A LIFE SO CHANGED
Chapter Thirty-Five
Mir One and Mir Two are looking at the
Titanic one last time.
"Keldysh, Keldysh. We are on our way to
the surface," said a crewmember.
It’s nighttime, and Keldysh is lit up with
lights. The crew is helping the subs up onto the ship again. Lizzy and Lovett
are standing at the rail, talking.
"You know, I was saving this when I
found the diamond." He throws the cigar over the railing.
"I’m sorry."
"Three years, I’ve thought nothing
except Titanic, but I never got it. I never let it in."
Lizzy shakes her head. Lovett looks out at
the water. Nothing but blackness.
Rose looked out her window. The Keldysh was
not one of the finest ships she had been on. Titanic held that title, but it
would do. Rose sighed as she remembered the story she had told. Of Jack. Rose
had never stopped loving Jack. When she married, she had never loved her
husband as much as she loved Jack.
Rose smiled as she thought of what she had
just told the men on board. She walked over to her purse and pulled out
something. She headed to the stern of the ship.
She walks through the shadows of the deck
machinery. Her nightgown blows in the wind. Her feet are bare. Her hands are
clutched at her chest, almost as if she is praying. She reaches the stern rail.
Her old fingers wrap over the rail. Her foot steps up on the gunwale. She
pushes herself up, leaning forward.
Over her shoulders, she sees the black water
glinting far below. She looks down and opens her left hand. There it is, the
Heart of the Ocean. She looks up, remembering back on the Carpathia deck.
Rose is looking at the rain when she puts her
hands in her coat pockets. Feeling something, she brings her hands out, and she
is holding the Heart of the Ocean in her left hand and money in her right hand.
She is surprised.
Rose smiles, and at that moment, she let the
diamond drops from her hand and into the water. Rose sighs. The Heart of the
Ocean circles as it sinks.
Back in Rose’s room, she is sleeping, as it
seems. On the shelf of carefully arranged pictures shows:
Rose as a young actress in California,
radiant in a theatrically lit studio publicity shot.
Rose with Daniel and Mary Marvin on the set
of Ever After.
Rose at the Academy Awards in 1999, nominated
for Best Actress in Ever After.
Rose and her fiance at the Academy Awards in
1999.
Rose and her husband’s wedding.
Rose with her first child. She later had two
more.
Rose being a model for a magazine.
Rose is at the beach, sitting on a horse at
the waterline. The Santa Monica pier, with its roller coaster, is behind her.
She is grinning, full of life.
Rose herself, warm in her bunk. She is very
still. She could be sleeping, or maybe something else.
Suddenly, something is flying into the water,
and the wreck of the Titanic looms like a ghost out of the dark. It is lit by a
kind of moonlight, a light of the mind. It passes over the endless forecastle
deck to the superstructure, moving faster than subs can move. It goes across
the deck and goes into one of the walking promenades. The ship goes from the
rotting Titanic to the Titanic in 1998.
It goes to the grand staircase door, and the
echoing sound of distant waltz music is heard. A steward opens up and there
stood Peter and Amanda Foster, waving at someone. Everybody was there. Tommy,
the band, Thomas Andrews, Fabrizio, Helga, Mr. Murdoch, Captain Smith, Cora and
her father, plus many other passengers who lost their lives.
But on top of the stairs stood a man, looking
at Hope and Glory. The time never ran. It still read: 2:20 AM. He turns. It is
Jack. He smiles and his puts his hand out, and another hand takes his. It is
Rose. She is twenty again. Jack kisses her, and the crowd applauds. They are
finally back together. Nothing on earth, or Titanic’s sinking, could come
between them.
IN THE LOVING MEMORIES OF:
ALL THE PASSENGERS, WHO SANK WITH THEM, BUT
MOST OF ALL...
JACK DAWSON (1976-1998) ROSE BLACK
(1978-1998) AND ROSE DAWSON CALVERT (1978-2063)
NOTHING ON EARTH COULD COME BETWEEN THEM
The End.