5 Days!

The old woman at the dock

" I give you 5 days! 5 days!" The old woman shrieked. 

The people around the dock looked around in horror. Mouths agape. 

"Fail to meet my demands and you shall see for yourself what will happen!" She shouted again frightening those around her even more. 

You could see her yellowing teeth, some missing. Her failing eyesight suddenly fired up as though switched on in an instant. She pointed her fingers in the air. Her browning unkempt long nails drawing all the attention and shrieked again in her shaky voice. 

"5 days!"

She then drew the old faded black coat she was wearing closer to her body and dragged her way out of the dock never turning back. 

Not even once! 

The silent and horrified crowd made way for her as she walked away. The further she walked, the more you noticed her silver hair. It stood out from the colourful heads hustling their way to board the ship. 

The silence that had reigned during the altercation was now being slowly overtaken by whispers and murmurs. 

"What was all that?" Nar asked his boyfriend Rag as they waited in the queue for their time to board the ship.

"I have heard whispers that it is the same old lady that had threatened to stop this very voyage since she had not been paid for the wood she supplied for the building of the ship. She was in the pamphlets we were selling. You didn't see?"

"Oh, I read that. They haven't paid her till now? It's been a while, to be honest." Nar answered. 

"Yes, she had been complaining about all the lavish parties being thrown to celebrate this occasion while the people that supplied materials for the building have not yet been paid. Also, the advertising was too much. They should have paid her something at least. She is too old and frail to be taken through all this." Added Rag.

"Apparently she supplied the ornamental trees that were used to furnish the first class." The tall bespectacled man standing next to the two young men joined in on the conversation. "And management published in the papers that they were going to pay all the dues owed to their suppliers immediately after the liner returns from New York. That way they will have made enough money to cover them. It really was an expensive endeavour. Plus they said they already paid her a deposit. Or was it a third party? It's a complicated story..." 

"Yes," the female standing next to the bespectacled man added. " She came here to have a word with the chairman of the corporation who is also going on this maiden voyage. But they couldn't let her through. That's why she got so fiery." 

"They should have sorted the poor woman first before all this. It might take more than a fortnight if not months even before that happens." Rag mentioned to the man. 

"Well, let's hope the ship is safe. For I am afraid of the wrath of a frail old woman." Nar quickly added. 

"Stop being silly. What do you think she can do? Sink this ship? Rag shrugged his boyfriend off. "This old woman is not interfering with my plans to move to sunny California. No way!" 

"Have some empathy! Also, words can be very powerful!" Nar warned. 

"They did her bad, but no way! And business is business my dear. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes you wait." Rag poked his boyfriend who was now rolling his eyes at his boyfriend's sentiments. 

He might have said this too loud as the people near them were now looking at him. And from their faces, some in agreement and some seemingly disagreeing. 

"Oh, it's our turn. Show them the tickets. Let's go!" Rag nudged as they approached the conductor. It seems all this time they had been going back and forth on the matter the queue had been moving. 

The voyage

It was the 10th of April 1912. The journey aboard the Titanic had just begun! 

The young men had already planned what they were going to do during their voyage. 

They were going to enjoy the first half of it exploring the magnificent ship. And in the second half, they had signed up to work in the boiler room and as dishwashers until they docked in New York. 

They had seen advertisements looking for casual workers for a new ship that was going to be the biggest of them all. Travellers that signed up would get reduced ticket fees for their voyage. They would also get an opportunity to make money while they travelled. 

Rag and Nar needed any extra coin they could get. They were immigrating to America from their little spot in Scandinavia in search of new opportunities and freedom. 

They were after all in love and knew their totally traditional and highly religious parents and society in general would not approve of a love between two men. 

A man was supposed to find a wife, marry and have children that would help perpetuate the family line. Nobody would condone two men living together as one. Not in their little village in the North of Sweden. 

