The night Titanic rose again

April 15, 2022. Midnight by a hidden cove near New York Harbor. There was a lovely full moon out, bathing the Hudson River in a radiant, serene and enchanting glow.

The peace and calm of the night was about to change in unimaginable and unexplainable ways.

The waters of the river shimmered and shook. The two young people sitting on the rocks high above the waters edge smiled as fishes darted swiftly away. May and Pete had met months ago and started dating, they mostly came out here where it was quiet and kind of romantic for late night trysts, picnics or whatever. It was not exactly a safe place to be this late at night, but they liked to live a little dangerously sometimes. What is life without a little excitement was their joking motto for each other.

They had been discussing the nuances of their new relationship and how well it was going, when May suddenly stood up, her acute hearing had picked up a sound.

"Pete, did you hear something"?

"No, what do you mean, May"? Pete asked, standing up beside her.

"Shh, listen, kinda like a whirring sound. Listen"!

The shimmering water became a tiny upward spiral, followed by a gushing of water upwards, the whirring sound became much louder, something was emerging from the river. Pete grabbed his cellphone and started recording. Maybe he could become an internet sensation for real this time. The moon was out, hopefully there was enough light to capture something.

For a short while nothing more happened. Then a sound, like a great moaning and groaning erupted shrilly, it was a frightful sound. Pete and may grabbed each other in terror.

To their amazement, parts of a ship started to become visible. It was not like a modern ship, it was hazy and phantom like. Bit by bit, deck by deck, by far the biggest ship they had ever seen, slowly and painstakingly, raised itself from the bottom of the waters, and with a last leap, like lava erupting from a volcano, it leapt up, then steadied itself by rocking side to side like a huge whale balancing itself on jello. It was terrifying to behold. Water dripped from the great monster in torrents, and like a great hound, it shook and shuddered sending streams of water flying everywhere.

This was something straight out of a horror movie. Maybe it's the Titanic, they joked. First the fog of the emergence of the ship. Then the clear picture of a hundred odd year old ship appearing untarnished from being at the bottom of the sea, like, for forever, just sitting in front of them.

Were there people on board, well, more like were there ghosts of the lost passengers on board. How cool would that be. Maybe they could have a conversation, talk about how life has been for them these many years. Let them know that they had not been forgotten.

All of this conversation was happening silently in the minds of Pete and May as they became silent witnesses to history repeating itself.

All became eerily quiet then for a brief moment. Pete and May were almost trembling with fright, the sight was eerie and surreal, they were stunned motionless and speechless. They both stood waiting for whatever was about to unfold from this phenomenon, a figment of their imagination, both were thinking.

Pete finally shook his head and whispered, not moving a muscle except his mouth to talk in a hushed tone.

"How can a ship, a ship mind you, not a submarine, emerge from the bottom of the sea and be in such excellent shape. Also, are the waters here even deep enough for a ship to be under there, a ship this size"?

May clutched his arm tighter, "It's a ghost ship Pete, a ghost ship".

"Oh my God, oh my God, it must be something like that, I mean, this is weird, give me the binoculars May, hold onto the phone and keep recording". Lifting the binoculars to his eyes, he pointed it at the ship. He sat down immediately. "May, you won't believe this. It does say TITANIC, right there on the hull or whatever you call it. Here take a look for yourself".

Before May could point the binoculars, the lights flickered on, it became brighter and brighter. There on the side of the ship were the words in bold letters. With the lights on, the ship appeared to be the size of two or three football fields. May blinked, lifted and peered through the binoculars. Yep. Those are the words all right.

HMS TITANIC.

The ship was suddenly obscured by a great fog, it's as if it had discovered their presence and wanted to hide itself.

We could barely see it, what had happened.

"What, whispered May, is it disappearing, and how can it have lights. It was at the bottom of the freaking sea. Lights. Impossible"!

"I'm using your phone to call Mark and Ciara, they have got to come see this, I told them to come with us tonight. Don't miss anything May, keep the phone on the 'ghost ship', don't miss a thing". He punctuated the words ghost ship with his fingers. He talked briefly and frantically on the phone, finally he hung up not sure if his friends believed his crazy story.

