DUST IN THE WIND
Chapter Twenty
May 8, 1915
Three years had passed since the
Titanic and Jack and Rose’s marriage. Jack and Rose had the house to themselves
now that George and Sam had moved into their own place, giving the Dawsons more
room and privacy. So Rose was alone when the morning paper arrived and the
first to read the tragic headline. Expecting to see more news about the ongoing
war in Europe, she gasped in shock and looked at the paper in horror.
Lusitania Sinks
Clutching the paper in her
trembling hands, Rose went inside the house and sank down onto the couch.
Distant memories of the Titanic overcame her. It had happened again. Another
ship gone. But this time, it hadn’t been an iceberg that took it out. It was a
torpedo from one of those submarines Jack and George were talking about the other
night.
"Mama!" Josephine
called from upstairs, bringing Rose back to the present.
"Coming, sweetie!" Rose
called back up, forcing herself to her feet. She had to put the incident out of
her head. She had a family to take care of. She couldn’t fall apart over such
things like she normally would have. Placing the paper on the couch, Rose
headed upstairs, knowing all too well the terror those poor people must have
faced as that ship sunk into the sea.
April 6, 1917
Jack and George entered the
house, both looking over the newspaper. Rose frowned. She hadn’t seen either of
the men this interested in the news since the articles about the Lusitania
tragedy. She frowned at their somber expressions. Had something else happened?
"Jack? What’s going
on?" Rose asked, pushing down the all too familiar sense of dread. The
same dread she had felt when she and Jack had witnessed the iceberg crashing
into the Titanic. She felt as if an iceberg was about to crash into her life.
"We’re in the war." His
voice was almost a whisper, his blue eyes grim.
"The war? You mean the one
over in Europe?"
George nodded. "It’s because
of that ship. Most of the people aboard were Americans, and now the president
is calling for blood."
"Yeah. Ours." Jack
sighed, tossing the paper onto the couch. It was obvious that he wasn’t too
happy about this, and to be truthful, neither was Rose.
War? What did it mean for them,
really? What was going to be expected of the Dawson family? What were they
going to have to give up?
"Everything will be all
right, Jack. It has to be." She hugged him tight. They wouldn’t take him,
of course. He had a wife and child to take care of. They wouldn’t dare take
Jack away from her. Not now. Not ever.
April 28, 1917
Rose looked at the letter that
had just arrived for Jack. It was from the government and was identical to the
envelope George’s draft notice had arrived in. That meant only one thing….the
envelope contained Jack’s notice to go to war. She closed her eyes tightly,
willing the envelope to just disappear. But when she opened them, the letter
was still there.
Why? Why Jack? Wasn’t the
separation after Titanic enough? Why did they have to take him from her now?
"Rose! I’m home!" Jack
announced as he came in from his job. Unaware of Rose’s somber mood and the
draft notice, Jack picked her up and twirled her around. "Hello, my
beautiful wife. How was your day?" Jack smiled lovingly at her. The smile
faded as he saw her tears. "Rose? What’s wrong?"
She handed the letter to him and
turned away. She couldn’t bear to see his face as her worst fears came true.
Jack’s good mood faded away as he
read the letter, a feeling of doom taking its place. He should have known that
his turn was coming. It was foolish to hope that they’d skip him altogether.
"Rose…"
"Please tell me that it’s
not what I think it is. Please tell me that I’m just being paranoid."
"I wish I could." Jack
sighed, refolding the letter and feeling like his world was coming to an end.
"I leave in two weeks."
Her sob was heart wrenching. She
turned around and fell into his arms. She clung to him tightly, afraid that if
she let go, he’d disappear forever.
"Why, Jack? Why must you go?
They have enough men, don’t they? Why must they take you? Why?"
"I don’t know, Rose."
He held her tightly, wishing that they could wake up from this nightmare.
They stood there for what seemed
like hours. Just holding tight to each other, both willing the war away. If
only they could just wish hard enough. If only the conflict in Europe would
solve itself overnight.
"Rose." Jack finally
pulled away. He looked into her tearstained eyes and fell in love all over
again. He hated this. For the life of him, he couldn’t understand why men like
Caledon Hockley were spared fate’s sword, while people like Rose and himself
were always hit with disaster.
"Write them, Jack. Explain
to them that you can’t possibly go. That you have a wife and child who need
you." Rose’s eyes lit up with hope. That was it! The government had no
idea that Jack was married with a child. Surely they'd change their minds once
it was brought to their attention.
"They already know, Rose.
Remember all those papers we had to sign when we got married?" Jack hated
taking away the last strand of hope she had, but it was time for them both to
face reality.
"But, Jack…" she began
to protest, but he put a finger over her quivering lips to silence her.
"It’s no use trying to find
a way out of this, Rose. I’m going. That’s that. We’re just going to have to
make the next two weeks count. That’s all we really can do."
"Oh, Jack." She cried
even harder, falling back into his arms. This was so unfair. She had thought
that they were finally going to be happy. But life had dealt them another bad
hand. She just hoped that they’d come out of this intact.