And that is why the lovebirds had hatched the plan to immigrate to sunny California. They had read that the sun shined every day over there. It would be a nice place to be themselves and to express their love freely. 

People over there were also less religious they had overheard. Too busy mining for gold and tendering to their orange orchards underneath the yellow sun. If it got too hot, they would go swimming and basking on the beaches. True paradise! 

The lovebirds boarded the ship and were shown to their room in third class. The cosy but tiny bed they quickly jumped into to rest after days of travelling from Sweden to Southampton was just perfect for them. It would keep them close and warm until they arrived at their destination. 

But young men are full of high spirits and soon they were fooling around kissing and taking their time to celebrate their progress so far until Nar spoke. 

" I am still thinking about the poor woman. I can still see her teeth. And her poor fingers and nails. I can also hear her shriek when I close my eyes. I can feel the pain in her voice."  

"Not now babe! Not now! Let's just relax. We deserve it." Rag dismissed. " We worked so hard for this."

"What do you think she meant by 5 days?" Nar would not let it go. 

" What do you think she meant? That she wanted her payments in 5 days. Nothing else! Stop the foolishness. You are not superstitious are you?" Rag laughed it off.

"No, seriously babe, think about it. Everyone heard it." Nar went on.

" Stop thinking about that poor woman and kiss mwe. Kiss me before the other passengers come to the room." Rag kissed his boyfriend of 4 years. "She will be paid. Doing business with corporations is not easy. There is a lot of red tape…" 

The first two days on the ship went on well. 

The young men pretended to be distinguished gentlemen and explored the first-class amenities on the first day. 

To enjoy the sumptuous meals being served there, the mischievous fellows pretended to have been summoned by their duty manager ahead of their work schedules to view their future work stations. There they were able to gain access to the kitchen and to have bites here and there when the servant guiding them through it wasn't looking. The kitchen was also too busy for the other workers to notice. 

But they were found out and had their pending employment terminated. What a bummer! 

It's easy to pretend to be poor when you are rich. The opposite is hard to pull off. Poverty sticks out like a sore thumb. You can spot it like a yellow flower in a field of grey ones. 

Later they would go outside on the decks to observe the waves and to feel the wind on their faces as their great and magnificent ship cut through the icy waters.  

Even though it was chilly at night, they still went out to observe the night skies and to make wishes upon the shooting stars. 

"What did you wish for? Tell me Rag." Nar would nudge. 

"That we live happily ever after in sunny California, surrounded by orange trees, beach afternoons, two dogs, one cat and 3 babies." He would answer laughing joyfully.  

It was always the same wish. The love birds would kiss and lock their fingers. Life was beautiful! And they were there for it. 

When they had docked in France, the young men had rushed to the decks to observe as new passengers onboarded. They played silly games of guessing their life stories, why they were crossing the Atlantic and which one of them would be their roommates. 

All this while, the couple had had the whole room to themselves. They had also been making the best of it. Like any two free love birds would. 

Things didn't go too well on the third day. 

As they went to their usual nightspot, they found a man waiting for them in the dark. 

"I have been watching you boys for the past two days and I was very disturbed by what I saw." The scary guy holding a shiny object in his left hand broke the silence. 

"What do you mean?" Nar asked innocently. 

"Let's go. Let's go! We don't want to be involved in this." Rag pulled his boyfriend and they rushed back to their dorm. 

It didn't need any further discussion. They were both well aware of what the man meant. Moving forward they would have to be careful. Not everyone on the ship was minding their business. Some even meant others harm. 

The two vowed to stay in their room more unless when necessary. They even borrowed some reading material from the other passengers that had joined them in their room. 

"Oh look. It's the woman again." Nar pointed as he looked at the newspaper he had just borrowed after supper. "They must have a very interesting story about her." 

It had been a few days since they had read the news. The onboarding passengers had come in with fresh material.

It was day four since their voyage started and they couldn't have wished for a faster journey. 

