Survival Tails_The Titanic
Page 3
Clara squeezed her body beneath the tight gap between the canvas cover and the edge of the boat and sniffed at the kittens. “How did you get inside here?” she asked the largest of the kittens, who stared up at her with wide blue eyes.
“Our mother left us here,” the kitten replied.
“Your mother?” Clara sniffed the air.
The kitten nodded. “She said she would come back, but that was a very long time ago.”
Another of the kittens gave a small cry. “Where’s our mother? We’re so hungry.”
Clara couldn’t answer. She didn’t understand how the kittens could have been left inside a lifeboat in the first place. The only thing she knew for sure was that there were no other cats on the ship besides her and these three little stowaways.
“Did your mother name you?” she asked the kittens.
The largest kitten nodded. “I’m Violet,” she said. “These are my brothers—Cosmo and Jack.”
Clara looked at each of the kittens in turn, trying to decide what she should do. If she left them there, they would likely starve before they reached their destination. But if she helped them, she might never shake them. Kittens had a nasty habit of becoming attached.
“You may call me Miss Clara,” she said finally. “I am the captain’s cat.”
Jack’s eyes widened at this. Apparently feeling a little bit brave, he ventured forward, standing as tall as he could to raise his small pink nose to Clara. “Will you help us find our mother, Miss Clara?” he asked.
“You can’t stay here,” Clara told him, ignoring his question. “If humans find you, they will throw you overboard.”
Cosmo squeaked, and Violet narrowed her eyes at Clara, licking Cosmo’s head to calm him. Jack, pretending not to have heard her last remark, said, “You could look after us. Until our mother returns.”
Clara frowned and shook her head. She had far more important things to be doing than looking after abandoned kittens. Clara had never had kittens herself—she’d always been too busy traveling on ships with her captain. She’d never once regretted it, and she wasn’t about to spend her final years chasing kittens around.
“You’ll have to fend for yourselves,” she told the kittens, making a decision. “Though if you don’t want to be discovered or starve before we reach land, you’ll need to find a safer place to hide.”
“Where can we go?” Cosmo squeaked.
Clara sighed; she wanted to tell the kittens that wasn’t her problem. But like her captain, she had a duty to all of the passengers on the ship, and she supposed that included these kittens. Besides, the little one—Cosmo—didn’t look as if he would last five minutes without a grown cat to keep him out of trouble.
“I’ll take you somewhere safe,” Clara said finally. “But you must stay out of trouble and out of sight. If you are discovered, I won’t be able to help you. Do you understand?”
The three kittens nodded in unison and Jack gave Clara a wide grin, as though he’d known all along that she was going to help them.
Clara poked her head out from beneath the cover and scanned the deck. It was teatime, so most of the passengers were in one of the dining rooms. “The coast is clear,” she told the kittens. “Follow me as quickly as you can. If I tell you to hide, you hide.”
The kittens nodded again and jumped one by one up onto the wooden bench inside the lifeboat, their tiny claws gripping the sides as they tried to keep their balance. Cosmo didn’t quite make it, and his paws slipped off the edge. Clara watched him scrabble helplessly inside the boat for a few moments, then tutted before gripping the scruff of his neck gently with her teeth and lifting him up next to his brother and sister. “This is why I never had kittens,” she muttered to herself. “It’s a bit of a drop for you on the other side,” she told them. “So do try to land on your feet.”
She needn’t have worried. As she landed soundlessly on the deck, the three kittens followed swiftly behind, each of them landing with the same grace—even Cosmo, who looked particularly pleased with himself. Clara stopped herself from smiling, then took another survey of the deck.
“All clear,” she whispered. “Quickly, now.”
She ran along the freshly polished wood of the promenade, the kittens’ tiny paws pattering behind as they kept close to the edges, ducking beneath the numerous deck chairs and benches, until they reached the captain’s quarters. The captain always left his door slightly ajar so that Clara could come and go as she pleased.
