IN THE ARMS OF A STRANGER
Chapter Three
April 15, 1912
2:20 AM
Rose was floating on a piece
of debris, gripping Jack's hand. It was so cold, in fact, that she couldn't
even feel her body. This was the end...she knew it for a fact. She didn't have any
regrets. None. She was just glad to have found the love of her life and to have
had the time she had with him, no matter how brief it was.
"I love you, Jack,"
she said, squeezing his cold hand.
"Don't you do that. Don't
say your good-byes," Jack said.
"I'm so cold."
"You're going to get out
of here...you're going to go on, and you're going to make lots of babies and
watch them grow. You're going to die an old, old lady, warm in her bed. Not
here. Not this night. Do you understand me?"
Rose wasn't convinced. "I
can't feel my body."
Jack took her hand in his
other one and held it tightly. It was obvious that he was having trouble
breathing. "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. You must do me this honor...you must promise me 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
choked on a sob.
"Never let go."
"I promise. I'll never
let go, Jack. I'll never let go." Rose began to cry, her tears freezing as
soon as they came from her eyes.
Jack just smiled, kissed her
hand, and closed his eyes. Rose sighed, turned over on her back, looked at the
stars, and waited to die. She began to feel calm, and thought she could hear
Jack singing to her. She decided to join him. "Come Josephine in my flying
machine, and it's up she goes, up she goes…"
After what seemed like
forever, she heard a voice calling out, "Hello! Is there anyone alive out
there?"
She turned to see a bright
light moving across the water. It was a lifeboat, come back to save them. She
turned around and shook Jack's hand, who seemed to be sleeping peacefully. Her
voice was full of hope and love. "Jack. There's a boat."
He didn’t respond. His
frost-rimmed face remained still.
She shook his hand even harder
and spoke a little louder. "Jack. Jack. There's a boat."
Then realization dawned on
her. Jack wasn't waking up because he couldn't. He was gone, and she was left
all alone. Sobbing, she put her face down on his cold hand and cried. Then it
was like a whisper, telling her to stop crying and remember the promise she had
made to Jack just a short time ago. To go on. Never let go. Taking one last
look at Jack, she forced her hand out of his frozen grasp and let him sink into
the ocean.
"I'll never let go. I
promise." She watched as he disappeared into the darkness. Controlling her
tears, she forced herself into the freezing water and swam over to a dead
officer with a whistle in his mouth. She snatched the whistle and blew on it
until she got the attention of the officer in the lifeboat, all the while one
thought on her mind. I'll never let go.
*****
Jack awoke to see Rose tossing
and turning. Her face was streaked with tears and she was crying. "I'll
never let go, Jack. I'll never let go."
Jack immediately went to her and
lifted her into his arms. He gently shook her awake. "Rose, wake up.
You're dreaming. Wake up, Rose."
Rose snapped awake to look into a
pair of concerned blue eyes, and her heart soared with happiness because she
knew who those eyes belonged to. Jack. He was alive. He hadn't frozen to death
in a freezing ocean.
"Jack?"
"You were having a
nightmare," Jack said, stroking her hair. They had grown close in the four
days they had known each other. Jack now couldn’t seem to imagine his life
without Rose in it. He didn't know what his feelings for her were yet, but he
knew they were strong, and he hated seeing her in so much pain like she was
now.
"Oh, Jack, it was
horrible!" Rose sobbed, leaning into his arms and hugging him tightly.
"I dreamed you died. We were in this ocean and it was so cold and you made
me promise to survive, but you didn't. You died."
"Shh, Rose. It was a nightmare.
We're fine. We're not in an ocean, and I'm not dead. We're both okay."
"What's going on?"
Fabrizio woke up, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.
"Rose had a nightmare,"
Jack explained. "It's okay now. You can go back to sleep."
"Jack, are you blind? It's
daylight out. I have to go to work!"
"We'll walk with you, Fabri.
I think the morning air will do Rose good," Jack said, helping her to her
feet.
Fabrizio just looked at the two
and felt a shiver. He had a strange feeling that somehow this was wrong. That
they shouldn't even be in this flat.
"Fabri, are you okay?"
Jack turned to his friend, who had suddenly turned pale. "You look like
you've seen a ghost or something."
"I'm fine," Fabri said.
"Let's go, yes?"
Jack nodded and led Rose out the
door.
*****
Fabrizio had gone to work, and
now Jack and Rose were walking the streets of Southampton, taking in their
surroundings. Jack spotted a newsie holding up a paper, but they weren't close
enough to hear or see the headline.
"Jack...I'll be back. I need
to freshen up." Rose touched his shoulder lightly.
Jack nodded. "Hurry
back." He didn't like her to be out of his sight for even a second. He
couldn't help but worry that they'd run into Ed and Sal again, and he really
didn't look forward to another run-in with them.
Jack decided to buy a paper while
he waited for Rose. Handing the newsie a penny for the paper, he paled as he
read the headline.
Titanic Sinks—Hundreds Dead
Olaf and Sven. The two Swedes
popped into his mind. Those poor men. And to think, he and Fabrizio had almost
won those tickets on that ship...they could have been among the victims of this
horrible disaster. And Rose...she had family on that ship...she'd be
devastated.
"Jack?" Rose asked,
appearing behind him. "What's that you're reading?"
"Rose, you should see
this." Jack handed her the paper. He grabbed her shoulder to steady her
when she read the headline.
"Mother...Cal…" She
began to sob. "I didn't like him...but I never wanted this."
"I guess it's a good thing
you missed that ship after all." Jack rubbed her arms. "And it's
definitely a good thing me and Fabri lost that poker game. This headline could
have been about us."
"I wonder...were there any
survivors?" Rose asked.
Jack took the paper and turned
and skimmed through the article. "It says here that the survivors were
mostly first class women and children. There were a few third class passengers
and first class men. There'll be more information at a later date."
"Jack...I have to get
home...right away. I have to find out about my mother!" Rose sobbed.
"If she's alive."
Jack nodded and was surprised
when she took his hand. "Will you come with me, Jack...back to
Philadelphia with me? I don't want to be alone if the worst happens, and I
don't want to be alone with her if it hasn't, because I'm going to tell her I'm
not marrying Caledon Hockley. If he survived, that is."
"Sure. If that's what you'd
like." Jack nodded his agreement. "But we have to get to America
first."
Rose nodded. She could wait.
Facing her tyrannical mother was something she wasn't looking forward to, plus
now she could better prepare herself for one of her mother's all too famous
guilt trips if Caledon had survived.
"Don't worry, Rose,"
Jack reassured her. "Everything will be okay. She's probably alive right
now, thinking of the inconvenience of it all. First, she loses her daughter in
Southampton, then the ship sinks. She's probably thinking that at least nothing
else could go wrong."
Rose had to laugh at that. Her
mother really would be put off by the inconvenience of a sinking ship. The
dream flooded back to her, and what Jack had said about winning that poker game
hit hard for her. They both could have been on that ship, and that dream could
have really happened...if she had met Jack, that was. If they had met and
fallen for each other as she now had fallen for him.
"Rose? Are you okay?"
"It's that dream, Jack. That
dream could've been reality if we had been on that ship."
"But we weren't, Rose. We
were warm in our beds last night while that poor ship sank." Jack wiped a
stray tear from her eye.
"Jack...I..."
"I know." Jack smiled,
not wanting her to say the words he thought she was going to say. He didn't
want them to confirm their feelings for one another. Not until he knew that they
were going to be together for good.