The Forever of My Dreams

The next day started off like any other day. Mother had scheduled for the servants to help prepare me for the day; fix up my hair, get my dress looking just as perfect as all the other women on the ship, and we must not forget to make sure my boots had the ultimate shine in them.

"There's one more thing for you to put on." My mother said to me just as the servant was finishing the last touches and heading out. She turned towards a jewelry box and pulled out the gorgeous silver locket I would always see her wear when I was a child, "I believe you are old enough now."

"Mother." I placed my hand on the locket as she placed it around my neck, "You've never taken this out of your sights."

"It was my mother's," My mother continued, "given to her by her mother.. and so on."

"More of a reason to not give this to me." I turned to her.

"My mother gave it to me when I was thirteen. I know you're much older than I was, now, but.. it's time."

I held the small silver heart locket in my hand. "We couldn't wait till we docked?" I asked her.

"Let's pretend like I never waited till after we already left England." She leaned her chin on my shoulder as the two of us looked back at our reflections in the mirror, "I wanted to make sure you were good and ready and.. well, now you can add that handsome young man to it.. if you wanted."

My cheeks grew hot. "Mother."

“Tell me about this.. Elliott.” She smiled, moving over to the couch at the back of the room.

“There isn’t much to tell.” I blushed.

“He walked you back to your room.” She placed her hand onto the cushion next to her, “Something about that boy was telling me that he didn’t exactly belong to our kind of people.”

Our kind of people? ..And that was why I didn’t want him to meet my parents. “What about him told you that, mother?”

“Cecilia.”

“No.” I said to her sternly, “You seemed to have gestured just now that he didn’t seem to fit in our kind of crowd.. now what part of him gave you that vibe?”

“Cecilia, be honest with yourself.” She stood up, “Look back at the way he was dressed, for starters.”

“He looked decent.”

“Exactly.” She said to me, “Decent. He was wearing a plain shirt and didn’t even have his pants mended for God’s sake.”

“He brought me back to my room. Shouldn’t that prove that he had some class?”

“I told your father to tip him as a thank you.”

"He wasn't looking to get a tip, mother!" I shouted at her, "You haven't even tipped the servants when they help us to get ready for the day.. and they work here!"

“Cecilia Marie Jones,” Mother raised her voice, “don’t you dare use that tone of voice with me!”

I let off a loud groan, stomping over towards the door before turning back at my mother who was still standing by the sofa. "He seemed like a real nice boy, mother. You'd like him."

When we stepped out of the room, the suite was empty. Father and Carson must have already left; we always took too long for their patience. Mother threw on her shawl before heading out the door, with me quickly following behind.

It wasn't until we got out onto the deck that I realized just how many people were actually on this ship. Of course... I saw just how many people were on when we boarded; but this crowd just felt larger for some reason. No idea why. A couple older ladies came up to my mother to converse, which helped me manage my way away from her and towards what looked to be a younger crowd. They were a bit stuffy for my taste but anything was better than having to fake-bond with a bunch of middle aged women as they discussed their highly adult issues.

"Of course you'd be apart of this crowd." A boy's voice sounded from behind.

"Excuse me?" I turned around and immediately forgot my train of thought.

"Do you even remember me or was last night a complete blur compared to all of... this?"

"You could never become a blur to me, Elliott." I found myself giggling, "How'd you get here anyway?"

"The same way I did last night," He smiled, "I acted as if I belonged and nobody even blinked an eye. It probably helps that, unlike a few of my fellow roommates down in the boondocks of the ship, I actually spoke English like all of you."

"The boondocks?" I have no idea why I questioned him. I knew exactly what he meant.

"You actually like hanging out with these people?" He asked me.

"No."

"Then why would you do it?"

"What else am I supposed to do?" I shrugged, "This is where I belong. This is how I've grown up. Being here is all I've grown to known. I can't just put on a fake smile and try to fit in somewhere else."

"Sure you can."

"I really can't."

