Day One Saturday May 1 1915 Morning The New York City Dock THE DUSTY FUMES and the fishy smells on the New York dock make me gag but I can’t stop staring at everything Shiny black cars and horse-drawn carriages drive up to Pier 54 and deposit their passengers Porters pile up trunks and suitcases like towers Some children cling to their parents Others race up and down the dock weaving between cars horses and people Their parents shout Don’t wander away The Lusitania is sailing soon Passengers speak English French and a bunch of languages I can’t name The Lusitania is called the Big Lusy The name makes the ship sound friendly even though she’s huge and elegant and will soon be full of strangers Rich strangers poor strangers and strangers in the middle like us
A man and a woman beside me hold each other and kiss Friends hug goodbye A father gathers his children close ready to board the ship I wish my father were alive and with me on the dock I wish I wasn’t sailing far from home with Hilda and Sarah They’re nurses who worked at Mother’s home for the sick and aged Mother asked them to look after me on the Lusitania but they don’t want to be with me They want Oh no No A horse’s hoof scrapes my leg No room to move No place to run I’m going to be trampled Watch out A man pulls me away I stumble against his shoulder I’m trembling but I manage to straighten up I I’m sorry I tell the man Thank you The man smiles His eyes are soft and kind You had a close call Be careful he says in a thick Scottish accent Before I can say anything he tips his tweed hat and hurries toward the gangplank of the Lusitania I turn and there’s Hilda What’s the matter with you Avis she snaps You almost got yourself killed I didn’t see the horse I was thinking
Thinking Again Oh Avis You do far too much thinking Hilda gives me her look The one that makes me feel like she’s wagging her finger in my face She pats her dark brown hair to make sure that the pins holding her bun are still there They are of course Hilda’s hair always stays in place even on a rainy misty day like today Even with people and horses jostling us on the dock Not like my thick unruly brown hair My hair has a mind of its own You don’t appreciate your good fortune Avis says Hilda How many twelve-year-olds have the chance to travel across the ocean on a magnificent ship like the Lusitania Don’t you agree Sarah Sarah nods Her blonde curls bob up and down like a yo-yo but I can tell she hasn’t heard a word Hilda said Sarah’s big green eyes are glued to two young men in dark blue suits and crisp white shirts sauntering toward the Lusitania I know Hilda is right Sometimes I think too much I try not to but it’s hard not to think about Father our home in St Thomas or my best friend Lizzie It’s hard not to wonder what it will be like to be far away at school in England Far from everything and everyone I know and care about
If only Lizzie were here Lizzie and I talk about everything How bossy my mother is how her father drinks too much and how her mother cries when he does How we hate hate hate it when Mary Roberts at school parades around in her latest frock and sniffs at us like we’re wearing rags How much we love adventure stories especially ones about far-off magical lands even though most of them are about boys Why can’t someone write one about a girl Girls love magic and adventure too I hope I make a friend on the Lusy I don’t want to be alone in the middle of the Atlantic with nothing but ocean around me for seven days All Hilda and Sarah want to do is meet famous people or flirt with young men That’s all they talked about on the train from Canada How they’d meet them what they’d say what they’d wear Hey girl Move out of the way A burly photographer with a curly black mustache shoves me forward Don’t push I say but he doesn’t listen He and his friend barrel ahead snapping picture after picture of rich and famous celebrities about to board the ship There’s that millionaire Mr Vanderbilt the photographer shouts to his friend Can you see his face George Does he look worried Can you get his picture
