The Only Thing Left

The young man finished fixing his bow tie and stared at himself in the mirror. He had a frown apparent on his features, feeling distressed and annoyed. He did not like how perfect the black bow tie looked and how white his button down shirt was. He did not like the way it was neatly tucked into his freshly ironed black dress pants. He hated how shiny his black suede shoes looked in the dimly lit room. And he could only imagine how much better he would look when he put on his black blazer, completing his perfect little outfit.

Samuel Wellbrooks hated it all.

With a sigh, he reluctantly put on his black blazer and studied himself in the mirror one more time. He opened the door of his suite and stomped out into the hallway, not wanting to look at his face anymore. The more he looked at himself, the more he wanted to puke all over his outfit.

Before long, he came to a huge staircase that led down to a lofty area where a bunch of people were talking and mingling. They weren’t at all trying to be sociable and strike up conversations with random strangers, they were just trying to show off how rich they were and how many jewels they had.

‘Typical.’ Thought the young man and he descended the large staircase. He was used to being around these kinds of people. They sickened him. He wanted nothing more than to just escape from this prison most people would call a blessing. Just the mere thought of being in the same room with these people made him want to run back up the stairs and never go back, but he knew his family would have a cow and reprimand him later about the importance respect.

As he stepped off the last step of the staircase, he saw his parents talking lightly with another couple. It was an older fellow with a very young-looking woman. She couldn’t have been older than fifteen.

Samuel went up to his mother and gave her a gentle kiss on the cheek, then turned to his father and nodded his head politely while saying hello.

“Hello, my son! You remember Leopold Butler, don’t you?” Mr. Wellbrooks gestured toward the older man with gray hair and a white Italian mustache that curled up at the very ends.
Leopold sent Samuel a huge, bright smile, showing his perfectly white teeth. ‘They have to be fake,’ Samuel thought.

Samuel smiled lightly at the older man and shook his hand. “Nice to meet you, boy!” Leopold said.

“Same to you, sir.” Samuel replied. He sensed something unusual. His parents never socialized with people this happy, and Mr. Butler was very enthusiastic.

Mr. Butler put a hand on the shoulder of the young lady beside him, who was smiling lightly the whole time, keeping quiet. “This here is my daughter, Willafred.”

Willafred’s smile widened as her eyes averted from the ground up to Samuel. She held out her hand as Samuel took it, then bowed down and kissed it. “Hello miss,” He said as he let go of her hand. She bowed slightly in return.

Willafred. What an odd name for a lady. Samuel tried to figure out the origin of the name, but the last name sounded English. She was a very beautiful girl, in contrast with her name. She had butter colored, curly blond hair that was put up in a bun. A few loose curls fell around her heart-shaped face. She had full lips painted with a blush pink lipstick. Her eyes were a pale blue, holding no life in them. It actually ruined her demeanor. Anyone would say she was more beautiful than the reddest of roses, but when you looked into her eyes, everything changed. She seemed tired, dead almost.

As they stayed chatting, Samuel kept to himself, only talking when someone asked him a question or directed a statement towards him. All he kept thinking was how badly he wanted to get out of there. The environment was sucking the life out of him. He also noticed how Willafred kept stealing glances his way every once in a while. At first, he just shrugged it off, but now it was starting to annoy him, just like everything else in the room.

Pretty soon, two well-dressed men came out of a hallway and opened the double French doors that led to the dinner hall. Everyone slowly made their way to their tables, not wanting to ruin their perfect outfits. Three beautiful and very expensive looking chandeliers hung from the ceiling of the hall, their crystals sparkling as if they had just been polished. Little candles on tiny stands with crystals hanging off of them decked the walls of the hall. Even as shockingly beautiful as this place was, Samuel didn’t bother looking around. In fact, he barely even noticed the details of the place. He just wanted to get this dinner over with so he could go for a walk along the outer decks of the ship he was on.

