AFTER TITANIC
Chapter Four
Rose and Meg sat together,
drinking tea, in a café near their building. It had now been three weeks since
the Titanic sank. Already, the two were as close as sisters. Meg knew there was
something troubling Rose, and pressed her to tell what it was. But Rose was
reluctant. "I’m not sure if I can," she would protest.
"But, Rose," said Meg,
"keeping it inside will not make it any easier. I know this from
experience."
"Fine," Rose said.
"Fine. But let’s go back to my flat ‘til your children come home from your
sister’s." The two walked back home, Rose dragging her feet, not wanting
to share her experiences. When they were finally in her sitting room, sitting
on the couch, Rose began her story. "Did you ever hear of Cal
Hockley?" she asked.
"I think so," said Meg.
"Pittsburgh steel tycoon…yes, I think I did read about him once or
twice."
"Well, I was engaged to
him," Rose said, watching Meg’s jaw drop in surprise.
"Never what you expect it to
be…" said Meg.
Rose laughed. "Yes, well, he
is part of the reason I’m here. I was pretty rich, upper aristocratic, you
know. But, anyway, it was indeed an arranged marriage. I liked him all right at
first, and no one was forcing me to marry him. But then I accepted his
proposal, and time went by, and I realized I didn’t want to go through with it.
But it was too late. I couldn’t get out of it. I was stuck. So when I was on
the ship…well, I tried to kill myself by jumping off the stern. The stern of
the Titanic."
"You what? The Titanic? Oh,
my dear God. You poor thing. I can’t believe it!" cried Meg.
"I’m not done. There’s more.
Anyway, I never jumped. No, Jack stopped me. He was a stranger. I had seen him
once before on the ship, only he was in third class and I in first. Our eyes
met from a distance. But anyway, back to that night. He told me not to do it.
And he spent a good deal of time convincing me not to, saying if I jumped, he’d
jump." Rose told Meg about how and why Cal had invited him to dinner. Then
she told her about how he said he would make each day count, and the party
below decks. Rose seemed to be talking to herself. Tears gathered in her eyes
as she remembered everything. "And after Cal forbade me to see him again,
so did my mother. Perhaps that only made me want to see him more. Well, that
day, at tea with my mother, I saw this little girl. Maybe she was five. Her
mother was correcting her posture. And I saw myself in that little girl. Like I
was her. And I didn’t want to be her mother five years from now. Everything
became clear. And I got up and I left their world. I found myself at the bow,
with the man I was meant to be with ten feet in front of me. ‘Hello, Jack,’ I
said. ‘I changed my mind. They said you might be up here…’ ‘Shh,’ he said.
‘Give me your hand.’ I did. He told me to close my eyes. I did. He told me to
step up onto the rail. I did. He told me to trust him. I did. He spread out my
arms like wings and held onto my waist. My hands just stayed up like that. He
told me to open my eyes, and when I did, my breath was taken away. I was
staring in front of me with nothing out ahead of me but the ocean and a
beautiful sunset. ‘I’m flying!’ I cried. ‘Jack!’ Oh, it was so perfect. He sang
a song to me…our song. Come Josephine in my Flying Machine. I turned my
head to him. He turned to me. Our eyes met and I found myself leaning in close
to him. Our faces moved closer together and then we shared a kiss. Our first
kiss--the most romantic, beautiful thing I had ever experienced. Everything was
perfect."
Rose stopped for a minute. She
hadn’t shared this with anyone before, and she hadn’t been prepared for how
much it hurt, though at the same time, it also felt good, like a weight was
being lifted. Rose began to tell a dumbstruck Meg in great detail about the
drawing. She told her about how her heart was pounding the whole time, but she
liked it. And she felt safe with him, even in such an awkward position. And the
beautiful picture. She didn’t leave that out. Rose explained Lovejoy walking in
on them and the chase. She had never had so much fun in all her life. Rose described
their time in the Renault and their escape from it. Being on deck with Jack
moments later, and their passionate kiss. And then the iceberg.
Rose told her new friend about
everything that had happened--his arrest, the axe, when she jumped out of the
lifeboat, Cal shooting at them, and the death of the Titanic. She recapped
their last conversation. Meg was crying quite uncontrollably. "‘Jack!’ I
cried, as the realization went through me. ‘Jack! Jack, there’s a boat. Jack!
Jack!’ He was dead. And then I just laid my head down and cried for all that
was lost. Then, however, I remembered the promise. ‘Come back!’ I screamed,
though it wasn’t very loud and was lost under the officer’s cries to the dead.
I ripped my red tresses off the raft. I tried to let go of Jack’s hand, but it
was frozen. I broke it away. ‘I won’t let go. I promise,’ I told him. I kissed
his hand and watched his body sink until it could be seen no more. And then I
cried. My heart felt like it was ripped out and stepped on! Oh, God, I loved
him so much. I still do." Rose finished the story a few minutes the later.
She was crying. She felt like she was betraying her promise to Jack, but she
couldn’t help it. She loved him so much, and she missed him.
Meg looked at her friend and then
brought her into a warm embrace. "I’m so sorry you had to go through that.
Oh, I never should have made you tell me! Oh, you poor thing!" Meg was
crying, too, very much.
"It’s all right," Rose
told her in a choked voice. "I’m actually glad you did. You were right.
It’s better than keeping it locked inside." In about ten minutes, when the
girls finally calmed down, Rose asked, "Do you think Jack is looking down
on me right now, watching me? Do you think he can hear me?" Meg didn’t
answer. She looked confused. "Because," Rose continued, "I talk
to him sometimes--a lot of times."
"I think he hears you,"
Meg said. Rose smiled. Even if she couldn’t have Jack, her soulmate, true love,
and best friend, she was glad to have Meg, her other best friend.