His quarters were made up of three rooms: the bathroom (which Clara rarely ventured into), complete with a bathtub; the bedroom, with a bed and a large, carved wooden wardrobe where the captain kept his uniforms; and a sitting room with a table and chairs and a comfortable settee where Clara took most of her naps. In the late afternoon, the sun shone through the porthole, hitting the perfect spot.
Clara turned to the kittens, whose eyes were wide as they took in the luxurious surroundings. The walls were paneled with mahogany and intricate wallpaper, with crimson curtains made of silk, and the furniture was just as grand, made from the finest oak and upholstered in the richest of fabrics. Not to mention the plush cream carpet, which Clara loved to sink her paws into.
“These are the captain’s quarters,” Clara told them. “You’ll have to stay here for now, until I find more suitable accommodations, but under no circumstances are you to leave this room, and when you hear the captain, hide silently beneath the table.”
Violet looked at the large table, then back at Clara. “What will happen if he finds us, Miss Clara?”
Clara wasn’t sure. She hoped that the captain would let them stay until they reached land, but she would feel much happier if they were somewhere they wouldn’t be discovered by humans.
“The captain is a very busy man,” she told them. “He rarely spends much time in here, apart from cleaning himself and sleeping, so you should be fine.”
Cosmo nudged Clara’s leg with his nose. “I’m hungry, Miss Clara,” he mewed.
Jack and Violet nodded.
Clara sighed. “Stay here and out of sight. I’ll see if I can scrounge something from the galley.”
She turned to leave, already regretting having brought them to her captain’s quarters, but unsure of anywhere else where they would be safe. She hurried down into the depths of the ship toward the galley, hoping that the kittens wouldn’t rip the place apart while she was gone.
CHAPTER 6
MUTT
Thursday, April 11, 1912
“What do we have here?” a loud voice asked, startling Mutt awake.
“I think it’s a stowaway,” another voice said with a laugh.
Mutt jumped up, growling at the two men dressed in navy uniforms with small caps upon their heads, who peered down at him with puzzled expressions.
“Easy, boy,” one said, reaching down to stroke Mutt’s head.
Mutt felt himself relax a little, relief flooding through him as he realized that he wouldn’t starve after all. But before he had the chance to gather his nerve to make a run for the open door, the other man had sneaked up behind him and looped a long length of parcel twine around his neck.
Mutt struggled against the tether. It cut into his neck. “Calm down, boy,” the man said, stroking his head again. “We’re not going to hurt you.”
“What are we going to do with him, Billy?” the other man asked.
“He can keep us company,” Billy replied, scratching Mutt behind the ears. “He reminds me of my old dog back home.”
The other man snorted. “A mail dog?”
He lifted some sacks and hauled them over his shoulder, pausing as he reached for the one Mutt had been sleeping on.
“He’s gone and done his business all over the mail!” he yelled.
Mutt’s tail drooped between his legs and his head hung in shame. It wasn’t his fault—there had been nowhere else to go.
Billy ignored him. “We can clean it up. It’s only on the sack; no one will ever know.”
Billy smiled at Mutt and led him out into the corridor. “He’s just scared and hungry. I wonder how he came to be locked up in here?”
Mutt’s tail wagged as he took in his new surroundings. He sniffed at the air, the floor, the walls, searching for any scent of Alice or the master. They continued up a flight of stairs, past a sign on the wall that read G DECK, then along a corridor to a door marked POST OFFICE. At one side of the wall were rows of sacks full of mail to be sorted; across the back wall and down the other side were rows and rows of shelves with small cubbyholes where hundreds of letters and small parcels had already been placed.
Billy laid a blanket on the floor for Mutt. Then he pulled from his pocket a small package wrapped in brown paper and held it out. Mutt sniffed at it cautiously—and then it hit him. The sweet scent of salted roast beef. He snuffled his jaws inside the package, gobbling up the sandwich without taking a breath.
