Unsinkable Read Free Page B

Molly, packed her trunk. At the last minute she had been able to secure passage on the ship RMS Titanic , thanks to the advice of her friends John Jacob Astor and his wife Madeleine. She had been in Cairo with an entourage that include the Astors, William Stead and Benjamin Guggenheim. All wealthy Americans, like herself, who had decided to see the latest Egyptian treasures for themselves.
     
    Molly hadn’t planned on going back to New York quite so soon, but the news from home that her grandson was seriously ill had changed her plans.
     
    Madeleine Astor had told her that the Titanic was not only luxurious but the fastest ship ever built. There was not even time to let her family know she was coming. She had secured a first class ticket and immediately started the process of packing up to go home. When she boarded the new ship, on its maiden voyage, in Cherbourg, France she would have her two trunks of clothes, a number of things she had picked up on her travels prior to going to Egypt, and three crates filled with Egyptian souvenirs and figurines, many of which she planned to donate to the Denver Museum.
     
    The one thing that Molly hadn’t packed away in the crates and trunks was a mummified ushabti figure .It was supposed to bring good luck. Molly figured it would keep her safe and bring good luck to her grandson- or at least it couldn’t hurt. She tucked it away in her handbag for safe keeping and turned her attention back to her trunks.
     
    As she packed, she reflected on the fact that she was able to purchase a ticket for first class accommodations on the most elegant ship ever built. She knew that to many of the people she would be dining and socializing with on the voyage she was ‘new money’ and therefore not truly of their social circle. People looking down on her had ceased to bother Molly Brown. She had come from a poor Irish family on the Mississippi River and had found her way to Denver, where she had met J.J. Brown, a mining engineer who had struck it rich during the gold and silver rush.
     
    Their lifestyle had changed overnight. They had gone from having almost nothing to wanting nothing in a heartbeat. J.J. let her travel, preferring to stay at home. She had started this journey visiting their daughter who was at school at the Sorbonne and met up with the Astors in Cairo. She had found the Egyptian part of her trip to be fascinating, enjoying even the stories about mummy curses. She laughed to herself at what she imagined J.J. Brown would say about all the artifacts she had packed. He would like the stories behind them but she doubted he would want any of them sitting around the house.
     
    She could already hear him, “Three crates, Molly. Three?”
     
    She’d had an amazing trip, but she was ready to go home.
     
     
     
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    Carrington stood in front of the glass case one last time. She would be boarding the Titanic tomorrow. Her parents still had very little to say to her, but they hadn’t stopped her from coming to the museum every single day since she had turned Alastair down the second time.
     
    How hard would it be, she wondered, to simply book passage to Cairo? To forget about boarding the boat they called ‘the ship of dreams’ and go what her heart told her that she should do? Could she really spend the rest of her life just dreaming about seeing the pyramids and all their treasures? Would she ever find someone who would understand that longing or would she be an old spinster who never fulfilled her dream?
     
    Silently, she bid the Princess of Amen-Ra farewell and made herself leave the dimly lit room that housed the mummy cover and the rest of the Egyptian collection. She exited the grand museum and went into the bright sunlight. She would have so easily traded the light of this beautiful day for hours inside a dark pyramid.
     
    Her parents had talked around her for the last three days, everyone carefully