Maggie, of course, loved all the fuss and attention and particularly liked the white, linen tablecloths with the little vases of pink and white daisies dotted about the place. She said it looked elegant and refined; like a little café she had once seen a very long time ago.
Parking in their usual space just outside the entrance, Grace helped Maggie out of the car, the two of them giggling as the wind whipped around their hair and tugged at their coats. They entered the café in a breeze which blew all the menus over on the tables, and found their favourite spot near the window.
Grace helped Maggie to take off her coat as she settled herself into the comfortable, shaker-style chair. The waitress brought over two slices of Mississippi Mud Pie and a pot of tea for two; their usual order.
‘Jesus Grace, would you look at that,’ Maggie chuckled. ‘There’s tea and cake for two and I haven’t even gotten my ass into my seat!’
Grace laughed. She loved hearing the Irish lilt in Maggie’s voice, mixed up with her American accent; loved to catch the occasional phrase or remark which could only have come from her Irish heritage.
‘So Maggie,’ Grace said, sinking her fork into the crunchy, chocolate biscuit base. ‘I’ve been dying to ask you something.’
Maggie considered her great-granddaughter from behind her china teacup, the short burst of fresh air having given a lovely radiance to her usually pale cheeks. ‘Yes dear? What is it?’
‘Well, I’ve been wondering why you decided to tell me all about Titanic and everything now? Y’know, after all these years. Did you really never tell mom or Grandma, or anyone else in the family?’
Maggie sighed, staring into Grace’s warm, chestnut eyes. They had looked so dull in recent years, but seemed to have got a little of their spark back recently, a fact which pleased her. ‘Well Grace, d’you know something, I’m not altogether sure why I told you. Maybe it was watching you turn twenty one. Birthdays can do that to old folk like me y’know – turn you all nostalgic and make you realise you’ve been lucky to see another year’s worth of birthdays. I guess I started thinking on the fact that I might not be around for very much longer and then nobody would ever know.’ She took a sip of her tea and broke into her own slice of pie. ‘Would they?’
‘But you must have told great-granddad James?’
‘Oh, yes dear. Of course.’ She paused, as she often did when he spoke about her late husband, momentarily lost in her own private thoughts of a man she had clearly adored and missed terribly. ‘But, y’know Grace,’ she continued, ‘as terrible as Titanic was, as the years passed, people stopped talking about it. You see, we had the wars then and people started talking about them instead, and then Armstrong went to the moon and Kennedy was shot and all kinds of things happened which were more important than a ship sinking in the Atlantic Ocean.’
She took another bite of cake, taking her time to savour it and commenting enthusiastically on how delicious it was, before continuing. ‘Do you know, almost sixty thousand American soldiers died in Vietnam. It kind of makes the fifteen hundred who died on Titanic seem like a little boating accident in comparison.’
‘Hardly.’
‘Well, you know what I mean. People move on, history moves on and there will, sadly, always be something more terrible waiting around the corner.’ She paused to brush a crumb from her mouth.
‘But people have always been interested in Titanic,’ Grace remarked, motioning to the waitress that they’d like more milk. ‘I mean, I knew all about it and it always comes up in history lessons at school.’
‘Ah, yes dear. I know that. But for those of us who survived it was easy enough to be forgotten about after a few years. Your great-grandfather and I sometimes talked about it – especially on the anniversary - but as far as anyone else was concerned, who could have guessed that I was on that ship? I certainly never wanted to talk about it again after all those press people in New York and after telling my Aunt Mary everything when I eventually got to Chicago. I had to tell her you see; had to go through the whole thing. Terrible thoughts go through your head you know – with them poor souls being at the bottom of the ocean and……’
Grace took hold of Maggie’s hand. ‘Don’t Maggie. Don’t think it.’
‘Anyway,’ Maggie continued, ‘I suppose since your great-grandfather died I haven’t spoken about Titanic at all, and with me not getting any younger and watching you blowing out your birthday candles, it struck me that in years to come my great-great-grandchildren would know nothing about their great-great-grandma’s involvement in the whole terrible event.’