By J.Jeleena
The blow of a sharp whistle and the whooshing sound of the steam from the boilers of the ship gave the people in the port an idea that the Titanic ship was getting ready for its voyage from Southampton to New York City. Many people were saying goodbye to their family members. The passengers of the ship were divided into three categories: the first-class, the second-class, and the third-class people. One of the third-class passengers was an Irish widow woman who was getting boarded with her daughter and son.
The mother had a tight hold of her two kids and started to board the ship. “Show me your tickets, ma’am,” the ticket inspector asked her about her tickets. She showed him her tickets as well as her children’s tickets. She had a boarding pass for three people in the third-class category. “Please go this way and turn left. As you are in the third-class category, you all have to be inspected for aliments and physical impairments,” he informed them.
The woman was bemused. “What! Is there any reason why we have to get inspected?” “It’s like a precaution because of the U.S. permit protocol. It’s not very serious of you to bother about it. Just go along with the procedure, ma’am,” he responded. “It’s utterly ridiculous. Why does society always have to look down upon the third-class people as if we are not humans and we don’t have feelings and all?” The bewildered woman mumbled to herself and started to board the ship with her children trailing behind her on the way.
All three of them get inspected and get approval to board the ship. A steward showed them the way to their cabin and then went away. “Mom, I want to go there, where the lady with the big hat is gone.” Her daughter whined. “Me too! Me too!” Her brother also chirped along with her. “Oh Hush! You both. We can’t go there, my dears. It’s only for first-class people. People like us can’t go there,” the mother of them scolded and explained why they couldn’t go there.
“But what is first-class, mom?” the young boy asked her. “Well, they are the people who spend money lavishly on trivial things, they always brag about having money, and most importantly, they can only think about themselves and not others. They don’t have a kind heart.” His sister explained it in an animated way to him instead of his mother.
The siblings were having a conversation about how to spend their time during the voyage. The mother of them was trying to find their cabin in the hallway. Suddenly, the young lad stumbled upon someone and got saved. “Hey! Be careful, young man.” “Thank you! Mister, for saving him on time,” the mother thanked him for saving her son. “Oh! It’s ok, ma’am. No problem. By the way, I’m Jack.” The handsome man introduced himself to her. “Nice to meet you. I’m-” Before she finished her introduction, someone called him. “My friend Fabrizio called me. I have to go. See you later, kids,” he waved to them and went off.
“Let’s go, darlings. We have to find our cabin,” she informed them. After a few minutes of searching, they found their cabins in the compartment. The cabin was spacious for them, but they had to share it with other people as well. On both sides, it had a two-berth facility. One of the main problems was that, it was the noisiest compartment compared with the other classes. As it was in the lowest area of the ship, it was close to the engine area. They had no choice but to spend their voyage in this cabin only.
The lifting of the anchor could be heard, and then the ship started to depart from the port around noontime. The passengers cheerfully waved their hands to say goodbye from the deck to their parting members who stood on the port. Little did they know, it would be their final goodbyes.
“Woah! Look at the port; it became so small.” “Yeah! And the people are looking so tiny right now.” “Hey! Look there, look there.” “Cool! So many dolphins.” Both the kids were gushing and rambling in enthusiasm from the beginning of their voyage, and their mother reminded them about their safety. “Be careful, darlings. Don’t go near the edge of the railings.”
The time on the ship was going in a sluggish manner. All the sugary excitement of the kids died down in two days. They played, they ran, they got tired, and they would again start to play and run. They wandered around the ship to all the places that were allowed for them to go. During their playtime adventure, they took note of many amusing things on the ship. They found out that the ship was bigger than the two football fields. The rooms had a telephone system and an electric light system. All the smoke and steam escaped only through three boilers, even though there were four boilers. Actually, the fourth one was a fake, and it was only used to make the ship look majestic. There were only a few female crew members. Only the first-class patrons had approval for all the fun-filled entertainments, like the heated swimming pool, tea garden, and library access, and they could also play tennis on a squash court. On the contrary, there were only two bathtubs available for the third-class passengers, which had to be shared among them.
