Vibration
Meg had gone to bed fairly early that night. After returning to the cabin, she’d gone over everything with Kelly, cried some more, and then read for a bit before falling asleep around seven o’clock. Her exhaustion from the night before had caught up to her at last. A few hours later, a strange sensation jarred her from sleep, and even though she had been resting quite some time, she was suddenly wide awake.
She glanced around the darkened room and realized everyone else was still sleeping soundly. The idea of rolling back over and returning to sleep seemed like a good one, but the uneasiness in the pit of her stomach stayed with her, and she decided to go out and investigate.
Taking the extra time to change into clothes, she pulled her shawl around her as well and went out into the hallway. There were a few other passengers out and about, all of them with curious expressions on their faces. “Did you feel something, too?” she asked another woman, still in her nightdress and robe, standing near the end of the hall.
“Yes,” she confirmed. “It felt like a vibration of some sort.”
“I think I’ll go up and investigate,” Meg said. She contemplated waking the rest of the family, but she wanted to be sure there was reason to, especially before waking the little girls.
As soon as she reached the upper deck, she could see there was clearly something wrong. There were all sorts of crew members scurrying about, and she could hear them shouting to one another, even from the other decks. Without bothering to stop one of them and ask what was amiss, she headed back down to E Deck to wake up Kelly and Daniel.
By the time Meg returned to the cabin, the floor beneath her feet was damp. She could hear several loud noises, which she assumed were coming from below the passenger compartments in the ship’s hull. The light in the cabin was on, and she could hear the family bustling about before she even opened the door.
“Meg!” Kelly exclaimed. “The steward just stopped by. He said we’re to put our lifebelts on and head upstairs. What’s going on?”
“I’m not sure,” she admitted, “but there’s a lot of commotion up there. I think it’s best if we head straight to the Boat Deck, to the lifeboats. If something’s wrong with the ship, we’ll want to get you and the girls on a lifeboat straightaway.”
“Are we going on the little ship to the other big boat now?” Ruth asked in her sleepy little voice.
“I’m not sure,” Kelly admitted. “It’ll be fine darlin’. Don’t you worry.”
Despite his cast, Daniel helped her change into her warmest clothes and was wrapping a shawl around her shoulder as Kelly finished dressing the baby. “I’m going to go back up. Head on over by the stairwell. I’ll meet you there in a few minutes,” Meg said. Kelly nodded and Meg went back down the hallway, this time with a lifebelt in her hand, which she began to put on as she went.
There were even more people standing about now, though most of them were simply standing in the stairwell or the corridor, not actually attempting to make their way to the Boat Deck. Meg could hear several different languages being spoken around her, and she wondered how many of these people could even read the signs to locate the Boat Deck.
Though she still wasn’t quite sure anything was the matter, she instinctively began to formulate a plan. If the crew were actually launching lifeboats when they got there, she would make sure that Kelly and the girls were on one, Daniel, too, if they would let him go. Then, she would try to find Charlie, and make it back to the boats herself. She still wasn’t sure he would want to see her at all, but she could hardly get on a lifeboat without first checking to make sure he was all right.
Making her way back the short distance to the stairwell was a bit of a challenge, but she was able to squeeze her way through the curious passengers lining the walkway, and she decided to wait at the landing at the top of the stairs. A moment later, she saw Kelly, carrying Baby Lizzy and Daniel reach the top of the stairs. “Which way do we go?” Kelly asked, peering through the growing crowd.
Meg was puzzled. “Where’s Ruth?” she asked, looking around, particularly near their legs.
“She’s right here,” Kelly said, glancing behind her. “Daniel, don’t you have Ruth’s hand?”
“I thought she was with you.”
Kelly began to panic. “Ruth? RUTH!” All three of them began to scour the crowd, searching everywhere, but Ruth was nowhere to be found. “Oh, my God, what are we going to do?”
“Listen, you need to get up to the Boat Deck,” Meg said, attempting to keep her voice calm. “You have to get Lizzy up there, just in case there is a real emergency.”
“I’m not leaving here without Ruth,” Kelly insisted.
“Kelly, Meg’s right,” Daniel agreed. “Let us look for Ruth, and you take Lizzy upstairs.”
The panic on Kelly’s face was increasing by the moment, and Meg was certain there was no way she’d make it to the Boat Deck alone. “Daniel, you’re going to have to take her, and make sure she gets on a boat if they’re launching. Otherwise, she’s not going to go.”
“I can’t leave here without Ruth,” he replied.
“Lizzy needs her mother. I can’t take her. It has to be Kelly. I’ll find Ruth. She’s got to be nearby. We’re wasting time. Take Kelly to the Boat Deck, and then come back here. If you don’t see me, then that means I haven’t found her yet. Start searching, but if you don’t find her quickly, we’ll need to check in at this stairwell every twenty minutes or so until one of us finds her, all right?”
Daniel could tell she was thinking more clearly than he was. Nodding, he grabbed his wife by the shoulder and began to steer her in the direction of the passages that led to the Boat Deck. “Find my baby, Meg,” he yelled over his shoulder as Kelly began to shriek.
Meg pushed her way back down the stairs in pursuit of her niece, yelling her name as she went, and asking anyone whose attention she could get if they had seen a little, red-haired girl. By the time she reached their cabin, she was standing in several inches of water. She threw open the door, hopeful that she would discover the little one. At first glance, the room was empty, but she went to check the beds, just in case. There, in Ruth’s bunk, wedged between the mattress and the wall, she found Dolly New Eyes and realized Ruth must have come back in order to retrieve her toy.
Except she didn’t make it this far. Which meant she probably took a wrong turn. Grabbing the doll, she went back out the way she had come, the icy water brushing against her ankles now, and headed toward the stairwell. Chances were, if Ruth had made it to the stairs, this was where she had gone wrong. The stairs continued down to F Deck, and if one wasn’t paying careful attention, it was easy to miss the landing for E Deck, especially if one were short and in a crowd.
The water was definitely deeper as she made her way further down, though it was not proportionately so. She couldn’t quite explain how the water must be entering the boat that there was water on E Deck but F Deck was not completely underwater yet, but she thought it might have something to do with those famous watertight doors. There were not as many people down here, either. Perhaps because they had already made their exit, or maybe there just weren’t as many rooms on this deck, either way, what lay before her were mostly darkened, widening passages. And water—more and more water.
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