Love Throughout Time

Chapter 6

*Millie*

My head is spinning from that conversation. I don’t know why he’s so determined to keep up this act, but maybe he’s a paid actor or something. Is it possible that only some of us are actual passengers, and maybe the rest are all actors who need to play their roles to make it more authentic? It’s strange that he stayed in character in private, though.

Looking around, something seems off. “We’re on B Deck?” I ask.

Will nods. “Correct. Your stateroom should be right down this way.”

Things only look vaguely familiar, but he’s right. My room should be close by if we’re really on B Deck. “Yes, but where are all the old photos?”

“I’m afraid I have never seen any portraits in the corridor,” he says.

“Well, the hallway where my room is looks a lot like this with all this white paneling, but there were historical pictures of the ship hung all along here.” I frown, looking up and down the hall and seeing none. “This is really weird. Why would they take them down?”

He exhales but says nothing, looking at me with a furrowed brow. I guess we’re going around in circles again. This just doesn’t make any sense.

We reach B-49. “Now, I know there was a photo of the launch here. I look at it every time I come back to the room.”

“You seem so certain that you aren’t in 1912,” he says. “I assure you, that’s precisely the year.”

“Sure, it’s 1912.” I shake my head. This is starting to get old. “Let’s just find my mom.”

“Very well.” He knocks on the door, and a man with a long beard answers. He’s wearing an old-fashioned suit, a perfect costume right down to the sparkling pocket watch chain.

I don’t get it. Why would Mom invite this man to our room?

“I’m terribly sorry to interrupt you,” Will says. “May I ask if this happens to be Mrs. Baker’s room?”

The man frowns and shakes his head. “You’re the second lad to come asking about this Baker woman. I’m afraid there is no one in this room by that name. I’m Mr. Dickenson Bishop, and my wife is the only woman residing here at the moment. I’m afraid there’s been a mistake.”

“What the hell?” I shout. “This is definitely my room, Will.” The man looks at me like he can’t believe I’m even talking.

Will holds up a hand and gives Mr. Bishop a polite smile. I push up on my tiptoes to look over his shoulder. I don’t see my mom or sister, and the room looks different. There’s nothing but a fancy dresser where the TV should be.

“I assure you, miss, my wife and I have been in this stateroom since we boarded,” the man says. “Now, if you’ll pardon me….”

“We’re terribly sorry to disturb you, sir,” Will tells him. He takes me by the arm and leads me away.

“But that’s my room,” I complain, walking backward as he pulls me gently down the hallway. “My mom and Ally should be in there. Actually, they should be with me. Why would they leave me when I hit my head and fell in the pool?” There’s so much that isn’t right about all this.

“I am just as confused as you are,” he insists. “But we aren’t likely to find a solution in that stateroom with the Bishop family.”

“I’m positive that’s my room—B-49.” I turn around, watching a couple pass us in the hallway. They also look like they belong in 1912. They avert their eyes as if avoiding us–me anyway. Once they pass, I run my finger beneath my collar. The lace is scratchy, and it’s so tight I feel like I can hardly breathe.

I’d love to get out of this elaborate dress, but I don’t have anything else to wear. I guess it was nice of his sister to help me put it on, which I probably couldn’t have done on my own. It’s pretty, I’ll admit, but it came with so many layers, I could be out on an Arctic exposition and probably not get cold. Agatha’s eyes nearly bulged out of her head when I asked if she had any jeans I could wear. All this pretending like it’s 1912 is going way too far.

“Why don’t we take a moment to lounge on the promenade?” Will suggests. “The fresh air will do you good, and we can discuss why the situation is so confusing at the moment.”

I nod. Sounds good.” We head toward the upper deck, but still, all of the historical photos are missing from the walls. I don’t even see any empty nails or holes in the paint where they used to be. The whole ship was full of them so we could all see what things looked like back in the day. But now, there’s nothing.

We step on the deck, and even the scent is different. Now, the sea water smell is mixed with something that’s definitely not diesel fuel. I take a deep whiff, and it reminds me of the time I went to see an authentic train with my mom. Could that be… coal?

