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
I don’t know says George He’s moving quickly but he looks calm Like he doesn’t have a care in the world I wonder if he’s heard the rumors He must have heard They were plastered all over the newspaper this morning I saw them right under the announcement that the Lusitania is sailing to Liverpool The words were big bold and clear The Germans mean business George rolls his eyes Maybe if you’re rich you think nothing can harm you Nah Not after the Titanic Money didn’t save Benjamin Guggenheim John Astor or Mr and Mrs Strauss The rich die just like the rest of us What are they talking about What rumors What danger Why would Mr Vanderbilt or anyone die on the Lusitania Hilda I say did you read the newspapers today Is the Lusitania in danger Hilda is standing on her tiptoes to see Mr Vanderbilt Oh that Nothing to worry about Avis She waves her hand in the air like she’s swatting a fly I heard that Mr Sumner the spokesman for the Cunard company reassured Mr Vanderbilt that the Lusitania is too fast to be in danger of being torpedoed by German U-boats It’s all rumors and
fear-mongering The press love that It sells newspapers Hilda points in the direction of the two photographers The burly one glares at her Maybe My heart pounds like it did when Mother told me I was going to school in England But England is far away I told her and it’s at war The war is on battlefields in Europe far from where you’ll be living Avis And it won’t last A few months more at most and it will be over You’ll be perfectly safe with your grandparents and at school This is a wonderful opportunity for you to get a good education It’s what your father would have wanted What could I say I didn’t want to leave home but Mother insisted And now with all this talk about German U-boats and warnings in the newspaper I want to jump back on that train I know about U-boats They’re submarines hiding under the sea waiting for ships like foxes hiding in bushes waiting to pounce on rabbits or deer When U-boats spy a warship they launch a torpedo And if the ship is hit that’s it The ship sinks But until today I thought the U-boats were only after warships I tap Hilda on the shoulder Maybe the warning is real