It was the third day on the ship, and the siblings were narrating their adventure story to their mother. “Mom, you know some people say that this ship is unsinkable. So cool! Right” “I know it’s cool, son, but nothing is perfect and permanent, sweethearts,” she commented on their thoughts.
“And what else have you young detectives found?” she asked them. “Mommy, we saw so many peculiar things and fascinating people. We also saw a woman who tried to fly, but the man who stood near her didn’t allow her and got hold of her. Sis, let’s show our mom what they looked like.” Those two kids tried to enact the posture. The young lad stood behind her and held her waist, while his sister spread her arms like the woman they had seen. On witnessing this recreational moment, the mother just chuckled, she was contented that her kids were enjoying this voyage.
“Mom, when will we reach the land again?” “Yes mommy! It’s so boring in here.” The siblings complained to their mother, after their recap of their adventure. “It looks like all your energy got drained, huh! We got on this ship on Wednesday, which was April 10th. And it’s only the third day of our journey. It will take some more days for us to reach you, dears.” After hearing this information from their mother, they huffed and grumbled to show their frustration.
“Ok! Ok! Now stop your protests. How about this? If you guys try to be good kids, I will tell you both your bedtime stories like your olden days.” The mother made a proposal to them, and she knew it was the only way to quieten them. “Mm Ok.” “Ok! Deal.” Somehow, the sibling got convinced by the deal. Later that day, after their dinner, she told them, three bedtime stories, until they fell asleep.
The fourth day on the ship was April 13th. The kids spend their time idly wandering, talking with their friends, and playing with them. Not only that, but even adults started to get fatigued by this voyage, so they planned a feast at night like the first-class people do to kill their boredom. There was a difference in this feast; it was so lively and high-spirited, unlike an apathetic feast of the first class. So, the kids as well as adults were all eager for this night.
Finally, the anticipated moment they had all been waiting for arrived. The night was so dynamic and animated. Ditsy teenagers and goofy adults were dancing with their partners, some boisterous lads were having drinking challenges among them, and kids were having the moment of their lives by eating, playing, fooling, and giggling around. The Irish mother and her children were also having fun at that party.
The young Irish girl spotted something among the wild crowd and called her brother. Then he too noticed the thing and tugged at his mother’s sleeve to get her attention, and he whispered in a peppy voice, “Mommy, look at the place where sis is pointing at. They were the couple we enacted that day.” The mother craned her neck to look where her daughter was pointing and saw the couple. On looking at the couple, she smiled warmly and thought they were so good-looking and perfect for each other. The night was so alive, and all the people were singing and dancing merrily. Little did they know, the next night would be the opposite of this one.
On April 14, the weather was calm with a brisk wind. It was cold and cloudy as well. Some people noticed the increased speed of the ship but didn’t quite bother about it. The siblings were so tired after yesterday’s event. So, they slept most of the day. Her mother woke them up in the afternoon and told them to play with other kids to get rid of the weariness. They protested at first, but then obeyed her.
The night was so chill and frost-biting. The siblings were asleep, and so as many people on the ship as well, except some nocturnal ones. It was around 11:40, the ship had a great jerk, and most people had woken from their slumber. After a few minutes, the news that the ship had crashed into an iceberg, spread like wildfire among the passengers. Some people were so livid, nervous, and afraid. People were having mixed emotions at that time.
The mother woke up her kids, after she heard about the commotion. She made them walk in a tranquil state. Saving her kids was her first priority. But when she reached the escape route, she saw how crowded the way was, and the people were all furious and raging. From the tirade of the people, she came to know that the gates were closed and would only open after getting the first-class people in the safety boat. She thought how inhumane and selfish the first-class people were in such a perilous situation like this.