They watched for a while wondering what would happen next.

"Maybe we should just run away Pete, this could be dangerous, we have no idea what is happening. You watch the movies, this is our chance to save ourselves, before the bogeyman appears".

"If this is all about ghosts, which it must be, do we even believe in ghosts by the way, if it is, can they actually hurt us. Aren't they just corporeal matter or something".

"I never really paid much attention to the idea, maybe we should call the authorities, or someone with some kind of knowledge of this stuff. I'm beginning to get the chills Pete, I know you want the video of everything, but we should leave. I have a bad feeling".

May had barely spoken, when the ship suddenly turned and veered slowly in their direction. Even if they had meant to run, it was no longer an option. Fear rooted them to the spot so entirely that they lost all control of reality.

That is when the music started to play, a sad lilt of a tune floated from the midst of the ship.

Aboard the Titanic, Deborah stood at the window looking towards the rocks where a couple stood looking out towards her. The light shining in their hands pinpointed their location.

All these years her anger had burned for the loss of her entire family simply due to lack of money and being born to the so called lower class. She had not cared that they had been travelling in the third class cabins. Her family, her parents, two younger brothers and herself had been together. Their hope for a better life was all they cared about. Those snobs above deck could not take our happiness and love for each other away from us. How dare they lock us away like common criminals. Not that she minded not being among them upstairs, it was the indignity of it all.

Her older brother and sister were waiting for them in New York. They had made preparations for work and somewhere for them to live. Their lives were finally going to be a little easier. The four days that they spent on the ship were happy ones. They did not have a lot of money, but they managed to eat well enough, and the people were quite friendly and helpful, even the ones who did not really speak the English language well.

On the night that Titanic hit the iceberg, her family had been asleep. She had stayed up late in the general room reading and writing. It had been late and she nodded off at the table. She was awakened by someone shaking her shoulders, there were loud noises and utter confusion. People were yelling to open the gate. The water was already rising fast.

"Has anyone seen my family", asking was pointless, everyone was panicking, crying and yelling.

Deborah tried to run back to her family's cabin, at this point she was wading in knee deep water. The ship was quaking and objects were falling everywhere. Overturned furniture blocked her path. She pleaded and prayed that she could reach them in time. She clawed and pulled the objects blocking her, but the water came rushing in, bringing more obstructions her way.

She started to climb, now she was dripping wet, it's taking too long, she was exhausting herself so badly, she kept falling into the water. By the time she got to the cabin door, almost an hour had passed. Someone had finally opened the gate, and a few people got out. Only a few made it. The water and damage had rendered it impossible to get out of the third class cabins.

Her family were blocked off on the inside, damage on the outside of the ship added to the flooding in their cabin, and she was stuck on the outside. She could hear them screaming. They had awoken too late. Debris blocked the door, the water filled up fast everywhere. She could not help but blame herself. If only she had not fallen asleep outside of he cabin.

"Mother, father, James, Tommy, can you hear me"? She called for them from the depths of her tears and agony, even as the waters overcame her stifled cries. At least they will be together.

"John, Mariann, I promise that I will come back to find you".

"Goodbye my loves".

Those were her last words in the living world. They carried in the wind to her brother and sister waiting in New York.

Every year on April 15, she came back to find her brother and sister, oblivious to the fact that time had passed in real life. For her it had not changed. Even if it were not John and Mariann, she settled for two new faces. They would do until she found her brother and her sister.

She had been born with a magnetism to charm in life, it helped that she was born a natural beauty. In death it seemed to have magnified. Maybe it was a ghostly power, but whomever she willed to follow her, always did so without question or hesitancy.

The ship had a life of it's own. It went where it pleased. They simply followed.

The Titanic pulled close to the shoreline, stopped, and passengers started to disembark, eerie shapes appeared one by one from the fog shrouded decks. They just walked out, stopped and stared out to sea, all dressed in black and somber attire.

