ANOTHER PROMISE KEPT
Epilogue

Christmas Eve, 1917

The bell rang, and since I had my hands full of flour, I asked Josephine if she could get it. I knew that most mothers wouldn’t let their five-year-old daughters open the door, but Chippewa Falls–where we spent the holidays–was a very safe town.

"Mommy! Mommy, they’re here!" I heard her say two seconds later.

I felt somehow nervous about this meeting. After all, I hadn’t seen my guests in almost five years. I quickly washed my hands and went to the parlor.

"Rose!" Helen said when she saw me.

"Helen, you made it!" I said as I hugged her. "Fabri!" I hugged her husband.

"Look at you! Oh, is this…? Josephine, you may not remember me, but I’m your Aunt Helen. The best aunt ever. Remember that."

I laughed.

"And these are your cousins--Nicolas, Laura, Juliana, and Carlo."

The kids went to play in Josephine’s room and the adults sat down to catch up on things.

"I love what you did to the place. Jack always talked about the house, but he made it sound as if it wasn’t in good condition," Fabrizio commented.

"It wasn’t. He fixed it."

"And where’s that husband of yours? Still drawing?"

"I have no idea. He left earlier and took Will with him. I don’t know what he was up to, but he had that devilish grin that he puts on when he’s up to something that I wouldn’t approve of."

"I think I know what that might be…" the man commented, smiling. "But I can’t tell you, because he’d kill me."

I was about to make him tell me, but the doorbell rang and I went to get it.

"Rose, dear, how are you doing?"

"It’s good to see you, Molly. Come on in, please."

I showed Molly and J.J. to the parlor and called the kids.

"Josephine, I have to say this--you look even more beautiful than in the pictures. You must be a heartbreaker."

"Oh, please don’t say that in front of Jack. He has some problems with that."

"Already? I’m sorry for you, Josephine," Helen said.

The doorbell rang again before I could even sit. This time it was Larry and his wife, Eileen. They had had to cut their honeymoon short so they could join us.

"I’m glad you made it, Larry."

"I wouldn’t miss it."

We all sat in the parlor, waiting for Jack to come. I was starting to get worried.

Finally, we all heard the door.

"Go…go look for your mom," I heard Jack saying. A moment later, Will appeared.

"Will, what happened? Where were you?" I asked him, kneeling by his side. "What happened?" I repeated when I noticed that his coat was wet.

"Daddy took me ice-fishing!" he said, smiling.

"Ice…ice fishing? Jack!" I shouted. To this day, I couldn’t stand the thought of cold water, and I had thought that Jack would show some respect, too. I couldn’t believe that he had been stupid enough to take my baby ice fishing in the middle of the winter.

"Don’t tell me that you took him ice fishing and he fell, because I swear I will…you are in trouble."

"Rose, relax. He didn’t fall," Jack told me from the other room. "I did."

The Browns laughed.

"You fell? Again?" Fabrizio asked.

"Hey, it’s not funny," my husband replied as he came into the room after changing his shirt, drying his hair with a towel. "I could’ve been killed."

"Well, you deserved it. I can’t believe that you actually went there after everything that has happened. You, of all people…you could have been killed, you know that?" I asked.

"Rose, Rose, Rose," Jack said, noticing that I wasn’t mad; I was just scared. "I didn’t. Relax. Apparently, I’m not meant to die in that way. But don’t worry. I won’t do it again. I’ve learned my lesson."

When I was calm enough, Jack said hello to our guestsand we all went to have dinner. It was a lovely evening, full of catching up and surprises. Actually, there were only two surprises, but they were both very shocking.

The first one arrived when we were just sitting at the table. The doorbell rang, and we all shared confused looks. Jack went to open it.

"Honey, put an extra plate on the table. We have company," he said happily.

"Hope I didn’t interrupt," a man with an Irish accent said. He sounded familiar to me, but I couldn’t tell who he was. Fabri did recognize him.

"Tommy! I thought you were in Ireland."

"I got bored and came back to America. I remembered you had told me that you were going to spend the holidays here, so I thought I would drop by."

"You are more than welcome. Have you met the Browns? This is Molly, J.J., Helen, Larry, and his wife, Eileen. This is Tommy Ryan; he was on the Titanic with us. And this is Rose, of course. Do you remember her?"

"How could I forget her! She was the only thing you talked about that week! And by the way, I apologize--I was very wrong."

Jack, Tommy, and Fabri laughed, but I didn’t know why. I guess that it was something about the Titanic.

The other surprise was far less pleasant. We had finished dinner and were having coffee in the parlor. Larry was telling us how he had met Eileen when the doorbell rang again.

"I’ll get it! I’ll get it!" Josephine said as she ran to the door. I stood up to follow her, but before I could get to the door, she said, "Mommy, there’s an old lady who wants to see you."

"Old lady? I see you didn’t teach your daughter the proper manners."

That voice! I couldn’t believe it.

"Jo, go play with the other children," I muttered.

"Are you so afraid of me?" the woman asked me.

"Jack!" I called, without even bothering to reply.

"What is it, Rose…" I went towards Jack and held his hand tightly for support. "What are you doing here?"

"Can’t a mother want to see her daughter?" my mother asked.

"No, you can’t."

