How I survived the Titanic

New York, 1912

The Titanic trials were finally over, after a period of 6 months, there were only 21 passengers that gave an account of what happened that night, of which neither Josephine nor Maria were a part of, thus their part of events were not a part of the trials, nor a part of the “historical events” that would come in later years.

But the two women who were married to each in the only wedding ceremony that took place on the Titanic now live in an apartment in New York, masquerading as sisters, with a teen girl named Ellie frequenting their presence. The events of the harrowing rescue on the Carpathia was far behind them, and Josephine's nightmares of that event were now all but over and now they were living in the apartment for just around one year.

Josephine lay bare naked on the bed, arms spread out absorbing the bit of sun that beamed through the windows onto her bare breasts, as she smoked on her cigarette.

There was a gentle knocking on the door. “Can I come in?”

Maria pulled the door open, to reveal a girl of 19 with long reddish-brown hair and brown eyes, she wore a long flannel shirt that went down to her waist and not much of anything else. “Ellie, you are allowed to come in any time you want.”

“Even when we are having hot and heavy sex,” Josephine added.

Ellie blushed, then smiled. “Of course.”

“Come here, sexy.” Josephine held her arms open. While Ellie wasn't unattractive, she wasn't the most attractive girl in New York either, but was more of a plain run of the mill girl you wouldn't automatically go looking at. In fact, she could pass herself as a man with minimal effort, much in the same way that Josephine herself has done on occasion.

Ellie crawled onto the bed next to Josephine. She had a newspaper with her. “I'm not--.”

“What's this for?” Josephine looked at the paper, ignoring Ellie's signature protest.

“Oh,” Ellie handed Josephine the paper, “there's something in there I want you to see.”

“It's not about the trials again,” Josephine groaned, “is it?”

“I thought they were over,” Maria added.

“No,” Ellie opened the paper to one of the ads, “not about the trials.”

“Eggs, .37 a dozen,” Josephine flipped the paper down, “So what?”

“Not that ad,” Ellie folded and creased the paper until she was at that ad she was talking about, revealing an image of the Titanic.

Josephine looked at the ad with a “fuck!”

“Honey, what the hell's the matter?” Maria could see that Josephine's face was as white as a sheet, as both fear and rage set in.

“Just when I thought the whole fiasco was over with,” Josephine cried out, then read the add. “Attention: We are looking for actual survivors of the Titanic to make the spectacular movie of 1912; “How I survived the Titanic”.”

“You have got to be kidding me?” Maria ripped the paper out of Josephine's hand, in hopes it was merely one of her small-minded jokes. But it wasn't. “Auditions will take place at Pier 54, New York Harbor.”

“It just never ends for you guys,” Ellie lay her head in Josephine's breasts, “does it?”

Josephine turned her head to look out the window, it was of no distance away, she had a view of pier 54, a coy smile came to her face. “I have a brilliant idea, a brilliantly wicked idea.”

“What's that?” Maria asked.

“Auditions are tomorrow, right?”

“That's what it says.”

“We are survivors of the Titanic, right?”

“Yes,”

“And we are only 6 blocks away from them.”

“What's your point?”

“Since we weren't allowed to testify at the trials because it would have gone against the narrative, maybe we can be a part of their little movie.”

“Honey,” Maria said with a groan, “the movie's going to be unadulterated exploitation pure and simple. Hell, it might even be a mockery of the sinking, not a true telling of events.”

“I know,” Josephine smiled. “that's why I need to be a part of this movie,”

“Oh, I see,” Ellie sighed, her eyebrows furrowed, “I think.”

“I still don't think you should be a part of this,” Maria cried out.

Josephine looked at Maria, not sure of what to say.

“What if the movie comes out? People will think the worst about the survivors and even those who didn't make it. Those who are cuddled in one another arms under 1000 feet of icy water. Some of those people were our friends, people who were at our wedding.”

“Maria,” Josephine took Maria's face in her hands and looked her in the eyes, “I know. I know all that. But that is why I need to be a part of this movie. What better way to honor them all, than to be a part of the movie.”

“Oh, I get it!” Ellie finally got it before Maria, “so you can sabotage the movie from the inside out.”

“Exactly,” Josephine pulled out a pen and some paper, and began to write things down, “here is a list of things we need to do and when to do it...--.”

Morning hit Pier 54 in a blaze of glory. The sun shone over the water illuminating both the ships that passed back and forth, as well as the murky waters along the pier. On one side of the pier was a sandwich board with the words “TITANIC MOVIE AUDITIONS HERE” with a single table to one side.

The line wasn't that long, only the beginning of the day, but Maria, Josephine and even Ellie were all in the line with... not much of anybody else.

“I am Manny Sinker,” came the bellowing voice of the man who sat at the table, “I am the director of this upcoming movie, which will be premiered next Saturday. Are either of you three ladies actual survivors of the Titanic?”

