S.O.S. Titanic by Eve Bunting Read Free Book Online

turned toward Jonnie Flynn. "And you. Have you any wounds to speak of?"
    "Och, sure, he hardly touched me at all." Jonnie Flynn grinned widely. "You can't beat the Irish, Captain, sir." Barry noticed how he turned his head so the red bruise that was already darkening the side of his face was hidden.
    Barry picked up his cap.
    "Good-night, ladies and gendemen," Captain Smith said, and he nodded to Barry and to the two seamen to follow him as he strode away. Barry heard the laughter and cheers behind him. He heard the shouts of "You showed them, Jonnie, boy. You told them."
    "It'll be a while before the English fellow comes back to tangle with the likes of us."
    Barry looked back and saw Pegeen Flynn. She lay on her stomach across the coil of rope. In her hand was Grandpop's glove.

Chapter 5
    The ship's doctor took four stitches in Barry's cheek.
    In the infirmary mirror Barry examined the ugly-looking gash. What would Scollins say? "How did you get that?" he'd ask. "You were supposed to have been in bed, asleep."
    Taffy had waited with him and now walked him back to his cabin.
    "So you're going to hook up with your mum and dad in New York," he said. He glanced across at Barry. "I tell you what, son. Why don't you go up to the Marconi Room in the morning and send your folks a telegram. Say, 'Having a lovely time,' or something like that. Make you feel better, and them, too."
    Barry nodded. "Thanks." A wireless wouldn't be like a letter. He wouldn't have to wonder what he could say to his mother and father to fill up the page. He'd send a wireless to Grandmother and Grandpop, as well as one to his parents.
    Taffy clapped him on the back. "Good-night, then. I hope you won't be too sore to sleep."
    Barry opened his hand, the one without the glove, and showed the two white tablets the doctor had given him for pain. He'd sleep.
    Watley wasn't on guard in the corridor, and Barry was glad of that. He didn't want offers of hot milk, or questions either.
    Mr. Scollins's bed curtains were still closed. Barry slipped into his own bed and lay thinking. Was Jonnie Flynn sleeping? Frankie? Were they planning something new? Or would they stop now? And Pegeen? What had she done with the glove? The pills made his thoughts blurry, made the
Titanic
seem to pitch and toss like a small boat in a heavy sea. He laid Grandpop's glove on his pillow by his cheek, breathing in the dog and horse and old-rain smell of the wool, and let sleep come.

    It was Watley's discreet knock that wakened him in the morning.
    "Good day, gentiemen. Tea?"
    Barry opened his curtains and sat up. His brain felt numb, but not his face. It throbbed from ear to ear.
    "Oh, dear," Watley said. "What happened, sir?" He set the tray he was carrying on the cabin table.
    Scollins poked his head out like a turtle from its shell. "My heavens, did you fall out of bed?"
    "No, I got up and bumped into..." Barry looked around and saw nothing in the cabin he could have bumped into. "You were asleep," he added quickly. "I went up to the infirmary and the doctor fixed it for me. It's nothing."
    Scollins shuddered. "What will your parents say? I will get the blame."
    "I'll tell them it was my fault."
    Barry drank the tea Watley offered, but Scollins shook his head weakly and lay back on the pillows.
    "Gendemen, breakfast will be served in the dining salon in a half hour," Watley said.
    And Scollins murmured, "I may stay where I am this morning."
    Watley took Barry's empty cup. "Better to keep away from that part of the ship, Mr. O'Neill," he murmured.
    "What was that?" Scollins asked.
    "I was advising Mr. O'Neill to be careful not to slip." Watley's everlasting smile was in place. "If you have no further need of me...?"
    "No," Barry said, "and thanks. That is good advice, Mr. Watley."
    He dressed quickly.
    "You just have a quiet day, Mr. Scollins," he said. "Rest."
    Mrs. Adair and Jocelyn were not at breakfast either.
    "Having it in their cabin, I expect," Colonel Sapp said. "Lazy habit,