fragment of a deckchair from Titanic
“The ocean is strewn with a litter of woodwork, chairs, and bodies.”
– from the diary of a crewman aboard the Mackay-Bennett, a body recovery vessel – April 21, 1912.
One hundred and four years today, the Titanic left the port of Queenstown, Ireland, and headed for New York. Passengers waved ecstatically from the boat deck, jubilant as the ship’s whistle blasted farewell. All was new. All was adventure.
EXCERPT from ‘THE UNTHINKABLE SHOES’ – a TITANIC-inspired novel by V. KNOX
[ Almost immediately upon Mooney’s arrival, he moves our deckchair into a gigantic glass aquarium and orders several replicas made to satisfy the sightseers. They’re placed at several locations throughout the second-floor gallery and it’s amusing to see the passenger ghosts using them, considering they’d never touched the authentic chair when it was available. Too many memories, I guess.
If shoes can talk, then surely a chair can have memories. New deckchairs absorb nothing of the holy saltwater terrors of those using them as a raft. I’ve reclined in every one of our replicated chairs and the true article delivers shock waves of impressions to overwhelm even the least sensitive. I swooned myself from a feeling of overwhelming panic.
The wood is imbued with its own impressions from floating amongst the dead and dying. I never know if I’m to revisit one of Mamie’s tea rituals, or experience the desperation of hands reaching for it – hands clawing and clinging and finally dropping away to sink into the sea. ]
A ghost child from the Titanic searches for his lost love and his lost shoes – an extraordinary love story.
– a novel of Literary Fiction, Magical Realism, and Paranormal Romance to be released on or before April 15th 2016 – the 104th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic
Veronica Knox 