TITANIC CONTINUED
Chapter Two
Humming to herself, Rose found a
bench to rest her tired feet on. She and Jack had been walking around the deck
since around noon, and she knew it must be getting close to seven o'clock.
Jack walked quickly back to the
place where he and Rose had been a few minutes earlier, hoping his folder
hadn't been picked up by someone.
He passed several first class
passengers, late for dinner, who gave him funny looks. Jack didn't belong in
first class anything. All his life, he'd been a wanderer, and had never wanted
anything more. He enjoyed living his life like a bird, free to go wherever he
wanted, do whatever he wanted, no one watching his back.
Before he'd met Rose, he'd never
been in love. He had learned so much from her in just the past couple of days. Now
that I have Rose, I could never live without her, he thought to himself,
scanning the area ahead of him for loose papers.
Luckily, the papers were all
still neatly together in their folder when Jack found them right where he had
left them. He turned back toward the way he'd come, almost running smack into
another body.
"Excuse me!" Jack
breathed, and looked up at the person he'd bumped into accidentally.
"If you'd stay in steerage
where you belong, you wouldn't be in people’s way!"
It was the stern voice of Rose's
fiancé, Cal. He eyed Jack disgustedly.
"If you don't mind, I'm
meeting someone, and I don't want to keep them waiting…" Jack hinted, and
began to stroll off.
Cal stopped him with his strong
words. "She's spoken for, Mr…whatever your name is. If I were you, I'd
watch it."
Jack gave him an expressionless
look before turning and leaving. Cal disappeared around the corner.
"That guy needs help!"
Jack muttered to himself. Shrugging the previous meeting off, Jack ambled along
the deck, toward Rose, who he could see far at the other end of the long ship.
Jack watched Rose as he walked
closer and closer. She sat on the bench, removing her ornate shoes, her loose,
fiery curls whipping freely in the wind. She rubbed her obviously sore feet.
As Jack drew closer, Rose looked
up at him.
"I'm glad you found
them," she said, gesturing toward his portfolio.
"Yeah. They were just
sitting there," he acknowledged.
Rose patted the empty bench seat
beside her. "I saved you a seat."
"My most humble thanks, fair
maiden," Jack responded, and took his seat beside her.
"So," Rose began,
"what shall we do? It's getting dark. I'm afraid Mother will want me back
in the stateroom before long."
Jack scratched his chin. Rose
could see the tiny whiskers he'd missed when he'd shaved this morning.
"I don't know. We've done
just about everything there is to do on this floating palace. I'm all out of
ideas. You're the educated one here. You tell me!" Jack joked.
"Monsieur, you are as much
of a scholar as I am!" she said, bumping him in the shoulder playfully.
"I do know something we haven't done, though," Rose said
thoughtfully. "I've never seen your room."
Jack looked at her. "Why
would you want to? What's to see? Just a bunch of drunks and rats! Compared to
those museums you call rooms, my little place is a box!"
Rose laughed. "I don't know!
It's something to do! You could show me around. Besides, I want to see where
you sleep every night," she added, smiling coquettishly.
"Oh, I see...so it's like
that, is it?" Jack asked, laughing. "All right, then. If you insist!
But I warned ya! Come on."
They crossed the deck and entered
one of the side doors that led them down a corridor. After several flights of
stairs, and a walk down a dimly lit hallway, Jack stopped at a door.
"Home sweet home!" He
put three hard pounds on the door with his fist.
"Don't you have a key?"
Rose asked.
"Nah, don't need it. It's
Fabrizio's evening naptime. He'll let us in."
"What about the other men?
Your...bunk mates?" Rose asked with a hint of mild concern.
"Oh, them? They're always in
a poker game about now, up in the common room. Don't worry about it. We'll have
the place to ourselves...well, except for Fabri, but..." He pounded on the
door again. "I know you're in there! Wake up, lazy!"
"Well, you needn't wake him
up. We can go..." Rose was cut off by a muffled voice on the other side of
the door.
"Too late!" came
Fabrizio's heavily-accented Italian voice. He fumbled with the lock on the
inside and opened the door.
"My friend! Sorry to disturb
your siesta. She wanted to see our mansion!" Jack said sarcastically.
"That's all right,"
Fabrizio replied. "I was about to get up anyway."