Is Titanic Rising?
A Novel
By Thomas P. Hanna
Copyright 2011 Thomas P. Hanna
Smashwords Edition
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Cover photo courtesy of Photos8.com
Chapter 01
“They won’t take you out back to face a firing squad. They won’t put you in stocks in the town square for the public to mock. They won’t denounce you from the steps of the nation’s capital. Heck, they won’t even give you fifteen lashes. The worse that can happen is that you won’t sell as many copies of the book to their audience as you might if you totally wow them. But your name and the title of your book will be out there and that’s a plus. These two are TV talk show interviewers, not judges. Not even people looking to hurt you or your book.”
Gwen Orbital was the P.R. handler who worked for his publisher to prepare and coach Douglas Connor through the print, radio, and especially TV interviews by which he would introduce the public to his newly published book and convince them they wanted to buy and maybe even read it.
Ms. Orbital was experienced and good at handling amateurs. She was forty-five with medium-length dark hair. She was careful to dress as a business pro but not to attract attention from the client to herself. She had once hoped for a good spot, maybe even a top spot, in a regular ad agency. She changed her goals after a short time seeing the reality of the battlefield of the P.R. business from an entry level position in such an agency and was content to work in this publishing company and avoid the cutthroat internal politics elsewhere. Dealing with the newbies was enough of a challenge to suit her.
Douglas Connor wore a good suit along with tasteful but not overdone accessories today because she picked those out for him. The pale, heavy set, sixty-year-old man’s nervousness showed as he repeatedly adjusted his glasses and smoothed his thin gray hair. He was someone most people would forget in three seconds since he had no striking physical features and didn’t project stunning personality or charm. He was ordinary but the objective was for the public to see his book, not so much him. And the book had a fascinating basis.
The two sat alone in the Green Room of a daytime talk show waiting for his turn in the guest chair. Like many before him, he thought of that as the hot seat and didn’t cherish spending time in it – except when he reminded himself about the size of the daily audience and the reports about how being on the show made stars or at least overnight successes of people.
“These two are tough on guests,” he muttered.
“Only on those who come in unprepared or trying to scam people. They’re certainly not known for being all gushy and Anything you claim is okay with us but they’re fair and they want to help you come across to the audience.”
“I watched the show for a few days to see what they’re like. He’s the cutthroat.”
“They play good cop, bad cop and he does a dedicated job as the bad cop when that’s called for. I’ve watched them a lot of times as part of my job. There were serious questions about whether you should do this show if we could get you invited on. I’m confident that you’ll be fine and by next week you’ll be delighted that you did the show because of the positive feedback and the effect on your sales,” Orbital said sincerely. “Baxter Knowles has a good nose for fakery and he’s happy to shine a light on it but he’s not mean-spirited and certainly isn’t hoping to find subjects for his sarcasm.”
“What should I do when I get out there? I guess you’ve told me stuff but right now my mind has gone blank,” Connor admitted.
“Most important is not to try to be what you’re not. You’re neither a historian nor a great researcher, you’re a man with a fascinating story to tell to those who are interested. There’s an audience for your kind of book, you’re here to let them know there’s a new title to feed their hunger for good reads. No book appeals to everyone so don’t try to be everything to everyone.”
“That’s easy for you to say, you won’t be in the hot seat. Oh, there I did call it that.”
“You’re not the first person to call their guest chair that and not the first author to think he’ll be alone in the Roman amphitheater facing gladiators out to make mincemeat of him when doing his first major TV interview. Try to stop thinking of Presley and Knowles as prosecutors and think of them as people looking to help the public find out what’s new and interesting.”
“Maybe I should have had a few drinks before I came here.”
“I’d have tried hard to keep you from making that mistake. You want to impress the audience that your book is based on facts, that it’s not just a pile of lies to rip them off. You need to relax as much as you can, which in your case isn’t much but that’s understandable. It’s important that you don’t come across as drunk or doped up but also that you not get too relaxed when you might come across as flippant or cocky. That’ll turn off the audience and do more damage than anything any interviewer can do to you.”
“See, you admit that these two are dangerous and I shouldn’t do this. Is it too late for me to back out?”
“In reverse order, you’re not going to back out unless they need to rush you to the hospital having a heart attack. You definitely should do this show. Any interviewers are potentially dangerous to one’s ego but these two are tough but honest and fair. I’ll simply tell you that the publisher and I totally agreed that you shouldn’t under any circumstances be allowed to face off against several of the area’s hosts. This is a safe venue for you as long as you don’t oversell yourself. You’ll do a great job. Ah, here’s the young lady who’s going to walk you onto the set. I’ll be where you can see me so look for my cues if you aren’t sure whether or how to respond. Go. It’s show time and you’re in the center ring.” Seeing him tense she quickly added, “And that’s a good thing.”
* * *
“In August 1995 how do you top what we are promised will be one of the greatest fictional love stories of modern history, the already anticipated James Cameron directed film Titanic that won’t be out for more than two years? Possibly you don’t worry about topping something that far in the future and still uncertain but you do tap into some of the aura by revealing a true love story that’s associated with the same great disaster. Possibly a love story not yet finished,” show co-host Margaret Presley said. She was thirty-two, dressed and coiffed for success by pros as a TV interviewer-slash-personality, and addressed the camera from her chair on the standard no-live-audience TV talk show setting.
