A CALIFORNIA ROSE
Epilogue
Rose never returned to Masline. She left
California that summer and spent the next year and half wandering throughout
the United States, and into Canada and Mexico. She discovered that she had a
talent for singing, and often used this ability to provide herself with food
and shelter. There were times when she was cold, or hungry, or afraid, but she
never gave up.
Eventually, she settled down in a small town
in New Mexico, took a job as a waitress, and went to college, this time
studying what she wanted. She had a strong interest in politics and music, and
graduated with a degree in Political Science. Her interest in reform, and in
music, led her to become a protest singer. Wherever there was turmoil, Rose
could be counted upon to be present, adding her voice to the struggle.
In 2008, when she was twenty-four, Rose met
and married Miguel Calvert, a union organizer, in Los Angeles. They had two
daughters: Lizzie, born in 2009, and Cora, born in 2012.
Ruth was reunited with Rose in 2008, after
seeing her daughter on the evening news. Their relationship was always
strained, although they put up with each other so that Rose’s daughters would
know their grandmother.
Cal married in 2006. True to form, he didn’t
treat his wife any better than he had treated Rose. He and his wife had one
child, a son. In 2019, Cal was indicted in a pyramid scheme that had cost
hundreds of elderly people their life savings. He was never brought to trial,
however. When the police came to arrest him, they found him lying dead in his
study, a bullet through his head and the gun beside him. His death was ruled a
suicide, although his wife’s fingerprints were found on the gun.
Jack’s death was ruled a homicide. The
autopsy showed that he had died from massive blood loss. Ownership of the gun was
traced to an elderly woman in Southland, who told police that her
thirteen-year-old grandson had stolen it. The grandson was unavailable for
questioning, having died in the earthquake. The killer was never found.
Helga moved back in with Tommy. Despite the
earthquake, the house had remained mostly intact, and was still livable. On
January 19, 2004, nine months to the day she had married Fabrizio, she gave
birth to a healthy son, Daniel.
Tommy remained a bachelor for many years,
then surprised everyone by marrying Sophie in 2011. They had three children.
Rose and her friends were reunited in Los
Angeles in 2010, and kept in touch throughout the years that followed. Rose’s
daughter Lizzie married Helga’s son Daniel in 2029, although Rose wasn’t there
to see it.
In 2022, when she was thirty-eight, Rose was
diagnosed with cancer, an aftereffect of the radiation she had been exposed to
following the earthquake. Despite aggressive treatment, the disease spread, and
by her fortieth birthday Rose knew that she didn’t have much time left. She
wrote her memoirs, finally telling her story, interspersing the paragraphs with
pictures collected over a lifetime. There were two pictures in particular that
she valued--a photograph of herself, her husband, and her children on Olvera
street in Los Angeles, and an ancient, brittle drawing of a young woman
standing on the edge of a cliff, the wind in her hair and a smile on her face.
On the evening of June 21, 2024, Rose went to sleep and never woke up.
*****
Rose opened her eyes to see someone standing
at the end of a long tunnel of light, waiting for her. Walking down the tunnel,
she recognized her father. He was healthy and strong now, with no signs of the
disease that had killed him so many years before. He looked just as Rose
remembered him from her childhood.
Looking back, she saw herself lying in her
bed, unmoving. A pang of sadness, mingled with joy, shot through her. She had
lived out her life as she was meant to, and now she was moving on.
Looking at her hands, she realized that she
had left the miseries of the disease that had killed her behind. She was
healthy again, no longer in pain. She had no regrets, except for her loved ones
left behind. But it was time. Turning toward her father, she walked into the
light.
They didn’t speak as they continued onward.
As they left the tunnel, Rose saw others waiting for her--Trudy, Fabrizio, her
grandparents. The golden retriever that she had had as a child ran up to her,
wagging its tail with joy. Rose was home.
There was only one person missing. As Rose
greeted the people waiting for her, she saw the city of Masline, as bright and
strong as it had been before the earthquake. Beyond that lay the hills, covered
with green grass and flowers.
Rose moved toward the hills, her feet barely
touching the ground. Looking down, she realized that she was wearing the same
dress that she had worn on that day so long ago--but now it was made of white
silk, with a long train. Touching her head, she felt the flowers that adorned
her hair.
Almost running now, she crossed a field of
grass and flowers, coming to the base of a trail that wound its way up around
the hills. She started up it.
Near the top of the hill, she saw him. Jack
turned and held out his hand to her, smiling. Rose came forward and took his
hand.
They embraced, and it was as though they had
never been apart. The light grew brighter, and the world faded away, until it
was just the two of them, forever this time, surrounded by the light.
The End