Chapter Thirty-Two It Happened So Fast

I sit straight up, coughing so hard it hurts my ribs. There’s a hand patting my back, and voices, worried voices, all talking at once. My lungs burn.

I’m in my black sweats on the floor next to the bed, and Elijah and Susannah are crouched next to me. Mary and Alice stand above us. I’m shaking from shock, or shivering from cold; I’m not sure.

“What happened, Suze?” Alice asks, wide-eyed.

“All I heard was the crash,” Susannah says. “And then she was like this, coughing and shivering on the floor.”

“Sam, can you talk? Can you tell us what happened?” Mary asks.

I wrap my arms around myself. My fingers are like icicles. “Someone pushed me over the railing. And then I don’t know. I must have woken up.”

“You dove off the bed without warning,” Elijah says. “I only just managed to keep your head from striking the floor.”

I repeat his words to the girls from between chattering teeth.

“We need to get you warm,” Elijah says. He places my arms around his neck, puts one arm under my knees, and hoists me into the air. The girls take a step back.

Susannah must understand Elijah’s intentions, because she throws aside the covers so he can put me under them. “This shouldn’t happen, right? Getting hurt there shouldn’t mean getting hurt here.”

“She shouldn’t be able to take spoons, either,” Alice says.

Mary pulls at her curls nervously. “Did you get a look at the person who threw you over?”

Elijah tucks the covers over my shoulders, and I curl up.

I rub my hands together for warmth. “No. It happened so fast.”

Elijah paces at the end of the bed, looking pissed off.

“Did the memory spell work?” Susannah asks.

“Only kind of. I was questioning myself and asking the other passengers weird things. And I wanted to remember something but I didn’t know what.”

Susannah sits on the bed next to me. “Do you think your questions somehow angered someone?”

“Maybe? I mean, I did ask Bruce Ismay if it was safe to travel so fast and mentioned all the ice. That could definitely be perceived as a reference to the sinking. Maybe that made someone mad?”

“Hmmm,” Alice says. “Let’s look into Ismay. And what about Myra? Did you see her? Was anyone talking about her?”

I pull the covers a little tighter. “She was there this time, acting just like the rest of them, the way I usually act when I’m there—as if she’s right where she belongs. She was happy and drinking tea with Mrs. Brown like everything was normal in the world.”

“What does it mean that she vanished from here and showed up there?” Mary asks.

“I don’t know. It’s kind of the nature of that place. Everyone’s in some happy fog. Also, I spoke to Mollie, whose last name is Mullin. We should look her up, too. Mollie said it was April thirteenth, and it’s the ninth here. There’s something strange happening there with time.”

“So it’s still before the sinking?” Susannah asks.

“It seems that way.”

“Also, I can’t believe you got to drink tea with Margaret Brown,” Mary says.

I smile at her and yawn.

Elijah stops pacing. “You cannot go back there after what just happened. We cannot risk it. If you fall asleep, I will wake you up every ten minutes.”

“Believe me, I don’t want to go back there, but how long can I realistically go without real sleep? A couple of days?” I say.

“Then we will work faster,” Elijah says, daring me to argue with him.