THE SURFACE
Chapter Two
Lexi sat next to Lizzy,
occasionally looking at her index cards, reading them, but then looking at the
closed casket that held her late great-grandmother. A minister stood before the
casket, blessing it. She dabbed her eyes to keep her eyeliner from running down
her cheek. As if today was not long enough for her, tomorrow was going to be
even longer, because that was the day of the actual funeral.
Lexi chose to ride back with her
mother and let her cousin borrow her convertible for a date he had that night.
It was a quiet ride home. The only thing on Lexi’s mind was Rose. It was going
to be so quiet without her around.
"I went to a sale barn after
work yesterday. I’m gonna buy that bay you like so much. After the funeral
tomorrow, you can take him for a test ride." Lizzy tried to break the
silence.
"Sure. I’ll bring my riding
clothes to change into." Lexi went along with the conversation.
"Or you could just wear your
riding clothes under your skirt and top."
"Yeah," Lexi said under
her breath.
Lizzy looked at her eighteen-year-old
daughter. She pulled her straight red hair into a ponytail to keep it from
blowing in the wind of Lizzy’s light blue BMW convertible. She had always
wondered where she got her hair color from. It had not come from her or late
husband, but was the same shade of red that Rose’s hair was. Lexi also had
Rose’s piercing blue-green eyes.
*****
"Jack, you’re going to go to
a new place today. It’s another lab," Tommy said the next morning.
"Am I ever going to be
free?" Jack asked.
"No. I’m sorry Jack, but you
do not know enough to be out there. If we let you go today, you would be dead
by tomorrow—almost guaranteed," Tommy told him sadly.
"I can’t do this. I have to
find Rose," Jack said to Tommy confidently.
"Jack—I have something to
tell you. I just found out that Rose is dead. She died about a week ago on the
Keldysh. She was telling the story of Titanic for Brock Lovett and as soon as
she was done, she went back to her room and went to sleep. She died in her
sleep. She was a hundred and one I think."
Jack looked at him. He had to be
lying. Rose was alive somewhere.
*****
"How long are you going to
confine him for?" Katie asked.
"For the rest of his natural
life, if possible. Put him in number nine." Arnold looked at Tommy
confidently.
*****
When Jack woke up, it was
nighttime. He got up and looked around the cell. Suddenly, he saw a grate in
the floor. He opened it up, grabbed a flashlight and went down it. He crawled
as fast as he could, hearing sirens go off and men yelling. He crawled faster
now and soon he found himself outside. He looked around. To his left was a big
open field, possibly leading nowhere because it looked so dark and endless. But
to his right was New York City. It was all lit up and looked like he could
easily lose the cops. He began to run towards New York. He could hear the
sirens from police cars still and men yelling, but did not dare to look behind
him. He never lost the police, but made his way into a dark alleyway by the
Empire State building. He looked up at it, its top lit up in red, white, and
blue. It seemed to say welcome to New York City.
*****
Meanwhile, back in California,
Lexi could not help but begin to cry. She did not care that her eyeliner was
turning her into a raccoon. She was moving tomorrow to New York City. She
watched as the black casket was lowered into the ground. As soon as it was
lowered, the funeral was over.
"Hey, Lexi!" Meagan,
her twelve-year-old cousin, came up to her.
"Hey, Meg! Congrats on
Maclay!"
"Are you gonna be
there?" Meagan asked.
"Of course. Look, I got to
get my own horse and finish packing. See ya in November." They hugged and
Lexi hopped into her own convertible, following her mother’s convertible to the
stable.
*****
"What do you mean he’s gone?
He could be anywhere!" Tommy exclaimed.
"Jake! I don’t know, all
right? He’s gone without a trace."
"This isn’t funny, Jake. You
were supposed to watch him. He could be anywhere, dammit!"
*****
Jack looked around from the
alleyway where he had spent the night. Commuters on cell phones mixed with
pedestrians walking dogs both big and small or listening to IPods, taking up
the sidewalks. Flashy billboards caught his attention. He began to follow the
other people; they all seemed to be headed one way, so he decided to follow
them. Jack soon found himself closer to the flashy billboards, huge screens
that advertised television shows and products. Suddenly, the news ticker around
CNN caught his attention. It read Last Titanic Survivor Dies at 103 in
Hartford, Connecticut.
Suddenly, he saw the NASDAQ
ticker, and it reminded him of Cal, how his obsession with the stock market and
money had made him so quick-tempered. Suddenly, Rose come to his mind again. He
sat down on a bench. He looked back up to see the CBS screen. There was also a
news ticker at the bottom of the screen. Though there was no sound, it was
written what the news reporter was saying. He too, was talking of the last
Titanic survivor’s death. It was also 12:13 in the afternoon and sixty-five
degrees.
Then another reality hit him. He
needed a job. He looked around before walking towards a police officer
directing traffic, but something stopped him. Instead, he began to walk with
the flow of people again, looking at the advertisements and huge screens. It
seemed that every product available was advertised, from Budweiser to Samsung
to Pessoa. Jack was still confused. This was New York? It seemed more like a
huge advertising market.
He made his way back towards
Central Park. He sat down on a bench and watched the people enjoy the spring
day. He wished he had his sketchbook with him. He saw two draft horses pulling
a carriage and had a flashback of when he had absentmindedly run into two
horses before boarding the Titanic, before meeting Rose.
*****
Meanwhile, Lizzy and Lexi had
just finished going through all the paperwork for Lexi’s new horse.
"Did you come up with a name
yet?" Lizzy asked Lexi, bringing her back from la la land.
"Um--how about--Titanic’s
Rose?"
"I like that. Write it
here." Lizzy pointed to an X with a line next to it on the bottom of the
form.
Lexi pulled her hair to one side
and wrote the new name as neatly as she could. Then under owner, she put her
full name and handed the paper to Lizzy for her to sign. She walked back into
the stable to Titanic’s Rose’s stall. She was munching on hay as a stable hand
put her shipping halter and protective boots on. Lexi looked at her, smiling.
Her strawberry blonde tail swished, hitting the stable hand. She turned around
as if to say, I’m sorry. Forgive me. He got up and gave Rose a light,
playful slap on her ribs.
"You her new owner?"
the stablehand asked in broken English.
Lexi nodded, smiling. The
stablehand smiled. "Good luck with ‘er."