Girl in Falling Snow

by F. M. Parker

  The purser focused on Martha, and smiled broadly. “Welcome aboard the Pannonia,” he greeted Martha. “My name is Mr. Stoddard.” He continued to smile at her for a moment, and then lowered his head to check their tickets and note their arrival in his log.

  He brought his sight back to Martha and handed her a brochure. “This will tell you about the ship, and how to find your way about her.” His eyes lingered upon Martha’s face.

  The purser’s expression angered Alice. That was the same expression that her father had when he looked at her mother just before he took her into his arms and kissed her. Only her father had the right to hug and kiss her mother. Alice felt like yelling at the purser to stop looking at her mother.

  The purser turned away from Martha to the group of boys of fourteen to sixteen years of age, stewards and all outfitted in neat blue uniforms and caps. He motioned at one of the smaller boys and spoke, “Townsend, we have these lovely ladies Martha and Alice Childs traveling to New York with us. Take them to B 86.”

  “Yes, sir, Mr. Stoddard, B 86,” Townsend replied, and came toward Martha and Alice.

  Alice studied the boy. His complexion was fair with a smattering of freckles across his nose and cheeks. His hair and eyes were brown. His face had an openness about it that caused Alice to think that he would be somebody with whom she could talk.

  He spoke to Alice and Martha in a pleasant voice. “Ladies, please follow me and I’ll show you to your cabin.”

  The boy picked up the two pieces of luggage and led off across the deck. He spoke over his shoulder as he led onward. “The Pannonia was built in 1913 in Glasgow. She is four hundred and eighty seven feet from stem to stern. Her width is fifty nine feet. She can accommodate forty first class passengers, and eight hundred second class passengers.”

  He fell silent and led them down a wide metal stairway, made a half right turn and down a second flight of stairs, and along a narrow passageway showing doors set into the iron bulkheads. He stopped at B 86.

  “This is your cabin.” He opened the door with the key already in the lock, shoved the door open and set the luggage inside. He stepped back into the passageway and handed the key to Martha.

  “My name is Andrew Townsend. This is the part of the ship I’m assigned to serve. If you need anything once we’re underway, you can find me with the other cabin boys in our waiting room just starboard of the dining room. Or if you want to signal me to come to you, press this button here inside the door and a light with your cabin number will show in the steward’s waiting room.” He pointed to the button. “I’ll come soon as I see your signal.”

  “Thank you,” Martha said and gave the boy a coin, and hoping the amount was proper.

  “Thank you, mam.” He looked away from Martha and to Alice, then back to Martha. “After the ship gets under way, I’ll be free of toting luggage. Then I can come and go as I want. It would be my pleasure to show you about the ship.”

  “Yes, mother, let him show us the ship,” Alice said. “I want to know how everything works. What makes the ship move.”

  Martha suppressed a smile at the obvious interest the two young ones showed in each other. She spoke to Andrew. “We accept your kind offer. We’ll be on the main deck watching the ship sail.”

  “I can find you easy.” said the boy. He gave Alice a quick look, touched the bill of his hat, and left with hurried steps.

  “He seems to be a nice boy,” Martha said and looking at Alice. “And quite handsome in his uniform. Don’t you think so too?”

  Both mother and daughter broke into smiles.

  “Mother, let’s go back up on top. I want to see the ship sail away.”

  “I do too, but first we’ll take care of our luggage.

  Alice and her mother entered the cabin, a small room furnished with a bed for two with blankets and pillows, and a small table and two chairs. A door opened to a tiny bath. A porthole provided daylight for the cabin. A single electric light bulb was in a small, white globe in the center of the ceiling.

  “It appears we’ll be sleeping together,” Martha said and gesturing at the bed.

  “That’s okay by me,” Alice said. She enjoyed being near her mother, especially now after her father’s death.

