Written by A Vampire Bride
Based on some situations originated by James Cameron.
"Here I am, Jack. I kept my promise,
just like I said I would. I fulfilled our dreams and did everything we wanted
to do," Rose said as she stood on the stern of the Russian research
vessel, the Keldysh. Two and a half miles below her lay the Titanic, or what
was left of her. Rose had come back to the place where, eighty-four years
before, her life was just beginning and another was ending. She had shared her
story with her granddaughter, Lizzy, and the many others who, at first, hadn’t
believed her. Rose knew it was her time and she had wanted to get Jack’s story
out before it was too late, so that his memory might live on.
Moments before, one hundred
one-year-old Rose had slowly made her way to the stern to throw the Heart of
the Ocean back where it belonged. The heavy stone had been a constant reminder
these many years of what she had lost, what she had gained, and a promise she
had made that tragic night. With the wind tousling her long white locks, Rose
drew a deep breath of the salty sea air. She looked up at the deep night sky filled
with stars, almost like a long black cloak embedded with thousands of tiny
diamonds. A smile crossed her lips as a shooting star raced across the sky.
"My pa used to say a
shooting star was a soul going to heaven…" Jack’s words lingered in her mind even to
this day. Every word of every conversation the two of them had ever shared was
locked away in her memory. Rose clung to those words and memories, for they
were all she had left.
Finally shivering in her
nightgown, Rose walked back to her stateroom, proud of all she had accomplished
in her life. For eighty-four years, Rose had lived with a promise, and for
eighty-four years she had kept it. Jack was the love of her life, and he had
given up all he had so she could go on.
Rose took the scenic route, stopping
by Lizzy’s room. Softly, Rose knocked on the door, but she knew her
granddaughter would be asleep. Rose opened the wooden door quietly and crossed
the space between the entrance and the bed, where Lizzy lay sleeping.
Lizzy looked like an angel. Rose’s
stomach nearly lurched into her throat. She felt sorry that she had to leave
her granddaughter behind, but Rose had lived her life, and now it was time for
Lizzy to live hers.
Silently, as to not wake her
sleeping angel, Rose spoke, "When you wake, I won’t be on this earth any
longer, my dear Lizzy. My river has run its course, and now I must move onto
the next stream. My time here is through. You will cry over me and mourn me,
but you must move on and live your life. I will be watching over you for always.
You’ll go on and make babies, like I did. You’ll find the man of your dreams,
someone who can put up with your ways and love you for you. In fact, I think
you already have. I love you, Lizzy, and someday we shall be together again. Be
good to each other, and remember--live each day to the fullest and always make
it count."
Rose bent over, planting a soft
kiss on Lizzy’s forehead before continuing her journey to her own room. Placed
carefully on her side table and her overturned suitcase were Rose’s most prized
possessions, the links to her past--her photographs. She held each one,
remembering the day it was taken like she had just lived it. One of her
favorites was the photo taken of her astride a horse, one leg on each side like
a real cowboy would ride. She was riding in the surf in Santa Monica,
California. Jack had been with her that day, just like he had been every other
day of her life. The old woman put the portrait back in its place amongst the
others before pulling the covers over her slim body.
"I’m ready, Jack," Rose
said before falling into an eternal slumber.
In the dark night sky above the
gentle waves of the North Atlantic, a brilliant shooting star climbed towards
the heavens.
The End.
