NOW & FOREVER
Chapter Nine
Rose stared after Jack as he departed,
confused and upset by his sudden change in attitude. They had been having
fun—some of the time, anyway—and working together, and then he had suddenly
turned cold to her, as though he were angry about something. For the life of
her, she didn’t know what the problem was.
Could it have been her fainting spell?
Perhaps he had been embarrassed by it. Some people were, but it hadn’t
surprised her at all that it had happened. She had been afraid of heights since
she was very young and had fallen from the balcony of her house, landing her in
the hospital for three months. Over the years, she had become more inured to
heights, but today’s incident had been particularly disturbing—she had almost
fallen again.
Jack had helped her then, and his comforting
presence had enabled her to get back down to the deck before she had fainted,
but afterwards he had been so angry, wanting nothing to do with her.
Still confused, she watched as he headed
towards the bus stop. He hadn’t even wanted a ride home with her, although most
people would be glad to ride in such a luxurious vehicle.
As she stared after him, still wondering what
had made him so angry, Jessica came up beside her. Watching as Jack walked
away, she remarked, her tone snide, "I don’t think we’ll see him again. Heavens,
Rose, what were you thinking, bringing a gutter rat on our boat?"
"I thought he was my friend." Rose
frowned, looking into the distance. Jack had disappeared, but she still
wondered what had gone wrong.
"Rose, you know that our kind doesn’t
associate with people like him. We have certain standards that we must
maintain."
"Why?" Rose asked, surprised at her
own question. "Why are those standards so important? What’s wrong with
people like him? I liked him."
"Liked is the key word here, Rose. You
always were impulsive, and all too willing to associate with the wrong kind of
people. They aren’t like us. They don’t have much money, or any understanding
of the sort of manners required by our society."
"And yet we hire people like him to be
our servants, and our employees when we go into business."
Jessica shrugged. "We’re doing them a
service—providing the jobs needed for subsistence."
"Don’t you think they deserve just a
little more than that?" Rose asked irritably. Her frightening experience
that afternoon, followed by Jack’s seemingly pointless anger, had left her
nerves raw. Jessica’s attitude was only making things worse.
Jessica looked at her as though she had grown
two heads. "We’re more than generous already. If people don’t like the way
things are, they can go somewhere else."
"We could at least give them some
respect," Rose muttered, eager to take her leave of her cousin. Checking
her watch, she told her, "I’d best be going. I have some homework to
do."
She walked away in the direction of the
waiting limousine, leaving Jessica staring after her in shock and bemusement.
As she reached the limousine, she took care
to greet her chauffeur, Marvin, in a friendly manner. As he drove her home, she
gazed out the window, lost in thought.
What had upset Jack so much? she wondered.
Their moods had run hot and cold all afternoon, it was true, but his sudden
anger baffled her. She could find no reason for it.
At last, an idea of what the problem might be
occurred to her. When she had been arguing with Jessica, she had referred to
Jack as a lowlife, a scum, and a gutter rat. Was it possible that he had
overheard and hadn’t realized that she was being sarcastic?
It was possible, she acknowledged, but she
didn’t know how to contact him and find out. She might be able to talk to him
in school tomorrow—if he was even willing to acknowledge her. He had been so
angry, he hadn’t even spoken to her when he left, had just walked away without
a word.
Would he even speak to her? And if he did,
would he understand what she had meant and be willing to forgive her for the
misunderstanding?