The Horror of the Empress
by Thetinman on 23/10/10 at 9:45 pm
By Paul Dayton,
2,300 words
May 29, 1914, 1:20 A.M.
Captain Kendall couldn’t sleep. It was bad enough that this was his first trip down the St. Lawrence on his new command, but thoughts of his murdered wife and the horrendous image of her death flittered through his mind. He tried to put the blame for his sleeplessness on the stage actor’s wife, the one he had spoken with earlier. The actor, whose name was Irving, had searched him out in an effort to calm his wife down. She had been in a panic, and kept going on about the sinking of the Titanic two years before. After commenting on the precautions being taken to make sure all passengers were kept safe and comfortable, he took her up to the bridge and pointed out the deck hands and crew responsible for keeping an eye out, but she was beyond reason. Even visiting the ship doctor provided little relief which left Kendall worried. He had gone up to her after the laudanum had taken effect and calmly said, “Madam, I am not in the habit of sailing ships that sink.” He winked at her in good nature, but it had made little difference. Kendall shook his head. As strange as her uncontrollable panic was, it wasn’t that which had woken him now – it was her appearance and mannerism. She looked exactly like his deceased wife.
‘But that’s not it,’ he thought to himself. Four years had passed, yet he still had trouble sleeping. Visions of her dismembered body were running through his mind more frequently, not less. There was no way he’d take the bromide or cocaine prescribed by his doctor, but he was nearly at wit’s end as to what to do otherwise. .....
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