FALLING STARS
Chapter Twenty-One
June 21, 1933
Rose watched as Emily made her way up the
aisle, escorted by Cal. Both the Dawsons and the Hockleys were taking part in
the wedding.
Cal had initially objected just as vehemently
as Jack and Rose to the wedding of Gregory and Emily, but had eventually come
around. Now, Rose watched as he escorted his daughter to the altar, from her
own position as matron of honor.
Every member of the two families had a part
in the wedding. Much to Jack’s surprise, Gregory had asked him to be best man,
a sign that he held no lingering resentment over Jack’s initial objection to
his choice of brides. Rose was matron of honor, and Libby, Nancy, and Heidi
were bridesmaids. Nathan Hockley and Adam Dawson were ushers, while little
Andrew Dawson was ring-bearer. Emily and Gregory had made all of the decisions
about who would do what, and no one was left out.
Rose watched quietly as Cal escorted Emily to
the altar and stepped back, signaling that she was in Gregory’s care now. She
listened as the minister began the words of the ceremony that would make the
two husband and wife, remembering her own wedding, now over twenty years past.
Had it really been that long? It seemed like only a short time since she had
made her way up the aisle, on that chilly November day in 1912, marrying Jack
in a small, quiet ceremony with only a few people gathered to watch. Now, their
son--the son that she had been carrying when she had married Jack--was getting
married himself, with a hundred guests there to watch.
She gazed at the bride and the groom as they
exchanged their vows. Gregory, dressed in a tuxedo, looked very much like Jack
had at age twenty, except for the bright red hair. Emily, as petite and blonde
as her mother, was dressed in an elegant white satin gown and lace veil. The
two of them fairly radiated happiness as they spoke the words that would bind them
together. Rose smiled to herself, remembering the joy of her own wedding day,
and the many years of joys and sorrows that had passed since then. Life had not
always been perfect, but it had never been boring, and she had never regretted
a moment of it.
*****
Hours later, as Jack and Rose watched the
newlyweds dance, they were surprised to see Cal approach them. They hardly
noticed him at first, too caught up in their own thoughts to pay attention to
him, but they looked up when he cleared his throat.
"Cal." Rose looked at him in
surprise. They had maintained an uneasy peace over the years, but had seldom
spoken to each other unless absolutely necessary.
"Jack. Rose." Cal seemed equally
uncomfortable. He shuffled his feet, watching Gregory and Emily dance. The
couple was oblivious to anyone around them.
"They’re very happy, aren’t they?"
he commented after a moment.
"Yes, they are," Jack replied
shortly, as though challenging Cal to try to put a stop to the couple’s
happiness.
Cal sat down beside them at the table,
pausing for a moment as the music ended and the newlyweds came over to see
them.
After talking to them for a moment, Gregory
and Emily moved off, walking amongst their guests. Cal looked back at Jack and
Rose.
"Jack, Rose," he began. He stopped
for a moment, uncertain of how to proceed. "I realize that we haven’t been
the best of neighbors over the years..."
"Our children made the best of
things," Rose replied, wondering what Cal was getting at. He wasn’t
usually this friendly.
"Yes." He looked at the young
couple making their way through the reception hall. "But now...in a way,
we’re related."
"We have been related for years, ever
since my mother married your father. We’ve been related through them for a long
time," Rose responded.
"That’s true, but...in a way, I think we
are more closely related now. Your son and my daughter are married, and it may
not be long before we share grandchildren."
The Dawsons looked at each other, realizing
that this was true. Any children that Gregory and Emily had would be Cal’s
grandchildren, as well as theirs.
"What’s your point?" Jack asked
bluntly.
"We’ve tolerated each other for years,
both as neighbors and as the parents of the children’s friends, but I think
that, after all this time, and everything that has happened, we need to make
amends. I realize that we have never really liked each other, but I think that
we need to be friendlier, since, for better or worse, we are relatives now, and
will probably share common blood relatives before long."
"Perhaps you’re forgetting the hell that
you put us through on the Titanic," Jack told him, recognizing the
rationale behind Cal’s argument, but still unable to completely forgive him for
the past.
"That was over twenty-one years ago, and
I think we’ve all changed since then. We’ve all lived a lot since then, and
married and raised children. I am not the jealous fiancé that I was on the
Titanic, and I have no desire to pursue Rose now. She’s yours, and I think I
recognized it even then, which was why I fought so hard to put a stop to
things."
Jack considered his words for a moment. It
had been a long time, and perhaps he was narrow-minded to still hold so much
resentment over things that had happened so long ago, but he couldn’t change
how he felt on the basis of a few words. Years of resentment would take a long
time to mend.
Rose spoke up. "Cal...I can’t promise
that we’ll ever be friends, but for the sake of our families, I think you’re
right. It’s long since time we mended fences, and put the past away." She
looked at Jack, gauging his reaction.
Jack sighed reluctantly. They were right, and
he knew it, but he still had a hard time accepting the idea. Still, for the
sake of harmony, he would try.
He nodded. "It is time we buried the
hatchet. For the sake of our children, I think we can try to get along
better."
Cal nodded. He knew that Jack had never
forgiven him for leaving him to die on the Titanic, but now that they shared families,
it was time to set the past aside. Slowly, he reached out his hand, and the two
men shook on it.