Written by I Can't Unlove You
Based on some situations originated by James Cameron.

"Mum! Why do we have to go on this ship? I like England!" Scarlett Prinktis complained to her mother at the docks in Southampton, England. Emily Prinktis sighed an unhappy sigh.

"Sweetie, you know why we have to go. Your father’s new job is in New York!" she answered, rubbing her temples with her index finger. Scarlett’s father, Jacob Prinktis, tousled her hair.

"You’re going to love it there, honey! And you’re going to love the Titanic, too--it’s the grandest ship in the world!" he said happily. Scarlett looked up at him with wide, nervous eyes.

"But I’m afraid of ships, Father," the eight-year-old girl said. Jacob looked down at his daughter with sadness.

"I know, honey, but please just try to enjoy the trip," he said.

"Look--our ride is here!" Scarlett looked over in the direction he was pointing. The tugboat, the Erin, was waiting for all of the wide-eyed passengers of the Titanic. They all slowly walked to the Erin, all the while watching the enormous, unmoving ship. Scarlett remembered that her father had said that the ship was unsinkable. Thomas Andrews had said so himself, and he was the ship builder! Scarlett’s eyes began to droop, despite the commotion about the new ship. As her sight got blurred, she saw one more glimpse of the Titanic--and then she was asleep.

Scarlett felt something warm and soft over her. She didn’t want to get up, but she had to see where she was. She sat up and found herself in a stateroom, one of the nicest staterooms she had ever been in, although this was the first. She looked at the side wall--there was a porthole. She jumped off of the queen-sized bed and ran over to the window. She dragged a chair under the porthole and climbed on it to peer outside. They were still docked at Southampton, and she saw people anxiously waiting their turn on the dock, wanting to get aboard. She climbed down off of the chair and looked around at the stateroom once more. There was very nicely carved maplewood paneling on the walls and ceiling. The chairs were the same wood, but the cushions upon them were a red velvet fabric, as were the sheets that she had so carelessly tossed aside. She had a wooden vanity table, bathroom, and closet. The door to her parents’ stateroom was closed. She quickly walked over to it, but when she put her hand to the bronze doorknob, she stopped. She could hear her parents talking quietly but angrily. She put her ear to the door and her hand to the doorknob so her parents wouldn’t come barging in and catch her eavesdropping.

She heard her mother cry, "Why did you make us leave England? We like it here, not that dangerous New York!"

Then her father’s voice. "Yes, but there are more opportunities in New York! And you do want me to still make money for food for the family! How do you think we got these first class tickets? My job! Would you like to stay in this luxury, or live out on the streets?"

"I still want to stay in England!"

"Well, we are already here, so we are going! That is final!"

Scarlett didn’t want to hear anymore and she wanted to break up the fight, so she opened the door. She caught her parents glaring at each other, but when they noticed her they softened.

"I’m sorry. Did we wake you?" Emily asked, putting a hand to her daughter’s forehead.

"No. I just woke up. Can I go out on deck?" Scarlett asked.

"Alone? I don’t think you should. I will go with you," Jacob cut in.

"All right!" Scarlett said brightly.

She ran into the closet in her bedroom to get a hat. She picked out a cute little woven hat with a bright blue bow on the back. When she saw three lifebelts hanging by a hook in the closet, her stomach flip-flopped, remembering that she was at sea. Putting on the hat, she and her father strolled down the corridors up to the new deck. When they got into the bright sunlight, Scarlett shielded her eyes from the rays. Even though she was wearing a hat, she had just woken up, and the light was giving her a headache. Honeymooners, couples, and husbands and wives were out on deck as well, watching the departure of the Titanic. Scarlett saw an elegantly dressed woman out by the railing holding a cat, which was equally elegant. She heard the rhythm of the engines start beneath her and they started off.

Suddenly, she heard someone scream, "We’re going to crash!"

She looked off in the distance toward the other ships. It was true! The Titanic’s engines had created suction and it had made the ship New York’s moorings snap! It was headed straight for them! Her father pulled her back, anticipating the crash, as everyone else was. Suddenly, big lines wrapped around the New York and slowly pulled it away from the Titanic. The tugboats had regained control of the smaller ship. As the Titanic safely made it out of the docks, Scarlett finally breathed out. She realized she had been holding her breath, waiting for the impact.

"Come, Scarlett. Your mother will be waiting for us in the dining room. We must tell her about this!" her father said excitedly.

In the Titanic’s dining room, it seemed as if everything was beautiful and flawless, except for the fact that Scarlett’s parents wouldn’t even look at each other. Scarlett awkwardly ate her lunch as their dining guest, Detective Simon, told of his adventures and all the crimes he had solved, while the Prinktis family was silent. When Scarlett felt the engines stop after dinner, she grew ecstatic.

"Mother, Father, we are in France! Do you not want to see it?" she exclaimed, dragging her parents after her up to the top deck. She saw mountains of grassland rippling out before them, and already she knew that she loved this land.

"Oh, it’s beautiful!" Emily cried.

"Yes, it is," Jacob said, putting his arm around his wife.

Scarlett smiled. She could hear loud cheers and music coming from below her, so she leaned over the railing, looking at the poop deck. All of the third class passengers were partying and having fun. She wished she could be dancing and laughing and playing, but for a first class passenger, that wouldn’t be proper etiquette. When they were back in their staterooms, and when Mr. and Mrs. Prinktis thought Scarlett was asleep, they argued again. Scarlett listened intently.

