Titanic: True Love Forever

Chapter 10: Taking a bath

When I ran to the bow deck and turned back again, the glow of ten thousand electric lights on board the Titanic illuminated the two-hundred-meter-long colossus brilliantly. The lights were so bright that one would have thought it was a fire, and I catapulted my body to hide beneath the shadows under the mast, above which was the lookout, with two lookouts on duty whose eyes were divided only between the ocean in front of them, and who were unable to detect my presence at all.

I looked down and rubbed my ankles and wrists, the noticeable hypothermia making me shiver uncontrollably. It wasn't really cold, it didn't matter if you wore less when the ship hadn't sailed into an ice floe area, I was just feeling hungry, and in a state of hunger the body has a hard time carrying any other burden.

I heard the sound of disorganized footsteps as the grabbing brigade that had followed me up from B deck finally appeared. One of them shouted very loudly to the lookout on the mast, "Regino, have you seen a female passenger running up here? She has long, blonde hair."

"Who isn't a female passenger these days with long hair, I'm only looking at other ships or icebergs, I haven't seen any female passengers, they're all in the first class dining room chatting about French perfume and clothes, I guess." Regino snarled back in disgust, he couldn't have seen me even if he had looked down.

So I continued to look up quietly at the sky with my back to the mast, the salt gray sky glowing only with a million stars that seemed to lie frozen in silence in the velvet clouds. The bow of the ship broke through the calm sea, and the fierce rumble of the water reaching me at the same time as the sea breeze.

I could hear over this churning noise the crewmen who had caught up discussing with each other how to catch me as quickly as possible so as not to disturb the guests in this neighborhood. This was the closest thing to a first class cabin, and they were justifiably concerned.

I couldn't take any more chances with them, and whether I had the watch in my pocket or not, as long as the first class guest insisted that he had seen me take it, the dedicated sea crew would detain me in New York, and then it would be a better idea to turn me over to the police.

Can I expect Karl Hockley will be relieved to say that the wrong person, or that he did not see me take his watch ...... Forget it, this is a real accident, I fell eight lifetimes of bad luck to accidentally get rid of that damned watch, and even more unlucky is that the owner of the watch is still on the same ship with me.

The big deal is that when I get off the boat, I will have the opportunity to go to the United States to save up enough money to buy a piece to return to him.

After a few minutes, the crew members who were catching up with me finally decided to disperse, some of them planned to go to the third class cabin at the stern to see if I was there, if they couldn't find me, they would go to the fellowship hall of the third class cabin to see if I was there to dance and drink. Some of them headed for the deck of the first class cabins, their footsteps looking cautious, afraid of disturbing the noble ladies of the first class cabins.

I waited a moment to make sure the deck was clear of rat traps before I took my seaman's cap off as if nothing had happened. Then I reached out and scratched my long, messy hair, smoothed it a few times, then curled it neatly with one hand and coiled it a few times onto my head, and then fixed my hair in the hat.

Sticking my hands in my jacket pockets, I slowly walked out from behind the mast with my shoulders slumped. The lookouts overhead didn't see me at all; they easily kept their eyes from moving about, and even if they occasionally glanced down, they would only see a third-class male passenger strolling by.

I walked silently down the stairs from the bow deck to the D deck, saw the white iron staircase connecting the upper decks, and ran up it easily. Not many passengers would be running out and wandering around at this time of day, they were all in the dining room or smoking room enjoying the ship's lavish service program.

There was a slight problem getting up to B deck when I saw the steward in charge of that area deadlocked at the entrance, seemingly unwelcoming to strangers. I turned around and went to climb the railing, and once on the B deck promenade I kept moving forward, keeping my head down to avoid men in tuxedos carrying ladies in evening gowns, who let out exclamations of surprise under their breath as if they couldn't fathom where I'd popped up from.

A waiter carrying a wine tray with champagne placed on it seemed to follow the guests from the dining room to here on the walking deck, when he saw me he queried suspiciously, "Wait a minute, how did you get up here, you're not supposed to be here."

It's also true that there's no comparison at all between a thirty dollar ticket and the service that comes with a three thousand dollar ticket.

"Quiet, kid." I walked briskly over to him with no expression on my face and no semblance of a sense of urgency. The waiter looked inexplicably at the seaman's cap on my head, and he seemed unsure about coming up to stop me. Before he could respond, I calmly walked past the deck chairs and straight around a corner and down the stairs to the first class suite area on the starboard B deck. Casually went to push the door of one of the rooms, locked ...... without stopping my feet and walked through, then went to push the next door, opened.

In this instant I was faced with two choices, one was to go in immediately as I could sense someone would be in this corridor in a few seconds, it could be a waiter, a rattler or any of the passengers but the risk of going in was that there was already a guest back in the cabin suite so the door was unlocked. The second is that I get out of here immediately, but within an hour I will face the tragic consequences of being rounded up by a dozen or so large men and having to return meekly with my hands up to my jail cell on the bottom of the deck, waiting to be drowned in the water.

Subdue a guest or two or be captured by a group of crew members, I choose the former. Without hesitation, I flashed inside and slammed the door behind me. Before I can turn around I smell the light scent of flowers, and the first thing I see when I turn around is the room's fireplace, the red lacquered teak oiled and cleaned on the all-marble fireplace walls. Above the fireplace was a large mirror flanked by red and white roses, and in the center of the roses was a clock with Roman numerals pointing to "X" (ten). Little by little, time passes, just as the ship's life begins to fade with these roses.

It had been a while since I had bothered to take care of my appearance, and although I knew I must be very unkempt, I was still surprised at how I looked on the inside, and I thought that if I washed my face no one would recognize me.