Everywhere I look, I see people dressed like it’s really 1912. I don’t see the bikini girls anywhere.

“My brother rented some deck chairs over this way,” he says, leading me to the left.

“Why did they need to rent them?” I ask. “There were plenty of lounge chairs on the deck.” But as soon as I say it, I notice they’re all gone. A few people are sitting in wooden chairs that don’t look very comfortable, and there are also several benches attached to the deck.

“We had to rent them for the voyage,” he explains. “Perhaps your mother rented yours and didn’t explain that to you.”

“No.” I shake my head. I’m about to say something else but notice another difference. “Where are all the lifeboats?”

“Those are scattered throughout the promenade,” he explains. “See, there are several over there.”

I turn to look where he’s pointing and notice the cluster of lifeboats looks more like what I saw in that movie Will’s allegedly never heard of. I know that Titanic 2 is bigger than the original ship for several reasons, but also so that we have enough lifeboats for everyone–a law that was changed because of the sinking of the original ship. “Where are the other ones that were hanging over there?” I’m pretty sure this is our muster station. Our boats are gone.

Will doesn’t answer me. Instead, he gestures at some chairs, and we both sit. This one is not nearly as comfortable as the one I sat in earlier today–before the bathing suit fiasco. “Perhaps we should try another way. You come from 2025, you say?” I nod..” Tell me about life there. I’m sure there are many changes. What sort of inventions or discoveries might I find interesting?”

“Oh, okay. We’re still doing this then.” I sigh as his forehead furrows. He’s going to win an Oscar one day. “ Well, uhm, there are a lot of things, but for starters, people usually fly when they want to go someplace too far to drive. Cruise ships are just for fun when you want something different for vacation.”

Will tips his head to the side. “Did you say… fly? Surely, in 2025, people haven’t sprouted wings.”

I laugh. “No, of course not. I mean on airliners. Jets.” He’s still staring at me, so I continue. “Okay then. I guess we’re pretending like you don’t know what that is. You’ve heard of the Wright Brothers?”

“Of course, but there’s no way more than one or two people could ever fit on an aeroplane.”

“Hundreds of people fly on one plane at the same time.” I see the shock register in his eyes. “Also, we have cell phones, and I feel lost without mine. It’s always in my pocket.”

“How could one fit an entire telephone in a pocket? Where are the wires?”

“They’re wireless,” I explain. “They look something like—” I look around, and nobody has one, but one man is reading a book not far from us. “They’re shaped something like a very small, thin book.”

There’s that shock in his eyes again. Seriously? This guy should definitely win an Academy Award for Best Actor.

“I guess computers are the next thing,” I add. “Pretty much everyone has a laptop. Well, our phones are minicomputers these days since we can search the Internet on smartphones, but we also have desktops or laptops for doing that.”

“The… Internet?” Will repeats, saying it slowly, like he could potentially figure out what it might be if he dissects the parts.

“Yeah, God. I don’t even know how to explain that. You’re really putting me through the ringer. Um, I don’t know all the technical details, but you go to websites and find information or just watch cat videos if that's what you want. It’s pretty much anything you want to know, you search for it, and it’s right there.”

“This is all terribly difficult to imagine.” He runs a hand through his hair, making it stand up a bit before the wind settles it back down. “I’m afraid I don’t understand many of these strange words. What is a website? I assume it has nothing to do with spiders.”

“Are you seriously going to make me explain what a website is?”

His eyes widen slightly. “If you’d rather not, I understand. It’s just… I can’t imagine what you’re referring to.”

“Okay, fine. We’ll do it your way.” I take a deep breath and consider how to explain what a website is. “So… it’s kind of like a movie–a nickelodeon? You know what that is?

He nods, still looking confused.

“Right, so there are millions of them. They each have an address. You type it in, and you go to the website, and it shows you pictures or you can read information. It used to be a lot of s**t for school, like history junk. But now, there’s a lot of entertainment. There are sites for sharing videos and stuff like that.”

