Читать книгу Black Man on the Titanic - Serge Bile - Страница 9

Yes, everything has changed since the Titanic catastrophe. There were other sinkings: the two World Wars sank the “civilized world” big-time, plunging millions of families into mourning. The Cherbourg port, a strategic target, was bombed and destroyed. Since then, of course, it has been rebuilt, but it’s nothing like it was before.

The small ferry terminal that, in the old days, used to welcome the eager passengers of the arriving and departing liners has become a huge “passenger terminal” for new cruise travelers. What is left of it, anyway. The magic and glamour of those bygone years are no more. Gone are the beautiful times of the “transats,” those transatlantic steamers.

To Louise, it is a strange moment. She has been digging in the most hidden corners of her mind, but her widely-praised “faithful memory” fails her. She does not remember anything, absolutely anything, other than this haunting date that brought her here today in Cherbourg.

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Young Simonne Laroche had gotten up at dawn. She’d washed up and brushed her teeth in a rush and put on festive clothes. She was excited at the idea of traveling from Paris in a luxurious train and, once in Cherbourg, boarding the Titanic, the most beautiful liner in the world.

After breakfast, her family hired not one but two taxicabs that morning, two Renault AG1s4 that started with crank handles. Sitting on a trunk with leather cushions, the driver maneuvered a wooden steering wheel and used two long levers at his lower right to change speeds. After the luggage had been evenly distributed in the trunks and on the fold-up seats of the passenger cabin, three-year-old Simone climbed into the first taxi with her father, Joseph. She settled herself in the back seat so she would not miss a thing; she watched the fabulous spectacle from the window, raving in each instant over the dance of the cars and the carriages, pulled by robust horses. In the second vehicle, her mother Juliette held on to Simone’s younger sister, twenty-one-month-old Louise.