Harold Lowe has managed to claw his way up the career ladder of the British merchant marines, rising from a ship's boy to a master mariner with one of the world's elite passenger lines. Along the way, he's learned to master not only his craft, but...
Ah, we're through the interludes at last! Yes, this is the last section of the book - although it's a rather long one, and there are some epilogues, too. Hopefully in the end, even if parts of the story were difficult, the journey will have been worth it :) So, let's get to it: will Corrine ever see Harry again? Will Harry ever stop being an ass? It's time to go back to the present (their present) and find out!
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Corrine was carried off the Carpathia on a stretcher, flanked by her best friends and followed by a somber-looking female nurse. Her sudden tumble to the deck was dramatic enough to have attracted the attention of Dr. McGee, who had wasted no time in relaying her story to the medical workers waiting to escort passengers to nearby hospitals. Although she kept repeating that she was fine, that she had only become temporarily dizzy and disoriented, no amount of entreaties and pleading seemed to matter. The hospital staff was immovable; she would spend at least one night under observation, and that was that. She sighed and laid down on the stretcher meekly, resigned to her fate. To be honest, she didn't much care what happened to her anyway, although she resented being carried like an invalid. Resolutely ignoring the rain peppering her face and the flashbulbs of the photographers' cameras as they passed through the rows of desperate family members still lining the dock, Corrine stared up at the starless sky.
She was loaded in an ambulance and driven to St. Vincent's hospital, where many of the survivors had been taken to recuperate. As the vehicle bumped over the wet cobblestone streets, she looked up at her friends, who were clinging to handholds in the back of the ambulance, determined to stay by her side despite their own precarious and unknown futures. She felt a rush of gratitude and love that they, at least, had not abandoned her; she honestly didn't know how she would have gotten through the last hour without them. Grasping their free hands in hers, she gave them a feeble smile. "Thank you," she said simply. Although her voice was faint, her words resonated with sincerity and deep appreciation.
"You'll be all right, Corr," Katie assured her. "The doctors'll get you sorted, and then you can find-" Kate glared at her sharply, and Katie trailed off into an awkward silence.
Kate didn't say anything, and Corrine noticed that she couldn't quite meet her eyes.
As the door to the ambulance slammed open and attendants rushed her stretcher out, she took a perfunctory glance around. Despite her detachment, she was suitably impressed by the imposing brick building into which she was carried. Corrine had never been to a hospital before, and if she hadn't felt so empty inside, she might have taken more of an interest in her surroundings; she had, after all, entertained the notion of becoming a nurse one day, before she had met-
No. She shut off the thought before it could fully form in her head.
In contrast to its austere and tranquil facade, the inside of the hospital was pandemonium. Past the physical barrier of the stretcher, people rushed by in all directions. Some were shouting names of missing passengers, while others were weeping; still others staggered in various stages of exhaustion or hysteria.
