THE DIARY OF MRS. TOMY RYAN
Chapter Fourteen
I don’t know what time Titanic actually sank.
Neither Tommy nor I had a pocket watch. I just know that we had sat on the deck
for what seemed like a long time, and then the officers were screaming,
"Abandon ship! She’s about to go down!" I looked at Tommy and he
grabbed my hand, and then I was under water. I held onto his hand as we were
pulled under. We surfaced still holding hands, and stared at each other in
shock as more and more people came to the surface around us. There must have
been hundreds of people in the water.
"We have to swim for the other ship,
Katie."
"The w-w-water’s so cold," I
stammered.
"Swim for the ship."
"No. Look over there," I said,
pointing behind him. "There’s another ship, and it won’t be as full. See?
They are putting boats in the water."
"It’s too far."
"Let’s try for it."
"Katie…"
"Come on. Follow me." And I started
to swim for the Carpathia. That was the only other ship that could have gotten
there in time. The original rescue ship.
Once people got used to the freezing cold
water, they started to swim towards one boat or the other. Those who weren’t
injured, anyway. I passed some bodies floating on the surface, and I tried not
to look at their faces. I could look over and see Tommy swimming beside me. It
seemed like hours, but it could only have been minutes before we reached one of
the lifeboats. Strong hands pulled us into the boat. I sat in the bow with
Tommy next to me. One of the crew tossed us a blanket before going back to
helping more people into the boat. Again time seemed to have slowed down as I
watched people struggling to get as far as the lifeboats. The night seemed
surreal, and I felt like I wasn’t a part of it until Tommy put his arm around
me and pulled me close.
"Don’t watch. They won’t be able to save
them all." And he kissed my eyes shut. We sat there; me with my eyes
closed, listening to the people screaming for help. It’s not as bad as it
should have been, I kept repeating to myself. I also hoped that the loss of
life would not be as high. And that all the good that came out of this disaster
would not change.
We were brought to the Carpathia. Tommy and I
had no one to look for, really. Jack and Rose were safe on the Californian. We
had made few other friends. We gave our names to the officer who asked for them
and found a corner to lie down in. We snuggled up exactly like we had yesterday
in my room on Titanic. Only this time, after a few minutes, I turned towards
Tommy.
"I love you, Tommy," I said, and
then I started to lie back down. Tommy’s hand on my shoulder stopped me.
"And I, you."
In New York
The two rescue ships for the Titanic pulled
into port one after the other. They both stopped at the Titanic’s berth before
going to their own. Tommy and I stood and watched as the Titanic’s lifeboats
were lowered into her berth. We left the boat as soon as possible, and dodged
the reporters. We ran to where the Californian was unloading her passengers. We
waited there until we saw Jack, Rose, and Fabrizio coming off the ship.
"Jack!" Tommy yelled, and Jack
raised his head, scanning the crowd until he saw us. Jack smiled and waved.
Rose looked to see who he was waving at and started to wave at us, too. We
waited for them to come over to us. For a minute, all five of us looked at each
other, not really knowing what to say. Then somehow all five of us were
hugging. We had all survived.