  They hung their clothing in the closet, as much as the cramped space would hold, and placed the remainder of their luggage at the foot of the bed. They returned to the main deck. The sky was cloudless and a slow wind blew. To the west, a black haze of coal smoke hung over Liverpool. Alice smelled the acrid smoke and it reminded her of her the smoky days in Terryville. She missed her father and wished with all of her heart that he was here beside them on the ship that would carry them to the fabulous land of America.

  They joined the many passengers gathered on the port side of the ship overlooking the pier. An even larger crowd had assembled on the pier to watch the ship’s departure. The air was filled with laughter and shouts and waving of hands and calls of goodbyes. Alice saw expressions of sadness on the faces of some of the people.

  On the dock, longshoremen moved to the hawsers that held the ship tied to the pier, lifted them off the cleats and dropped them into the water. Seamen on the ship speedily dragged the dripping hawsers aboard and began to coil them neatly on the deck. The ship’s steam whistle gave a loud blast. Alice felt a slight vibration of the deck as the powerful steam engine in the bowels of the ship rumbled to life. The big iron propeller started to turn, its three blades churning the quiet water of the bay. The ship pulled away from the land that had been but a temporary place to halt.

  Alice looked up at her mother to see if she too felt the joy of beginning the voyage. To Alice’s surprise, there were tears in her mother’s eyes.

  “What’s wrong, mother?”

  “Alice, my love, I don’t believe I’ll ever see England again. I feel it here.” Martha touched her breast.

  “But aren’t we leaving England because America is a better place?”

  “I hope it is. But I’ll miss being close to where your father is buried.”

  “So do I.” Alice was disturbed by her mother’s sorrow.

  “America will be a better place for us,” Martha said stoutly. “But it would have been so much better if your father was here with us.” She caught Alice’s hand and held it tightly.

  “When we become rich, we’ll come back for a visit,” Alice said and trying to lighten her mother’s mood.

  “Yes, we’ll do that when we are rich. Come, let’s take a walk.”

  They had taken but a few steps when a man called out behind them. “Mrs. Childs.”

  Martha and Alice turned to look in the direction of the voice. The white uniformed purser Stoddard was approaching them. He smiled pleasantly and touched the bill of his hat.

  “I see you two ladies are exploring the Pannonia. May I offer my services to escort you? I know the ship very well for I have sailed on her these past four years.”

  “Andrew is going to show us the ship,” Alice said and glad that it was true for she didn’t like the man.

  “Andrew Townsend the steward?” Stoddard said and his face tightening with a frown.

  “Yes, the young man who carried our luggage to our cabin,” Martha replied.

  “Mother, we must keep our word,” Alice said.

  Martha gave Alice’s hand a little squeeze to show she understood. “Yes, we must keep our agreement with Mr. Townsend. But thank you for you offer, Mr. Stoddard.”

  “Townsend has duties to perform,” Stoddard said. His frown was evolving into an expression of anger. “I shall speak to him about them.”

  “Are we not part of Mr. Townsend’s duties?” Martha spoke in a soft voice that Alice recognized as the one she used when angry.

  “Yes, of course you are,” Stoddard said hurriedly.

  “Then there is nothing more to say, is there, sir? Come along, Alice. We shall look for Mr. Townsend.”

  As they walked away, Alice looked back at Stoddard. The man was staring at them with
a baleful glare. Had she by insisting that Andrew be their guide, brought trouble down upon him from Mr. Stoddard?

  They had gone but a short distance when they found Andrew hurrying through the other passengers on the deck. He saw them at the same time and waved.

  “I told you that I’d find you,” Andrew said and his face beaming with pleasure. “Are you ready to see the ship?”

  “We are, but first there is something we should tell you,” Martha said. “Mr. Stoddard asked to show us about the ship. He seemed angry when we told him that we had agreed to see the ship with you. He said he would talk to you about your duties. Have we caused you trouble with him?”

  Andrew’s face tightened. “He’s a hard man to work for.” Then he grinned. “But I can handle whatever he hands out.”

  “Even so, Alice and I can see the ship by our selves and you won’t be caught in a situation where your boss might have it in for you.”