I can tell by his expression that he isn’t following. It seems… impossible. But he genuinely looks confused. He shakes his head. “I’m afraid I’m unable to imagine what that might look like.”

A nervous laugh bubbles out of my mouth. I’ve seen some really good acting before, but in the back of my mind, I’m starting to wonder… could he seriously not know what I’m talking about. “You weren’t born in a barn by any chance, were you?”

“A barn?”

“Never mind.” I twirl a long lock of dark hair around my finger and stare out at the ocean. Maybe when we get to Southampton, I’ll know for sure what’s happening. It might be easy to change the decade on an isolated ship than in an entire city.

“I wish there was something I could do to convince you,” Will says, taking a deep breath. I really do want to believe him. The man saved my life–why would he be lying to me. “I have an idea.”

Will stands up and walks to the railing, and I follow. “”What are we looking at?”

“Look there.” He points up at the sun. “Do you know the time?”

“Uhm, well, it should be about four in the afternoon,” I surmise, based on when we went out to the pool and how much time seems to have passed.

He pulls out a pocket watch, checks it, and nods. “That’s right. Look where the sun is. If we were sailing to Southampton, we would be going east, but you can tell by the position of the sun that we are, in fact, sailing west. We’re headed to New York City, Millie.”

My heart thumps in my chest as I try to process his words. He’s right. I’m no scientist, but I know the sun sets in the west. “s**t,” I murmur. My legs start to feel weak. I stumble back to the chairs and sit down, and Will joins me.

“Are you well, Millie?” I can hear the concern in his voice. He places a hand gently on my arm, and it’s oddly comforting, despite my discomfort.

I stare into his eyes and realize he doesn’t know what I’m talking about because he’s never seen any of it before. “Will, this can’t be happening. I really don’t know how the hell is going on, but I’m scared. Either I’m dreaming, hallucinating, or I’m really in 1912… on the RMS Titanic.” I think of my mom and sister. God, they must be so scared. Do they know where I’m at?

“Millie, I truly do not know what to make of all this,” he says. “I apologize, but your story just sounds so fantastic. I don’t know how it can be true. I truly want to believe you.”

“I guess I can’t blame you for that,” I admit, another nervous giggle escaping my lips. “It does sound crazy.” I look around as panic fills my veins. These are real passengers on the Titanic, and I’m one of them now.

Oh, my God. Somehow, I’m really here. And how I got here really doesn’t matter anymore because, unlike all these people, I know what’s going to happen.

Visions from that movie fill my mind. The iceberg. The bits of ice on the deck. The laughing and carrying on, everyone thinking they’re perfectly safe. And then… the horror when the boat starts to go down.

I turn and look him in the eyes, and even though I’m going to be lying the crazy on even thicker, I know I have to tell him what I know. “Will, I’m going to tell you something else, and you need to believe me.”

“I want to believe you, Millie,” he says, his warm hand still on my arm. “I do honestly believe that you think you’re from the future.”

I turn toward him and place both of my hands on his upper arms. “Yes, that’s because I am from the future. Listen, there’s something else. Something really, really bad.”

He sits up straight and leans in. “Millie, I understand how frightened you are. I can’t blame you. Hopefully, this delusion will wear off soon, and we’ll get it all sorted out. You’ll be perfectly fine.”

I shake my head vigorously. “You don’t understand. I won’t be. None of us will be.”

“I understand it appears that way now,” he insists. “Once we arrive in New York City, I’ll ensure that you are safe and provided for until we find your family.”

“That’s what I’m trying to tell you, Will!” Panic and exasperation surge through me as I stare into his calm blue eyes. “We’re not going to make it to New York City!”

“What’s that now?” His forehead crinkles, and he shakes his head. Now, he’s the one laughing. “I assure you, we will,” he says. “This ship is unsinkable, or so they say. My family will help you–”

“It’s not as unsinkable as you think,” I say, shaking my head.

“Of course we will.” He’s still scoffing at me, but I hear a hint of concern I hadn’t before.

I lean in, looking around at the others near us before I whisper, “I’m telling you, we won’t get to New York. Will, this ship is going to sink.”