The Atlantic Via Bathtub CH 6

Aboard a steamer on which Mary and Douglas resided, things weren't going as smooth as they could either. Douglas found out that he got seasick. 1

So he was laid out on his bunk feeling sorry for himself, at least it kept Mary's mind of John, that was at least one positive point about it.2

Mary dunked a flannel into a bowl of water, then wrung it out and placed it on his forehead. 'You silly man, I told you to take eat ginger, but you said you'd never get seasick,' she chided him gently, an amused look on her face.3

'Erg... Go on, make fun of my misery. Just wait till you get sick,' he muttered darkly.4

Mary laughed, it was a cheerful laugh, which made Douglas feel somewhat better. 'But I won't get sick, because I've been taking my ginger, and whatever else I can find that's good for keeping seasickness at bay.'5

'That's cheating,' he pouted.6

'Cheating or not, I'd rather not be stuck in bed feeling sorry for myself thank you very much.' 7

'Fine, be like that then.' Douglas turned his head away from Mary and pretended to snub her.8

Mary smiled and jabbed his side. 'Well you lie there and feel sorry for yourself, I am going to see if Captain Doupree has heard anything about John's whereabouts,' so saying, she stood up and made to leave.9

'Good luck honey,' said Douglas, somewhat seriously.10

Mary just nodded, then left.11

She found Doupree slouched over a wireless, as she entered he slammed his fist on the bench and started cursing said wireless, and anything else that popped into his mind. After a minute of waving his arms around yelling and still showing no signs of stopping Mary cleared her throat delicately. Doupree froze mid sentence. Then he spun, 'I am so sorry Ma'am, I didn't here you enter,' he said in a somewhat embarrassed voice.12

'That's quite all right, there's no need to apologise. I just came by to ask if you'd heard anything about my son, John?' She held breath and hoped that he'd say yes.13

'Ah, I'm sorry, but no.' He jabbed his thumb behind him. 'Wireless has been on cutting in and out, that storm seems to have effected it somehow. Only thing we've managed to pick up was an S.O.S. by a cruise liner or something like that. Seems they ran into an iceberg, said something about being distracted by a bathtub floating beside them. It was very muddled, so not sure just what happened.'14

Mary's face showed her disappoint more then words ever could. 'I see. Well, thank you anyway.' She turned and left, before Doupree could open his mouth to say anything. So he stood in silence for a minute, before spinning on his heel and getting back to cursing stupid pieces of technology known as wirelesses.