A Night to Remember

Can Mikey Get Home?

The cold seeped through, stirring Mikey's conscious mind and slowly bringing him back to full wakefulness. He groaned as he remembered the vicious attack by those four cowards who had held him helpless as he was beaten into unconsciousness. Rolling onto his back, he allowed his right arm to flop to his side. As it landed, the small splash and the feel of water on his fingers brought him suddenly fully alert. Sitting up, his eyes widened but closed almost immediately as it felt as though his head would explode with the pain. Slumping back onto his elbows, Mikey concentrated hard to slow his breathing and wait for the agony to subside. He knew within moments that that would be a very long wait and it was time he didn't have.

Quickly glancing at his watch, he saw that it was twelve forty five. He gasped at the realisation that he had been unconscious for over two hours, and probably would be still had it not been for the water seeping in around him. The floor of the cell was covered in approximately half an inch of water and he was perhaps even more surprised when he realised that the terrible grinding noise it was generally assumed the iceberg had made as it scraped along the lower part of the hull had not been what had woken him. Oh, but this water, this freezing water could wake the dead. Pushing himself to his feet, he shivered and gripped his arms in a self-hug in an attempt to warm up. He had never felt water this cold before, not that wasn't already ice. He knew that the salt in the water lowered the freezing temperature and that it may fall below zero without freezing. Zero was bad enough though! His clothes were already soaked and he could already feel it affecting his concentration and mobility.

Edging to the bars, he peeled his arm away from his body and curled his fingers around one of the bars for balance.

"Help!" he called. At first, his voice felt quite weak from the cold and he had to dig deep within himself to use precious energy to shout louder. Calling repeatedly for a few minutes, his teeth chattering between shouts, it soon became apparent to him that no one was even there. No one could hear him.

*

Frank picked up the phone again, determined that this time he knew how to get the curator to the house.

"Hear me out!" he said quickly before the curator had chance to say anything.
"I'll hear you, then I'm having you arrested! You think you can call me at five thirty and..."
"Listen! I'll give you a thousand dollars if you come here right now and help us."
"You're serious?"
"Yes!"
"One of your party is really missing?"
"Yes! Please, we need your help. The site's now saying they both died on the Titanic. She's changed history, she's taken Mikey and..."
"What did you say?"
"I told you before, Lady Alverton, she's got him, he's with her on the Titanic," Frank's voice sounded increasingly frantic.
"Hmmm..."
"What does 'hmmm' mean?"
"It means I'll be right there."

Frank stared at the phone as it went dead.

"Hung up again?" Gerard asked miserably.
"He's on his way," Frank replied with a relieved sigh.
"Probably just wants the money," Gerard scowled.
"Who cares, so long as he comes?"

*

It was just as she remembered it. First Officer Murdoch had just lowered the first lifeboat and even she could see that it was only half full. There would be a full enquiry after the few survivors reached New York. One of the main questions posed was why of the sixteen lifeboats mounted on the davits and the four collapsibles, only five were lowered with anything approaching full capacity, especially as the crew were aware that even fully loaded there wasn't enough room to hold even half the number of passengers and crew. Of course, the answer was simple enough. It was cold, it was dark, the lifeboats were tiny and frightening. Above all, the popular opinion was that God Himself could not sink the Titanic and people believed that statement wholeheartedly. She herself had left the ship only on her husband's insistence – a mere formality, he had told her. How wrong he had been, how wrong they had all been. She had spent the last hour trying desperately to convince her friends, acquaintances and anyone who even walked past her to get into the boats, they all ignored her; one commenting that if she were so certain the ship would sink, why didn't she get into a boat herself and stop bothering people.