Thomas An astonished young broker seeing the euphoria happening across the Atlantic on wall street plans to cross the ocean to New York for the opportunity, only to get on the ship and learn of the great crash of 1907 while on his way.
The Aurora Archives: Day 7
ARCHIVE ENTRY: 1907-DEC-24 LOCATION: RMS Mauretania, North Atlantic (Steerage Deck) SIGNAL RESONANCE: Harmonic / High OPERATIVE: Transit Unit (Sub-type: Courier)
TRANSCRIPT OF RECOVERED CORRESPONDENCE:
My Dearest Elizabeth,
The panic has reached across the ocean. The Marconigram arrived this morning: the firm is insolvent. I stood on the freezing promenade, staring at the grey Atlantic, holding the three clementines you packed ‘for the scurvy.’ They were the only gold I had left.
I never got to eat them. A blur of movement, fast as a whip, trailing tattered red fabric, shot past my legs. It wasn’t the wind. A force hit my wrist, precise and heavy. The fruit didn’t just fall; it flew, bouncing down the ventilation grate into the dark belly of the ship.
I chased them down to Steerage, angry and desperate. I found them in the lap of a young Irish girl. She was sitting with an Italian family, all of them shivering in the damp air. When the peel broke, the smell of zest hit us like a memory of summer.
I didn’t take them back. We shared them. The O’briens spoke of home, of putting a candle in a hollowed orange to light the dark Christmas window. The Candela family closed their eyes and said the smell was just like panettone and panforte.
But they were worried, Elizabeth. They had papers they couldn’t read and forms they couldn’t write. When they heard me speak, they asked for help. I sat on a crate and took out my fountain pen. I translated Italian to English; I wrote letters for the Irish grandmother who had forgotten her spectacles.
I realized then that my education is not lost capital. It is a bridge. I am no longer a broker of stocks, but I can be a clerk for dreams. I will help them enter the New World, and they will help me understand what it means to be truly wealthy.
Join me soon. We have work to do.
Your Arthur
ARCHIVIST’S NOTE: Subject reports a ‘Red Fabric’ sighting, visual confirmation of the ‘Nicholas Protocol’ regalia. The operative utilized a disarming maneuver to redistribute the bait to where it was needed. Note the resulting ‘Social Fusion’ event, where the subject’s linguistic skills were unlocked by the intervention, for the betterment of the wider community.
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