"You did so well last night." He held out his hand, "C'mon. Let's break you out of this prison."

"It's not a-" I took one glance around at all the pretentious people chatting away or sunbathing along the decks before grabbing ahold of his hand, "Let's go."

**

Elliott held onto my hand as we flew down the halls; I almost felt as if I was flying in this dress, until the tightness of the corset caught back up with me. But I fought through it. Soon enough, we were at whatever Elliott wanted to take me anyway; a hall full of different rooms with many people hanging about in the hallways and chatting up with other passengers.

"Where are we?" I asked him.

"My room."

"We just met and you're already showing me your room?" I blushed at the thought.

"It's not like that." He opened the door and Ella immediately jumped into his arms, "Unlike how people like you get to live here, Ella and I actually have roommates who can actually come and go as they please."

"Are you going to stay with us for tonight?" Ella asked me.

Elliott looked at me as if he actually wanted to hear the answer, "Well?"

"I'm able to stay here as of now." I booped Ella's nose, "I just can't stay all night long. My mother would probably try and alert the crew members if I didn't show back up in our room."

"Elliott would do the same for me." Ella piped up.

"Well, I'd sure hope he would." I let out a small giggle before turning my eyes back onto him, "He seems too good of a brother to just do nothing."

"I wouldn't have to do anything," Elliott put Ella back down, "because my little sister knows better than to go wandering off. Isn't that right, Ella?"

Ella just turned her nose up before sitting onto the bed which, for reasons I still don't know, made me smile myself. God. Their relationship was so adorable.

"So," Elliott smiled at me, "how much did your parents hate seeing me last night?"

"They didn't hate seeing you." I chuckled, "Hell. My father was even thankful for what you did."

"Yes." He smiled, "He was so thankful he was just about ready to hand me over a tip."

"Thank you for not accepting it by the way."

"Of course." He jokingly let off a bow, "Why would I? My parents raised me to be the perfect gentleman; taking the girl back to her door after a night of fun."

I couldn't help but find myself blush at his words. "So that's what last night was?"

"What else would it be? We met. We hung out. We danced. The only thing we didn't do was-"

I put my finger to his lips, "That's enough."

"-kiss." Ella giggled from the bed.

Elliott scooped her up and swung her around before holding her in his arms, "How would you know about that?"

She continued giggling, making sure to cover her mouth with her small hand, "I don't know."

"Sounds like someone must have been making sure her big brother wasn't about to replace her." I added.

"Sorry to burst your bubble, Cecilia," Elliott said to me, "but you'll never come close to this angel of joy right here."

"Are we going out?" Ella asked Elliott.

He kneeled down to her level, "I'm going to just hang with Cecilia for a bit, if that's okay."

"Not me?" She let off a pout, "I can't join you guys?"

"You can join us later. How about that?" He smiled at her, "Maybe Luc can take you out for a walk on the deck; you can try and figure out just how far the deep sea really is."

My eyes turned to Luc who had been sitting on the bottom bunk across from Elliott. He went to light a cigarette when another woman took it from his hands before yelling something in some other language I didn't quite understand. From the tone of her voice, I could probably assume it was some profane obscenity.

"Maybe he can take you out to the deck now," Elliott said a bit louder for Luc to hear, "since he really needs to light one up right now."

I watched as Luc stood up from the bed and whispered something towards Elliott who whispered right on back before handing Ella's hand over and leading me out the door towards the hallway.

"You sure you didn't know him before entering this ship?" I asked him, "You guys seem... close."

"Nah." said Elliott, "I wish, though. He's a great guy once you peel back that outer layer of grumpiness."

I giggled. Elliott took me towards the deck before making a swift turn through a doorway that led into where they had stored all the cargo. Suitcases and trunks had been stored on top of one another, and people had even stored their cars down here to take to their new life in a new world.

"We shouldn't be in here." I said to Elliott, who had already pulled some kind of sailor's hat out of someone's trunk.

He opened the door to one of the cars and held out his hand, "Shall we go for a drive, darling?"