Distant Waves (15 page)

W
e knew Mimi was in first class and Blythe was in second. Thad had a room in first class so I went with him to C Deck to search while Emma and Amelie remained in second class with Li to look for Blythe.

The moment we got to first class, I immediately felt my dress to be shabby compared to the gorgeous dresses and day suits I saw parading past. When I mentioned it, though, Thad just smiled. "You look better than all of them. They need all that stuff because they don't have what you do."

"What do I have that they don't?" I asked, immensely pleased by his compliment.

"You know what," he said as we hurried down the hall. "That certain something. You know, inside."

What a letdown!

"You're saying I'm smart?" I surmised unhappily. I knew I wasn't a raving beauty like Mimi, but I had hoped he was working up to a more thrilling bit of praise than
smart.

"Not
only
smart," he said. "Stop fishing for compliments. You know what I mean."

I
didn't
know! I had no idea! And I'd have given anything to hear him say what this special something I possessed was -- but since he was onto my attempt to get him to compliment me, I would probably never know. And it occurred to me: If he thought I was so "special," why hadn't he written?

After walking through a labyrinth of thickly carpeted hallways unsuccessfully looking for Mimi, Thad guided me into an empty room on A Deck. It was filled with elegant tables and upholstered chairs. Heavy moldings surrounded a huge chandelier at the center, and its many windows were draped with velvet curtains that matched the swirling brocade pattern of the thick wall-to-wall carpet. "This is the reading and writing room," he told me.

As I examined the linen stationery embossed with the ship's letterhead that was offered free for the taking, Thad pulled out a chair for me beside a highly polished round table. I sat and he took a chair beside me. "I'm so glad to see you again, Jane," he said.

"I thought you were going to write to me," I reminded him. I hadn't planned to be so direct, but the words tumbled out almost on their own.

He pressed the tips of his fingers together and studied them for a long moment before speaking. "Jane, when we first met I didn't realize you were only sixteen."

"But you said I was
smart."

"I said more than smart."

"Then what's the difficulty?"

He leaned back and studied me with a mixture of amusement and frustration. "You're blunt, aren't you?"

"I just want to know why you didn't write," I said.

"It just didn't feel right to be corresponding with a girl your age."

"Even a smart girl?"

Jane!

"My birthday is in four days," I told him. "I'll be seventeen."

"I'm twenty," he reminded me. "Seventeen does sound better than sixteen, though."

"You make too much of it," I insisted. "There's not much difference between us at all."

He thought about this a moment. "Let's forget about it for the time we're on the ship," he suggested. "I'm surprised to see you, but really glad."

I laid my hand lightly on his, an overly bold gesture perhaps, but it felt right. "I'm really glad to see you, too."

***

We left the reading and writing room and set back out to continue looking for Blythe and Mimi. "You still haven't told me why you and Tesla are here," I reminded him as we 
walked along the second-class promenade, checking every deck chair for signs of them.

"Okay, here's the thing," he began earnestly. "You can't tell anyone that Tesla is on board."

"Who would I tell?" I questioned. "Besides, doesn't the White Star Line already know? He must be on the ship's roster."

Thad shook his head and offered me his arm to hold. It felt wonderful to be walking arm in arm there like a real couple. He bent closer in order not to be overhead. "He's traveling under the name Emil Christmann."

"Why?"

He bent closer still, leaning in until we were nearly nose to nose. This closeness thrilled me. I was drawn to the warmth of his body. "John Jacob Astor the Fourth is on the
Titanic,"
he revealed, speaking very quietly. "Tesla is determined to talk to him while he's a captive audience on the ship. Tesla has a couple of inventions to pitch to the guy. He's even brought some prototypes to demonstrate. He doesn't want the press catching wind of any of this."

"Is he worried they would file a report from France?" I asked.

"No," Thad said, shaking his head. "They only take on passengers in France and Ireland. No one gets off. The problem is that there's a Marconi room on board."

"Marconi the inventor?"

"Yeah, it's named after him. It's a room where they send telegrams. It drives Tesla crazy that they call it a Marconi. He's suing the guy for stealing his ideas."

"He told me about that," I said.

"It should be the Tesla room. If Tesla was allowed to do his work in peace, ships would be able to speak from ship to ship by now. Anyway, the ship is crawling with reporters writing reports and articles about the trip. One of them could send a telegram ahead. Some capitalist in America might steal the idea and set up a rival manufacturing plant before we even land in a week from now."

"All these new inventions make things move so fast these days," I commented.

Thad laughed drily. "This is just the beginning. At the rate things are being invented -- even with all the delays -- everything will keep moving faster and faster. You'll see."

