OCR Text |
Show Page 10 my beloved aunt stuffed through the porthole and into the raging sea without so much as the proper words said over her wasted body, as we have had to do with so many. She will have a proper homebringen at sea. But she will never again see Edward. And there will be no joy in Virginia for me. They are all gone now. Mother. Father. Aunt Mary. It is almost as though my loving them decided their fate. ********************* I sat alone below deck except for the poor sick souls who had not the strength to climb the ladder. Only a few days before I had longed for such solitude, for there had been little enough of it on that journey. Yet would I have forgone all future peace and quiet to once again hear the sound of Aunt Mary's lilting laughter. Only a short time before, her shrouded body had slipped over the side of the Jonathan and into the sea. Though the sea air felt sweet upon my face, I had no desire to remain above where all could see my drawn, grieving face, my red-smirched eyes. In truth, I should have stayed for the burial of the three other women who had died that night. Yet I dallied not, but eeled my way through the crowd of passengers and crew surrounding Captain Thompson to go below. |