"It says here that the woman sold her 150 years old oak trees for the building of the ship. That her great grandparents had planted them and had nurtured her to tender to them. It was their family's heirloom." Nar shared after reading a little bit. "There is even a painting of her as a child standing near them. They look magnificent!" 

"You are obsessed with that woman!" Rag shot dismissively. 

He wasn't interested.

"No, seriously listen." Nar interrupted. " Her eldest son is in a medical institution needing serious medical care after an accident. And that is why she agreed to cut the trees for sale. That she desperately needed the money to meet her son's medical costs and pending surgeries. Time was running. And she needed to save his life as soon as possible. She had not been paid in a year and a half. Says here they had been taking her round and round." 

" Her behaviour sounds understandable now." Rag's attention seemed to have been captured a little. 

" She says that since her son's condition, her physical and mental state had deteriorated. She had been a well-respected member of her community. Now people wouldn't even recognise her."

"The situation with her trees and the delayed payments must have made everything worse. She looked really frail and unwell at Southampton 4 days ago." Rag seemed to be feeling the story as much as Nar was at this point. " Oh well," he sighed.

What's that?

It was almost midnight. 

The occupants of the room were killing time and preparing themselves to sleep while anticipating the fifth and last day of their journey. 

In a few days, they would be in America. 

Nar suddenly shot up looking around as though he had just been shoved hard. 

" Did you just feel that?" He asked looking around the room. 

"What?" 

"Like a huge bump or something," Nar added.

"I heard bells I think…" A roommate that had not spoken since onboarding said visibly spooked. 

"I felt it." The middle-aged man sharing the room answered in his thick French accent. 

" Just normal sailing turbulence I guess." Rag tried to stay calm. " We are sailing in ice-filled waters remember? And we are almost there. " 

Nobody seemed to pay attention to him. 

All the 6 passengers in the room rushed outside to

the corridors. Rag followed. Out there, they were met by others that had also rushed out of their rooms. They were all looking at each other probably waiting for answers. 

The two lovebirds looked around and without talking rushed upstairs to the decks curious at what was actually going on. 

It is upon their arrival that they noticed the ship, the great Titanic was no longer in navigation. It was in motion, yes, but it wasn't moving forward as they had witnessed the previous nights when they had gone up to watch the stars. 

"Something is wrong. Rag Something is wrong." Nar screamed looking around. " This is not right. Something is wrong." 

" What do dooo doo we do?" Rag stuttered. He sounded scared which was unusual for him. He wasn't the man to panic. Even in bad situations. 

"The woman…. it's day four… Rag...." Nar uttered in a shaking voice. It was a cold and chilly night too and they hadn't brought their jackets in their rush outside. 

"Not the woman again babe. This is not the time!" Came a stern warning from Rag. " Let's go near those lifeboats and stay there. If anything is truly wrong then we shall be safer there."

Rag was scouting for solutions. 

The two young men rushed to the lifeboats hung on the deck rails and waited. They noticed that the other roommates had followed them too. 

From up there, they could hear the bells and could see crew members rushing in and out, in and out of the ship. They seemed to be in a panic. 

Everyone out there didn't need to be told. At this point, they were certain that something was very wrong with their journal across the Atlantic. 

Women and children first

More passengers had begun to join them on the deck as time went by. From a distance, they could see some lifeboats being lowered into the waters below. Women and children were being given priority. That seemed to bother Nar. 

" Why are they lowering the boats. Is there another ship coming for us? And with the women and children going first will we be saved?" He voiced.

"We are hanging onto this boat until we figure it out. Relax. Worrying won't help at this point." Rag assured his boyfriend. 

He had chosen the lifeboat at the furthest edge and stationed himself in a position where he couldn't be displaced. He pulled his scared boyfriend closer. They paced a step every few seconds. It seemed to help them remain calm. 

From where they paced around, they could feel the panic around them. Women were screaming and the men were scared but trying to remain calm. The mood around said that people were looking for answers they weren't getting. 