  “No. I want to show you. Don’t you worry about Mr. Stoddard.”

  The time passed pleasantly as Andrew led Alice and Martha in a stroll forward along the starboard side of the ship’s main deck, with the tall white superstructure on their left and the blue ocean close on their right. The deck extended from stern to bow and was wide enough for eight people to walk side by side. A waist high metal guardrail provided safety from falling overboard.

  Near mid-length of the ship, Andrew guided Alice and Martha to the dining room and inside to view its scores of tables and chairs. The tantalizing aroma of food made Alice’s mouth water.

  They left the dining room and continued along the deck past the stairs leading to the upper decks. There Andrew pointed at the topmost deck. “The forward part of that is the bridge where the captain does the navigation and guides the ship. Only important passengers are invited on the bridge.”

  “I’m important,” Alice said with a laugh.

  Andrew smiled with agreement.

  He led them to one of the many lifeboats all snugly covered with canvas and resting on their davits just above and outboard of the ship’s safety railing. Pointing as he spoke, he explained how a boat could be lowered into the water by use of the cables and pulleys to which each was attached.

  Andrew glanced forward along the deck. “It’s best that I go and see if any other passengers have asked for my help. Or Mr. Stoddard has something for me to do.”

  “Thank you for showing us about, Andrew” Martha said. She noted the worry in the young man’s eyes. “Is there anything I can do for you regarding Mr. Stoddard? I’m still bothered with the thought that he might do something to hurt you.”

  “No, mam. I’ll be just fine.” Andrew gave Alice a last look and turned away along the deck.

  “I hope Andrew isn’t in trouble,” Alice said.

  “Yes. Let’s wish no harm comes to him because of us.”

  They made their way back along the main deck to the bow of the ship and there, standing close together, stared westward toward America. Behind them, the land shriveled and sank below the wet horizon. Ahead there was nothing but the empty blue, green ocean. After a time, the April wind became damp and chilled and drove them off the deck and below to their cabin.

  *

  During the first days of the voyage, the weather held fair and Martha and Alice donned their prettiest dresses, tied their long hair with ribbons to control it in the wind created by the Pannonia’s eighteen knots speed across the gentle sea, and roamed the ship’s decks. They encountered many men, women and children out and about on the decks and they would nod polite greetings, but rarely spoke to them, feeling self sufficient unto themselves.

  One of their favorite places to pass the time was at the stern of the ship where flocks of birds followed and fed off the waste created by the hundreds of passengers. There were several species of birds, but the seagulls with their gray and white bodies and bright yellow bills were the most numerous by far and dominated the feeding. Uttering their raucous calls and wheeling agilely about the stern, the birds searched for food below. Spotting a tempting morsel, they dove down to pluck the object from the swirling water left by the ship and its spinning propeller. Then rising, the birds ate on the wing. Now and again, one of the seagulls would sail down within a few feet of Alice and Martha, and fluttering their wings to hold station on the two humans, evaluate them with sharp black eyes.

  On one of their excursions about the deck of the Pannonia, Alice chanced to glance behind. The purser was following several steps behind. His sight was fastened intently on Martha. He seemed to feel Alice’s focus upon him and he caught her eyes, and then quickly looked away.

  Later in the day, Alice again saw the purser looking at them, or rather watching her mother. That was too much for Alice. She caught her mother by the hand.

  “Mother, that Mr. Stoddard is following us. And I’ve seen him doing it before.”

  Martha looked back over her shoulder. The purser was leaning on the ship’s railing and looking out across the sea.

  “He’s not looking at us,” Martha said.

  “Maybe not now. But he really was looking at you, and I’ve seen him doing it before. I don’t like him.”

  “Why don’t you like him?”

  “Because of the way he looks at you.”

  “And what way is that?”

  “Like father sometimes looked at you.”

  Martha laughed lightly. “How did he look at me?”

  “Like he wanted to hug and kiss you. And then lay down on the bed with you.”

  Martha ignored the comment about lying down on the bed. She and her daughter about discussed such man and woman loving. “I liked for your father to look at me that way. I miss him so terribly.”

