The Girl Who Came Home by Hazel Gaynor

Author:Hazel Gaynor
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780062316875
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2014-03-05T16:00:00+00:00

Harry ran from cabin to cabin, pounding on the doors until they were opened and telling the occupants that they needed to put on their life jackets and make their way to the upper decks immediately. Other crewmen and stewards were doing the same.

Many of the occupants didn’t speak English and couldn’t understand what Harry was saying, throwing their hands upward in frustration. Those he did manage to rouse barely took him seriously, assuming it was the drill that had been canceled earlier that day. They said that they would put on their life jackets, before closing the door and returning to their beds. Others didn’t even respond to the banging on the door, too stupefied from a night of drinking in the bar to hear Harry or any of the commotion that was now building in the corridors.

After rushing around the cabins for forty minutes or more, getting occasionally lost among the endless maze of corridors and companionways, Harry noticed a definite list in the ship, having to walk up an incline as he made his way along Scotland Road and using the walls on either side of him for balance. He was relieved to bump into his friend Billy.

“Christ, mate. Have you heard? We’re bloody sinking.”

“Y’don’t say. She’s almost totally underwater in the first five compartments. Christ only knows what’s gone on in the boiler rooms. They’ve closed the watertight doors—with the stokers still inside, I reckon. There’s men down there trying to keep the generators going so at least we’ll have some light to watch ourselves drown by.”

“Christ, Billy, don’t. It’s terrifyin’. Did y’see the size of that iceberg?”

“Yeah. I went up. There’s fellas up there drinking their brandy being serenaded by the violinists. You’d think it was a special bleedin’ iceberg cruise or somethin’. There’s a whole gang of Irish in the dining room. Have you seen them? Some are already at the booze and others are sittin’ around prayin’ with those beads they have—fat lot of use they’ll do ’em at the bottom of the ocean. Captain Smith’s ordered the lifeboats to be swung out.”

Something within Harry sensed that he needed to go to the dining room. “Right, keep banging on the doors and waking people up. I’m going to the dining room to shift everyone up the stairs.” He started to make his way back along the corridor. “Oi! Billy,” he called back to his friend. “I’ll see you up there. Right?”

Billy turned and gave him a thumbs-up with his trademark cocky grin. “Not if I see you first, Walsh!”

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