A DEEP OCEAN OF SECRETS
Chapter Thirteen
Church didn’t seem so heavenly
for Rose. As she sang, her mind was elsewhere, often forgetting to sing and
staring off into space. Cal shot her questioning looks; Ruth didn’t even really
look at her first daughter. Elisabeth tried to focus as much as she could, her
beautiful, sweet voice filling the room as she sang.
*****
Jack climbed down the Grand
Staircase to the dining saloon and tried to get into the first class service,
but was stopped by a doorman. His blonde hair wasn’t slicked back, flipping
into his dark blue eyes, and he wore his usual third class outfit, hands in his
pockets. "Sir, you are not supposed to be here," the doorman said.
Jack sighed. "I just need to
talk to someone. I was here last night. Don’t you remember me?"
"No, sir, I’m afraid I
don’t."
Jack saw Spicer Lovejoy walking
towards them out of the church service, closing the door softly behind him.
"He’ll tell you!" Jack cried in defense.
Lovejoy did no such thing,
however. Instead, he said, rudely and calmly, "Mr. Hockley and Mrs. DeWitt
Bukater continue to be most appreciative of your assistance. They asked me to
give you this in gratitude." Lovejoy held out a twenty dollar bill.
Jack shook his head. "I
don’t want your money! I just want to—"
"Also to remind you that you
hold a third class ticket and your presence here is no longer acceptable."
Jack peered past Lovejoy and saw
Rose and her family through the glass window on the door. She didn’t see him,
but Jack saw that Elisabeth DeWitt Bukater was staring at him. She mouthed
something, but he couldn’t understand it. "Please. I just need to speak to
Rose—"
Lovejoy had had enough.
"Gentlemen, please see that Mr. Dawson gets back to where he
belongs," he said, handing the money to the doormen, "and that he
stays there." Much against Jack’s protests, the doormen grabbed him by the
arms and dragged him away, making sure that he didn’t come back.
Rose didn’t even know that Jack
had tried to see her. Elisabeth, however, had seen Jack and had tried to mouth After
the church service, but Jack couldn’t understand. She watched him being
dragged away and turned back around sadly. She glanced at Rose, who wasn’t
looking at her hymnal, but singing the words by heart. "Oh, hear us
when we cry to thee for those in peril on the sea…"
*****
After church, Mr. Andrews invited
Cal and the DeWitt Bukaters on a tour of the ship. It was silent, everyone in
thought, until Rose asked a question, looking at the lifeboats. "Mr.
Andrews, I did the sum in my head, and the number of lifeboats times the capacity
you mentioned…forgive me, but it seems as if there aren’t enough for everyone
aboard."
Mr. Andrews chuckled. "About
half, actually."
"Rose, you miss nothing, do
you?" Elisabeth mumbled under her breath to herself, and Rose shot her a
look of daggers and turned back to Mr. Andrews.
"In fact," he
continued, "I put in this new type of davits, which can take an extra row
of boats here. But it was thought, by some, that the deck would look too
cluttered. So I was overruled."
"That is just absurd! Half
the passengers’ lives or a not-cluttered deck? How could you let Mr. Ismay walk
right over you?" Elisabeth asked in frustration.
Cal, who had overheard the
conversation, slapped the side of a lifeboat with his walking stick.
"Waste of deck space as it is on an unsinkable ship!"
Elisabeth glared at Cal. "If
God decides not to sink it!"
Mr. Andrews chuckled and turned
to Elisabeth. "Sleep soundly, young Elisabeth. I have built you a good
ship, strong and true. She’s all the lifeboat you need." The party
continued forward, and Rose somehow fell behind them. As they passed Lifeboat
7, a man leaning against the lifeboat grabbed Rose’s arm. She spun around and
saw that it was Jack. Elisabeth looked behind her just as she saw a man leading
Rose into the gymnasium. She didn’t worry, though, because she knew immediately
that the man was Jack.
Jack pulled Rose into the empty
gym and shut the door. Rose looked at him, her heart telling her one thing, her
head telling her another. "Jack, this is impossible," Rose finally
said. "I can’t see you." She turned towards the door, but Jack
stopped her from moving.
"Rose," Jack began,
"you’re no picnic…a spoiled little brat, even. But under that, you’re the
most amazing, astounding girl—woman…that I’ve ever known."
"Jack, I—"
"Let me try to get this out!
You’re amazing, and I know I have nothing to offer you! But I’m involved
now—you jump, I jump, remember?"
Rose wanted to be with Jack, but
she knew she couldn’t. "Jack, I’m engaged. I’m marrying Cal…I love
Cal."
Jack shook his head and pointed
through the glass window, indicating Rose’s family. "They’ve got you
trapped, Rose, and you’re going to die if you don’t break free! Maybe not at
first because you’re strong…but one day that fire that I love about you…that
fire is going to burn out. I can’t turn away without knowing that you’ll be all
right."
Rose searched Jack’s eyes, which
shone like the Atlantic Ocean in the warm sunlight. "It’s not up to you to
save me, Jack," she said softly.
