November 12, 1918
Rose watched as her four-year-old son picked at his dinner. He had been quiet all day since returning from school. Rose wondered what was wrong with him. He was usually such a happy little boy, but today all of that seemed to have disappeared.
Rose sat beside him and touched his little face, smiling. “Will, are you going to eat your dinner?” she asked.
He didn’t answer. Instead, he pushed the plate away, not looking at his mother. “When is Daddy coming home?” he asked out of the blue.
Rose was shocked by his question. He hadn’t asked in a long time. “Soon, darling,” was all she could say. Even though the war was supposed to have ended the night before, it was still unclear when Jack would be home.
William stood and stomped towards his bedroom. “It’s not soon!” he cried. “All the other boys at school say their daddies are coming home now, so why isn’t my dad?” He ran into his room, slamming the door.
Rose was shocked by his outburst, having never seen him like this. Immediately, she opened the door to his room to see him crying on his bed. Her heart broke for him. Slowly, she crept up behind him and sat on the bed, stroking his hair.
“Do you want me to tell you the truth?”
William sat upright, his eyes red from crying. He nodded, crawling towards Rose. Rose found it hard to say the words to him. It was hard to come to terms with the fact that he was no longer a baby. He was growing up now.
“I don’t know when Daddy is coming home, but now that the war is over, he will be coming home soon. That I promise you.”
William looked at Rose blankly. “But what if he was taken away by the angels like Uncle Fabrizio? Will we have to move to Italy, too?”
Rose’s eyes filled up at her son’s innocence. “Of course not, Will. Daddy hasn’t been taken away by the angels. He’s coming home soon, just like other boys’ daddies are.”
Will nodded and seemed to accept this. Rose hoped that now that the war was over, Jack would be returned to them soon. It had been over a year since she had seen her husband, but it felt like so much longer. She didn’t know what to expect when he returned, if Jack would even be the same man after the sights he had seen, but whatever was thrown at them, she hoped they would be able to deal with it.
*****
Three days later, when the mail arrived, a letter from Jack was included. He explained that he would be home the following week, most likely on a Friday. He had to take a ship from France to New York and then the train.
*****
Looking up at the plain white ceiling as he lay on his very uncomfortable bunk, Jack allowed the thoughts to run through his head. He had lived through a war. He had surprised himself by actually living, but the image of his wife and son had kept him alive. His son would be four now and would have grown so much since he had last seen him. Would he even remember him?
The ship’s engines could be heard from the decks below and the Titanic crossed his mind—thoughts of himself and Rose lying in bed together while Tommy and Sharon lay in the opposite bunks.
A knock sounded on the door and Jack’s eyes widened, his heart beating fast. The knock had startled him. The door creaked open and one of the other men, Callum, poked his head around the door.
“Jack, mate, there’s talk of stopping for the night. You should see the ice field out here,” he whispered.
Jack stood and attempted to look through the porthole, but nothing but water could be seen. “Is it bad?” he asked, feeling his heartbeat quicken.
Callum shrugged a little before nodding his head. “Come and see, mate.”
Quickly, Jack grabbed his sweater and pulled it on as they left the room. The engines could still be heard as they walked down the corridor and up to the deck area. It was dark outside, around one in the morning. Through the darkness, large white icebergs could be seen.
“Holy shit!” Jack felt his breath become caught in his chest. “They have to stop the engines. We can’t sail through them.”
Callum nodded as he shivered. Their breath could be seen in the night air. “That’s what I said, with what happened to the Titanic.”
Jack said nothing, simply nodding. He didn’t wish to think of anything like that happening. Times had changed since then, over six years ago.
“Well, I’m going back to watch the poker game. Are you coming, Jack?”
Thinking about it for a moment, he shook his head. “No, thanks. I think I’ll stay out here for a couple of minutes and return to bed.”
“All right. Good night.” Callum walked away, leaving Jack on the empty deck.
Lifeboats lined the deck and Jack remembered Rose being lowered away from the Titanic after she had been put in a lifeboat and attempted to jump out of it. Shaking his head, he began to walk, but kept his eyes on the huge icebergs that loomed ahead. They made his heart thump, knowing what he had lived through with the Titanic, and although this ship was much smaller and there were not as many souls on board, it was still a possibility for the ship to strike a berg.
Continuing his walk, he shivered against the cold and he wondered why he was walking around a boat deck in the wee hours when he could be in a warm, albeit not very comfortable, bed. Reaching into his pants’ pocket, he pulled out a small tin that contained his cigarettes. He had taken up smoking again during the war after stopping during Rose’s pregnancy. Lighting the cigarette, he let it soothe him like never before. Reaching the bow of the ship, he leaned over the side, seeing the black water below, and remembered how he had first met Rose.
He shook any violent thoughts from his memory. The war was over now. He had to accept everything that had happened and move on. He would be with Rose and Will again soon. It was all that mattered. He felt tears threaten to fall from his eyes and wiped them away.
Throwing his cigarette overboard, he watched it disappear into the blackness before turning and beginning to walk back to his cabin. He needed to sleep, or at least try.
Inside the ship, the engines had been turned off for the night and their journey would be resumed in the morning. Jack slept more soundly that night than he had in a long time.