she wished she knew how to make it better , how to bridge this awful distance between them . he coughed , covering his mouth and nose . i received his reply less than thirty seconds later . still photographers from the newspapers shouted at the crowd to stand back so they could get shots of the wreck . the next morning , however , when we traveled to the dock on the back of a farmers hay cart , we found the dock surrounded by soldiers , looking into the crowd nervously . 