  “I miss him too.” Alice cast a hard eye at the purser. “I want that man to stop following us.”

  “I really don’t think he is.”

  “I do,” Alice said with conviction.

  *

  On the fifth day of the voyage as Alice and Martha lazed about with scorers of other passengers on the forward deck of the Pannonia, a dark storm cloud appeared rising out of the watery, western horizon ahead. The cloud grew as the day wore on, climbing and broadening. By the middle of the afternoon, the cloud had risen to block the sun and gray streams of rain fell from the storm’s swollen bottom and onto the ocean.

  Alice felt the first gust of the storm’s frontal winds that came rippling the top of the low ocean waves. Looking farther ahead, she saw the waves were angry, rising tall and ridged with white frothy crowns. The white capped waves seemed to advance with unnatural swiftness and in but a handful of minutes were upon the ship with the wind blowing half a gale. Alice was fascinated by the mass of churning clouds rushing at her with the rain now cascading down in wide, gray curtains.

  Martha caught Alice by the hand. “Run,” she shouted.

  Caught up in the wild energy of the storm, they fled across the open deck. Cold rain drops struck them upon the head and shoulders as they darted through an open hatchway and into the ship’s interior. They stared out onto the rain washed deck with its scuppers running brim full of water, and beyond that, to the rain lashed waves of the sea. She saw no birds. Where did the poor birds go to find shelter during a storm at sea?

  Alice watched the waves grow in size and violence as the Pannonia plowed ever deeper into the storm. Torrential rain hammered the deck.

  The ship rode up and over the huge black waves. Now and again the bow crashed into a mountainous wave and sent salty, chilled spray to mix with the hard driving rain flooding the deck. Wind eddies formed around the ship’s superstructure and swept some of the cold water into the space where Alice and Martha huddled.

  Alice felt her mother’s hand stroke her hair and it was a comforting feeling. The hand stopped on her shoulder and squeezed it gently as was her mother’s way.

  “Let’s go below to our cabin,” Martha said.

  “I am getting cold,” Alice replied.

  They walked cautiously; placing
their feet carefully on the deck being heaved this way and that way by the rolling and pitching ship struggling across the stormy sea. Holding to the banister of the stairway leading down to the lower decks, and then to the wall of a passageway, they made their way to the cabin.

  *

  Darkness filled the cabin. The porthole in the outer hull of the ship was barely visible with the storm clouds and rain obscuring the heavens. Martha flipped the switch to the electric light and its rays flared and drove the blackness out through the porthole to the wind swept sea.

  “Why don’t we write some poems until it’s time for supper?” Martha said.

  “All right, if you want to,” Alice replied. “But the way the ship is bouncing around ever which way is starting to give me a headache.”

  “Maybe the game will take your mind off it.”

  “I hope so.”

  Martha picked up the notebook containing her collection of poems from the table. She removed the picture of her husband from between the notebook’s pages and laid it carefully aside. Then with pencil in hand, she reclined on the bed. “We’ll write a poem and forget the storm,” she said.

  “Why not write about the storm?” Alice said.

  “Yes, we could. Or about the sun that we can’t see.”

  “Or the moon.”

  “Or about anything that pops into our heads?”

  “You start it.”

  Martha moved to the far side of the bed and patted the space beside her. “Come and lie beside me.”

  Alice lay down upon the bed and scooted closer until their bodies were touching. The love she held for her mother lifted her heart and it beat pleasantly. Did a mother feel the same emotion when near a daughter? By the expression in the eyes gazing at her, Alice was confident that this mother did.

  “I’m ready to begin,” Alice said.

  Martha was silent for a moment. Then she spoke. “Look, there’s a spider hanging from the ceiling.”

  “I see it. I didn’t know there would be spiders on a ship at sea.”

  “I suppose they can be found anyplace. Let us begin the poem. We’ll call it ‘Spider’.” Martha paused, then, “I spin webs impossibly fine.”