Author Archives: Ruby Hyatt

1/28/22

Narrative Nonfiction: Aboard the Titanic

This is the best ship I have ever worked on. Generally, my coworkers and I have to stoke the coal and fire for hours on end with no breaks or rest in other ships. Not this time. All I have to do is make sure the fire has coal once every thirty minutes.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, I feel a scraping shudder from the starboard side of the ship, and I jolt up, knowing instantly that something is very, very wrong. Freezing water comes streaming in from an enormous gash on the right side of the room as I yell commands to shut down the engines. 

The water has gotten up to my knees as I hurl myself at the water-tight door that has just activated and shut us in. For some impossible reason, the door opens, and I sprint up to boiler room no. 5. The escaped water from no. 6 is already spilling into this room. I rapidly make my way up to the boat deck, and on my way, I have to sprint around two falling doors. 

Too much time has passed since the iceberg hit. It has taken precious time to run up to the deck, and I feel terror at my thoughts of not surviving. As I try to work my way around scared, screaming people, I am aware that the crowds are getting thicker, and it is hard to navigate where the lifeboats are. 

Somehow I am now at the front of the group, and people are shoving me in the race to get into boats. Someone behind me yells, “Get a move-on, or we’re all gonna die!” At this, there is an instant uproar, and without deciding it, I jump into the lifeboat and pull as many people with me as possible.

The slow, painstaking descent to the sea makes me feel as if nothing will ever progress. As soon as we hit the choppy ocean surface, I watch as if in slow motion, one of the enormous funnels groans, sways, and then plummets into the blue. 

So many people are screaming now, and the noise is deafening. A man that looks first class is glaring at me like I am causing all his problems. I am not.

“What?” I ask, still looking at him.

“Well,” he says, “what is a fireman doing in a first-class lifeboat?”

Before I get to answer, there is an ear-splitting moan from Titanic as the whole ship shifts to the right. We have to move as the next lifeboat is being lowered. But as it comes down, it hits the side of the boat, causing one girl, who looks about eight years old, to shriek and wobble, rendering her almost to fall off the lifeboat. A woman who looks like an older imprint of the girl grabs her by the waist and hoists her onto her lap, combing the girl’s hair with her fingers and whispering words of comfort into her ear.

After the lifeboat above us has been lowered and we are sure they are safe, we row as fast as we can away from the sinking ship as more people, rich and poor, attempt to save themselves and their families. I feel as if no time has passed, but it has. It has probably been several hours since I was sitting in that room, thinking about how easy my job was. How little effort I needed to put in. But now is not the time to reflect. I need to focus. 

I have been watching the ship go down, but my eyes have glazed over, not absorbing what is happening because I don’t want to think about it. I don’t want to see this beautiful masterpiece of a ship just disappear into nothingness. And yet, there is nothing I can do.

At this point, the ship has flipped, so its bow is sticking vertically in the air, making it look like an iceberg, the thing that destroyed it. The ship is sinking faster now, and I see figures plummeting off the ship, like a melting glacier. Now all I see is the very top of the bow, and in what seems like milliseconds, there is nothing there.

As we search through the water for moving bodies, I see no familiar faces. Of course, I wouldn’t. I would never have met these people because I was working down under them, under all the tile and wood and metal, working for them.

I have worked hard for this ship, not as hard as I have other times perhaps, but I work. Thinking about how that man looked at me with that glare that inclined he had no idea what I did for him, I think, “If we did not exist, then the Titanic would cease to travel, and you, Sir, would not have enjoyed these glorious past few days on the most advanced ship in history.”

This narrative is through the eyes of Apollo

Today *sigh* was interesting. From the start of the day to the end it was the most ridiculous 12 hours of my life. First, I woke up to find myself sprawled out on the floor since, as far as I can tell my little brother had shoved me out of our bed when we were sleeping! I also found to my utmost anger Percy had found a way to dump our water bowls on my head. Normally I wake up when my humans alarm goes off but today I was still sleeping while my sibling got to eat breakfast! I did not approve. I got up shook my head to get the water off and strutted out into the living room where, I see a bowl of food waiting for me. After I had enjoyed my breakfast I sat at the door and meowed till I was let out. A couple minutes later I saw Percy strolling away from a scene that gave me the chills. Two animals that looked like a sparring match was about to happen was right there, in my driveway. The two creatures seemed like they would just stand there all day and waste my time so, I felt like it was necessary to interject. I walked up to them and noticed for the first time that the beasts were much larger than me. One of the creatures had reddish fur and that one seemed to cause the problems. It growled at me and my back instantly arched and my tail got all big with extra fur that I don’t know I had. The red animal backed away warily and smartly decided it was time to leave. After that one had left I turned around to see that the grayish thing had vanished! But as I started to walk ti the backyard to find Percy something with a hard body and matted for slammed me to the ground. Thankfully my human chose this time to walk out the door to get into the car and call my name. The gray animal went rocketing away to leave me once again sprawled out on a hard, cold surface. This was humiliating. My human came running over to check on me and I was fine. The rest of my day was pretty good except for the fact that Percy, despite the wet grass he had layed on had managed to stay completely dry.

This narrative is in the eyes of Percy

Today started out as a normal day. I woke up, ate breakfast and went outside. What I didn’t know was that outside, there were some different animals that I wasn’t used to. One had a large, sleek, orangish body that reflected the sun like it’s fur was a lake on a summer day. Another of the creatures had a smaller body that was more gray than anything else and it wasn’t as shiny as the other. The two animals were leering at each other as if they thought the other was a tasty meal. This, I thought was not a good situation to be in this early in the morning so I lazily strolled into the sun bathed backyard and decided to have a nap.