“Easy, easy!” Billy laughed. “There’s more where that came from.” He nodded to the huge sacks behind him. “I’ve just got to sort through this lot first, then I’ll see what else I can find you.”
Mutt glanced at the door, which was still ajar. Billy must have caught his intention, though, because he swiftly closed it. “Best you stay with me for now,” he told Mutt. “The captain won’t be too pleased if he finds out I’m harboring a stowaway.”
He patted Mutt on the head, then turned to his work. The way he moved from one task to another, sorting letters and parcels faster than Mutt’s eyes could keep up, was quite soothing. The room was warm and the blanket beneath Mutt soft. With no immediate way to escape, Mutt found himself drifting off to sleep again.
Sunday, April 14, 1912
Mutt stayed in the post office for what felt like forever. Every so often Billy would feed him, occasionally letting him out for a quick walk along the corridor on his makeshift leash. He spread a pile of newspaper in the corner for Mutt to do his business—despite the other mail workers’ protests—but he was always careful not to let Mutt near the door. And whenever he left Mutt alone, Billy would lock the door behind him.
As the days ebbed painfully away in an endless cycle of letter and mail sorting, so did Mutt’s hopes of ever finding Alice again. Until, on the fourth day, Billy made a mistake. Mutt lay quietly on the blanket pretending to be asleep, waiting for his chance to escape.
“Can you help me with that big parcel in the mailroom?” a man called from the open door. Billy nodded, then glanced down at Mutt. Mutt let out a big snort of a snore, and Billy laughed, then followed the other man.
Mutt opened one eye, chancing a peep at the door. Just as he’d hoped, it was still open! He jumped up as quickly as he could, his claws slipping on the blanket as he darted to the doorway and out into the corridor.
Mutt sprinted along, all his senses on high alert. The passengers would most likely be up on the higher decks, so that was where he intended to begin his search. Ahead of him, a narrow stairway led straight up. Mutt waited for a moment, then charged up the stairs to the next level, labeled F DECK. Here, he could hear the thrum of the engines and the vibration beneath his feet as they powered ahead. He raced up the stairs to the deck above—E DECK.
The corridor ahead ran as far as Mutt could see. Mutt took a deep breath and wondered how on earth he was going to find Alice. It could take him a month to search a single deck, let alone the entire ship. The chatter of human voices drifted toward him and Mutt froze. After a couple of beats, the voices faded away in the opposite direction.
“Where have you been!” a voice yelled behind him.
Mutt spun, his hackles raised, but the corridor was empty. For a moment the only sound was his heart thumping in his ears, but then he heard a tutting sound followed by a small huff.
“Over here!”
Mutt sniffed along the wall to a small, louvered vent at the bottom. “King Leon?”
The rat’s bright black eyes peered back.
“I’ve been searching for you all over the ship!” King Leon squeaked.
“I was trapped in the post office,” Mutt said. “But I escaped, so I’m going to find Alice—my girl.” Mutt started off in the opposite direction.
“You can’t just go wandering around the ship in the middle of the day!” King Leon squealed.
“I have to find her,” Mutt said. “I’ve lost enough time already.”
“Sure, sure,” King Leon said. “But what was the plan? Just go mingle with the humans until you find her? You need to be patient. Wait until the humans are asleep, then we’ll have the run of the ship.”
Mutt’s head dropped. He knew King Leon was right, but he was so desperate to see Alice that it hurt. His belly ached as it grumbled loudly. Billy hadn’t fed Mutt that morning, and he was starting to feel light-headed.
“Hungry?” King Leon asked.
Mutt’s stomach gurgled again in response and he heard another loud sigh from the vent.
“Fine.” King Leon huffed. “I tell you what, I am a little peckish myself, so if you don’t mind taking a bit of a risk, we might be able to find something to eat now. But you have to do exactly what I tell you—first sign of any humans, and I’m off. You got it? It’ll be every rat, or dog, for himself.”
“Got it!” Mutt agreed, his tail wagging.
