Aboard the S.S. Nevis September 7, 1919, en-route to Miami, Florida

"If you're going to pass as one of us, you'll have to know a little bit about the parts of the ship," Benji said. "At least enough to go where you're told."

"Do you really think this will work?" Thiago asked as he fidgeted with the buttons on his borrowed uniform shirt. "Will anyone believe that a Brazilian is working on an American ship?"

"Sure,"Benji said, sitting down beside Thiago on the cot. "We pick up crew members from all over. And your English is strong, you'll do fine as long as you know the ship and avoid the higher ups. It's certainly better than the alternative, right? If anyone else had caught you sleeping on the deck, they would have locked you up. Oh,and if anyone asks, you lost your name tag. Heh. I know I did."He smiled sheepishly.

Lightening lit the room with a blinding, white flash and thunder cracked the sky.

Benji swore to himself, "we're going right into the storm. They must think we're invincible or something. Maybe you'd better stay in here until this is over. More likely than not, they'll have us running all over the place making sure everything is secure."

Without a knock or a warning, a crewman burst into the room, his dark hair plastered to his head and dripping water down his face. "Benji, we gotta go,"he said. "This storm is looking brutal. Who's this?"

"Thomas, this is Thiago Garcia," Benji said. "He's new to the crew. Green as grass, too." Before Thomas could say anything more, Benji jumped up, blocking his view of Thiago, and headed for the door." Lets go get this ship locked down," he said. He pushed Thomas out of the room and closed the door behind him, leaving Thiago alone on Benji's cot.

The ship listed hard to the starboard side as it started it's climb over another tall wave. The motion made Thiago's stomach turn and his head throb. Being caught as a stowaway was something he had considered before he snuck onto the ship in Rio de Janeiro. But sea-sickness was not, and this storm certainly didn't help. He tried laying down on the cot, but it only made things worse. The ship reached the crest of the wave and shifted its weight to the other side in a jarring motion that sent a pair of reading spectacles and a book off the adjacent cot and onto the floor. With a groan, Thiago sat up again and headed for the door.Storm or not, he needed to be outside if he was going to make it through the night without losing the meal Benji had just given him.

On the main deck of the ship, Lenore Irving sat in the 2nd class dining hall. It was the formal dinner night, and even though she had to wear the same red dress as she had at last week's formal dinner, she was still happy to be a part of something so fancy. She was alone and on her way to America to visit her family, but she didn't feel alone at all. She sat at a table full of businessmen and small families who talked and laugh with whomever was near them. The Murphy family to her left had been especially charming. Their two young kids always asked Lenore to play a game with them, while Mr. and Mrs. Murphy prepped Lenore for her stay in America with talk about the politics and social issues of the day.

"Here's a new game," Miriam said, holding her hands across the table to reach Lenore. "Hold out your hands like this."

"Not now, Miriam," her father said, "It's supposed to be a formal dinner. Act formal. Besides, I think it's about time we find some young men for Lenore to play with--someone much closer to her own age."

"Henry!"Mrs. Murphy said. "That's no way to talk!"

Lenore blushed, but said nothing. The boat reached another wave crest and started to list the other direction. Silver wear slid across the table, and Lenore grabbed her plate to keep it from sliding into Miriam's. "Forgive me, can you pass back my silver wear?" she said to Miriam.

"If you wait a little while you can get yours back along with mine," Miriam said with a smile.

"Miriam!" her mother said, "Hand Lenore her silver wear. Now is not the time to mimic your father's sense of humor."

"This storm is awful," Mr. Lima said. He sat on Lenore's left hand side. Normally he kept to himself, but on this particular night the frustration of eating under the conditions of the storm pushed him out of his comfort zone in more ways than one. "How is a person supposed to eat like this?" He said, raising his voice and turning to Lenore for a response.

Lenore looked up at him in a shy sort of shock at his abrupt interjection. Without a word, she shook her head as if to say, "I don't know."

"Lenore!"Miriam said, "Look at that red dress!" She pointed to woman with white hair walking into the dining hall.

"Miriam! Don't point at people, that's rude," her mother said, slapping her hand.

"I like your dress better," Miriam was unfazed by her mother's reaction. "It's more... fabric-y."

