AFTER TITANIC
Chapter Two
The only person Rose had ever
lost before was her father. But they hadn’t been at all close. His death wasn’t
difficult to deal with. And now, the only person who had ever made her feel
loved was dead and gone forever. Rose could not stop crying. She sat there
rocking back and forth, and then let out a loud cry of anguish. She tore at her
dress, her hair. She threw herself to the deck and pounded it with her fists.
She was worried for a moment that she would call attention to herself. The last
thing she wanted was complete strangers making a fuss over her. But then she
realized that many of the people were sobbing. Her cries were lost among the
others. Rose continued wailing for all that was lost. She curled up in a ball.
"Jack," she whispered. "Jack!" she said a little louder.
"Jack? Jack? Oh, Jack! Jack, please! Jack…" She cried and cried. She
wore herself out with all her tears; she cried herself to sleep, something she
had never done before.
When she woke the next day, it
was late. About four PM. She had slept for about twenty hours. Her throat ached
with stifled sobs and a hard knot lay where her heart should have been. Would
that knot ever loosen? Rose felt cramped in her little hiding place, so she got
up.
As she walked around the boat
deck, stretching her sore legs, she noticed a man talking to an officer. He was
asking him about family of his. "You don’t understand," said the man.
"He’s my little cousin. I was supposed to look after him. He can’t be
dead!" The officer just sighed and tried to calm him down.
Rose began to wonder if any of
Jack’s friends had survived. She approached an officer. She told him two
names--Thomas Ryan and Fabrizio di Rossi. "I’m sorry," the man said.
"They’re not on the list."
Rose had figured. Still, it hurt
to hear it out loud. "Well, what about Thomas Andrews?" He didn’t
even have to check his list.
"No," he said.
"The Cartmells? Bert and
Cora? Tell me little Cora is still with us! She must be!"
The man checked his list and
sighed. He bowed his head and said, "I’m sorry. They are not on the
roll."
"My God," Rose
breathed. Cora was only five or six. No God would kill that little girl. To
Rose, there was no God. Not anymore, anyway. Rose wanted so much to believe in
heaven, and the fact the she and Jack might be together again, but it was hard.
She hoped that she would be able to have faith again someday. But not today.
Today, all Rose felt was sorrow.
After grabbing some food, Rose
stood on the windswept deck at the rail. She stared at the water, trying to
will Jack back to her. Tears fell down her cheeks. She wasn’t just crying for
Jack. She was crying for everyone. Children had died. Fifty-two children;
fifty-one of them were third class. Rose had never realized before how hard it
was for the lower classes. Rose felt weak and tired. She sat down on a bench
and tried not to think of Titanic. Then, out of the corner of her eye, Rose
noticed Cal. She hid herself inside her blanket as he spent about twenty
minutes searching for her. "Excuse me," she heard him say a few times.
"Do you know a Rose DeWitt Bukater?" The people he asked would just
shake their heads. Cal didn’t prove very persistent, and he gave up rather
quickly.
Rose buried herself in her
blanket as Cal strode away. She was alone. "Jack?" she asked quietly.
"Can you hear me? Jack, I’m so scared. Please be with me, Jack."
Everything had been so perfect. And now it was ruined. She could have died. She
fantasized about getting a running start and jumping overboard. She would have
done so had it not been for Jack’s final words to her.
*****
Rose searched in the dark for
Jack’s eyes. "I love you, Jack," she said, shivering.
"Don’t you do that,"
Jack said sternly. "Don’t you say your good-byes. Not yet. Do you
understand me?"
Rose ignored him. "I’m so
cold," she told him.
Jack took her hand in his.
"Rose, listen to me. You’re going to get out of here. You’re going to go
on. You’re going to make lots of babies, and you’re going to watch them grow.
You’re going to die an old, old lady, warm in her bed. Not here. Not this night.
Not like this. Do you understand me?
"I can’t feel my body,"
Rose said.
"Winning that ticket, Rose,
was the best thing that ever happened to me. It brought me to you. And I’m
thankful for that, Rose. I’m thankful." Jack was having trouble getting
the breath to speak. "You must…you must…you must…do me this honor. You
must promise me that you will survive. That you won’t give up. No matter what
happens. No matter how hopeless…promise me now, Rose, and never let go of that
promise."
"I promise," Rose said
weakly.
"Never let go," Jack
demanded.
"I will never let go,
Jack," she said. "I’ll never let go."
Jack brought her hand to his lips
and kissed it. It was the last thing he ever did.
*****
A crying baby brought Rose back
to reality. She would never forget Jack. She would never stop loving him. And
she knew that it was his promise that had saved her. It was the promise that
kept her alive now.
"Thank you, Jack," she
said. Days past, sad days aboard the Carpathia. The only cheering thought was
that she would soon be in New York. When that day finally came, she was
actually excited. She stood on the windswept deck as the Statue of Liberty came
closer and closer. She sighed, remembering Fabrizio. He really would have loved
this. Rose stared at the statue as if she were in a trance. Lady Liberty was
the symbol of her new freedom. Being free was a good feeling. A crewman came,
approaching her.
"May I take your name
please, luv?" he asked.
She looked at the officer. She
had the perfect idea for how to thank Jack. "Dawson," she said.
"Rose Dawson." The crewman thanked her and then walked away to get
more names. It was cold. Rose put her hands in her pockets to warm them. Then
she felt something cold and hard. She gripped it and removed the object from her
pocket. Stunned, she stared at the Heart of the Ocean. A perplexed Rose tried
to figure out how it got there. Soon, it all became clear. So that’s why Cal
was shooting at me!
Perhaps this was a good thing.
She could sell it and live well-off. But she decided right then and there to
never sell it. That would be like accepting help from Cal. No, no, she would
keep it. Besides, it held many memories she wasn’t ready to let go of yet.
However, there was one thing Rose was ready for. Her new life. She didn’t know
where it was going to take her, or where she was going to end up, or who she
was going to meet, but she did know that she was going to try her hardest to
make each day count.