FORMALITY
Chapter Fourteen
We calmly walked outside to where
there was a big crowd gathered by now. The officers were working up a sweat
trying to get the boats lowered, and asked that only women and children get on
the boats at that time. I shuddered. Only women and children...what about my
father? And Rob? And his father? I thought silently.
Rob looked over and saw fear in
my eyes. "Don't worry, Belle. You'll get on this boat safely, and I'll get
on another one with my family," he said, trying to comfort me.
"But, Rob, that's not going
to work," I said sternly. "They're only letting women and children
on, and there aren't enough boats. You'll miss one or you'll not be allowed
on."
Rob swallowed hard. "That's
what I was worried about," he said to me.
"Then how are we going to
get off this cursed ship?" I asked, looking ahead of me, where my mother
and sister were getting into a lifeboat. "I'm not getting on a boat
without you."
Rob grabbed my shoulders and
turned me to face him. "You're going to have to. There's no other
way."
I looked back at the lifeboat, my
father standing next to it, asking kindly if the officer would let him on with
his wife and children.
"I'm sorry, sir, only women
and children," the officer said, a little annoyed already. My father
kindly smiled to my mother and sister and stepped back to let others on. When
he noticed that I was not on the boat, he turned around and saw me clinging to
Rob's hand, looking flabbergasted.
"Belle, dear, you must get
in a boat," he said kindly. His eyes pleaded with me. I numbly nodded, and
took my father's hand. I looked back at Rob once and saw a tear in his eye as
he waved and smiled. I stepped over the wide gap and into the boat, and someone
pulled me in and made me sit. I looked back at my father, who was waving.
"I'll see you in New
York," he said, just before the lower-away call was shouted. I saw Rob,
and he stood against the ledge and looked down at me as the lifeboat unsteadily
lowered to the oily water sixty feet below.