A Trip to Edinburgh

The ships had sailed off long before the tall man had got there. He was out of luck, and out of time. The tall man looked at his watch. 9:47. He needed passage to Edinburgh, and those were the last boats heading anywhere near there. Luckily, the next round of ships were heading out tomorrow at around 11:00 in the morning instead of 7:00. This was 1918, he thought, can’t even catch a boat around here.

The tall man looked at his luggage, making sure it was his after all that he had gone through just to miss the boat. “Lazlo McLedding. If found return to Housing Block C, Room 438, 46th Street, Trenton, New Jersey.”, the worn leather tag read. A young Scot-Irish immigrant trying to make his way back to his homeland. Or so he was trying to get people to think. His name was real, that being about it. The room number and location were in a paper he had seen. So, he tried to have his luggage on him at all times.

The trip back to the hotel Lazlo stayed in was short and uneventful. His room was bought with empty words of “My money’s coming in on the Fifth, I swear.” The wall clock was busted, he was broke, and the only boat he could stowaway on wasn’t going to be back until tomorrow. Lazlo wasn’t a very talkative man, but he always did what was necessary. His luggage popped open and he looked at the contents. One copy of “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”, a Canadian penny for luck, a picture of Lazlo and his spouse, and an older photo of indistinguishable people standing in front of a burning building.

Sleep was restless, and the feather bed and somehow didn’t make it any better. Lazlo woke with a start and headed for the piers. The boats were there and after distracting a few lookers on, he climbed into the cargo bay. The boat itself was a dull gray and strangely metallic for the time period, Lazlo thought. The ship set sail from the pier and made a voyage to New York before heading to Edinburgh.

Lazlo heard from the crew members that the ship was to make a small detour to Liverpool for supplies. Shortly before the ship was to make landfall, the great thing appeared to shiver, followed by a great BOOM and then a larger Boom behind it. The ship had sunk before Lazlo could’ve thought twice. The boat itself, known as the Lusitania, was sunk in a matter of minutes.