DAPHNE’S STORY OF FINDING HER FATHER
Chapter One
Have you ever wondered who your
father was when you thought he was dead? I did. My name is Daphne Dawson. A few
weeks ago, I found out that my father is alive. His name is Jack Dawson, and I went
to California to find Jack, my father. And what do you know? I did. Here. Let
me tell you the story. It all started when my mom and I were at a wedding.
I was a waitress, so I had to go
and take orders. My mother was in a band, and the groom had chosen her to sing
at the wedding.
November 10, 2004
As my mom parked in the parking
lot in front of an outside wedding, a guy in a tuxedo walked up to her door. My
mother, whose name is Rose, rolled down her window.
"You delivering
something?" the guy in the tuxedo asked my mom.
My mom nodded as she said
something, but I didn’t pay attention to what she was saying. My mother is
beautiful. She has red, curly hair and green eyes. She also has this fire in
her. That’s what I most love about her. I adore her.
But she tells me I get my looks
from my father, who is dead. The only look I have from my mother is her curls,
and that’s pretty much it. As for my father, his name was Jack Dawson. He and
my mom met on the Titanic, but Jack died in the Atlantic Ocean.
"Daphne." My mother’s
voice interrupted me from my thoughts. She had already gotten out of the car
and opened my door for me. "I believe you have a job to do."
I only nodded. Just as I was
about to step out of the car, the man in the tuxedo held out his hand to me. I
looked at my mom, who nodded her head, urging me to take his hand. I sighed as
I took the man’s hand and he helped me out of the car.
I shot my mom a confused look.
All she did was shrug her shoulders. "Come on, Daphne," my mother
said as she put an arm around me. "Let me take you to your boss so you can
get your uniform."
Within thirty minutes after I got
my uniform and put it on, the wedding started. I was walking around the outside
party, making sure everyone had what they wanted to eat. I suddenly tripped
over something. I quickly got up and looked down. I saw a leg sticking out from
under the table. Curious, I looked under the table and found a guy in a tuxedo.
To me, he looked either drunk or
nervous. "Hey, how are you doing?" he asked. Then he passed out.
I got out from under the table
and quickly looked for something that would wake the guy up. I spotted an ice
sculpture of a swan. I thought ice would work, but I would have to find
something to cut a piece of ice.
Again, I quickly looked for something.
I saw a guy with a knife. I ran over to the table that he was sitting at with
some lady. I took the knife, asking, "Can I borrow this?" I didn’t
even let him answer. I hurried towards the ice sculpture of the swan and cut
the beak off. I ran past the guy who had had the knife. Thinking he might need
it, I backed up to the table and handed it back to him.
"Here you go, sir," I
said.
I ran towards the table that the
guy was passed out under. I looked under the table and found him still passed
out. I slipped the piece of ice into the back of his tuxedo, and sure enough,
it woke him up. It made him jump, and, of course, made him bang his head on the
table.
He quickly got out from under the
table and tried to take the piece of ice out. " Help!" he said. The
music stopped playing and my mother stopped singing.
"Shout!" I said
to my mother, hoping that she knew what I meant. She did. She took the
microphone from the microphone holder and began to sing one of my favorite
songs, Shout.
Everyone just stared at the guy,
who was trying to get the ice out of his tuxedo. It seemed more like a dance
move. I began to do the same thing that he was doing, and then people began to
do it, too. Even the bride and her father began to do it.
Later That Day
I was picking up the dirty dishes
from the tables that people were still seated at. I, of course, had to ask if
they were done with their food. I heard my mom say, "Now, if everyone will
please clear the dance floor, the bride and her father would like to share a
special dance."
I looked up suddenly, finding the
bride and her father walking to the dance floor. The band began to play a song
that I would always listen to when I was sad or depressed. A few seconds after
my mom began to sing, more fathers and daughters went to the dance floor and
began to slow dance.
I couldn’t stand watching this,
so I turned my head away and continued to do my job.
After the Wedding
As the band was packing up their
stuff and putting it in the van, she walked over to me, where I was cleaning up
the last table.
"I know. I saw your
look," my mother said.
"I don’t want to talk about
it," I said, sadness in my voice. "Every time we do these weddings, I
see the father-daughter dances. And I can't help but think that I’m never going
to get to do that," I said as I set down the tray and sat at the table. My
mother sat beside me. "Look, you told me the story," I said.
"And maybe if you hadn’t let him sink and had gotten him into a lifeboat,
he would have survived."
"He froze to death,
Daphne," my mother said.
"I wish he hadn’t,
though."
"And you think I don’t wish
he was alive?" my mother said as she pointed to herself. "I loved
your father so much, Daphne. It hurt me so much to find out that he was
dead." I felt tears threaten to roll down my cheeks, but I swallowed them
back.
"Why can’t you understand,
Mom?" I asked as tears rolled down my cheeks. "I feel like half of me
is missing. Without the other half, how am I supposed to know who I really
am?" My mother let out a sigh as she wipe away my tears with her index
finger.
"Getting to know someone
because they share the same DNA isn't the answer," my mother said.
"It’s about getting to know yourself." I didn’t answer. I just stared
at my mom. "Come on," my mom said as she gestured to the caterers
behind her, who were putting up the leftover wedding cake. "Let’s go steal
some leftovers. The cake looks great." I let out a slight laugh. My mother
was always a person who I could sneak food or have a good laugh with.
"No, thanks," I said as
I shook my head.
My mother frowned as I got up
from the table and went to the van.
Rose’s POV
I sighed as I sat on the couch in
the living room of our apartment. What Daphne needed was a father. But, sadly,
the father of my child was dead. He had been for sixteen years now. I kept on
thinking those words that Daphne had said to me today. "Look, you told me
the story. And maybe if you hadn’t let him sink and had gotten him into a
lifeboat, he would have survived."
Maybe Daphne was right. I shook
my head, putting the thought out of my head. I knew what would clear my
mind--some television. It had worked before. I grabbed the remote from on top
of the TV and turned it on.
"And in other news, artist
Jack Dawson, one of the survivors of the Titanic sinking, is looking for a
woman named Rose DeWitt-Bukater, or perhaps Rose Dawson," the newsman said
on the television. My eyes went wide as the camera zoomed out a little bit to a
thirty-six-year-old man with sandy blond hair and blue eyes standing next to
the newsman. It was Jack!
"Mr. Dawson, tell us, who is
this Rose Dawson?" the newsman asked Jack as he put the microphone close
to Jack’s face.
"Well, all I can say is that
she was a girl that I was in love with sixteen years ago, and I still am,"
Jack answered, looking at the newsman.
"How do you know that she’s
alive?" the newsman asked Jack.
"I found out a year after
the Titanic had sank. I had never bothered to look at the survivor list. I was
bored one day and finally read the survivor list. What caught my eye was a Rose
Dawson. I had only known a Rose DeWitt-Bukater. But, as it dawned on me, I
realized it was my Rose," Jack answered.
"I see," the newsman
said. "And just in case Rose is watching this, would you like to say
anything to her?"
Jack nodded and looked into the
camera. "Rose, I know you're out there. I know you're alive. And I know
you've kept the promise that you made sixteen years ago. I'll do whatever it
takes to find you. No one can stop me from doing so. I love you."
"Thank you, Mr.
Dawson," the newsman said. Jack looked at the newsman and nodded his head
with a smile. After that, I turned off the TV and stared at it in awe. All this
time, Jack was alive, but Daphne thought she didn’t have a father. I suddenly
stood up from the couch and ran into my daughter’s room. I knew that she had to
know that her father was alive.