"What kind of delays?" I asked.

"Competition, lack of money," Thad answered. "Tesla has lost years of research because he always needs money guys to back him. And the money men only care about something if it can make them more money. Tesla can't manufacture any of his inventions, but big shots have the money to jump on it."

"Why is he so desperate for Astor's money?"

"He likes Astor, thinks he's a good guy, a smart guy. He's invented a few things himself. Tesla trusts him."

"From what I've heard, I guess that's important," I remarked.

"Trust is important to Tesla. It's important to everybody, I guess."

"How do you know Li?" I asked.

"From when I was in China. I told her father I would escort her over from England to America to work with him in his restaurant. She's in second class, so you and your sisters can squeeze in with her."

"Maybe. Perhaps we can also bunk with Blythe or Mimi," I suggested, throwing my arms wide with frustration. "Where could they be?!"

Back in the hallway, we found a steward who was willing to check the roster and located Mimi's room. We knocked on her door but got no response. I wrote her a fast note on
Titanic
stationery:

I AM ON BOARD WITH TWINS. MEET YOU HERE AT 3 AND I WILL EXPLAIN. JANE.

After I'd slipped the note under the door, I felt we could stop searching.

Thad and I climbed up narrow stairs to the first-class promenade. We stopped by the railing to gaze out over the water. "You know, Jane, I've been thinking about trust since we talked about it just before. Do you feel you can't trust me because I didn't write after I said I would?"

I kept my eyes on the ocean. I didn't want to say anything hurtful but I wanted to be honest, too. His not writing had caused me a lot of pain. Did I trust him? I was madly happy to see him -- but did I trust him completely?

"I don't know," I replied.

***

I
had looked out over the water. It seemed like a long time before either of us spoke. I was dying inside, worrying that my words had been too harsh. I feared losing him again but I had to speak the truth. He had hurt me deeply. The past winter had been so difficult -- hoping for a letter every day and never receiving one.

"I'm sorry if I hurt you," he said softly. "I wanted to write. I did put one thing in the mail to you."

I gazed up at him, surprised. "I never received anything," I said.

"I sent you a book," he replied.

"You
sent it?" I questioned. "I thought it was Tesla who did."

"Are you disappointed it was me?" he asked.

"Not one bit," I said. "Why didn't you add a note?"

Thad shrugged. "It was a way of writing without writing, I suppose."

"Was there a reason you sent me
The Time Machine?
Why that particular book?"

"Have you read it yet?"

"I'm nearly done but I've left it back at my cousin's house, I'm afraid. Hopefully Mother will bring it with her and I can finish it on the train ride home from New York. Why did you send it to me?"

Once again he looked out to sea, but then faced me as though he'd made his mind up about something. "I might as well just say it, Jane. I've never met a girl like you, one I can talk to so easily. You've been on my mind. A lot. Tesla has been working on an invention and in my mind -- my imagination -- I keep talking to you about it."

This was all too wonderful! Here I'd believed he'd completely forgotten me, and all the while he'd been wanting to talk to me, to tell me everything that was important to him. While he'd been imagining speaking to me, I'd been doing the exact same thing. In a strange way, it was as if we'd never really been apart.

"In your imagination, did I understand what you're talking about?" I asked.

"Not at first," he admitted. "But slowly I explained it to you and we had amazing conversations about it. I even imagined that Tesla asked us to test it, and you and I traveled to --" He cut himself short.

"Traveled to where?" I pressed.

He didn't answer.

"Did you imagine we traveled in time?" I guessed. "Did we travel forward or back?"

He stared at me, stunned at my words. "How did you ... how could you ... ?"

"Tesla talked to me about time travel that day when I interviewed him in the park," I explained.

"It's all theory, Jane. Sending you that book was my way of talking to you about it."

"I'm so happy that you did, and now I regret not having finished it," I said. "Thad? If finances are so bad for Tesla, how are you two staying in first class?"

"Tesla sold a patent he held on an electric car to an automobile manufacturer. He thinks the company is going to produce the cars, but I think they wanted the patent so they could make sure it never is produced. A lot of people are going to make fortunes in oil when motorcars get into big-time production. They're already investing. This war that's coming --"

"I hope not," I interrupted.

"It's coming, and part of the reason for it is because it's going to be a land grab for oil," he said with assurance.

"And that's where Tesla got the money for this trip -- from selling the patent for a car that doesn't use oil?"

"Exactly. Our room is C-93. We're both in there."

An eight-man band began to play lively music there on the deck. "That's called ragtime," he told me. "It's the newest thing. Come on. I'll show you how to dance to it. I just recently learned it myself."