She continued, “Our next guest suggests that one of the great tragedies of this century, perhaps of all modern times, had an angle that was overlooked in the shock and tears at the time. A great true love story was entangled in the loss of the amazing ship Titanic that cold night in April of 1912. In his newly published book The Great Romance: Only the Loss of Titanic Keeps Them Apart Douglas Connor relates the tragic romance of Miss Marie Theresa Fleming, who was lost with the ship, and her betrothed, his own great-uncle Oliver Nessler, who waited for her at the New York harbor and is in his way still awaiting her return to him.”
Her co-host Baxter Knowles sat across from her. Knowles was pushing forty, had a line of Emmys to his credit, and retained enough ambition to still be interested in the five-afternoon-a-week challenge of giving the audience something to talk about over dinner that night. Knowing from an early age that he didn’t have movie star looks, he early and eagerly embraced the shaved-head style and let his wife select his clothes since she had good taste and an eye for what would go together.
Douglas Connor sat in the chair between them trying hard to appear calm and poised although he regularly glanced to the side for reassuring gestures and other silent cues from Gwen Orbital.
Connor clutched a copy of his book which, at a nod from the hosts and a gestural prompt from Ms. Orbital, he held upright and still so one camera could focus tight on it – but his hands covered parts of the cover photo.
The book jacket was dominated by a photograph of Oliver Nessler and Marie Theresa Fleming standing together inside a hotel ballroom in January of 1912. Nessler’s hair style and clothes fit the expectations of the time. The happy pair both looked young but he looked particularly so since at that time he was only newly seventeen. There was a bit of tension in their expressions and pose, as if they were trying to appear more as casual acquaintances than an unofficially engaged couple.
Miss Fleming was a few years older and clearly the more socially adept of the pair. Her smile and pose suggested someone who was accustomed to dealing with the public and being photographed for the newspapers. She had a pretty face with just a hint of haughtiness in her expression. She wore her long dark red hair pulled back in a loose bun so she looked proper without seeming overly severe. Her distinctive dress with its lace and embroidery trim was recognized in some circles as part of a carefully established signature appearance of someone aware of and cultivating a public image.
“The Great Romance: Only the Loss of Titanic Keeps Them Apart is certainly a fascinating title promising an on-going story. So your great-uncle Oliver Nessler is still alive?” Presley asked.
“Yes, he's alive and has celebrated his ninety-ninth birthday so he’s now in his hundredth year but sadly he's not with it much of the time now. He had a successful and profitable career as an architect and developer and worked actively until he was ninety. I’m told that the doctors say it's not Alzheimer's but it seems a lot like it to me.”
“We can hope he's found a kind of peace then. Are there signs that he’s still mourning the loss of his great passion Marie Fleming who went down with the Titanic?” Presley asked.
“Definitely yes. Interestingly, I’ve been told by some of the older family members that he always maintained that she assured him that their love was strong enough to defy death so they'll be together again one day in a better place.”
“So he believes that?” Knowles asked.
He asked the question in a matter-of-fact tone but as his first comment since they started it startled Connor more than made sense to anyone not able to see how nervous he was. “Uh, I’m not certain if he ever said what he believes about her statement. He was only quoted to me as saying that she said it. At the time I didn’t know to press for a firmer statement.”
“Are you close to your great-uncle?” Presley asked.
“Uh, I’m always busy but I try to keep in touch.”
“But you’re not involved in his actual care,” Knowles said.
“No. He had the good sense to invest in reliable long-term insurance so he’s well taken care of. I’m not his executor or anything but I am though one of his few living relatives,” Connor insisted to avoid any misunderstanding. “I’m his great-nephew, the grandson of his sister Patricia.”
“Did you spend long hours talking to him about his romance and all that while you prepared your book?” Presley asked.
“Oh, uh, well, he told the whole family about it when I was younger. He’s not in good condition so he’s not very talkative these days. But I got access to some letters and other things that he kept all these years. Those gave me hints of what happened and the dates and some details.”
‘So you were given access to his saved materials to research your book?” Knowles asked. “That would make sense.”
“Uh, let’s just say that I found some stuff but it wasn’t like his drawer full of memory materials. Not a big deal.”
At that Knowles focused tightly on Connor, his expression reflecting his thought that that answer was evasive and didn’t ring true.
Presley recognized their guest’s hesitation to mean this would become an embarrassment for him if they pursued the matter and she wasn’t looking for an exposé so she quickly steered them off in what might be a safer direction by asking, “What happened to make you decide to research this matter and write your book?”
When she was reasonably sure the cameras were focused on her guest she glanced over the notes on the page beside her, interested mainly in knowing when it would be time for her to jump back in. Knowles accepted this move-along but was now looking hard at Connor and paying close attention to his every word.
“Well, uh, I was reminded of Uncle Oliver’s story by the news items about the new movie that’s going to begin filming as well as the stories about the groups that have brought up items from the ship from the ocean floor. I thought the fact that my uncle’s story is one of the few related to the sinking that isn’t over yet for sure might make it interesting. That’s when I looked him up to see what he might have to say about it.”
“Only to find that he was no longer saying much about anything. You say in your book this was the greatest love story of all times, why is that?” Knowles asked.