Those that joined them on the deck kept looking in the horizon for signs of a rescue ship. But their efforts were fruitless as the night was very windy and cold which made their eyes teary so they couldn't see well enough. 

The fact that they couldn't see didn't help their spirits. It only led to more panicking. When they weren't looking they were talking about a possible rescue. It seemed to be wishful thinking at this point. But what could anyone have done? 

It was also hard to tell whether time was moving or whether it was standing still. The pacing around seemed to help. 

"Shall we go get our belongings?" A woman standing next to Rag asked probably in confusion. She was clutching tightly to two tiny children who seemed sleepy but confused at what was happening. One had even asked her mother to take them back to bed. 

" No." Another voice answered after some silence. " What is the value of belongings when you don't know the fate of your own life?" 

This seemed to sadden everyone around that heard it. 

Before long, a member of the crew had arrived at the lifeboat the young men had been hanging at. 

"Women and children. Women and children first." He announced. 

Nar held on tight to his boyfriend. Tight as though he would never let go. If they were going to make it out of the Titanic safely, they were going to do it together. 

There weren't many children in the crowd near them. They probably didn't have the time to quickly react as the young men had done. The lifeboat was also at the furthest edge and most women and children that were within reach were already in the boats. And so Rag and Nar together with their roommates were able to get on the lifeboat. 

The quick thinking and reaction had saved them!

As they rowed away to safety, the music from the ship still playing. They watched the lights go off on the lower deck and on the whole ship. They watched it split in half as it slowly sunk into the deep and freezing waters. 

Tears rolled down Nar's face. He wanted to be hugged so bad during these moments but he needed to row. There was also a pregnant young woman in their boat who needed to get to safety. She was accompanied by a young female nurse complete in uniform. Earlier, at the deck, the pregnant woman had been groaning as though in labour. It was a frightening sight. 

It was hard to tell how long they were rowing when they heard the sound of an approaching ship before they saw its lights. 

Everything seemed hazy. They tried not to feel. Not just because of the cold but because of what they had just witnessed. Seeing the rescue ship made them happy but they couldn't celebrate. 

The lights from this ship also lit the waters which revealed the true sight of the shipwreck. The dead bodies of their fellow passengers and crew members floating around, debris from the ship, lifebelts and people's belongings being swept by the calm waves. 

The revelation 

Nar fell asleep in his boyfriend's chest as soon as they got on board the rescue ship and had been shown a place to rest. A kind passenger had given them their bed. The emotions had been too much to bear. He needed to switch off. And the rowing had worn him out. He spent the next days either crying or sleeping. They begged him to eat. By the time he was almost making a sense of it, they were already docked in New York. 

As they were being transported to a health centre for further medical checkup he saw the headlines on newspaper stands reporting about the grave tragedy. 

An old news pamphlet was placed in his hands by a paperboy that was distributing them. It was similar to the ones they had been selling in Sweden. The headline read in bold: 

The 5 days curs: The grim fate of the mighty Titanic. 

Below it was a picture of the old woman in Southampton with her five fingers raised in the air. 

"I told you…" Nar turned to his now frail looking boyfriend who was also holding a similar pamphlet. 

" This is not the time…" Rag said weakly. 

"She gave them five days… five days…We never even got to five days" Nar voiced with the little strength he could mutter. 

"Yeah, five days…" Rag repeated almost in defeat. His eyes were pensive. 

He seemed to be thinking what Nar was thinking. This was not just a coincidence. 

The two young men were supported to a nearby horse-drawn cart. Their journey to sunny California hadn't started the way they had dreamed it would. They had witnessed a great tragedy and they didn't know how they would navigate moving forward. 

The shrieking words from the old woman in Southampton were also occupying their thoughts.

"5 days!" 

Her pain had not just been heard by the ship management or passengers of the Titanic. It was heard by millions around the world. It was embedded in history. It would be heard for generations to come.  

"5 days!"