Meanwhile, Thiago stood on the deck outside of the 2nd class dining hall,holding tight to the railing and trying desperately not to hurl. He hadn't been out there for more than a minute before both the rain and the ocean spray soaked him to the bone. Crewmen hurried around him,securing everything to the deck. A few of them yelled at him to help.With a deep breath, he pushed himself off from the railing and crossed the deck to give them a hand, but slipped on the deck and hit his face on a chair instead.

"You alright?"a crewman said, reaching down to pull Thiago up by the elbow. The name tag on his shirt read 'Dale.' "If you can't handle the storm,get off the deck, we can't have you falling all over when we have work to do." He led Thiago to the nearest door and shoved him inside. The peacefulness of the hallway was a shock. The only sounds Thiago could hear were the wind whistling around the door, and the music from the dining hall.

"Good gracious,did you just come from outside?" a woman said. Thiago turned around and came face to face with a young woman in a red dress. She leaned heavily onto the door frame to keep her balance as the ship dipped again over another wave. Lightning lit the hallway through the small window in the door, and thunder followed right behind it. "It really is a terrible storm, isn't it."

Thiago tried to give her a reassuring smile, but it took everything in him just to hold himself together. The woman wasn't looking at him, anyway. She looked out the porthole. The ship hit the trough of the wave with aloud crash and a jolt that knocked the woman's grip on the door and sent her crashing into Thiago. The two hit the floor of the hallway,but they weren't the only ones knocked off their feet. Screams echoed from the dining hall where people tumbled out of their chairs. Before Thiago could pull himself up, a siren sounded. Crewmen in the cafeteria jumped to their feet and began helping others up.

"What does that siren mean?" the woman in red asked.

"I don't know," Thiago said. "I'm new here." He leaned against the wall to help him stand and then offered his hand to the woman. Passengers flooded into the hallway from the cafeteria.

"Secure yourselves in your rooms!" a crewman called over the crowd. His voice was drowned out by the siren.

Thiago hugged the wall as the passengers pushed past him to get to their rooms. The woman in red was carried along with them to the 2nd class quarters.

The ship fell over the next crest, causing the crowd to fall back a few steps. At the trough, it landed on its starboard side. A wall of water hit the door with the sound of thunder. It shook the walls and knocked everyone to the ground.

A young girl near Thiago fell hard against the door, hitting her head on the handle.She let out a yelp and curled into a ball on the floor, holding her head. Thiago landed next to her and braced himself for another climb over a wave, but the ship didn't level out. Instead, it ascended the next mountain of water on a steep lean toward the starboard bow.

The door behind them opened, and the crewman, Dale, climbed into the hallway, holding onto the frame to keep himself from falling out. He looked across the crowd and then called to a man in the doorway of the dining hall,"Silas!" he said, "Come help me with the lifeboats, we need to get these passengers off the ship."

"The lifeboats?"Silas said, "Are you sure?"

"Can't you tell?"Dale said, "We're taking on too much water. We'll turn over if we keep hitting the waves like this." As he said it, they passed over another crest and began a fast descent into the trough of a wave.

The impact at the bottom knocked everyone from their grip. Dale was thrown to the railing, but grabbed a solid hold right before the water came rushing over the side of the ship and flooding into the hallway. Thiago grasped frantically with his right hand for some kind of a hold on the door frame to keep himself from being pulled out to sea. With his left, he grabbed the girl, but when the flood withdrew, it took two passengers with it, dragging them out the door in such a hurry that no one could act fast enough to stop it.

"Mommy!" the girl screamed as her mother disappeared over the railing and into the ocean.

Dale struggled to climb back over the railing, coughing and gagging from the ocean water. "Come on, Silas," he managed to choke out, "To the lifeboats!" He took a few woozy steps forward and then offered his hand to the girl holding onto Thiago. "Here," he said to Thiago,"I'll take her to the boats, you help the other passengers.

Thiago handed the girl over to Dale and looked back at the crowd of white-faced and horrified passengers, all dressed up for the formal dining night. He cleared his throat and held out his left hand to the nearest person."Here," he said, "Let me help you to the boats." As he spoke,he watched for which way Dale had gone. He had no idea where the lifeboats were.

Silas followed after Dale with an elderly man clinging to his arm.

