The 96th hour

The beginning

It's sunday morning, the 18th. To be exact it is stil night. Two a.m.. I am looking out of the window towards the ocean. I can only see the reflection of some citylights and the moon in the water. It is calm and stil. I would love to go on  a walk at the beach right now, breathing in the cold air of the night. But I have a time scedule and places to be. And where I am going is much more exciting than just a boring walk on the beach. I still open the window and let a cold breeze flow slowly into the room. 

My son Suleman is still sleeping in his room. How he is able to sleep, I cannot understand. I have been awake for almost three hours aready. But I am not tired, not at all. How could I be with this amazing day soon to begin. To clear things up, me and my 19 year old son will meet two other tourists and our pilot to get into a submarine and dive down to the wreckage of the titanic. 

My name is Shahzada Dawood and me and my son have gotten this great opportunity. And how could I have said no? My son was absolutely obsessed with the expedition the moment I told him on his birthday that this would be his present. He has watched the movie titanic at least five times and has read a lot of books about it. I still think he is a bit silly about all this, but I cant blame him, it really is fascinating and horiffic all the same. My son mostly cares about the story while I am more interested in the history of imigration in the US and how the titanic was involved. I hope that our pilot will tell us way more about this. His name is Stockton Rush, he is 61 years old and is the founder of OceanGate. My son also has read alot about him and to be honest he has really dragged me into his interest.

Another person my son is reallyinterested in is "Mr Titanic" or Paul Henry Nargeolet. He is a former french navy commander and has studied the Titanic for 35 years. He has also done multiple expeditions to the Titanic and has brought objects from it to the surface which I hope he will also tell us more about.

I look away from the beautiful waves and take a look at my watch. It is 02:12 a.m. I should really wake Suleman now or we might be late which both of us do not want to happen. I leave my bedroom, walk into the hall towards his door. Underneath the frame I can see the light is turned on.

He must already be awake then, I think, which is good. To be sure I still nock on his door. 

" Come in", I hear him say.

I grab the handle. I wait just a second before coming in. The handle is cool to the touch which feels good against my hot and sweaty hands. I really am excited for this. I step inside. 

Suleman is sitting on his bed, fully dressed and grinning at me. From the sparkle in his eyes I know he is just as excited about everything as I am. 

"Good morning. Are you ready?", I ask him.

He nods and while getting up his smile just gets bigger. "I'll just have to put my shoes on and off we can go". He opens his closet and gets some white airforces out. They are his favourite.He slips into them easily. Something different  from clothes and maybe a camera we have to bring nothing. There wouldnt be enough space anyway dor more stuff. The submarine we will be going down in is not suitable to fit any more than five people. We wont even be able to stand in it because it is only like two feet high. Thankfully it wont take to long. I calculate maybe five fo seven hours which is more than enough being in such a smal space. I must admit, I do get claustrophobic easily. I hope I will be fine tho. 

"you should go to the toilet one last time", I tell my son. He nods and I leave his room. I also take my advice and make my way towards the second bathroom. I hope I will be able to hold it in for the hours in the sub because there will only be something like a basket with the privacy only being a curtain. I dont want to imagine the smell if anybody has to take one. 

I am done on the toilet. Then I hear the bell of the hotelsuit ringing. It must be our breakfast. My son and I ordered just some fruits with cheese and bread to only eating something light. Afterward we are already planning to visiting this five star restaurant with the most beautiful view of the sea and the beach. Then we can say things like "we just we're down there" and ask others if they have ever seen the titanic and then laugh when they think about the movie, not the real ship.

I open the door and the staff brings in our breakfast. They arrange it on the table and leave again. Soon after my son comes in the room and we sit down and start eating. It still is a lot of food even tho I ordered it to be not much. In every other situation I would have been happy but in every other situation I dont have to take a shit behind a curtain 3000 m down in  the depths of the ocean.

The first minutes of eating were still in silence. Then my son statet bubbling about how excited he is and that he hopes we have a clear view and everything. Then he starts stating random facts about the titanic again which of he must have already told me 500 times. But i dont mind, I like listening to him talking about the things he likes. 

As we finish it is already 02:55. At 3:15 we will be picked up infront of the hotel and be driven to the meeting.