Cold All the Way Through, But Warming

Awkward Conversations

The next morning, I made my way to the offices and had one of the wireless operators, Hugh Tenny, called in. He looked nervous as he opened the door, standing on the carpet before my desk. I looked up, taking in the sight of the boy practically quaking in his shoes. I gestured to the chair, "Sit, and breathe. You're not being fired." He sat, although his knees bounced. I took a breath, "How long does it take to learn to read and send a wireless message?"

"Beg your pardon?" He squeaked, his eyebrows knitting together.

"How long does it take to learn to read and send a wireless message? Translate it from code while it's coming in over the line, and sending a brief one out after."

He took a minute, "It took me six months to learn the whole system, sending and receiving. I suppose maybe three months for each."

"Can you teach me to at least receive within the week?" I looked over, "I will compensate you for it."

"It is quite a complicated system, Miss Dalian. I cannot guarantee that you will be able to transcribe a message within the week."

"Teach me, I will spend all week by your side." I looked at him over the papers strewn across my desk. "If I can receive the message that the Anastasia has safely arrived in Southampton and send back the message confirming the receipt, I will give you a hundred dollars."

"A hundred dollars?" His eyes widened, his Adam's apple bobbing. "But Miss, we don't even know when the ship will arrive. It may be late at night."

"Then I will be here late at night." I stood, pulling out a sheet of paper. "This is an order to our bank to transfer a hundred dollars to your account, contingent on the skills that you teach me. Do you agree?"

"I can teach you, Miss." He looked over at the bank order, his fingers reaching for it. I tugged it away, locking it in a drawer as he watched. "I'll send my textbooks from my training to your house, and we've got an extra set of telephones. Follow me." He waited for me at the door, leading me through the warren of offices to the wireless room. It was quiet, a few other men huddled over their machines, occasionally reaching over and scrawling out a quick message on a scrap of paper. Hugh grabbed an empty chair, placing it by his machine as he handed me a set of telephones to put over my ears. "Put these on, and try to listen closely."

Listening to the electric noise be cut apart by static and brief pulses of sound quickly gave me a headache, but I stayed by his side for hours. He wrote out an alphabet of dots and lines for me, and set me to translating messages into the code and back to English several dozen times before I could look at the code and not have to consult the alphabet to decipher it. That was intercut with him receiving messages, making me listen to them over and over. He slowly began to clue me in on the various codes and abbreviations that were used in the messages, and it felt like learning a whole different language, but easier than when my tutors had tried. At least all of these translated back into English.

My head was still pounding by the time I got home, and was confronted with the pile of books that Hugh had sent over. Wireless sets started to haunt my dreams over the next few days, electrical signals bounced from ship to ship, lines of dots and dashes twisting around me. By the fifth day I was declared passable, although barely, by Hugh. I could at least listen to a staccato series of electrical bursts and come out with the message on the other end. It took me far longer, Hugh would have fifteen messages written out by the time I'd finished one, but that was all I wanted. I told him to send for me when we heard anything about the Anastasia getting close to Southampton, and promised him to send the bank order once I had sent the message to them.

I took one day to myself, although I kept finding myself tapping out little messages as I brushed my hair. I was trying to find the best one to send, something short and simple enough that I would be able to do it. Message received, Ana, was what I had come up with so far. I was debating if something additional would be needed when Louise appeared in the mirror, standing behind me. "Miss, your mother has arrived. She requests that you join her for tea."