“Wait there,” King Leon said.
There was a pitter-patter of tiny paws on metal as King Leon scuttled away from the vent. A few seconds later, he reappeared at an opening in the wall at the far end of the corridor and waved a paw at Mutt.
Mutt hurried down to find the rat waiting in the middle of an open room covered with an ornate metal-barred gate. It appeared to be a cage of some sort, and after being held in the post office for four days, there was no way he was going to walk straight into another prison.
“You coming?” King Leon whispered.
Mutt didn’t move. “This room is empty,” he said, confused. He’d thought they were heading for a food store.
King Leon sighed. “It’s called an elevator. The humans use it to go up and down. Trust me—it will take us where we want to go.”
Mutt frowned and backed away. It had to be some kind of trap like the ones the master used to snare rabbits.
“I think I’ll take my chances on my own,” he said, glancing around for a safer option.
“Like I said, it’s a bit risky,” King Leon said. “But this way’s a lot safer than traveling along Scotland Road. Too many humans about.”
“Scotland Road?”
“It’s what the humans call this long corridor. The crew use it to get to other parts of the ship.” King Leon raised his head, his whiskers twitching. “The elevator operator’s coming back. Get in!”
Mutt didn’t wait to be told twice. He eased himself through a gap between the metal bars. It was a tight squeeze—especially for his head—but luckily his belly was empty and he landed on the floor of the elevator.
“Under here,” King Leon called from beneath a bench covered in plush red fabric, set into the back of the elevator.
Mutt had barely tucked himself underneath the bench when a human appeared, pulling the metal gate open to step inside the cage.
“What now?” Mutt whispered.
“Hold on to your stomach,” King Leon whispered back. “We’re on the move.”
CHAPTER 7
MUTT
Sunday, April 14, 1912
“Going up!” the man called out as a couple more humans stepped into the cage.
Mutt backed up as far as he could go. “You said this way would keep us away from the humans!” he growled through gritted teeth. “Now we’re surrounded by them!”
“Not for long,” King Leon replied. “Trust me.”
The cage suddenly lurched. On the other side of the metal gate, the corridor floor seemed to sink as the cage rose, h
igher and higher, until the corridor disappeared altogether. There was only the dimmest of lights, which didn’t seem to come from any oil lamp or flame that Mutt could see.
It felt to Mutt as though they were moving inside the very walls of the great ship. He sank his claws deep into the plush carpet. They were trapped. He would be forever trapped inside the walls of the Titanic with a rat.
Along the top of the cage, a sliver of bright light appeared. It grew brighter and brighter until they arrived at an open foyer. The cage finally came to a stop with a slight jolt, and the man who seemed to be controlling the box pulled open the metal gate, freeing the humans.
Mutt took a step forward, but King Leon placed a paw on his tail. “Wait….”
“I need to get out of here,” Mutt breathed, desperate to escape.
The elevator operator stepped out and stood guard on the outside, seeming to be waiting for something.
“Try not to draw attention to yourself,” King Leon whispered, racing out of the elevator without a second glance back at Mutt.
“Easy for you to say,” Mutt mumbled. The humans were much more likely to spot him than they were a rat. He waited for a moment to make sure the man’s back was still turned, then he ran with trembling legs as his stomach lurched from fear, or hunger, or both.
He turned the corner and paused at the top of the grandest staircase he had ever seen. It was carved from wood and inlaid with twisted metal and colorful glass. At the bottom was a curious statue of what looked like a small naked child holding a lamp. High above, a huge glass dome flooded the interior of the ship with light.
Mutt shook himself out of his reverie and turned, almost colliding with a woman wearing a large hat covered in colorful feathers, who shrieked in surprise. Mutt hurried on, wondering what sort of bird had had to die so that she could wear that ridiculous hat. Finally, he spotted King Leon’s rump bouncing in the distance and followed the rat along another corridor until he stopped beneath a trolley covered with dirty plates and cutlery.