“Of course that’s allowing for the bit of hype common to books and stories. Miss Fleming is said to have made the statement about her romance. Uh, I couldn’t find any written report in the news or anything like that about her statement but I’m sure I must have heard that repeated as her claim by someone in the family. I wasn’t around to hear it right from her myself of course so somebody else must have said it.” Connor answered with what he intended to be calm reasonableness although his unconscious hand-wringing hinted that he was afraid of saying the wrong thing. He glanced over nervously as if worried someone would rush onto the set howling contradictions at him. “I’m sure it was somebody who could have heard it right from her though. I mean somebody who was alive at that time and would have met her at some event.”
Presley threw him a lifeline by saying, “We know how quotes like that sometimes take on a life of their own and their authenticity becomes hard to nail down. That does lead us to another topic of interest. How did you go about researching the book? I understand that there are questions in some circles about some claims you make in it.” She asked that so he could defend himself, not really to challenge him. Knowles wasn’t so sure this man didn’t need some challenging on the details.
Connor responded, “As I point out in my book, as long as my great uncle Oliver Nessler is alive it’s still possible that the amazing things Miss Fleming talked about and the song her words may have inspired about them moving heaven and earth to be together before they were both more than a hundred could happen. But if they weren’t able to reunite by then they would have missed the greatest of all joys and that would be a great sadness. I’m not predicting what, when, or how, only noting that the story isn’t over as long as he’s alive. There’s still the opportunity for them to somehow be reunited. She’s been apart for these many long years but who can say that she’s gone in a final sense? She was known to be strong-willed and often very determined so I’m not ruling things out until the time limit she described is over.”
Careful to keep his expression neutral and his tone pleasant Knowles said, “You hint in the book that Miss Fleming’s dates are hard to be certain about. What do you mean by that?”
“I had no trouble verifying the records for my uncle but I can’t find any official records to establish Marie’s date and place of birth. We know the birthday that she listed on various forms and told different people, but I can’t find any records to back that up. It seems that the official paper records for more than twenty years were lost in a fire at the town she identified as her place of birth. We know how old she said she was but I couldn’t find independent verification of that. It seems no one questioned her claim back then so there was no fuss but now I expect there’ll inevitably be speculation and controversy about it. It’s the times we live in.”
“Why would it matter?” Presley asked.
“In our contemporary age of conspiracy theories it’s hard to even guess what preposterous claims will be dreamed up,” Connor responded. “But if you meant why did it matter in 1912 I think the answer is scandal. If they weren’t both of legal age to marry, tongues would wag and her career as a spiritualist and adviser would have suffered from too much whispering behind the lace curtains. I’m told that the older she was, which means the more age difference between them, the more snickering and raised eye brows there would have been. She was astute enough to know that it was easier to avoid some kinds of trouble that to deal with it once it was begun. I believe she chose to tolerate some inconvenience by waiting a bit longer to marry my uncle. Certainly they had no reason to think they wouldn’t have plenty of time to enjoy together.”
“So there are doubts about a few details but they don’t seem to add up to anything that will make a real difference today – like change who inherits an estate or who was the first to dream up some gadget that was patented by someone else who never met that first guy,” Knowles said as he leaned back in his chair. “If we banned all books that contain some claim that can’t be proven beyond a doubt we’d have a lot of empty shelves in the libraries and bookstores.
“So there are doubts that give us all something we can wait and hope for,” Presley said, then glanced to the side to check the time.
“Uh, let me point out that because of his condition my uncle won’t be doing interviews and there aren’t likely to be any quotes for the media from him. Also that for many years he’s had a preference for not having his picture taken so to respect his privacy I don’t have any recent photos of him to share with your audience.”
“We understand how that goes. Did he always refuse to be in pictures? Well, obviously not since he’s in the one on the book cover but I mean after the tragedy of losing his sweetheart on the Titanic?” Presley asked.
“No, although I remember hearing when I was younger that he was never eager to be in them,” Connor said. “He went on to have a long and successful career as an architect and city planner and was often in photos as part of that. When he finally retired at almost ninety though he began to more actively avoid them. He said he did things that were good for his career and business but once there was no advantage of that type he was happier not posing. He seldom flat out said no, he’d just quietly leave the room when the cameras came out. He believed in everyone’s right to privacy.”
“And ended up as the cover subject of a book that looks like it might make a splash in the marketplace. Life’s funny that way,” Knowles said.
Connors looked quickly to Gwen Orbital for a clue about whether that was something he should dispute, take offense at, or comment on but his advisor gestured that he should let it go.
Knowles continued, “Miss Fleming had a reputation as a spiritualist. What did you learn about that?”
“Marie Theresa claimed to have gotten her spiritualist gifts from her mother’s blood lines but didn’t give any details about what that meant that I can find. As research on the book I tried to trace her family but I had little success.”
The co-host leaned forward a bit to show his interest in this point. “Any secrets and threats? Facts that may tie in to the open questions about her birth date and place?”
Connor laughed uncomfortably, “Mostly the roadblocks from me not knowing enough about how to do serious genealogical research. It’s a special world and I soon realized I didn’t have the patience it takes to search through all those obscure records where the names may be spelled in different ways and much of it is hand-written in script I can’t decipher.”