May and Pete stood mesmerized, they stared at the apparitions and the situation unfolding before their eyes. All came down from the ship except someone standing at a window on the uppermost deck. A weird light shone all around the figure. Peering closely through the binoculars, the two people atop the rocks discerned long blond hair and what appeared to be the face of a woman.

Suddenly the people started to hum and sway to the music. The figure retreated from the window and within a split second was walking or gliding, it would seem, down the steps and moving in their general direction. As she got closer they could see her more clearly. There was a soothing glowing light surrounding her.

She was tall and very beautiful, with blond hair that framed her ethereal face and form, she wore white and appeared completely unearthly. Her eyes were imploring, pleading and beseeching them to endear themselves to her. The phone was still recording when she reached out her hands and beckoned for Pete and May to come to her. They moved in unison, as if hypnotized, down off the rocks to her side. She smiled when they came to her.

The ghostly female form waited, not a word was uttered. The telescope and telephone fell at her feet, with the camera capturing the final picture of her face, as she waved her hand delicately, importuning them to follow. She glided back on to the Titanic, May and Pete followed without question. The remaining ghostly passengers filed back onto the ship, still humming. She led them to the dining room, then to the lounge, where the band was playing a livelier tune this time. A welcome home melody.

The dining room was mainly deserted and otherworldly as they passed through, totally oblivious to their surroundings and the present, not able to give a thought to what they were about to do. They were no longer of this world when they boarded that unearthly ship.

Their souls now belonged to the ship and the deep waters of wherever they travelled from now into eternity. They were lost to this world forever.

The fog started to clear outside as the music played and the people danced. The sounds of children running and laughing echoed through the hallways.

Pete and May danced. Laughed. Swayed to the music as the Titanic swerved and returned to the middle of the river.

Oblivious to the movement of the ship, the two strangers, now become family, danced as the ghostly Titanic slowly and calmly returned to the depths of the waters from whence she had come. Her mission had been completed for yet another year on the anniversary of her watery adventure.

~~~~~~~~~~~

When Mark and Ciara finally arrived, there was no sign of anyone. It had taken them a while to decide to make the trip this late at night, but curiosity had gotten the better of them. They had waited too long.

"Did they really leave before we got here. I did text that we were on our way", Ciara pondered.

"It's not like them to do that, they would have let us know". Mark was a bit puzzled.

"Look over here, their jackets are still here. Where could they be"?

"May, Pete, where are you". Mark yelled.

"Come on guys, it's late, too late to play games". Ciara sounded a little scared. No answer.

"What is that down there on the water's edge. Is that a faint light"?

"Let's go check. I am so ready to go back home". Mark said exhaustedly.

They made their way down the rocks to the object. Sure enough it was Pete's phone, still recording. Luckily he had turned the flashlight on. It was still on, but not for long as the phone was dying. They did not find May's phone. They also found the binoculars, which changed the whole situation from funny to quite serious. They were now thinking that something had gone horribly wrong. Mark and Ciara called the authorities who searched all night and for another three days. No trace of May and Pete could be found.

The police watched the video of the nights occurrences. The news came out in the papers and caused a stir all around the world.

All over the world people started to realize that this had happened to families. Stories of a ghost ship that appeared on that date every year for many years, and of people disappearing, never to be seen or accounted for again started to circulate. Stories were interchanged, dates were corroborated, comparisons were made. No one had come forward with proof before.

Pete's phone had offered proof and opened a floodgate of investigations worldwide. People had been going missing every year since Titanic sank one hundred and ten years ago. Was the mysterious woman a siren on the ship, luring people to their deaths? It was discovered that her name was Deborah, and she had been the daughter of an emigrant from the third class cabins, many had perished because of the confusion of languages and chaos below deck.

No one had paid any attention even though people had noticed and talked about it over the years.

Until now.

How do you stop ghosts?

Are the Titanic's yearly visitors seeking revenge, or are they just searching for their families and friends whom they miss terribly?

We may never know until we join them.

Who will be next?

N.A.