A LIFE SO CHANGED
Chapter Three
A CNN news story: A live satellite feed from
the deck of the Keldysh, intercut with the CNN studio.
"Treasure hunter Brock Lovett is best
known for finding Spanish..." said an announcer.
A TV set in the living room of a small rustic
house is showing the CNN report. All around the TV are flowers and mini
pictures of people in them. The wall is full of more pictures of people in it,
perhaps families, and also portraits of drawings.
A young woman is in the kitchen with a
schipperke. The woman is beautiful. She has blond hair and blue eyes, and she's
forty-two. Her name is Lizzy.
"All right. I'll feed you in a
minute." She went into the kitchen. The dog follows her.
"Gold in sunken galleons in the
Caribbean..." the announcer continues.
In the patio, an old woman is messing with
her drawings. She is very good at them at her age. She is eighty-five. Her name
is Rose Calvert. Her face is a wrinkled mass, her body shapeless and shrunken
under a one-piece African-print dress. She is not hearing the report.
"Now he is on the Russian sub to reach
the most famous wreck of all...the Titanic. He is with us live via satellite
from a Russian research ship in the North Atlantic...hello, Brock?"
"Hello, Tracy. Of course, everyone knows
the famous stories of Titanic. Either nobility, to the band playing, and the
very end of all that. What I'm interested in are the untold stories. The
secrets that are locked deep inside the hull of Titanic."
Rose suddenly stops drawing, for she heard,
"The untold stories." She looks at the TV, for she has the brown eyes
just as bright and alive as those of a young girl.
"We're out here using robot technology
to go further into the wreck then anybody has ever done before."
She gets up and walks into the living room
with her cane.
"Your expedition is at the center of a
storm of controversy over salvage rights and even ethics. Many are calling you
a grave robber," said Tracy.
"Nobody called the recovery..."
Lizzy walks up to Rose, and sees her
statement. "What is it?"
"Turn that up, dear," said Rose.
Lizzy does.
"Of the artifacts from King Tut's grave
robbing. I have museum-trained experts out here, making sure these relics are
preserved and catalogued properly. Take a look at this drawing that we found
just today..."
The video cameras pan off Lovett to the
drawing, in the tray of water. The image of the woman with the necklace fills
the frame.
"A piece of paper that's been underwater
for sixty-five years..."
Rose is galvanized by this image. Her mouth
hangs open in amazement.
"And my team are able to preserve it
intact..."
Rose looks at the image once more, then said,
"I'll be Goddamned!"
"Should this have remained unseen at the
bottom of the ocean for eternity, when we can see it and enjoy it now?"
The Mir subs are being launched. Mir Two is
already in the water, and Lovett is getting ready to climb into Mir One when
Buell runs up to him. "Brock, there's a satellite call for you."
"Bobby, we're launching. See these
submersibles here, going in the water?" Lovett points.
"Trust me, buddy! You want to take this
call!" Lovett looks at him.
"This better be good," said Lovett.
Buell brings him over and hands him the phone, pushing down the blinking line.
"You're going to have to speak up. She's
kinda old." Lovett rolls his eyes.
"Great! This is Brock Lovett. How can I
do for you, Mrs...?" Lovett looks at Buell.
"Calvert. Rose Calvert," said
Buell.
"Mrs. Calvert." Lovett is in a
hurry on this.
Rose is sitting in the chair at the kitchen
table. Lizzy is sitting next to her.
"I was just wondering if you have found
the 'Heart of the Ocean' yet, Mr. Lovett?"
Lovett looks at Buell in shock. Buell sees
his shocked statement. "I told you you wanted to take the call."
"All right. You have my attention, Rose.
Can you tell me who the woman in the picture is?"
"Oh, yes. The woman in the picture is
me," said Rose, with a smile.