A hollow human form appeared in the mirror, with layers of gray and black on my face, and a homeless man's jacket so dirty that it was practically a large piece of garbage, which just happened to fit over my bamboo pole. It's a wonder the doctor who checked for infectious diseases hasn't thrown me overboard yet.

I could see that the wooden ceiling was edged with fine carvings and the teak paneling was littered with gilded ornaments. The wall sconces with their dim electric lamps comfortably colored the new, dark red room with a warm, flamboyant hue. Behind a screen beside the fireplace there was a liquor cabinet, unlocked, full of high spirits of brandy, some of them of considerable vintage.

I was quiet, making no noise, and stepping at an unhurried pace on the soft carpet. This was an upper-class room, and I could almost imagine myself safe for the time being, for surely the crew who were chasing thieves would not risk frightening these valued guests by coming here and knocking on the door and making a big search.

From the sitting room, I walked out onto the private balcony, a dozen meters or so of private deck planted with rows of palm trees, behind which were glass rectangular portholes that closed tightly shut. I looked left and right for a moment, saw no one and re-entered the room. Then without making a sound I walked very quickly through all the rooms in this B-floor upper class suite, including a parlor two bedrooms and a private bathroom. In one of the bedrooms there were oil paintings on all the chairs and walls.

A Monet's Water Lilies lay quietly on the sofa, looking especially clear and hazy amidst Picasso's grotesque distortions.

It was very beautiful, and went straight to the soul in its stillness.

I gently closed the door that was filled with expensive paintings, even if they only existed for a few days, they were still works of art worthy of respect. Then I walked quickly to the bathroom, I wanted to change myself into a different image in the least amount of time before the passengers could return. There was no way back to the lower class, so I would have to spend my time in the upper class and then look for an opportunity to disembark when the ship docked tomorrow.

If I want to spend time in the upper class, I must first take a shower. If I don't clean myself up, I'll go out into the bright, creepy white corridors of the first class cabin, and people will have to back away from me just by smelling it, not to mention avoiding it. Then there would be a million disturbed screams going off, notifying the pickets straight away of my location. They'd be back in the bottom cabin and handcuffed as fast as they could, and maybe Jack would come and keep me company before the ship sank, and we'd wait for the Goddess of Courage to come with an axe and save us two limpets.

Closing the door and peeling off my clothes, I jumped so fast when I took off my pants that I almost hit the gorgeous clean sink next to the bathtub.

I was so dirty I hadn't bathed in a century, and the mudballs I'd scrubbed off my body could have filled a watertight compartment. Before draining the tub of dirty water and turning on the hot water faucet to refill another one, I grabbed one of the women's bathrobes from the bathroom and casually draped it over my body, my long, freshly washed hair hanging wet behind me. Opening the door and running to the sitting room, careful to avoid the artistic paintings, I enter into the lady's room here and push open the other side of the closet, my hand reaching out and pulling out a dinner gown, the light green fluttering straps swaying with the flowing skirt.

I pressed the dress roughly towards my body by feel, it was a bit loose, my body was slim more than voluptuous, luckily I had a belt, while my upper body was loose only in other ways.

Every second here someone could be coming back, so there was no hesitation in my movements. Showering and getting my clothes was basically a snap.

I rushed to the bathroom with my clothes in my arms and hung them casually on the hangers. The water in the bathtub was already overflowing, so I turned off the water, threw my robe away and stepped into the bathtub naked, I wasn't sure if my body still smelled, and pressed my head along with my body all the way into the water, holding my breath for several seconds, intending to wet my body at once so that I could immediately change my clothes and get out of here.

I stood up from the water as I was about to change my breath, and the bathtub water clattered from my long hair, cheeks, and shoulders to my chest and under my thighs like the sound of a waterfall. The bathroom door opens suddenly, completely without warning, and I don't have time to duck or even reach for cover.

Just my body facing the doorway, without a single piece of clothing on me, more uncovered than a newborn baby.

The man who had just walked into the bathroom just looked at me, holding a glass in his left hand and carrying a full bottle of brandy in his right, with an easy smile on his face. Then his smirk froze, his expression froze for a weird moment, as if he couldn't believe his eyes a little, and he just stood there in the bathroom doorway, his eyes staring straight and dead at me.

Hell no!

I'm almost certain those words came out of his eyes.

I didn't make a move, I didn't shrink back into the tub, I didn't run screaming to the side to get my clothes to cover up, I just looked at him coldly, just the two of us glaring at each other.

Suddenly, the glass in his hand along with the wine inside accidentally slipped and fell to the floor. The man takes a half-step back in disarray at the unexpected noise, and soon he steadies himself again, seemingly unable to tolerate his own embarrassment. His eyes wandered to the left and right for a moment, and he said very politely, "I'm sorry, I'm in the wrong place." He spoke so quickly that it was almost impossible to hear what the string of English words could all make up. But as he said he was sorry, I very clearly saw his eyes wander back to my body.

And in the next second he had apologized profusely as he stepped back and held out his hand, "I'm sorry for scaring you, I'll leave immediately, of course I didn't see anything, please don't worry."

He stepped on the glass and almost slipped while maintaining his good manners and walking out the door. Stumbling a bit, he immediately gathered his wolfishness again and slammed the door very calmly.

I ...... took a deep breath, I'm pretty sure that this son of a b***h looked me over. The last few glances were still intentional, and it was a no brainer-Calhokri!

Gritting my teeth, I took a rude step out of the tub, realizing that I wouldn't have time to put my skirt back on, and with a hand reaching out I draped my bathrobe over my body, belted it hard, and wrapped myself up in a meaty bundle. Then jogged to the door and whispered on the count of three, one, two ...... The door slammed open and Carl asked suspiciously, "Wait, this is my place."

Congratulations, sir, you answered correctly.

I'll f**k you up.

A kick in the ass, I'll get him straight down.