“There aren’t people who know how to do that who’ll help?” Knowles asked, allowing an edge to his tone.
“Working on a tight budget I couldn’t afford either the time or the money to do a full search,” Connor said. “Now that there’s interest in this story I’m planning to hire top professional help to thoroughly search her background both to try to learn about her immediate family and to see which other Flemings of note she might be related to. That’ll be a part of the follow-up book I’m talking to the publisher about right now. They’re fielding questions about the whole topic and think we can help out by providing the public with more answers.”
“Can you give us a hint of who you want to see if she’s related to?” This was a point the show’s staff hadn’t prepared notes about but it was of possible interest and put Connor on the spot without requiring Knowles to know anything in advance so it was a pleasant surprise for him and maybe for the audience if the guest had an interesting answer – or if he blew such obvious nonsense smoke that nothing more would be needed to make that point.
“Ian Fleming who created the James Bond character would have been a child at the time of the Titanic mishap since he was born in 1909 and died in 1964 so it’s unlikely that they ever met but he could still have been a member of the larger family group. She could also have been a cousin of Alexander Fleming, who won the Nobel Prize for discovering penicillin since he was born in 1881 and died in 1955. Without a thorough search of the records we can’t know whether or not they might ever have met.”
Knowles found those answers credible even if it was unlikely they were accurate so he conceded Connor some points for being prepared. “We’ll certainly want to read about those possibilities. Let’s get back to the starting point. Am I correct that because of her reputation as a spiritualist, when she was lost to the waves some said that somehow she and her betrothed would be reunited because she insisted she simply loved him too much to allow it to be otherwise?” Knowles asked that in a tone that was intended to invite a response without making it an open attack on the claim.
“Huh? Oh yes, I point that out in my book. She’s said to have made a secret trip to visit and maybe study with a group deep into what some call the Hidden Arts. I’m sure today we’d call it a pilgrimage. We don’t know many details because she didn’t tell many people about it and there are no references to her doing it or talking about having done it in the surviving newspaper archives from that time but there are those who strongly believe it.”
Knowles silently counted off four seconds of the silence as he waited for Connor to say more before he prompted him.
“Why was that event important if it happened, Mr. Connor?”
“Huh?” Cued with a gesture by Ms. Orbital he got the message and went on, “Uh, some who delve into such matters believe that her pilgrimage was important because of its mystical significance.”
When he hesitated, Orbital gestured for him to keep going and Presley prompted him verbally. “What happened that was mystical and significant?”
“Some believe it was at that time that she got the power for her to come to her lover, my great-uncle, at this late time and not before now. There was supposedly some kind of a rare celestial alignment at that time.”
“You found reports of that alignment event?” Knowles asked quickly, recognizing this could be a new topic of interest for the audience.
“Uh, no but the believers think it was a fairly minor and maybe mostly only recognized locally so it wasn’t widely noted because reportedly there wasn’t much attention paid to such things in those days,” Connor said letting his volume and tone get across the message that he didn’t know much about the subject and regretted mentioning it without a lot of details.
“But you did dutifully search for old records about such a happening and didn’t find any?” Presley meant it as a question he should clarify but he was elsewhere in his head. She was trying to help him come across as more certain and prepared and the dispenser of fewer contradictions than was happening but without openly challenging his statements as she might have done in a private conversation.
“It’s likely that it was on this secret trip that she was given their special amulet that she referred to as an ancient charm,” Connor replied. “It was reported in the newspapers in many cities that she repeatedly vowed that she and Oliver would be together for all eternity because of the special power or protection given to them by what she would only describe as a spirit contact and that was tied in some special way by their amulet. At the time the amulet was almost as famous as the Titanic in some circles. I suppose people have always been fascinated by stories of magical powers, especially if they’re connected to a story of a big romance.”
“So she hoped they’d be inseparable in life,” Knowles said.
“More than that, she vowed that she and the power she was able to call on would make that be true – and forever, not just during their lives,” Connor said with more conviction than he had been evincing until now.
“But she didn’t identify this spirit contact by name or give any clues that someone else then or now could follow to identify the person or entity?” Knowles said to clarify the point.
“Not that I can find out for certain,” he said.
“You said it was their amulet. What exactly do you mean by using that plural?” Presley asked.
“Parts of it appear in several news photos from the time. The main part was a fancy design made so it could be separated into two pieces. She wore the larger piece on a fancy chain around her neck. Uncle Oliver has the slightly smaller piece which he has always kept with him. The plan was for them to join the pieces when they met in New York when the ship docked or maybe during their wedding ceremony. I wasn’t able to find out for sure if they made a final decision about when they’d connect the pieces. She told reporters in different interviews before she boarded the ill-fated ship that once the two parts of the amulet were rejoined they could never, ever be physically taken apart again.”
“So they were going to be married once she returned from Europe. That adds an additional sad note to the story of their separation by events,” Presley said.