“Josephine and Maria Parker,” Maria said, “my...uh, sister and I were passengers on the Titanic,”

“Fine, fine, I won't bother going into details of looking that stuff up, personally I don't give a rat's ass if you were really on the ship or not.”

“I see,” Josephine frowned.

“We'll be going with what came out of the trials, that the captain was severely incompetent and not even fit to be the captain of a tugboat, let alone what should have been one of the greatest ships in the world!”

“Yeah,” Josephine sighed, “right.”

It took them a grand total of three days to put the movie together, which included props that were virtually colored in crayon, run of the mill costumes and actors who didn't know what they were doing.

Ellie sat in the projection room of the small theater with the only existing copy in her hand. All she had to do was drop the film into a bucket of acid, and it would be lost forever.

“Are you crazy?” Josephine hissed out as she poked her head into the projection room.

“But the movie's about to be seen by a room full of people,”

“Yes,” Josephine barked, “I know. But the only people who are going to be seeing it at this point are the executives from the White Star Line, including Harland & Wolff, the men who actually had the ship built, the people who were in the movie and not much of anyone else. This is only what they call a screening.”

“Yes, but--.”

“But nothing,” Josephine pointed to the projector, “run that movie through now.”

“I hope you know what you are doing,” Ellie began to run the movie through the projector in protest.

“So do I,” Josephine frowned before heading to her theater seat.

The move ran for a little over 15 minutes, in it they showed the captain as an incompetent buffoon who didn't know one end of the ship from the other who basically ran around like a chicken with his head cut off barking out orders that made no sense. Maria & Josephine's part in the move was that they were indeed rescued, but in no way true to the events as they happened.

Maria sank into the theater seat, a frown was upon her face, as she wondered why Josephine made Ellie run the movie. The ship sank rather quickly as the Carpathia plummeted towards the boats of survivors, then... the credits began to roll.

It was then that Josephine made her move. With an almost boyish bound, she leaped towards the microphone that was brought out in front of the screen, knocking the man who was meant to be talking on the microphone to the ground.

“Ladies and gentlemen--.”

“Get off the stage!” the man said.

“Oh, shut the fuck up!” Maria appeared on the stage and hit the man square in the face, crushing his nose in.

“My name is Josephine Parker, this is my “sister” Maria Parker. “We ARE survivors of the Titanic. The events of this so-called movie are far from the truth and are a mere mockery of the events that happened. On that night, it wasn't incompetence that overtook the captain, but a feeling of being severely overwhelmed. 50 things that required his attention all took place at the same time.

“In lieu of saving the ship, which he knew was already a lost cause, he began to help people onto one of the few lifeboats we had available. The lack of lifeboats were not his fault, but yours, the people who built the ship. No matter what the results of the trials say, you are at fault, maybe not for the sinking of the ship; there were other factors, but for the lack of lifeboats and life-jackets.”

“In the future, there will be sufficient amounts of both,” one of the executives called out.

“So fucking what!?” Josephine roared into the microphone, as her voice echoed around the room. “That doesn't mean a whole lot to me, to the people who died on that ship, nor to the people who had to overload the lifeboats just to survive.”

“Let's get back to the issue at hand,” another one of the executives called out, “let us release the movie to the theaters. Make copies of this print and release it.”

“That is not going to happen,” Ellie held the only print of the movie over a bucket of acid.

“You drop that in there, you'll never work any of my movies again!” Manny yelled out in warning, as idle as he already knew it was.

“Promise?” Ellie scoffed, as she let the film go into the acid, the acid bubbled against the cellulose nitrate of the film, the whole thing was gone in less than 30 seconds.

“This is intolerable, we will re-shoot the movie, without the involvement of these three.” Manny said.

“No,” one of the execs said, “this was a one-sided movie that should never have been made.”

“I'm sure it will be only the first of such movies,” Josephine spoke out.

“Actually, it's the fourth. Back in May, just 31 days after the events, Dorothy Gibson rushed one out, and Germany rushed one out under several titles, and there were two others that were rushed out. But this movie will be the last of the one sided exploitation movies, at least we could hope that will be the case, but we can't control what foreign filmmakers will be doing, especially the likes of Germany. Given time, a proper movie may be made, but it may take a few decades to do it justice.”

“What about my movie?”

“Oh, come on now, you're acting like you are some innovative filmmaker, but all this movie was, was a 15-minute fiasco made by an unknown end of story. Take your box of crayons and go home.”

“What about us?” Josephine asked.

“Meh, so you destroyed a movie, granted, we did hire him to make the captain look bad, but only the captain. Go home. Forget about what happened. Move on with your lives. We should all stop dwelling on the past and move forward.”

Maria took Josephine by the hand and lead her towards the exit of the theater. “Come on, tomorrow is a new day, a new beginning, let's move forward towards it.”

Josephine marched through the exit, putting the events of the Titanic behind her. “Let's see what trouble we can get into now!”