I said nothing. As the train picked up steam, two young people came into the compartment. Nora jumped up and greeted them. They were a sister and brother named Maeve and Dom Donnelly, whom Nora and I had known from school. They too, they said, would be traveling on the Titanic. The girl’s face was as white as a ghost, and she clung to her brother for dear life. Nora seemed to ignore the girl’s fear as she attached herself to them, prattling away about the upcoming journey, leaving me to myself, as if I were a stranger. No matter, I thought. I reached into my bag and pulled out a book. A book was a better companion than my sister any day of the week. Eventually, I put down the book and sat looking out the window at the lush scenery. When I got tired of it, I went back to reading, dozing off now and then.

The other girl fell asleep almost immediately. The boy ran out of conversation, leaned back his head against the wooden seat and began to snore softly. Nora closed her eyes. Soon she was asleep too, her head lolling on my shoulder. I glanced down at her. In sleep she looked very young, and I had a brief memory of when we were both young children and had played happily together. I sighed. How different life would have been had our relationship stayed that way.

Nora

Nora

When we arrived at the Queenstown dock, I stopped in my tracks and looked up in awe. The Titanic loomed above me, like a massive, rocking beast.

“A hundred feet tall and almost nine hundred feet long,” said Dom, who stood behind me. I looked around at him. His ruddy face glowed and his eyes were wide. His sister, Maeve, clung to him, still looking terrified.

I strained my neck to look up at the top deck. There were people looking down at us. Although they were only small specks, I could see the outline of fancy, feathered hats on the women and black bowler hats on the men. They would be the first-class passengers who had boarded at Southampton and Cherbourg the day before. My annoyance with Delia returned. If it wasn’t for her, I’d be up there among them, looking down on the ragged crowd below; men in shabby clothes and women carrying babies wrapped in shawls.

We went through the health examination, where we were poked and prodded like cattle. I suppose they were afraid we’d bring our germs on board and infect the toffs up on the first deck.