THE DIARY OF MRS. TOMY RYAN
Chapter Twelve
I ran up the deck, following Rose. She and
Jack met at the bottom of the stairs, and they were lost in an embrace. I ran
up the stairs, looking for Tommy. He had stopped by the clock, and I ran up
into his arms. I knew he would be upset with me, but I still felt that if I had
left he would have died. Why, I don’t know. He pulled away and took my hands.
"Katie, what have you done?"
"I have to be with you."
"I would have gotten on another
boat."
"Then that’s the one I want to be
on."
Jack and Rose had finally separated, and we
walked down to them. "What now?" Tommy asked.
"We go and find Fabrizio."
We started down towards the lower decks. I
couldn’t help but feel that I was where I was suppose to be. I looked over at
Rose, and she was smiling. I smiled back; her smile of pure happiness was
contagious. We came to one of the gates that separated third class from the
others. It was open. I remembered how they were all suppose to be locked, and
that they only brought handfuls of third class passengers up. I had changed
history. I just wasn’t sure how. And the Californian--they had not come to the
rescue before. The telegram I had sent must have worked.
We walked through to the common area. There
were still hundreds of people down there! I heard bits and pieces of
conversations. It seemed like some of them didn’t want to go! They wanted to
stay down there, trusting that they would be all right. Or some of them even
thought that God wanted them to stay down there! We looked around for Fabrizio.
Tommy saw him first, over by the blonde girl
he had been dancing with every night. Tommy pointed him out to Jack.
"Fabrizio!" Jack yelled, dropping Rose’s hand to run up and hug his
best friend.
After they had hugged, they separated and we
went over and joined them. "We can go up and get in a boat. There is
another ship out there, waiting."
"Okay, Jack. Give me minute to try to
tell her."
As Fabrizio talked to the girl, I looked
around at all the people. There were so many, sitting, kneeling, and most were
praying. There were stewards, trying to talk to a few scattered families. They
seemed frustrated that people would not get up and follow them up on deck. I
felt like screaming at some of them, but I realized that it wouldn’t matter.
Fabrizio turned around, and we started to
walk back up to the boat deck. I was hoping that we could all get in a boat
together. I was not going to get in a boat without Tommy. I knew Rose felt the
same about Jack. As we climbed up the staircase, a loud noise seemed to roll throughout
the whole ship, and all at once the boat seemed to settle farther into the
water. We all fell, as the ship was continuing to shudder. It felt like an
earthquake. After it stopped, we stood back up. "Everyone okay?"
I looked and saw that everyone nodded. We all
looked scared. "I think the water has completely filled the boiler
rooms," I said.
"Let’s hurry," Rose said, and I
agreed with her. I didn’t want to stay down here any longer.
We ran up the last remaining stairs, and then
out onto the boat deck. We came out on the side for first class passengers. I
stopped and grabbed Rose’s arm from behind. "I can see Cal putting your
mother into a boat. Let’s go back and get on a boat on the other side."
She nodded. We turned around and ran across
to the other side, and stood there, waiting for a boat. Something told me to
look back, and I saw Cal coming through the door we had just exited. He was
looking for us. I pushed Rose, who was in front of me, farther into the crowd.
Tommy and I stood right behind them, and I was hoping that Cal wouldn’t see any
of us. I looked back out of the corner of my eye to see where exactly he was.
He was heading straight towards us! I turned back and was reaching my arm up to
tell Rose when I felt someone grab my arm.
Cal had seen me. He looked at me for only a
second before moving me out of his way and grabbing Rose. He spun her around
and just looked at her. Jack turned and started for Cal, like he was going to
finish him. Cal pulled out a gun, and all I could do was look at it.
"You want to be with him?" Cal
asked, pointing the gun at Jack.
Rose was too stunned to say anything. At the
sight of the gun, several of the people who had been waiting to get in the
boats scattered. It seemed like only a few seconds, and then we were the only
people around. Jack was held in place by the gun; the rest of us were spread
out in a circle in front of Cal. I felt frozen in place. I couldn’t move.
"You want to be with him?" Cal
asked again, the gun never wavering.
"Yes," Rose said, but very faintly.
"Yes." Again, louder. "Yes, I do."
Cal looked at Jack, as if he was trying to
see Jack the way Rose did. Then a look of absolute hatred crossed his face. I
no longer felt like I couldn’t move. I jumped forward, just as Cal pulled the
trigger. I knocked his hand and the gun went flying. I turned and look at Jack.
He had fallen over, and Rose was kneeling in front of him. I had moved too
late! Jack had been shot.