PRESENT TENSE
Chapter Seventy-Four
Saturday, September 4, 2004
On Saturday morning, Jack and Rose boarded a plane
back to California. They arrived early to make sure they would be on time for
their flight, but even so it took a long time for them to get settled on the
plane.
There were the usual security precautions,
but this time, after the metal detector was set off by the steel plate that
Jack had in his head, he was detained for a short time while Rose was sent
ahead. After being put in a room by himself, searched, and checked over with a
handheld metal detector to be sure that he wasn’t concealing any weapons in odd
places, Jack was finally allowed to join Rose and board the plane, though he
grumbled in aggravation at the experience.
When they finally boarded the plane, they
were once again seated in a window section. Rose wanted an aisle seat, but the
third person in their row, a businessman, insisted that he needed the aisle
seat for the sake of comfort. Rose finally let him have his way, although he
complained every time she squeezed her pregnant body past him to use the
restroom.
But at last Jack and Rose settled into their
seats. As the plane took off down the runway, Rose sighed and squeezed Jack’s
hand.
"Are you ready to go home?" she
asked him, turning slightly to look at him.
Jack nodded. "I’m ready. It was good to
visit Chippewa Falls, but Masline is home now." He settled back into his
seat, looking far more relaxed now than he had when they had first flown to
Chippewa Falls.
"I enjoyed this trip, Jack. It was nice
to see the town where you grew up. I’d never really been to the Midwest before,
just flown over it. Chippewa Falls is a nice town. It looks like a good place
to grow up."
"It was. I liked it there, though sometimes
I really wanted to leave and see the rest of the world."
"You have seen a lot of it now."
"Not quite in the way I expected when I
was a kid, but yeah, I have."
"I enjoyed meeting the people you grew
up with, your old friends and teachers and such. The only person I didn’t care
much for was your Uncle William. No offense," she added.
"I don’t like him much, either,"
Jack admitted. "But I still don’t really understand why he resents me so
much. It’s like he sees me as a threat, or a reminder of something bad, though
I really don’t know what. He really doesn’t like me now, but he didn’t like me
much when I was a kid, either. Back then, though, I was too busy running around
and playing with my cousins to really pay attention to the fact that he didn’t
like me. I think I was really too young to notice much. I don’t why he is the
way he is, but maybe someday I’ll learn enough to understand. I might never
learn to like him, but maybe I’ll understand him better."
Rose settled back into her seat. "It’s
strange, though, how Emmaline is so different from him. Is she much like her
mother?"
"A little bit, maybe, though I think
she’s stronger than Aunt Megan ever was. She’s a Dawson through and through,
even if she doesn’t act much like her father. She’s got a strong spirit and a
good heart. Besides, a person’s parents don’t always have kids that act just
like them. You’re not much like your mother."
Rose nodded, conceding the point. She put her
hands on her swollen middle. The baby moved under her touch, kicking out at her
hands.
"It’s hard to believe we’re related to
people like my mother and your uncle. I hope this baby doesn’t act too much
like them."
"It’s also related to us, and Emmaline,
and your grandparents. Besides, with you for a mother, how could it grow up to
be anything less than loving and caring?"
Rose just smiled, squeezing his hand and
putting her head on his shoulder as the plane headed west.