Chapter 14 April 14th-15th: The McKinnon Family, 3rd class passengers

No, not Clara. Ice, all around me. So cold.

I sat right up with a jolt. What a terrible dream. My whole family was dead in the water. Clara seemed to be sleeping peacefully. I thought it best not to worry her. Silently, I slipped out the door to get a breath of fresh air.

Brr, it's cold

As I looked out over the sea, something white caught my eye. I looked down and saw about a half dozen small chunks of ice floating my eye. Could my dream really mean something? It's possible. I mean, President Lincoln from the United States foresaw his own death.

The day passes without incident, as does most of the night.

"Alright, kids, time for bed." I said at 7:00. "Goodnight, Clara."

"Good night, Jack."

After a few minutes, I slipped off into dreamland.

While I was dreaming, it seemed to me that I was caught in the middle of a mild earthquake. I woke up, but soon noticed that all was as it should be, so I went back to sleep.

"Get out of bed, put your lifebelts on, and meet in the general room! We'll tell you were to go from there!"

I get out of bed, but as soon as my feet hit the floor, I find them in about an inch or two of water. Clara, the children, and myself do as we're told, while others are less submissive. I even hear a few foreigners who don't speak English trying to speak with the stewards.

We waited for a while in the general room waiting instructions, but we slowly came to the realization that noone's coming, and that only we could help ourselves. Clara, the kids, and I almost got lost, for every time we find a passageway that leads to 1st class, it was been closed off by a locked gate. At one point I even saw a Frenchman by the surname Navratil pass his sons through the gates, so they could be put in one of the boats.

We wandered around for over an hour before stopping by a gate to rest (the ship's slant had been getting progressively steeper) and wait for our moments to come. All of a sudden, we saw some passengers ripping a bench off of where it had been nailed down and used it as a battering ram to tear down the gate. We rushed through the breach as fast as we could.

When we'd gotten to boat deck, I saw a young man that I swear I've seen in 3rd class, that Billium Dickey bloke. However, there were more pressing matters at hand. As soon as we could, we got into one of the boats overseen by Officer Murdoch. My wife holds Molly and Willie's head close, so they couldn't see the horror before us. Even I could hardly bear to watch it. Our whole life was on that ship, which was soon straight in the air, like some sort of tombstone.

All of a sudden, there was an earsplitting splash caused by the enormous forward funnel toppling into the water. A flicker, then her lights went out. Soon after, there came the unearthly moan of the twisting and rending of metal and breaking of wood. The kids, Clara, and I safely boarded the Carpathia at around 4:30. At around 8:30, with about 705 passengers, we set sail. I saw Jacques and Enrico, my poker mates, talking with each other. A few days later, I saw Colleen, weeping, asking people if they knew where her ma was.

"Where's your folks?" I asked, concerned.

"We were walking along the deck were they had the boats, when all of a sudden the ship became to steep. Ma slipped and fell. I want me Ma!" she said, breaking down.

"And your Da?"

She started sobbing even harder. I understood what this meant. "Don't worry, we'll find your mother."

While we were searching, she finally told me what happened to her father.

"He was the reason Ma and I were allowed to get through the gates. As soon as we found one, we shouted and shouted until one of the nice men who worked on the ship came by. As soon as he showed up, da and him got into an argument over whether or not to let any of us through, until they finally agreed that ma and I could go through."

After a long search, we came to the inevitable conclusion: the girl's mother was gone. The poor creature was a terrible mess until we reached New York.

"Do you have any relatives in America?" I asked before we disembarked

"No."

"I'll look after ya, then. Would ya like that?"

She nodded.

"Do you have any siblings?"

"No."

And that was that. We found a flat in New York, and I found a job at a foundry. With the money we made we were able to send our three kids to a good school. That's right, three kids. As soon as we could, we adopted little Colleen.