Once Samuel sat down at a table located somewhat in the middle of the hall, he found that he and his parents were not eating alone. Mr. Butler and Willafred sat down at their table, along with another old looking couple, probably in their late thirties, he figured.

Willafred took a seat next to Samuel, smiling brightly at him when she sat down. He forced a smile onto his face, hoping it was convincing enough to come across at least somewhat friendly.

The dinner was spent mostly everyone talking about how successful they were and how they were planning on investing their money to make even more money. Samuel wasn’t even paying attention. He ate his food and just sat there looking out the large windows of the hall that started from the ceiling and ended at the floor. It was dark outside, and the water captured the moon’s brightness magnificently, bursting each ray of light into a million sparkles all over the water. He was content just watching the waves outside. It made him feel at peace, like he was in his own little world away from all these stupid rich people on this ship.

Samuel was suddenly brought out of his daydream when he felt a soft hand on his shoulder. He looked to his left and his mother was staring at him with curious eyes. “Samuel, do you not know how rude it is to stare off while people are talking to you?” He looked around the table and saw that everyone was staring at him. Oops.

“I’m terribly sorry, mother.” He said, and gave her a soft smile.

Mrs. Wellbrooks smiled back at him. “We were just talking about you and Willafred getting married in the near future. How lovely that would be!” She clapped her small hands together and smiled brightly at the quiet girl sitting next to Samuel.

He quickly defended himself. “Well, mother, I am still very young, and I still have time to think of who my wife could be. There is no need to rush things.” The thought of getting married was the farthest thing from Samuel’s mind at the moment. Yes, of course, one day he wanted someone to spend the rest of his life with; someone to have kids with, but he did not want that until farther into the future. He was only a mere seventeen; he didn’t even know what love was yet.

“Nonsense!” Mr. Wellbrooks bellowed from his seat across the table. “You will be married as soon as we get home. No need for dilly-dallying now.” Samuel turned to his father and gave him a cold stare, hoping that laser beams would shoot out of his eyes like in Superman and make him disappear. Unfortunately, nothing came out of his eyes and his father just sat there, smiling like an idiot as if his plan was better than gold itself.

“But father,” Samuel continued, “I barely know Willafred. She’s a charming lady, but I would rather marry someone I love.” Suddenly the table busted up laughing at Samuel’s ridiculous statement. He looked around desperately trying to find a face that would understand him, but the only face not laughing was Willafred’s and she was staring out the window like Samuel had done before.

“Oh! Since when does love matter? My wife and I were not married because of love; we, too, had an arranged marriage.” Mr. Butler said, and then continued laughing hysterically.

This was all too much for Samuel. His face was getting red with anger at how no one was even trying to listen to how he felt about the situation at hand. He was infuriated.

Samuel looked around the table one last time before getting up out of his chair abruptly and then speed-walking out of the hall. He heard his father calling him back to the table, but he wasn’t paying attention. He had had enough of his family and everyone else around them. He didn’t want to ever see their faces again. Little did he know, his wish would come true.

Once he walked out the double French doors of the hall, he ran all the way up the stairs, taking two steps at a time. And he didn’t stop until he was outside on the lower deck of the ship. He wasn’t about to go on the upper deck, no. He had already seen enough snotty rich people in elegant clothing for one day. Of course, he was out of place on the lower decks, now. He was wearing a very fancy and expensive suit, while others that walked by him wore torn, dirty clothing. He got many weird stares from people, but he didn’t care. He had one destination in mind and he wasn’t going to stop until he got there.

Finally, Samuel reached the very tip of the front of the boat. He climbed up onto the railing, holding onto the pole that was in the middle so he wouldn’t fall off. He smiled slightly to himself as the wind blew against his face, whipping his freshly combed hair all around. He closed his eyes and relished the feeling. Samuel wanted nothing more than to be free. He wanted to be away from his family and away from all their rules and restrictions, telling him what he can and can’t do just because it’s not ‘proper.’ He was sick of it; all of it.

But being right there, under the stars and the light of the moon, he was content and didn’t want the feeling to end.