"Even Scarlett doesn’t want to go!"

"The ship is already partway through the voyage! We couldn’t do anything even if we wanted to!"

"Yes, we can! We can get off this ship at the next stop, go to Ireland, and get on a ship back to England! It’s that simple!"

"No, it isn’t! We are going to New York! It’s what’s best for everyone!"

"No! It’s not best for Scarlett and me! Think about me! Think about our daughter! England is her home, what she knows! At such a young age, you’re willing to make such a big change for her?"

"You’re just trying to make me guilty by using Scarlett! It’s not going to work! Dear, we are going to New York!"

Scarlett could hear her mother flop on their bed, sighing in defeat. Her heart beating somewhere in her throat, she wished everything would just go back to normal.

The next two days were a living nightmare. In the morning, Scarlett’s parents would drink coffee and give each other the silent treatment. At luncheon, they would just eat, listen to Detective Simon, and give each other the silent treatment. At night, they would eat dinner and give each other the silent treatment. Scarlett was ready to rip her hair out bald from all the silence! In the lift, in the dining room, even in their own staterooms, her parents wouldn’t speak to each other! On the third day of the fight, Scarlett grabbed her coat, cap, muffler, and gloves and went out on deck. The temperature had dropped several degrees since earlier that day, and she was finding herself shivering despite her layers of clothing.

Tasting salt on her lips and looking out into the dark, velvet sky filled with yellow, twinkling stars, she said quietly, "Wish I may, wish I might on the first star I see tonight. I want my parents to stop the fight. Wish I may, wish I might." A cold tear slid down her cheek, thinking of the past, when her parents didn’t fight and they had a fun life.

On the fourth day, Scarlett decided to explore instead of listen to her parents say nothing to each other at dinner. When she looked out of her porthole and saw that the twilight was morphing into darkness, she crept down the corridors and halls, passing strolling couples along the way. When she got to the third class--the stewards let her pass through the locked gates--she saw a door. Now, this was a different kind of door, one that would make someone curious. It was made out of metal, and it had a swirling pattern on it. She wondered who lived there. Just to see if it was locked, she put a trembling hand on the doorknob and twisted it. The door swung open to reveal pitch black darkness. She shakily walked inside the room, knowing that it wasn’t a good idea. Suddenly, her foot kicked something and her face twisted in pain. She reached down blindly and waved her hand across the floor to see what she had hit. Suddenly, she felt something. Her hand felt something oily but soft sticking straight up in a cup and something square. She realized that it was a candle stick and a box of matches. She quickly took a match from the box and struck the box to light it. She touched the match to the candle, and the candle lit the room. She could see clearly now. There was nothing in there but that candle. It was warm in the room from the candle, and for some reason she was sweating nervously. Suddenly, Scarlett felt a sudden jolt and heard a large scraping coming from where she was, which vibrated the ground beneath her. After a few seconds, the sound stopped, but so did the engines. The engines were dead.

Panicking, the frightened girl fled the empty, musty room to go up on deck. After showing the stewards at the gate her first class ticket, she hurried up to the deck. There was an aggravating sound coming from the smokestacks, like a hoard of wild, claustrophobic children screaming to get out of a tiny closet. Scarlett covered her ears in pain. Confused people began forming crowds up on deck to stay warm. They were trying to warm up because they were all in their pajamas or robes.

After the crew tried to calm people down, they started to strip off the lifeboat covers and yell, "Women and children first!"

"Scarlett!" Jacob Prinktis called to his daughter in the enormous crowd.

"Daddy!" Scarlett replied happily, hugging her father. He had brought her warm clothes and a lifebelt.

"Put these on, quick!" he told her anxiously. Scarlett did as she was told.

"What’s going on?" she asked.

"The ship hit an iceberg. It’s sinking. We have to get you in a lifeboat!" he answered, pushing her towards the boats.

"What about you?" Scarlett asked. "And Mother?" Her father bent down to see her at her eye level.

"Honey, your mother and I have been fighting, and I think she went down to third class to calm down. I don’t know where she is," he said calmly. Then he gave her to a crewman.

"Why don’t you go with her?" the kind-hearted crewman asked calmly.

"I will," he said, stepping in with Scarlett. They were slowly lowered into the vast, dark sea. Her feet were numbing inside the boots he had brought her. Scarlett looked out at the ship. There was a definite tilt to the ship now. Suddenly, she heard giant bangings and scrapings coming from the heart of the ship. It was furniture and boilers falling into the half of the ship that was leaning into the water. After a while, the lights finally went out. When the ship was so far into the sky that it couldn’t take the pressure, it cracked in half. Scarlett heard the noise as soon as it started, and her hands flew up to her ears to escape the noise. One half of the ship went under the water as the top part pointed at a ninety-degree angle into the sky. And then it went under the below-freezing water as well. Scarlett didn’t remove her hands. She could hear the screams of more than one thousand people who hadn’t made it into lifeboats and weren’t going to survive.

"Scarlett," her father said quietly.

"Yes?" Scarlett answered.

"I’m so sorry. For the horrible trip, for making you and your mother leave England--and I should’ve checked the captain’s office to make sure there were no dangers--"

"Father, it’s all right. I’m sorry that you’ve...probably...lost Mother. But we have each other. That’s what matters."

Jacob hugged his daughter with affection.

The End.

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