Third Class Passage

the-boat-and-miss-liberty

Perhaps it was the long despair of seasickness that kept him to his bunk as the Carpathia opened New York Harbor.

Perhaps it was fear.

He never spoke of it, the long nights of silently crying into his blanket as remorse overtook him, the longer days when he could not sleep and was left to wander the vast, anonymous ship where he knew nobody, loved nobody.

He stared for hours into the foaming wake, looked past it over the boundless horizon of slate sea.

What lay behind him and what lay ahead of him, the ship a lonely, perpetual present.

 

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  1. trentpmcd

    Did he, per chance, start his voyage on another ship only to end it on the Carpathia? Even if not, you did a good job of capturing the feeling of being caught between past and future.

  2. Margaret

    You’ve built an intriguing picture of his predicament and his despair. His ‘remorse’ makes me wonder what he’s fleeing, and the ocean all round is a wonderful symbol for his sense of being lost and alone.

Don't just stand there.