Jack nodded. "Only you can
do that."
Rose felt the tears coming to her
eyes. Jack was so open and real…like no one she had ever met before. Rose tried
her best to keep her emotions locked up inside her. "I’m going back,"
she managed to choke out. "Leave me alone." She turned away from
Jack, who watched her leave with sad eyes and a heavy heart, and fled out of
the gymnasium, catching back up with her family, a single tear streaming down
her face.
*****
Elisabeth had heard from Rose
about what she had decided to do between Jack and Cal. Her mother, sister, and
a couple of other women were having tea in the parlor, but she had declined,
wanting some alone time to herself. She sat in the reading-writing room,
reading her favorite novel, Sense and Sensibility. The room was quiet,
and she could relate to the characters in her book. She had become attached to
an engaged man, and her sister had fallen for a rascal. She knew that Rose did
want to be with Jack, and the pressure of other people were holding her back.
And she knew she had to convince
Jack to get Rose back like he had done before. She couldn’t let her sister
drown in her upper class life, and she knew that Jack was her only way to
freedom. She set her book on the seat she was sitting in and silently walked
out of the Georgian-style room, up the Grand Staircase to A-Deck, and out onto
the deck. She had no idea of where to look for Jack, so she just decided to
walk around randomly first. But as she headed for the bow, she saw a figure
leaning against the railing right at the tip—and she knew it was Jack.
Silently, she made her way over
to him as he stared into the deep waters of the ocean. "Jack…" she
started, and his head shot up at her. He looked rather shocked to see her
standing there.
"Elisabeth," he
replied. "What are you doing here?"
"I have every right to be up
here, just as you do," Elisabeth said, but then her voice lowered.
"Actually, I want to talk to you about somebody. A certain somebody. Somebody
you know…"
"If it’s Rose—"
"Go to her, Jack."
Jack snorted. "I
tried."
Elisabeth shook her head.
"Jack, she’s truly needing you at this point in her life. Her head and
heart are pulling her two separate ways, and she’s letting all the pressure get
to her. Jack, win her back. You’re her only hope."
"I tried. Didn’t you see me
take her in the gym?" Jack gestured toward where they had been earlier
that day. "I tried, but she shoved me away! She said she loved Cal and
that she was going to marry him!" Jack turned back around and stared down
at the water, eyes watering up.
Elisabeth heard soft footsteps
behind her, and when she turned, she saw Rose standing there, her curls blowing
wildly around her head in the wind. She was staring at Jack with a new light in
her eyes. "Well, Jack," she said, and Jack whirled around at the
sound of her voice. "I changed my mind."
Jack held out his hand to her and
Elisabeth began to move backwards out of the way. "They said you might be
up here—" Rose started. Elisabeth started to walk away.
"Shh. Come here." Jack
quieted her. Rose walked up to him and took his hand. "Close your
eyes," he said softly. Rose did. "No peeking. Keep them shut."
Jack guided her around to face forward, the way the ship was headed. "Step
up," he said, and helped Rose stand on the bottom of the railing. "Do
you trust me?"
Rose smiled, her eyes closed.
"I trust you." She was standing all the way on the railing, Jack
standing on it behind her. He began to lift her arms to the side, about which
she was hesitant at first, but then allowed him to.
"Okay. Now, open them,"
Jack whispered in her ear. Rose’s eyes fluttered open and she gasped.
She was flying. There was nothing
in front of her but a horizon of water and the pale sky as the sun began to
set. It was as if there was no ship at all under them, but just Jack and
herself flying above the water. The hiss of the wind fluttered past her ears.
"I’m flying, Jack!" she breathed, truly amazed. Jack wrapped his arms
around Rose’s waist to steady her.
"Come Josephine in my
flying machine, going up she goes, up she goes," Jack sang softly,
smiling. Rose laughed. Jack reached out for Rose’s outstretched hands and
brought them in front of her waist. Rose turned her head to look at Jack, who
was already staring at her with love. He moved his lips to hers and they met in
a kiss—their first kiss.
Elisabeth, who had turned and
watched them from forty feet, saw them share a kiss. She smiled softly to
herself, knowing that Rose had made the right decision and that she would be
happy with Jack. With one last glance at the new couple, she turned away and
headed down the deck.
*****
Jack and Rose began to fade away
slowly, and Rose Calvert found herself staring into a monitor, the picture of
the bow, the same spot she and Jack had been on so long ago. She turned sadly
away from the screen. "That was the last time Titanic ever saw
daylight." Everyone was seated around Rose, staring at her with wonder as
she told her story that she remembered so well.
"So, we’re up to the night of
the sinking," Brock Lovett said sadly. "Only six more hours to
go…"
Bodine stood up. "Don’t you
love it? There’s Smith with the iceberg warning in his fucking hand—excuse me,
his hand, and he’s ordering more speed."
Brock shook his head.
"Twenty-six years of experience working against him. He figures anything
big enough to sink the ship they’ll be able to see in time. But the ship’s too
big, with too small a rudder…can’t corner worth shit. Everything he knows is
wrong."