LIFE AFTER JACK
Chapter Fourteen
It was the dawn of a new day. The
birds were chirping and the sun was just coming up. Jack got up and went into
the kitchen to make some coffee. It had only been one day since his daughter
had died and he found out that Rose was going to have another baby. Jack could
not understand why he had just had the worst day of his life but was not having
a lot of emotion. He got the coffee made and went back to the bedroom to wake
Rose.
"Rose, sweetie, are you
ready to get up?" Jack asked as he shook Rose’s body gently.
"I will be up in just a few
minutes," Rose replied.
Jack walked back into the
kitchen, poured himself a cup of coffee, and walked into the parlor. He sat
down on the couch after he opened the curtains. He sat on the couch just
staring out the window and watching the sunrise. He saw that across the street
there was a man in another apartment. He opened the curtains. Jack watched as
the man walked into another room. The man came back into the room and looked at
Jack. He gave Jack a mean look. Jack closed the curtains and went back to the
kitchen for another cup of coffee.
Rose walked into the kitchen as
Jack was pouring another cup of coffee. He opened the cabinet to get another
cup and poured Rose a cup of coffee. Jack and Rose walked over to the table and
drank their coffee. They talked about how beautiful the sunrise was. After Rose
finished the coffee, she got up, ran to the garbage pail, and threw up. Without
thinking, Jack asked Rose why she did not go to the bathroom to throw up.
"The bathroom is gone. Our
baby is gone," Rose said.
Jack grabbed Rose and held her
tight. They walked out the door and went to their neighbor’s apartment. Their
friend Catherine opened the door and asked what she could do for them.
“Can we please use your
bathtub?" Rose asked.
"That is a strange
question," Catherine replied.
Rose and Jack walked in and
explained what had happened. Catherine told them to take all the time they
needed. Jack and Rose walked into the bathroom. While Rose got into the
bathtub, Jack got his razor out. When Rose got out of the tub, Jack got
undressed and got into the tub. When they were both dressed, they went back to
their apartment.
*****
They got their money and left the
apartment. They went to the market to get some groceries. Rose walked among the
stalls, thinking that this was the first time in two years that she did not
have Opal with her. Rose started crying, and Jack walked over. He walked with
Rose as she selected her groceries. After that, they walked through the park
and talked.
"Jack, I cannot stay in that
apartment, not where my baby died," Rose said.
"Well, we can move, if you
want to," Jack replied. "Where would we move to?"
"Well, I did like New York
the little bit of time that I was there," Rose said.
"Okay, then. We will move to
New York," Jack replied.
*****
Rose and Jack went home and
started packing. They had everything packed up in just a few hours. They went
downstairs to the landlord’s apartment, handed over their keys, and explained
that they were moving to New York. Their lease was not up for another month,
but the landlord understood how they felt. He told them that they could leave
before their lease was up if it would make them feel more comfortable. Rose and
Jack went back to the apartment and went to bed.
Jack and Rose got up the next
morning and got their boxes and trunks ready. They put everything in the car.
They drove off towards the docks. When they got there, they went down to the
ticket office. There was a ship leaving in a few hours for New York. Rose got
scared a little bit because she found out that this was the maiden voyage of
this ship. The ship’s name was the RMS Titan. This made Rose even more
frightened. The name is so close to Titanic, she thought.
"Jack, what if this ship
sinks just like the Titanic?" Rose asked Jack.
"Rose, if it does sink, they
have enough lifeboats now," Jack told Rose.
Rose sat down on a bench with
Jack and accepted that maybe he was right. After all, how could history repeat
itself?