Chapter 10

I had to find him. I had to tell him what I knew. Maybe once I tell him we'll get sent back. I knew it was a long shot but it was all we had at this point. I stormed onto the first class deck looking every man in the eye that I passed. It was probably completely improper, but I was desperate. I walked almost all the way to the stern when I heard:

"Liz? Where the hell have you been? Did you feel the shutter?" says a frantic Sean who was coming up behind me.

"Yes, genius, I felt the shutter and where the hell have you been?"

"I was at the bar with someone… it really doesn't matter. What is it? Tell me what's going on." I told him about the journal, and he gave me a look like he could murder me.

"You wrote the journal. YOU WROTE IT! Don't you think you could have mentioned this earlier. like maybe two days ago?"

"I didn't figure it out until now."

"Clearly, but wait how is that possible? The person who we wrote to in the journal? How could that have been you?"

"I don't know. It doesn't make sense, but that's not important right now, what's important is that in two hours Titanic is going to sink. We need a plan."

"Right a plan, let me think." But we barely get a chance to confer before a crews man announces: "Ladies and Gentlemen I need you to retrieve a life vest from one of the various attendants that you see around you, but don't worry I'm sure it is only a precaution. Also when you have returned all women and children are to be put in the lifeboats first, women and children only, no gentlemen just yet."

"But sir, my father is ill and he must stay in my care." Says a young woman standing behind us.

"I'm sorry young lady, but these are the Captains rules, now you may stay with your father, if you wish, but he cannot come with you on the lifeboat."

"But please!"

"No young lady, there will be no exceptions, women and children only." The woman then proceeded into a fit of hysterics and her father comforted her while escorting her over to the man with the life vests. Sean and I did the same and as we were helping each other into them he said:

"Liz, I need you to get on the life boat."

"What?"

"Get on the life boat. If only one of us can survive this, it should be you. No one cares about me back home."

"That's not true!"

"Liz, if something happened to you, I couldn't live with myself I just I…." but before he could continue I captured his lips in a kiss. I kissed him with all the passion I could muster. I kissed him as if it would be the last time and the first time. At first he was taken aback and he pulled away a bit, but once he figured out what I was doing he started to kiss me back with more passion than I ever thought possible. He slipped his tongue into my mouth and instead of freaking out and pulling away like I did the first time, I allowed it. We kissed for what felt like hours, and to my surprise I actually enjoyed it. He was the one who pulled away first, but not before kissing my nose, my eyelids, and again on the lips. My entire body was on fire, and I could tell that his was too.

"Okay, now I definitely can't let you go." I smiled and said:

"We started this thing together and that's exactly how we're going to finish it." I smile.

"Oh Shit!"
"What, oh shit what?"

"The journal."

"What?"

"The journal, I left it in the suite. When I discovered that I wrote it I was in such a hurry to tell you, I forgot to grab it on my way out, it's still down there, Sean."
"It's okay don't panic we'll get it." He said.

"Lady's and gents I'm sorry to inform you that access to your suites is no longer permitted. Captains orders."

"Sean."

"Its okay Liz. I can sneak down there, get to our room, smuggle out the journal. No one will even know that I left."

"But you can't it's too dangerous."

"I have to."

"I don't want you going down there alone." He shut me up with a kiss. It was a short kiss but I knew he meant it to be reassuring.

"It'll take five minutes. Just wait up here. I'll be back before you even know it."

"Sean."

"I know." He said as he pressed his forehead up against mine. Our actions speak volumes.

"Be careful." I said as he let go of my hands and proceeded to shove his way through the crowd. His absence allowed me to notice everything unfolding in front of me. There were tearful goodbyes going on all around me. Wives kissing their husbands, Children hugging their fathers. People of all ages, ethnicities and classes, all saying what was probably their final goodbyes to their loved ones. This was the untold story of Titanic. Most of what you hear consists of the size of ship or how many people died, but what most historians neglect to mention is who these people were. What they went through to get to where they were. A hundred years or so after a tragedy happens people only remember the cold hard facts. They forget that all those people mentioned in the fatality list were living and breathing at one point, the people standing before me now. I vow from this point forward to never again think of a tragedy as a mere grouping of statistics, to remember them as they were. The band starts to play a cherry tune and I can see fireworks glowing nearby. I start to cry but my train of thought is interrupted by the shouting of an officer in front of me.

"My lady please get into the life boat." I try to protest but am unceremoniously thrown into the lifeboat.

"Excuse me, sir, I didn't ask.."

"My lady we are only following orders." A feeling of dread falls over me as the lifeboat is slowly lowered into the icy Atlantic.