“When she left for her trip he was only seventeen years old and some people that she had to stay in good with thought what was too young for her to marry him. Even when she was due back he would still have been about several months shy of eighteen and she insisted to several people that they would put off marrying until it wouldn’t cause trouble but if at least they weren’t an ocean apart they would endure the torture for the sake of propriety,” Connor said. “I haven’t found proof and he doesn’t seem like he could give me a definite answer but I found hints that he was originally supposed to go on the European trip with her. One source says they planned to spend time in Europe where he could study and she could develop her reputation, then when he was of age they would marry there which would avoid some fuss doing that at home. They had to cancel those plans when his family’s business problems required his presence and attention at home. They would have done it sort of secretly. Separate accommodations since they weren’t yet married. As if he were part of her staff, not her boyfriend or fiancé.”
“How attitudes have changed,” Knowles said with a chuckle.
“It’s certainly a romantic notion,” Presley said so they wouldn’t go off on Knowles’s tangent. She took the book from Connor and held it at the right spot and angle as a camera moved into position and zoomed in on the cover. “We want to take a good look at the dress Miss Fleming is wearing in the book jacket photo. Can we get a good shot of that?”
The audience watching at home could now see the dress and note its distinctive features without Connor’s hands in the way.
“From what I could find she had that dress made to her specifications and then wore it as sort of a uniform when she made public appearances to talk about her psychic abilities. At the time there were stories that people tried to copy the dress and unusual things happened to them to stop them.”
“So she planned all this before she went to Europe?” Presley asked to direct them to a new topic.
“I can’t say for sure about that,” Connor said, wary of being challenged for proof. “From the records that I can find she never mentioned the amulet before she went over there. She was there for several weeks and it was during that time when it’s believed she made her secret pilgrimage. It’s definite that she mailed Oliver a package containing his half of the amulet and a letter telling him she knew from some new sign that they would be together forever. There may have been a photo or a drawing of the whole piece in that package, I’m not certain about that. I am certain in my own mind that her excitement when she had the amulet in her possession was the cause of her delight. Uncle Oliver saved that letter and I’ve seen it myself.”
“Of course if she had half of it with her when the ship sank you’ve never seen the whole thing. Did you see photographs of it?” Knowles said.
“No, I couldn’t find any and I searched. It’d have to show up clearly in a newspaper photo but apparently she talked about it but didn’t show it off much so I could only find a few small bits of it showing in the pictures in several newspaper archives.”
“That’s too bad. If it was so important to her and to her story it would be fascinating to see what it looked like,” Knowles said, his tone somewhere between true regret and a hint that he found this too suspiciously convenient.
“Apparently someone does know that. There’s a company in Maine getting ready to make copies of it for sale. They found a photo or notes of someone who described it in detail. I’m not involved with that so I don’t know exactly what they’re basing their design on or where they got whatever pictures or drawings they have, but they claim they’re making authentic copies of it.”
“Copies of a design that no one but maybe your uncle can confirm is true to the original,” Knowles noted without making too much of a point of it.
“The company is understandably excited about the interest my book might generate and they want to be ready to meet the consumer demand for items with romantic connections to a true story connected with the great but tragic ship,” Connor said.
“That’s the way of the world and I’m not going to speak against it,” Knowles conceded. “We have a little time so let’s confront a much whispered about topic from back then – that Marie Theresa Fleming was a witch. What did you find about that topic in your research?”
Presley sat forward a bit, interested in getting into this topic but ready to jump in and take them in a different direction if it looked like Connor was going to go into a tirade and make a scene.
“Rumors spread by jealous people and those with vested interests in damaging her reputation. No one ever produced what anyone today would say was credible evidence to support such claims though,” Connor responded. Orbital had prepared him for questions about this so he felt comfortable repeating what she and he had agreed were safe points.
“But you’re not completely rejecting any idea of special things that could happen, right? Events that can’t be explained as standard happenings,” Knowles asked to clarify things.
“It’s established fact that Marie Fleming was into spiritualism, whatever you might want to call that today. She believed in things most of us would have a hard time accepting and a harder time explaining if we witnessed them, so I’m respecting her by not saying no to things that could happen. In fact she was in Europe at that time to address an annual world conference on spiritualism.”
“I don’t remember seeing the text of that address in your book. Wasn’t that important to the story?” Knowles asked.
“I wish I could have included it in some version but no copy of the text of the speech she gave eighty-three years ago seems to have survived. There are only a few small comments about it in reviews or reports on the conference. She was a minor character to the European conference people although she already had many followers and promoters here at home. The loss of Titanic only a few days after her speech also bumped comments and reports of what she said off the pages to make room for stories about her being one of those not recovered. There was also the confusion at the time that she hadn’t planned to return on the Titanic. Some odd events, apparently paperwork foul-ups, delayed her so she missed her original departure on another ship. She may in fact have been included at the last moment in the party of someone interested in her spiritualistic stuff when another person suddenly fell too ill to travel. When offered a berth and the chance to interact with important people she had the good career sense to accept. Under the circumstances it’s hard to make the case that she had precognition of events but there may have been such claims made about her back then.”
“Sounds like a natural today. Something happens and you want some attention so you claim on the Internet that she somehow engineered the trip for its public relations value but with too little foresight to see it was a poor decision,” Knowles said. “At least she was spared the amount of that gossip that she’d get today.”
“Not that she didn’t get more than her share back then,” Connor said after getting a nod from Orbital that it was okay to agree with the man and his statement.
Presley said, “An article in the latest issue of Forefront magazine that went on sale yesterday suggests that Marie Theresa Fleming is the anonymous author of the current bestseller advice book Wish and Will and Make It Happen.”
