Gentleman

Jonathan stood near the lifeboats with Kelly, his arm around her in an attempt to keep her and Baby Lizzy as warm as possible. He frequently checked his pocket watch and looked around for any signs of Charlie, Meg, or Daniel. At 12:45, a flare illuminated the sky above them, with the bursting sound of a firecracker, causing many of the children to squeal in delight. It was a sure sign to Jonathan that this was no drill. The ship was going down. “Let’s scoot forward a bit, Kelly, shall we?” he asked, guiding her closer to the nearest lifeboat.
Upon reaching a location nearer what happened to be Lifeboat Number 6, Jonathan saw a familiar face. “Molly,” he said, getting her attention.
“Well, if it isn’t my favorite valet,” she smiled. She was dressed in a fur coat and gloves with a hat to match. “Where’s Charlie?” she asked, glancing around.
“Looking for Meg.”
“And my daughter, Ruth,” Kelly added.
“Oh, you must be Kelly,” Molly nodded. “It’s nice to meet you, though not under these circumstances. I’m Molly Brown. And oh, look at that wee baby. She’s precious.”
“Thank you,” Kelly said, obviously still very distraught.
“Now, don’t you worry. If Charlie’s lookin’ for your girls, I’m sure he’ll find ‘em. Your husband out, lookin’ too?” she asked.
“Yes,” Kelly replied, tears in her eyes now.
Molly nodded. “I’m sure they’ll all be just fine.”
Just then, one of the officers stepped forward and demanded their attention, explaining that they were about to load this lifeboat. Many of the First Class passengers began to groan, but it was quite apparent to others that they needed to get off of Titanic in a hurry. The officers worked as quickly as possible to load the boat in an orderly fashion, and when it came her turn to get aboard, Kelly hesitated for a moment. Molly offered to hold Lizzy while she stepped inside, and she handed her over. She turned back for a second, and Jonathan placed his hands around her waist, lifting her over the edge of the boat and into the seat next to Molly who promptly handed her baby back.
Once all of the women and children present were loaded onto the boat, the officer yelled, “Anyone else then!”
Now, it was Jonathan’s turn to hesitate. He had gotten Kelly aboard the lifeboat as promised. She was with Molly, which meant that she was safe. He could easily back away now and set off in search of Charlie. Kelly seemed to see the hesitancy in his eyes. “Jonathan!” she yelled. “Get on the boat. You must! If anythin’ should happen to you, Ruthy will be beside herself. Please, get on the boat!”
Obviously, Kelly was not able to hold herself together under the circumstances, and when Molly also began to implore him to get on the boat, he took one last look around and climbed in next to another gentleman in the back, praying he didn’t regret his decision. If he made it off of Titanic alive and Charlie didn’t, he would never be able to live with himself.
The officer waited another moment or two, looking around for any other potential lifeboat passengers; since there appeared to be none, he gave the order to lower Lifeboat Number 6 into the Atlantic with only twenty-eight passengers, not even half full.
* * *
Meg was singing. At this point she wasn’t even sure what the song was, but she continued to sing as she searched for a way out because she hoped it would make Ruth feel calmer. However, the muffled sobs coming from beneath the blanket told her it wasn’t working. Nevertheless, she continued to sing any tune that came to mind as she made turn after turn, attempting to find any passage at all that might lead to a stairwell or an exit.
She was pretty sure she was on the right track at last, though the water was now up to her waist and she could no longer keep Ruth completely out of it. The blanket was growing heavier and heavier as it retained water, and her arms were burning. But she pressed on. Then, as she turned a corner, she saw it, a stairwell. The water was much deeper here, but the stairwell meant she could return to the more familiar E Deck, and eventually, a way out.
“Come on, baby,” she said quietly. “Aunt Meg sees the stairs!” The water at the bottom of the staircase was almost to her chest, and Ruth squealed when the icy water enveloped her. Meg knew the higher she climbed up the stairs, they dryer they would become, so she took off as fast as possible, keeping an eye on the slippery stairs beneath her the best she could in the dim light. That’s why she didn’t realize there was a gate at the top of the stairs until she had already reached it. With one hand, she gave the gate a shake, clutching Ruth with the other. It didn’t budge. “No… no… no… NO! NO! You’ve got to be kidding me! What else could possibly go wrong?”
As if in answer to her question, there was a sharp banging sound from the floor below them and a flood of water came bursting through the hall they had just exited with a velocity that would have easily knocked her off of her feet had she still been standing there. While she was lucky to have escaped the initial gush, the water in the stairwell was beginning to rise, and now there was no way for her to go back the way she came.
They were trapped against a locked gate.
She knew she couldn’t let Ruth see her panic, but she had no idea what to do next. She was determined not to give up, but everything was beginning to look hopeless. “Okay, okay, there’s got to be something we can do,” she muttered.
“Aunt Meg, why won’t you open the gate?” Ruth asked, peering out from around the blanket.
“Because it’s locked, darling,” she replied as calmly as she could.
“What are we going to do?” Ruth asked innocently.
“Well, first I’m going to put you down, and then I’m going to take this pin out of my hair, and see if I can get it to unlock with this, all right?”
“Okay,” Ruth agreed.
Meg hated putting her down in the cold water, which was rising every second and currently reached just above Ruth’s knees, but she knew she couldn’t do this with one hand, if at all. She pulled a bobby pin from her hair and forced it into the lock, doing her best to try to trip the locking mechanism. She could feel it inside but couldn’t quite get it to budge. As the cold water began to hit her calves again, she fought the panic that was rising in the back of her mind and forced herself to stay focused.
“Aunt Meg, can I help?” Ruth asked, clutching her doll.
“Can you think of a way that you can help?” Meg asked, still fighting with the lock and the tears that were threatening to spill over.
“Yes,” Ruth replied. “I can yell for Charlie to come and save us.”
“All right,” Meg agreed, just as the bobby pin snapped in half, both pieces falling to the ground. She banged her head against the gate and gave it a sharp shake in frustration. She had another pin in her hair, and she was willing to try again, but she wondered what was the point? Clearly, this wasn’t going to work. Nevertheless, she had to try something, and as she fished another pin out of her hair, she joined in with Ruth’s cries, methodically at first, but then she realized, Charlie may have been willing to get on a boat without her, but there was no way he would have climbed aboard a lifeboat without Ruth. And if he wasn’t on a lifeboat, he had to be searching for them. With all of her heart, she began to scream, “CHARLIE!” while rattling the gate. Despite the fact that they were on an enormous ship with several decks, and he had no idea where they might be, she began to believe he would find them; he simply had to.
The water continued to rise, and Meg glanced down to see it was almost over Ruth’s chest now. Abandoning the blanket, she picked Ruth up and swung her over her shoulder, her cries becoming more frantic now. It had dawned on her that, even if Charlie did find them, the gate would still be locked. She was hoping he would be so desperate to save Ruth he would rip it from the wall. She knew her last hope was beginning to fade now, as the water reached her chest. She glanced back down the stairs, wondering if there was any possibility that she could swim back the other direction, when she heard a sound of motion in the water in the hallway on the other side of the gate. Though Ruth chanted on, she began to yell, “Hello! Is anyone there? Help us, please! I have a child with me!”
The sound of someone approaching continued to grow closer until she couldn’t believe her eyes. “What? Did you give up on me?” he asked, smiling at her.
“Oh, my God! Charlie!” Meg yelled. “I can’t believe you found us!”