Chapter 10 April 13th: Alex Johnson, 2nd class passenger
As soon as I woke up, I rolled right out of bed. Bad idea. You see, I'm used to sleeping on the bottom bunk, which is now occupied by Charlene. Anyhow, fortunately I had enough presence of mind to grab onto the bunk I had been sleeping in. Unfortunately for Charlene, my landing was rather noisy. Actually, it wasn't so much the landing as it was the rather loud curse that came from my mouth. You see, it happened like this: As soon as my foot hit the ground, it slid under her bunk, causing my shin to hit her bunk's frame, and anyone who's whacked their shin knows how painful it is.
After a hearty laugh, we went down to breakfast. After a rather nondescript breakfast, we went to the library to read a copy of "Oliver Twist" I'd been reading. We got bored after a while, so we decided to go see what was going on in the smoking room. A few games of cards, nothing major.
Out on deck, however, we heard someone strike up a pretty tune. I asked someone else who had stopped to listen what song it was.
"'The Golden Vanity.'" He said.
"It's pretty. What's it about?"
"It's a bout a ship called the Golden Vanity, who is currently locked in a sea battle with their enemy, the Turks. The crew starts to fear she'll sink, so the cabin boy asks the captain "If I sink the enemy's ship, what will I get in return?" the captain replies "I'll give you whatever you want, even my daughter's hand in marriage." So the cabin boy holds up his end of the deal, but the captain doesn't hold up his end, so he leaves the poor boy to drift in the tide. The poor cabin boy swim around to the ship's port side, but he dies on deck as soon as his fellow sailors brought him up, so they sewed him in his hammock and buried him at sea."
"Oh, what a sad song." Charlene said.
"Aye, 'tis." said the stranger.
After the song was over, Charlene and I stayed out on deck.
"Do you think they'll ever make anything like this, Charlene?"
"It depends on what you mean by that." she said, staring out over the ocean. "If you mean 'Will they ever make ships this grand?" then, yes I do believe that, maybe even bigger, but if you mean "Do you think they'll ever make ships as luxurious as this (luxurious for the rich, anyway), then no. I don't believe that anything will ever be as gorgeous as the Titanic is." She turned around to see me gazing longingly at her. This time, the feeling was definitely mutual. I thought I had felt a spark there, but could never be sure. We kissed. Deeply, passionately, longingly, as if we had been in love all of our lives and had just now figured it out.
For the rest of the day we were inseparable. We spent lunch together, her and I read more from "Oliver Twist", we even spent dinner together. Finally, it came time for us to bid each other good night, as we changed into our pajamas, kissed each other good night, and went to bed.
