ANOTHER PROMISE KEPT
Prologue
Molly was walking through the
corridors of the Titanic, looking for a crew member. She had heard a noise she
didn’t like and wanted to know what had just happened. She saw a group of them
and walked to where they were, but to her surprise, she found that there was
someone else with them.
Jack Dawson, a young man she had
met few days ago, was with them.
"Jack? What is going
on?" she asked.
"Molly, thank God. Rose--you
have to help Rose," he said, looking at his friend.
"Rose? What about her? Is
she all right?" She was getting more and more worried.
"You have to make sure that
she’s all right. We’re sinking, Molly. I know we are. You have to make sure
that she makes it to a boat. Please. Help her."
Molly could see the concern in
the young man’s face. She had no idea what was going on, but she assured him
that everything was going to be fine.
"Don’t let them hurt her,
Molly."
"I promise, Jack. I will
help her. But tell me, what is going on?"
He couldn’t reply. The stewards pushed
him down the stairs to a place Molly didn’t know. She tried to ask them why
Jack was under arrest, but they refused to tell her anything.
The last thing Molly heard coming
out of Jack’s mouth was, "Keep your promise, Molly. Help her."
*****
His voice haunted her. It had
been more than a month since the Titanic sank, but she couldn’t keep her mind
off of it. She usually blamed herself for not seeing what was going on sooner.
He had told her that the ship was
sinking, but she had thought it was a joke. After all, wasn’t she unsinkable?
Maybe if she had trusted him, she could have saved him. But it was too late
now. Jack Dawson had died.
At least she hadn’t forgotten her
promise. Rose was sitting next to her, staring through the window of the train
they were traveling in. She had changed a lot since the first time Molly saw
her. She was no longer the perfectly brought up young woman traveling to
America to get married. She had left all that behind when she fell in love with
Jack.
"You’re going to love Denver,"
Molly said, just to say something.
But Rose didn’t reply. She didn’t
even move. Molly decided to leave her alone with her pain for a little while.
Then, suddenly, the young woman
spoke. It was as if she was somewhere beyond that train.
"You don’t have to do this,
Molly."
"I know I don’t have to, but
I want to. You’ve been through a lot, and you need someone to help you while
you recover."
She hadn’t told her about the
promise she had made to Jack, knowing that she would tell her that she didn’t
want her help. It’s better this way, she thought.
"I can take care of myself,
Molly. Besides, you’ve done enough for me. You already helped me to break…to
leave my family."
"C’mon, Rose. Don’t ask me
to let you go, because that’s the one thing I won’t do. Let me help you, at
least for now. More than ever, you need a friend."
Rose looked at her friend and
smiled.
"Thank you, Molly. Really.
If it wasn’t for you, right now I’d probably be marrying Cal."
"Well, I couldn’t let that
happen, right? But let’s not think about all those painful things for
now."
"You’re right. They are too
painful."
The older woman told her some
things about her family. She had a son, Larry, who was almost twenty-two years
old, and a daughter, Helen, who was sixteen. Their father, Molly’s husband,
owned a mine. She assured her that the three of them would be very happy to
have her in their house.
"Helen has always wanted a
sister," she told her.
When they got to the train
station, it was getting late. Molly looked around to see if her family was
there, but she didn’t see them.
"I can’t believe them! They
knew I was coming. Why didn’t they come to the train station?"
They got a taxi that took them to
Molly’s house. She didn’t have her key, so she rang the bell. A maid opened the
door.
"Mrs. Brown! This is a
miracle! We thought that you were dead!"
"You wish! Where’s my
family?"
"Mr. Larry is in the parlor
and Miss Helen is in the garden. Mr. Brown hasn’t come home from work
yet."
"Okay. Okay. By the way,
this is Rose. She’ll be staying with us for a while."
The maid went to get a room ready
for Rose, while she followed Molly to the parlor.
There was a tall, dark-haired man
sitting there.
"Mother! I didn’t know you
were coming," he said when he saw Molly.
"I told you a thousand times
that I was going to stay in New York for a couple of days and then I was going
to come here. Don’t you remember?"
"Yes, but we all thought that,
after what happened, you wouldn’t feel like traveling."
"Of course I felt like
traveling. No iceberg will stop me from seeing my children."
A door opened unexpectedly behind
Molly. She turned around and saw a tiny girl looking at her.
"Helen. Did you think I was
dead, too?"
"Please, Mother. I was going
to pick you up at the train station, but he wouldn’t let me. I think he did
something to the car, and he doesn’t want Father to know. Of course, we all
knew you were coming today," she said, pointing at her brother.
Rose smiled. She would have loved
to have a brother or sister. Maybe everything would have been different then.
"Anyway…." Molly said.
Her children stopped fighting and looked at their mother. It was only then that
they noticed Rose. "This is Rose. She’ll be staying with us for a
while."
Helen walked towards her,
smiling.
"Hello! I’m Helen, and
that’s my brother, Larry. It’s nice to have a girl around for a change. Larry
can be so annoying sometimes…"
"Don’t listen to her. I
assure you that she’s crazy."
"It’s a pleasure to meet you
both."
Molly watched them and smiled.
There you go, Jack, she thought. She’s safe now.