“I notice that’s published by Beederbee Books, the same company as your book. Is there a tactic to connecting the two books in the public’s mind?” Knowles asked.
Connor looked over nervously for a cue from Ms. Orbital who shrugged and mouthed, “Tell him you don’t know about that book”.
“Uh, this has taken me off guard since I don’t know what you’re talking about. What advice book are you referring to?”
Presley said, “We should have led up to that in more detail. Six months back a book was published and caught on that some now suspect may have been written by Marie Theresa Fleming. In that book the author calls for everyone to, as she puts it, ‘envision love to create a force for good and wish fulfillment’. The book started a fad which some estimate has millions around the world trying to make what they want happen by willing it with all their might. The book was originally published as of anonymous origin although it was known that the copy that was edited into shape to become the book was printed for their members by a group active at the time Ms. Fleming first started to work at her career but while she was still not much known. Now that the book has become a hit, more diligent research has supposedly identified Marie Theresa Fleming as the likely author.”
“That’s really interesting,” Connor said. “I hadn’t heard about the ‘wish and make it happen’ book until now so, no, I’m not part of any plan by the publisher that I know of to connect the books but from what I learned about Marie Fleming in researching my book it fits together nicely.”
For the first time since she had started working with him on this stuff Gwen Orbital thought she might kiss Douglas Connor for seeing a topic the audience would find interesting and smoothly moving in to take some charge of the conversation. Now if only he didn’t mess it all up.
“What do you mean by that?” Knowles asked, happy to encourage the man if he could tweak the audience’s curiosity.
Connor said, “She was invited to address the spiritualism conference in part no doubt because whatever she did, she got almost instant attention from the newspapers and from the public. Some of that likely had to do with her youth but there are preserved comments that say much of it was because of the firmness and assurance of her proclamations and predictions. Without the chance to read the self-help book you’re talking about, it sounds to me like the author was saying be firm and keep assuring yourself that you’ll get what you want and you will.”
Oh yes, Gwen Orbital would give him a big smooch when she could do that without it being misunderstood. And why should she deny setting him up to say that if questions were asked at the office?
Presley asked, “Does your great-uncle know about the discovery of the wreckage on the ocean floor? Does he know and have any reaction to the groups that have brought up items from down there and, starting two summers ago, the special small submarines that take tourists down to see that debris in place?”
“The sub tours company is Ocean Mysteries, Incorporated. I can’t say for sure, but considering his mental condition I doubt that his caregiver has mentioned that activity to him. Why risk upsetting him since there’s nothing he can do about it? That sweet woman is certainly not going to go public with any comments about what he thinks since that puts him in the spotlight and it seems that in his lucid moments he’s been clear about not wanting that. Plus it would make her job more complicated dealing with media people on top of everything.”
“Did that company ever ask for your uncle’s reaction?” Knowles asked.
“Not that I know of and I expect that when she knew my book was coming out his caretaker would have alerted me about that if it seemed he would grasp what she meant. I’ve seen Harold Gold, the chairman of that company, quoted as saying there’s nothing in the world that anyone does that someone somewhere doesn’t disapprove of but as long as there are people with the money to satisfy their curiosity and no evidence that their visits to the wreckage site are damaging anything they’ll be happy to try to fit them in. July and August are the narrow time window each year when the conditions in that area of the North Atlantic are safe and predictable enough to schedule tourist dives. Even during that season there’s a constant threat that the weather can go bad in a hurry although forecasters can likely give them a few hours of warning. Their trips to the wreck have no direct connection to the love story or my book and I have neither the money nor the interest in going down there so I wish them all good luck but I’m content with the film footage that’s been available for several years now of what you see after you dive two and a half miles to take a look. I was awed by the IMAX movie.”
At a nodded cue from Knowles music began to play in the background.
“The music most commonly associated with the Titanic is Nearer My God to Thee but in your book you identify the song playing in the background, ‘Nothing of This World Will Keep Us Apart’, as sort of the Fleming-Nessler romance’s signature song. What can you tell us quickly about it?” Presley asked.
“The song was a minor hit in 1911 that got a boost in some circles when Miss Fleming publicly embraced it,” Connor said. “The lyrics reflected her thoughts.” To the surprise of the hosts he pulled a sheet of paper from his jacket pocket and began to read, not waiting for or caring about permission from them.
“Nothing of this world,
Can keep us apart.
Nothing of this world,
Can be that strong.
My love for you has wings,
To overfly the barriers.
My love for you has fins,
To swim the oceans wide.
I won’t be kept away from you,
By laws or locks or miles.
I won’t be kept away from you,
By whatever man or Nature try.
I’ll leap the gaps and bridge the depths,
To join our hands in love again.
I’ll override the rules, the very laws of Nature,
To join our hearts in love forever more.”
Connor nodded satisfaction with his performance, then added, “A new recording of the song is coming out this week
“From a division of the company that published your book and the self-help book that may have been written by Miss Fleming,” Knowles noted.
“See that, a company that’s paying attention to a subject looks at all the angles and considers all the products the public might enjoy as part of their experience of the topic. A public that’s already being teased and prepared for a big experience with the Titanic movie extravaganza just beginning production and a company other than the one behind that film has taken notice. If that’s a bad thing, someone should tell companies like the one that owns this station and a bunch of other enterprises,” Connor said as he smiled calmly at Knowles.
