A LIFE SO CHANGED
Chapter Fifteen
The first time that Sarah saw a
dead person was when she was four. It was a neighbor who recently died. Sarah
remembered running to Cal’s room, scared and crying, saying that Mr. Dubois was
talking to her. Cal just said it was a dream and to go back to sleep. She
refused to unless she could sleep with him that night. Half-asleep, he agreed.
She remembered how safe she had felt when she was with him, like Mr. Dubois
could never scare her again. But whenever she wasn’t near Cal when she saw him,
she became frightened, just like the little girl she was, even as she grew
progressively older.
Was that how Joey and Rose were
feeling now? Were they scared, too? It was perfectly normal being scared the
first time seeing a ghost. In fact, Sarah thought that one wouldn’t be normal
if they weren’t scared seeing a ghost for the first time.
Sarah smiled when she saw Jack
sitting on the couch. "Hi," she said. "How are you?"
"Whoa," Joey breathed,
stopping dead in his tracks at the foot of the stairs. "I can see
him."
"Yeah," Jack said.
"You can. Rose could, too." He looked Joey up and down. "Just
like looking in a mirror, huh, little brother?"
"Yeah," Joey said,
looking right back at him. "It is."
The resemblance really was
uncanny between the two male Dawsons. They had the same blond hair and blue
eyes, as well as strong bone structure and lips...they could have easily passed
for twins. They were even the same age.
Joey took a seat next to Jack.
"Are Mom and Dad…um..." He pointed upwards.
Jack laughed. "Yeah, they’re
in heaven. Not a half bad place, either."
"Maybe that’s why they call
it heaven," Joey commented.
Silence.
"Are you happier now?"
Sarah asked.
"Yeah. I miss not seeing
Rose, but I guess I didn’t really realize it until I got back on earth. On the
other side, you can’t feel unhappiness. Haven’t seen Cal yet, so it really is
heaven."
Must be, Sarah thought. That might be heaven for
me, too...
"Tell me about your
life," Joey said.
"I can only be here a few
more minutes, but..." Jack told how great their parents were, how
devastated he was when they died, and how he traveled the world drawing people.
And, of course, how he met Rose on the Titanic, and the adventure of it.
"Did it hurt to die,
though?" Joey asked.
Jack thought. "It hurt
dying. The water was freezing cold...you can’t think of anything but the
pain...it feels like a thousand knives stabbing you all over your body. It
didn’t hurt to actually die, though."
"Oh." Joey paused.
"Do you like being dead?"
Sarah wasn’t sure that this was
the right thing to be asking his brother who was dead. It just seemed kind of
rude, and sort of obvious. Wasn’t everyone who had crossed over happy?
"Yeah. I do. I get to see
Mom and Dad." Silence. "So, how did Sarah find you? There are too
many Dawsons here in Boston."
"I work with Rose at the
cabaret, and Sarah and I started talking one day and we’ve become good
friends."
More than that, Sarah thought, her hand still in Joey’s.
"And she told me about this
idea for Rose’s birthday a week ago. Pretty neat how we met, huh?"
Jack nodded, then changed the
subject. "Sarah, thank you so much for helping me cross over and letting
me talk to Rose one last time. I’m not sure how I can ever repay you."
"You don’t have to. You
won’t be able to, anyways. Just enjoy…um..." She was about to say life,
but since he wasn’t alive, she wasn’t quite sure what to say.
"Heaven."
Jack smiled. "I will."
He got up and hugged Sarah. He felt normal temperature. Was this how a spirit
that she could actually touch felt like?
Jack shook his brother’s hand. It
really was like looking in a mirror with the two of them.
"I think I’m going,"
Jack said, fading slightly.
"Rose!" Sarah yelled.
"Come quick! Jack’s leaving!"
She heard footsteps coming
quickly down the stairs. Jack was a quarter gone now, more transparent.
"Good-bye, Rose," Jack
said. "I love you."
"Jack," Rose pleaded,
"don’t go. Stay."
"I can’t," he said.
"I need to go. It’s where I belong."
Jack was now half gone. He was
fading quickly.
"I love you," she said
passionately, tears brimming her eyes.
At that moment, when Jack was
fading, all the love in the world was in his eyes when he looked at her, and
Rose, her mouth covered with her hand and with watery eyes, knew that there
wouldn’t be another person for Rose. There just couldn’t be. The way they
looked at each other was too strong to have someone step in and take Jack’s
place.
He was nearly gone.
"I love you, Jack," she
repeated, only softer this time. Everything in the house seemed to get quieter.
He was all gone.
The house was silent. The chill
throughout was gone, but it still remained in Sarah’s body, probably because
what she had just witnessed was possibly the most beautiful thing she had ever
seen.
"Jack, you can spend the
night on the couch," she said, after the longest silence Sarah had ever
faced.
"It’s Joey, Miss
Dawson," he corrected.
"Right. You look so
similar..." She trailed off. "I’m going to sleep now."
Yes, the first time that Sarah
saw a spirit, she was frightened. But the first time Joey and Rose saw one, she
suspected it was a different scenario. How could you be frightened when the one
you loved, who was at your fingertips, reassured you that everything would be
all right?