora felt the urge to run up there and scream
in the man's face, but Bert put his hands on her shoulders and wouldn't let
her.
"Besides, he has a gun," he said.
Cora nodded her head. But she still shouted.
"Bastard! Idiot! Madman!" she
yelled.
"Pipe down, Cora," Bert soothed.
"We'll go find another way if you'd like." Cora nodded her head
eagerly and took off down the corridor. Just then, a crowd of people burst
through from another hallway and Bert was separated from Cora.
Cora suddenly realized Bert was not right
behind her. "Daddy? DADDY?" she called frantically.
She had finally decided she was lost when
Jack, Rose, Tommy, and an Italian fellow they called Fabrizio burst through the
hallway.
"Jack!" Cora called.
"Cora! Come with us!" Jack grabbed
her hand and pulled her along.
"My Daddy's back there!" she
wailed.
"We'll find your Daddy later! We've got
to find an unlocked gate!" Rose soothed. Cora noticed she and Jack were
soaked.
Cora nodded meekly and allowed herself to be
pulled along by Jack.
When they found another gate, it was locked.
"Go back to the main stairwell, and
everything will be sorted out there," the steward was saying.
"Open the gate," Jack said.
"Go back to the main stairwell..."
the man started to say.
"Open the gate RIGHT NOW!" Jack
insisted.
"Go back to the main stairwell like I
told you!" the steward said loudly.
"God Dammit! Son of a bitch!
AAAAAHHH!" Jack went crazy and started shaking the gate. He looked around
for something to knock the gate down with. Cora saw him look at a bench in the
back. He ran to it and started trying to pull it loose. "Fabri, Tommy!
Give me hand!" he called to them. They ran over and together, they
successfully freed it. Rose was pushing people to the side as Jack counted,
"One, two, three! Now!" they rammed it into the gate with
unsuccessful results. "AGAIN! NOW!" When they rammed it into the gate
this time, the gate toppled over and they were free. They all climbed over the
gate one by one. Tommy helped Cora over.
They didn't stop running until they were up
on deck. But with the crowds getting panicky, Cora was soon separated from
them.
Not again! Without them I'll die! I can't
swim! What will I do? Thoughts filled
Cora's head.
"Oh, little girl!" a crewman cried.
"You don't have your lifebelt! Here, take mine!" He unfastened his
own life belt and put it on Cora.
"Thank you, sir," she said.
She waddled about for the next bit of time.
Never really doing anything. Suddenly, a sight that made her eyes widen. A big
wave. A big wave was coming straight at her. She grabbed her hat off her head
and hung onto it tightly, bracing herself for the cold water coming down upon
her head.
It hit her like a thousand knives, stabbing
her all over her body, washing her off the sinking ship. She struggled in the
water, for she couldn't swim. By and by, she used up all her energy. She lay
still in the water. Her head raced.
What happened to Jack?
What happened to Rose?
What happened to Tommy and Fabrizio?
But most of all, What happened to Daddy?
I'm going to die.
My limbs have all gone numb. I can't feel
them any more! I can't feel them.
A light! I see a light! she thought excitedly. She used the last of her
strength to put her hat back on her head, and closed her eyes for the last
time.
*****
As Officer Harold Lowe came back in Boat 14,
his heart melted at the sight of so many dead. A woman with her eyes frozen open.
A woman with her baby. But most of all, a little girl, all bundled up. With her
hat on her head of tangled brown curls. He sighed. "We waited too
long."
Suddenly, a whistle sounded...
The End.