“Mum, I’m sleepy. What are we doing here?” “Mommy, why are we standing here? I want to go to bed." The siblings mumbled, whined to their mother. She didn’t want her younger ones to know about the chaos and be afraid about their situation, so she reassured them. “There seems to be a problem on the ship, sweethearts. We have to go up, but the route is so crowded now. We’re just waiting, like other people, for our turn. When they finish putting the first-class people in the boat, we are the next ones. So, wait for a few minutes, dears. You both can do it right.” Both of them, just nodded their heads sleepily, at their mother’s request.
It's been nearly an hour. Along with others, her family was also waiting impatiently for the gates to be opened. Time was tickling on, but the guard dog-like steward didn’t seem to be budged by all these outraged commoners. He was not ready to open the gates yet. She realised, it was their fate to die today, and she was ready to accept it, but she couldn’t contemplate the fact that her younger ones were also getting the same fate as her. So, she returned to the cabin and made her kids ready for bed.
Her kids were not attentive in their sleepy state like most kids, so this made her task easier. “Do you guys want a story?” she asked them in a gentle voice. She was in a state of trepidation, but all her focus was on making sure that her children were calm and ignorant about the frenzy. "Yes,” both of them slurred in drowsiness. She stifled her tears, started to narrate the story of ‘Oisin and Niamh’ in a gravelly voice. “And so, they lived happily together for three hundred years. In the land of Tír na nÓg, of eternal youth and beauty,” she uttered in a quivering voice and cringed upon the last line of the story.
She canoodled her children, all along, while narrating the story. She could hear the wails, desperate cries of the other people, and she attempted to keep a steady composure of herself. She was incredulous about this situation. She felt guilty for not saving her children and leading them to their demise, but she felt hopeless and helpless. For now, she could feel the steady rhythm of their breathing. She cradled both of her kids in her arms, tried to memorise all their features.
As a single mother with two kids, her life was always on a rickety path. Sometimes she tried to escape this depressed life in a cowardly way, but she didn’t dare to do that for the sake of her kids. Sometimes she would venture all her sufferings to the Lord in the form of prayers by staying in the church for many hours. She would plead and beg the God to take their lives every time. She recollected all her happy, as well as, her miserable moments, in her life in a cliche way.
“Lord, I’ve always prayed for you to take us from this world in any way possible, at any moment. It looks like, you have finally answered my prayers. I should’ve asked you to take our life, in a peaceful way. Maybe it’s my fault.” She thought, frowned at her situation after she walked down her memory lane. She laughed mirthlessly at her situation, realised death was literally knocking at her door right now.
Though she laughed at her irony situation, the crystalized pail of tears cascading down her cheeks and the yowling of all the distressed people among the ship, were the evidence of how screwed up her situation was right now. In the past, she wasn’t afraid of death, but now when death was near, all she could do was mutter her prayer intermittently with her suave voice. “Dear Lord, I know for sure that it will be our last day in this cruel, categorised society, and I am sure that we are going to die in a few hours. I beseech you, Lord, to forgive our sins and beg you to not hand over our souls to the devil. I plead with you to take us to paradise, the land of gold, prosperity, and peace, like the land in the story I have narrated to my children.” She sighed and looked at her bundle of joys, who were deep asleep. She knew that once her kids were in a state of slumber, it would be hard to wake them up. They could withstand any war or storm. She took a shaky breath and further continued, “Or at least, take my precious kids with you, my Lord; they have suffered a lot, seen enough in this wicked world.” She kissed their temple tenderly with love and tears, with her shaky breath, she struggled to utter “amen” to conclude her shaky prayers.
Never in her wildest dreams, did she think this voyage would be their last one and their death would be like this. She quenched her final moments of her life by hugging her sleeping children tightly to her, with no air to penetrate. She gave many soft, meek kisses to her kids with her trembling lips from time to time. She looked around the dark freezing room, the gradually growing, glistening cold water, for one last time, before she clasped her teary eyes. She mithered prayers upon prayers, till they all embraced eternal sleep.
By J.Jeleena
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