Secretly Knowles was delighted with the change in Connor who had walked in here as a pussy cat and was finally getting some spine; for the audience – since he knew the camera would be tight on his face for his reaction – he shrugged it off and let his co-host do her job of smoothing it over.
“The story of the love of Marie Fleming and Oliver Nessler that defies death is truly fascinating and inspiring. Read about that in the Douglas Connor’s new book,” Presley said.
“Oliver Nessler’s hundredth birthday isn’t that far away. Another song he and Marie Fleming enjoyed when together was a love duet titled A Century or Eternity. This is the one I was referring to earlier. Its lyrics say that if separated the singers would move heaven and earth to get together before they each reach a hundred years old but if they haven’t succeeded by then they’ll have missed the greatest of all joys. It’s very romantic but it seems that that’ll be the fate of Uncle Oliver and Marie after all. But with my book I hope to keep at least the memory of their great love alive,” Connor said quietly and with the right tone of wistfulness to sound sincere while barely skirting mawkishness. He was finally getting the hang of this publicity stuff.
Presley smiled at the camera and said, “This has been fascinating. Thank you Douglas Connor for being our guest today to tell us about the wonderful Fleming-Nessler romance that you describe so movingly in your book The Great Romance: Only the Loss of Titanic Keeps Them Apart, published by Beederbee Books and available everywhere. Don’t go away, we’ll be back with our next guest right after these important announcements.”
* * *
Connor was off the set and out of the studio when the critic of another station delivered his verdict, a lukewarm review of his book. “Oliver Nessler is alive today at the ripe old age of almost a hundred but he’s in failing health and it seems that the believers will soon be shown to be just romantic dreamers. It makes a nice story, reasonably well told by the great-nephew who wants us to think he’s not exploiting the older man’s story for his own profit while doing exactly that. But it would be as good a read and as heart-warming a story if we knew they were fictional characters. They would still be contenders for tear-stained prominence.”
* * *
When they were out of the station building and sitting in her car in the parking lot Orbital patted Connor’s hand and said, “I told you it’d go all right. I’m happy to say you came a long way in that one interview.”
“I focused on what you had told me and found I believed it. Those two weren’t trying to trip me up or make me look bad unless I was making half-baked claims. He in particular wanted to test me enough to convince the audience that I know enough about what I say in the book to be sure I wrote it but that I’m not claiming to be more perfect than I am.”
“Good. I almost caused some confusion by shouting out cheers from off-stage when you grabbed topics by the horns as it were and steered them the way you wanted them to go. I hope you taped that at home so you can watch it again once or twice and note what you did right and what seemed to be weak. Don’t obsess about it and don’t watch it more than three times total. You want to learn how to act like that in the future, not to memorize that performance so you can repeat it exactly.”
“We talked about a bunch of topics when you were prepping me so I’d be ready to deal with them if they brought them up but they didn’t.”
“But you’ll be doing more interviews and while many of the people will ask the same questions until you want to scream out the answers – but shouldn’t – there’s a good chance that sooner or later most of the topics we identified and prepared you about will come up. You’re set for the long run.”
“I wasn’t sure if I could get away with pushing the sales of the amulet copies.”
“It’s best to do no more than mention them or any other items until they’re actually available. When that happens it’s likely the hosts will bring up the topic and you can do some promoting and endorsing.”
“I’m supposed to get paid to do that,” he said.
“I expect you will be and I’d recommend you not say more than that you’ve heard they exist if those selling those aren’t paying you as their spokesperson. It’s the way things are done and you’d be a fool to play the naïve fool and do it any other way.”
“I do need to find out more about that other book though.”
“I’m embarrassed and sorry about that, Douglas. I should have made sure you knew about it since there is a logical connection with your book. I found a memo about the new claim that Ms. Fleming was the author among the stack of papers in my in-box yesterday but I was so busy thinking about other authors I’m working with that I didn’t react to it fast enough. But you got my signal to admit you didn’t know about and it worked out okay. You handled yourself very well. I don’t expect you’re ever going to enjoy doing this part of the job but at least it won’t be as stressful for you from now on and you won’t need me to be in the wings to cue and reassure you.”
“Certainly I don’t see myself ever enjoying this part of it but I am more enthused about the idea of a follow-up book with the help of a good research assistant though.”
“That’s what Beederbee Books wants to hear.”
Chapter 02
The outside dining area with its umbrella-shaded tables was a popular extension of the shopping mall food court. It was eleven A.M. so the lunch crowd hadn’t yet arrived but the food shops were gearing up for it. For now the space was largely empty.
Adrian Barakat sat at a table at one side to be out of the main traffic routes through the space and where he was visible to the smallest number of those passing by. He had a serious businesslike air about him without seeming grouchy or snobbish.
At thirty-five he had sharp features that made him of more interest to many who saw him than he was aware of and a full head of hair, although only parts of what had been dark brown had not been infiltrated by silver to produce a more complex mixture of shades. He was a bit more than six-feet tall of a mesomorph pattern which gave him substance without him being muscular in the body builder who spends hours in the gym sense. He wore a dark blue suit, white shirt, and tie since he was here on an extended lunch break but would return to the office later.