He took hold of my hand and together we hurried to a 
spot near the band where other couples held one another close and did a bouncy sort of strut in unison. "I have to put my arm around your waist -- is that okay?" he asked.

I hoped to high heaven that I wasn't blushing as I nodded that it was fine -- much better than fine. He held me so close that we were cheek to cheek, ankle to ankle. The dance was fast, which didn't leave time to feel too awkward, and before I knew it I was smiling so hard that my face ached a little. At one point Thad began turning us in dizzying spins without ever letting go of his hold on me.

It was such breathless fun!

How had I come to this? This morning I'd expected a quiet day. Now I was on the greatest luxury liner of all time, out in the middle of the ocean, spinning joyfully in the arms of the person I'd been longing for over the last seven months.

Complete heaven!

***

At three that afternoon, Thad and I stood outside Mimi's cabin door. I raised my hand to knock, and the door opened before I even connected with it. "Jane, why are you here?" Mimi asked anxiously. "Is something wrong?"

"No. Well, not anymore," I said. At that moment, Mimi saw Thad, and her eyebrow couldn't help but rise.

"So have the two of you run off together?" she asked.

Thad blushed furiously, and I hastily said, "No -- we just met. I mean, we met again while I was looking for you. He's not the reason -- you're the reason we're here. You and Blythe."

"I think you'd better explain," she said, drawing us both into the room.

Her room was so luxurious! Her four-poster bed was high off the floor and covered in a satin spread. The dresser gleamed with polished mahogany wood that held a crystal vase with the most gorgeous bouquet of flowers. Everything about the room was ... well, first class.

I told her everything that had happened, and the more I spoke, the more perplexed her expression became.

"Jane, it doesn't make sense," she commented when I was finished. "Why would Mr. Stead get on this ship if he thought it was going to sink?"

"I don't know," I admitted.

The feeling of being ridiculous was returning.

"Perhaps he predicted a different ship was going to sink," Thad offered gallantly, probably sensing my mortification. "His ship was called the
Majestic.
Maybe it's a ship yet to be built."

"It could be that, or maybe the accident we had earlier was what the prediction foretold," I said.

"That little bump?" Mimi scoffed. "How about this scenario: Mother's imagination got the best of her, and all of you became swept up in her panic."

"Most likely that's what happened," I had to agree, feeling extremely foolish. Then I recalled Emma and Amelie's shouting fit on the ship deck. "Why would the twins faint when they saw Tesla, though? They made it sound as though he was responsible for sinking the ship."

Mimi threw her arms out in frustration. "Those two have gotten as bad as Mother. One of them sleepwalks into the ocean in the middle of the night. The other one thinks she hears her twin talking in her head. They've both been converted by Spirit Vale -- that's why they do what they do."

"You're being harsh, Mimi," I remarked.

"I'm sorry, but I'm done with this spiritualism craziness. I've lived my whole life with it and it's just nutty," Mimi cried. "See all this?" She gestured around at the lavish room. "This is the life a person can enjoy, free of the spirit world, the Beyond, the other side."

"Don't you believe in life after death?" Thad asked.

"Yes,
after
death -- not hopping back and forth
between
life and death," she answered.

"Maybe on the other side spirits can time travel back to a moment when they were alive," I suggested,
The Time Machine
still on my mind.

"Time travel? Jane, don't -- please!" Mimi pleaded. "If you became as crazy as Mother and the twins, I couldn't stand it."

"All right," I agreed. I honestly didn't want to think 
about anything more than being on this remarkable ship with Thad all to myself. I had one week to convince him that I was not too young to be a suitable female companion for him, and it seemed I was making good progress.

Mimi knew where in second class Blythe's cabin was located and took us there. The twins and Li met us at the door, having also located her room. When we knocked, she called for us to enter. Her room, while not as spectacular as Mimi's, was still extremely nice.

From the look on Blythe's face, you'd have thought
we
were ghosts -- she was that surprised to see us. After explaining why we had come, she rocked back on the bed and laughed. "I have the craziest family!"

"It's not crazy," Emma insisted. "The predictions are real." Amelie nodded in agreement.

"What did you see when Tesla passed?" I asked Emma.

Emma shook her head in bewilderment. "Amelie was speaking through me."

"Amelie, do you still believe this ship will sink?" I asked her.

Amelie wrapped her arms around her head and ran from the room. I looked to Emma for an explanation, but she only raised her shoulders in a gesture of confusion.

"She doesn't know," Mimi insisted. "This is the trip of a lifetime. We're all here together, so let's enjoy ourselves."

***