"Mr. Dawson, I think that that’s up to her. Only Rose can tell me to go away, and even if she did, I wouldn’t listen to her."

"Shocking," I commented sarcastically.

"Rose, you are my daughter. Please, talk to me!" Ruth begged.

I looked at her. The truth was that I hated this woman and I didn’t want to see her ever again, but she was my mother. I guessed I could at least talk to her.

"It’s all right, Jack. I can take it from here." He kissed my forehead and went to the parlor. I showed my mother to my room. "You have five minutes," I told her when I had closed the door.

"After five years, you give me just five minutes?"

"You should be thankful I give you that much."

"Fine. Rose, I know I wasn’t the best mother and you have all the right in the world to be mad at me, but you need to know that I’ve changed. Rose, I’ve spent the last four years looking all over for you. I hired private investigators, who kept me informed of your life, but every time I got to a place, you had already left."

"You hired private investigators? I thought we were broke! Where did you get the money from?" I asked.

"Cal gave it to me on the condition that I never tell anyone about his behavior towards you. If someone found out about the way that he treated you, he could be in trouble, so he preferred to lose some money rather than his reputation."

"And why did you look for me? I was dead."

"There was a ceremony to honor the ones who died on the Titanic. Do you remember? It was a year after the sinking."

"Yes. I remember," I replied.

"Well, I went to the ceremony, and there I ran into Molly. It turned out that she wasn’t anything like I had thought she would be. She saw how bad I looked and offered to give me a hand. But since I wasn’t getting any better, she told me that you were alive on the condition that I would never look for you. She offered to tell me about you, but in return I had to promise that I wouldn’t visit you unless you wrote to me first."

"I can see that you keep your promises."

"Rose, I was desperate. I needed to see you. I wasn’t going to come in, but I saw your daughter through the window and…oh, Rose. I’m so sorry!"

My mother started to cry and I, even though I tried to ignore her, couldn’t help but kneel next to her.

"It’s…it’s all right, Mother. I forgive you."

She hugged me, and I started to cry. We stood there for quite a while, apologizing to each other. I had never thought that I missed my mother so much. And besides, she had changed a lot.

"Hey, everybody, it’s almost twelve o’clock. It’s almost Christmas!" I heard Jack saying.

"Go. They must be waiting for you," my mother told me, wiping her tears.

"I’ll go, but you are coming with me. Didn’t you say you wanted to meet Josephine and Will?"

"I’d love to."

We both went to the parlor. As soon as I opened the door, I noticed Molly looking angrily at my mother.

"It’s all right, Molly. You did right in telling her. I should’ve told her."

"So, you are not mad?"

"No, Molly, I’m not mad. Relax."

"Five seconds ‘til Christmas," Jack announced, looking at his watch. "Four. Three. Two. One. Merry Christmas!"

We all raised our glasses and made a toast.

"Now…kids, did you hear that? I think it was Santa! Wanna check out if he left any presents?" Jack asked the children.

"Yeah!" they all replied at one time.

"I think that I heard him in the front yard! Come on. Let’s go."

"Put on a coat first!" I told them before they left.

"Mommy, you’re boring!" Will told me.

"I’m…I’m boring? Fine. Don’t put a coat on. But I warn you, if tomorrow you catch the flu, Daddy’s going to look after you. I won’t cook you my special soup," I replied, looking at him.

"Okay," he said, and ran outside.

*****

"See, I told you. Put on a coat or you’ll catch the flu. But, no, you wouldn’t listen. And now what? You have to stay in bed for a whole week while all the other children are playing outside. I hope you’ve learned your lesson," I said as I put my hand on his forehead to check if he had a fever.

"Yes. Can I have some of your special soup?"

"No, you can’t. I told you that I wasn’t going to make you any soup."

We heard some noises in the house, so we guessed that everybody was back to have lunch. It was the week after Christmas, and Fabri and Helen were still staying with us. My mother was also there. That morning, the di Rossis had taken the children skiing.

"Mommy! Mommy! We had a snowball fight! I hit Uncle Fabrizio pretty hard!" Will told me, coming to the room.

"That’s unfair! I am the king of snowball fighting!" the patient said.

"How are you feeling, Daddy?" Josephine asked as she sat on the bed next to Jack.

"Bored! I’m sick of lying here while you are all outside having fun," he replied.

"That’s what you get for not listening to Mommy," our son said.

"What? You didn’t put a coat on, either, and you’re not sick."

"Perhaps he isn’t sick because he didn’t fall through thin ice," I commented. "Well, it’s time to eat. Daddy needs to rest, children, so come. Let’s go."

"I love you. Did you know that?" Jack asked me before I could follow our children. I walked back next to the bed and kissed him.

"I know you do, but you are not getting any of my special soup." He smiled at me. "I love you, too," I answered.

He pulled me closer to him and kissed me again.

"Fine! I’ll make you some soup. How do you do it? I can’t say no to you."

"I tend to have that effect," he simply said.

"I’ll be right back."

I went to the kitchen to help Helen with lunch, but on my way there, I had to take part in one of the very common arguments between Josephine and William. This time, apparently, Will had tried to steal something from his sister, and she had caught him. I frowned at the familiar scene before walking towards them.

God, did I love my life!

The End.

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