He looked up from some papers he was reviewing when Garth Rifkin stopped by the table and asked, “Adrian Barakat?”
“Yes. Oh hi. Garth Rifkin. Am I remembering that right?”
“Right. It’s been what, seventeen years since high school? I’ve put on a few pounds and added a few scars on my bod and my psyche but of course that’s all for camouflage in case someone from my youth still can’t get over how much more impressive I was back then than they ever could hope to be.”
“With a line like that slipping so easily from your lips you’re definitely the Garth Rifkin I remember. For the record though, I didn’t buy into your faked hype then and I’m still resisting it,” Barakat said. He waved an invitation and Rifkin took a seat across from him.
“I’m glad to hear the latter. I knew back then that you got that the lines were for fun and only a select few were supposed to buy them so I could have fun at their expense.”
“What are you doing these days, Garth?”
“I’m a writer. Nonfiction stuff. Freelance at the moment. You?”
“I work for a publisher but I’m in the advertising arm of the company, I don’t produce or edit the books they put out. Are you working on anything in particular right now?”
“I’m researching a book on those lost on the Titanic as the longer term project research. The project of the hour, as it were, is an article on the same topic but limited to one particular woman for a magazine owned by the company that just published a book about her,” Rifkin said.
“Marie Theresa Fleming?”
“Yeah. Oh, is that one of your company’s books?”
“No, I’m part of the competition. The reason her name comes out so easily is that I listened to an interview with the writer of the book about her love affair earlier today. Keeping up with what the other companies are doing and how their presenting their products to the public is part of my job.”
“Right, you said you’re in the ad department. Anyway, there’s a quirk in the historical paperwork that brings up her name in another context and the editors at the company recognize that an interesting magazine article that brings up the name of the book, which of course I’ll mention, is a win-win situation.”
“Sounds like good business sense to me. Are you free to talk about the quirk before your article comes out?”
“Sure, it’s not critical to the success of the book or anything. Your company’s not bringing out anything on the topic of the Titanic people, are you?”
“No. They looked for a book to tie in with the various anniversaries but didn’t find anything they were enthusiastic enough about,” Barakat said.
“The quirk is that according to papers at the British office two women with exactly the same name were listed to make the first trip. When the women heard about this because the clerks wanted to be certain this was the case before they did anything more, the one woman suggested a change to the way she was listed to avoid confusion. But as if there were a novel or a TV show, the papers recording the name she suggested and that the company may or may not have used, were lost and it’s not clear if either woman survived but that seems unlikely.”
“There were a lot of people on a liner trip back then so I suppose name duplications were a common phenomenon. With computer records you can very quickly check the other details of a traveler’s identity but when it was all handwritten on paper, you had to make do with just the words of a name,” Barakat said.
“Especially a problem if the handwritten lists of those aboard that stayed in port were smeared or blurred in the initial rush to report who all were apparently lost. It seems reasonably clear that Marie Theresa Fleming took over the stateroom that was given up by Martha Dorothea Flanders who became ill at the last minute and decided not to make the crossing at that time. Of course that change meant hand-altering some official records.”
“I’m impressed that you can rattle off their names without hesitation.”
“A sign that I’ve been focused on them for two days as I mentally sort and arrange what I know to decide the best way to report it in the article. Unlike the clerks in 1912, I can have it all on the computer and cut and paste the text at will but I still do most of the comparisons of sequences of items in my head to save time and paper,” Rifkin said with a shrug.
“In cursive handwriting, initials wouldn’t be much help, especially when the notation was done at the last minute which probably meant in a hurry. MTF versus MDF,” Barakat said.
“There was never a question of not allowing Fleming aboard and to make the trip, only a matter of keeping the official records up to date and accurate. Which became super-important after the ship sank and it they needed to identify all who had been aboard and were now lost. For a short time Martha Flanders was listed among those lost. That caused confusion in the company office because that gave a list of one more person than was officially supposed to be aboard.”
“Stowaways wouldn’t be listed so that would be as embarrassing as confusing for the clerical records people. I suppose too that Martha Flanders was a bit shocked to learn that she went down with the ship,” Barakat said.
“That’s one of the fascinating quirky parts of the story. Mrs. Flanders died before the ship sank. The news reporters who rushed to her family for comments on the loss found those in mourning, but we can only imagine the confusion as the reporters said she was lost at sea and the family pointed out that they had been present when she was placed in the family mausoleum before the ship ever sailed.”
“Something for the family to talk about for years to come but not a pleasant thing at the time I’m sure.”
“Anyway, that brought Marie Fleming’s name into the news several days after the sinking which gave a superficial impression that she must have been someone important since she was still in the news. In general, only certain levels of society people knew of her background and her spiritualism and therefore knew she went down with the ship and took that as a loss.”
“Which, if things worked anything like they do today, even if a bit slower, set off the newspapers looking for any and every connection to her to fascinate their readers with until the next sensational event swept it all into the trash bin of history,” Barakat said.
“I like the way you put that. I may steal it as my own phrase. Anyway, I’ve dug out some background info on Ms. Fleming and her fame, including that she supposedly claimed to contact the Other Side and to know of Great Powers. Good copy even if it sounds like stuff from a late night TV infomercial for a dial-a-fortuneteller scam.”