Thiago braced himself in the doorway, and gave his hand to help each of the passengers in the hall follow after Silas and Dale. Before the ship hit the bottom of each wave, he closed the door and braced for impact. After the waters passed, he opened it again and began helping the passengers toward the lifeboats.

With each wave trough, followed by the deck flooding with water, the ship leaned heavier and heavier on it's starboard side, making it a difficult climb to the lifeboats. Each time he closed the door and braced for the next hit, Thiago prayed they wouldn't turn over, muttering his prayers under his breath and confessing his sin of stealing a place on the ship.

He opened the door again for the last time and held out his hand for the next passenger."You will need to hold on to the wall as you go." He turned away from the precarious climb on the outside deck, to look at the last passenger. She was sitting on the floor in her red dress to take off her evening shoes. Her tears streamed down her face, leaving her eyes red to match her dress. When she finished with her shoes, Thiago took her elbow and helped her to her feet. "Here," he said, "Let me help you get there."

She turned her face away from him, but nodded silently. Together, they made their way up an almost vertical climb toward the lifeboats, holding fast to anything they could grab a hold of, but they didn't make it to the lifeboats before the next wave hit. With a groan, the ship lost the last of its balance and capsized in the waves. Thiago and the woman in red were thrown into the ocean, and the force of the waves tore their grip apart.

Underwater, Thiago tossed and turned in the pull of the water, struggling to find which way was up. The saltwater stung his eyes and burned his lungs. For a brief moment he saw the red dress, but then it was gone. Desperate for air, he flailed frantically until his head hit the railing of he ship. He grabbed a hold and used it to push himself up to the surface.

Being above water wasn't much better than being below it. The ocean constantly pushed its way down his throat and into his lungs as he struggled to keep his head above water. He couldn't tell which direction anything was and all around him, he saw nothing but a dark and angry kind of blue.Someone grabbed his shoulder and pulled him into a lifeboat. "Are you alright?" a man said, hitting Thiago hard between his shoulder blades to force the water out of him.

Thiago nodded his head and collapsed on the floor, his arms and legs were so weak from the ordeal that they could only shiver.

The movement of the little life boat over the waves was an even worse feeling than on the ship and water constantly poured in over the shallow sides. "Keep bailing the water out," a familiar voice said above Thiago. The same voice that had been giving orders on the ship. "Come," Dale said to Thiago, pulling on his shoulder to help him sit up."Seasickness will be worse on the floor. You need to sit up and if you can manage, we need you to help us keep the water out."

Thiago nodded his head and sat up as best he could.

"Here," Dale spoke to someone else on the boat, "We need to use these oars to keep us at a 45 degree angle to the waves. Anything else and we can turn over or sink."

"Do they know that?" A woman said.

Thiago lifted his head enough to see what the woman was pointing at. A short distance away, another lifeboat struggled in the waves. Two passengers leaned far over the side, trying to reach for something red floating in the water, but the boat was running parallel to the waves, just as the ship had been before it turned over.

Dale cursed between his teeth and cupped his hands around his mouth to yell at the other boat. "Silas! Keep the boat angled!" Between the wind and rain,the crack of thunder and the even louder groan of the capsized ship which had begun to sink into the ocean, no one could hear Dale's warning. The boat turned over with a sudden dip. "Let's go," Dale said. "If we get there quick enough, we might be able to turn it back over."

Three passengers and Dale rowed the boat over to where Silas's boat had capsized while Thiago sat slumped on a bench, trying to keep water out with what little energy and resources he had. As they approached, Thiago looked up at the passengers clinging desperately to the haul of their small,white lifeboat. Floating away from them was a stain of red in the water. "She's still alive," a passenger near him said. "Look,she just can't keep herself above water."

Sure enough, the woman flailed briefly above the water before dipping back down below its surface.

"Somebody needs to help her," the passenger said, looking at Thiago. "You're a crew member, right? You should be able to swim better than any of us."

A sharp kind of shiver ran down Thiago's spine and something stung his eyes, but he nodded his head with as much conviction that he could muster and grabbed the side of the boat. He took a few deep breaths—all of which burned in his lungs and pinched his sides—and jumped into the ocean to swim toward the spot of red that drifted further and further away.

The End