Memories of the Titanic

I remember my childhood years quite well. I had lived with my big brother, Colby Winston, ever since I was five, I don’t remember much before that though. We traveled all around Europe; Colby was a big gambler and loved to make bets. He lied, he cheated, everything was always changing. Colby promised me one thing though, “Reagan,” he would say, “one days it gunna be you and me, in the United States.”

I really wanted to believe him, but I never saw it coming true. But then one day, one lucky day, Colby won the biggest hand of poker. Along with money, cigars, and a bracelet for me, he won two tickets to get aboard the Titanic!

On April 10, 1912, Colby and I boarded the Titanic from the Southampton Harbor. It was my first time on a ship but I wasn’t that scared, Colby would describe me as a girl without fear. There were thousands of people lined up to board, Colby made me hold his hand so we wouldn’t get separated. After we put our bags into our third class room I wanted to explore. Colby didn’t mind that I wondered around but before I left he would always say, “If anything bad happens, you know where to find me.”

He would be at one of the gambling tables testing his luck again. I loved to go watch the first class people through the ballroom windows. They were so proper and perfect.

Sometimes I would wish that Colby would get rich so we could live like that, things would be a lot easier for us considering we didn’t have much money. The next day, Colby and I ate lunch on the deck with some of his gambling friends. It was really interesting to listen to their conversations, one of the guys they called Cash brought up that the Titanic was an unsinkable ship. “That’s not true,” I said, “no ship can be unsinkable, if it crashes it will sink.” They all just laughed at me, Colby said I just didn’t understand, and he was right, I didn’t. I went to bed early that night, after my walk around deck watching the sun set. I was so tired that I drifted into a deep sleep.

“Reagan, wake up!” Colby was shaking me as if something terrible had happened “We got to go, get our shoes! Quickly!” I did as he asked, even though I didn’t know what was happening.