FINDING LOVE IN THE PAST
Chapter Eleven
James walked towards the stern
slowly. He was walking so sluggishly because of the slant.
Lily’s POV
Lily sat in Boat 12. She stared
at the Titanic with tears streaming down her face. Why? she thought. Why
did I leave James? I should have stayed with him. Damn him and his
persuasiveness.
James’ POV
"James, is that you?"
James turned around and saw Max
coming up to him. "Max," James said in surprise. "You’re still
here. Where’s Kathleen?"
"She’s in one of the
lifeboats. Speaking of which, I can’t talk long." He asked if Lily was in
a lifeboat before continuing. "I need you to do me a favor."
James looked at Max and answered,
"Of course. What is it?"
Max looked around and said,
"It’s obvious that the Titanic will sink. The First Officer just told me
that there aren’t enough lifeboats for all the passengers." Max paused
before continuing. "This is hard for me to ask, but in case I
don’t…survive, and you do, I would appreciate it if you would give this to Kathleen."
He reached into his pocket and took out a letter. He handed it to James, who
put it in his own pocket.
"What’s in the letter?"
Max sighed. "It’s my
good-bye. I have to go now. Please remember to give the letter to
Kathleen."
"Don’t worry. I’ll remember."
"Thank you." Before
leaving, Max added, "I knew I could count on you." Then he said
good-bye and left.
James started to walk, wishing
that all this would be over soon. He wanted to be at Hogwarts again with Lily.
He also wanted to see his friends again.
He reached a dead end. Crowds of
passengers were starting to block the way. He pushed his way to the railing and
saw three lifeboats. One was being uncovered, one was already taking on
passengers, and the other one, which was smaller than the rest, was left
unnoticed at the moment.
The officer in charge of loading
the lifeboats was looking around the crowd of men. "Crewmembers!" he
shouted, but no one came. "I need two men to row the lifeboat." He
chose some male passengers to work the davits in order to lower the lifeboat.
The officer looked around and said, "I need more people to help!"
Lily’s POV
Lily was shivering from the icy
cold. Think of warm places, she told herself. This isn’t working! If
I ever get back to Hogwarts, I will lock myself in a room with a fireplace.
James’ POV
James couldn’t believe his luck.
He was sitting in Boat 2, helping out by steering. He thought about how he got
there. The officer in charge had chosen the passenger next to James to help row
the lifeboat. Then he had told James that he needed him to steer the boat. As
the lifeboat was being lowered, James looked into the portholes. The first
class rooms were still brightly lit on C-Deck or B-Deck, James couldn’t tell
which. The water rushing in was visible and the furniture was tumbling across
the floor. Before they hit the ocean, the men on board were searching for a
plug. A person found it easily, since the boat was half full, and put in place
just as they hit the dark ocean. They rowed away with difficulty. It took James
awhile to learn how to use the small rudder. Soon, they were a safe distance
from the Titanic. Now, all they could do was wait.
Lily’s POV
Lily stared at the Titanic
without blinking. The tilt of the ship was getting steeper with every moment. Please,
Lily pleaded. Please, let James be safe. She tried to block out the
sounds of the ship and the people left onboard screaming. More tears filled her
eyes when she could see that there were a lot of passengers and crew left
onboard with only four small boats. James, she said to herself. Where
are you?
"Did you hear that?" a
woman who was in the lifeboat with Lily asked.
"What?" a crewmember
asked.
"The captain. Listen!"
Then they heard it. The captain
was shouting something out to the lifeboats through a megaphone.
"What did he say?"
"I think he told the
lifeboats to come back."
"They want us to take on
more passengers!"
The crewman in charge of the boat
said, "No. We’re not going back."
Lily asked, "What?"
The crewman yelled back,
"We’re not going back! They’ll drag us down when the ship sinks. There
will be a whirlpool and we’ll all get caught in it."
A young woman said to the
crewman, "But we have to do something."
The crewman just ignored her and
ordered the other crewmen to row further away.
The rest of the night’s events
became imbedded in Lily and James’ minds. They watched from different places as
the last lifeboat left the Titanic, overfilled. They heard Captain Smith
announce to the crew through the megaphone, "It’s every man for
himself!"
The first shock was when the
passengers in the lifeboats witnessed some people on board jump overboard into
the icy ocean. Moments later, the forward funnel collapsed, trapping people in
the ocean under it.
Lily closed her eyes in horror.
When she reopened them, the first thing she saw was all the lights on the ship
blink once, then go out completely. Now everyone could see the Titanic outlined
by the stars in the sky. What they could barely see was now transferred into
sound. An unbearable sound of ripping metal shot through the night. Everyone in
the lifeboats watched as the great ship broke in two and the bow sank into the
black ocean. There were still a lot of people left on the stern, people
screaming for help, people jumping into the darkness. Then the stern started to
fill with water and slowly disappeared beneath the surface. In the lifeboat
next to Lily’s, a crewmember announced that it was 2:20 in the morning.
The next hour was the longest
ever. To Lily, it felt like two days. Soon, in the next half hour, the screams
died down until it was completely quiet. They were all alone.
After about thirty minutes, some
passengers in Lily’s lifeboat looked toward the horizon. Then Lily saw it, too.
Rockets. Their rescue ship was finally here!