JACK AND ROSE: TOGETHER FOREVER
Chapter Fifty
December 13, 1914
Rose was peacefully sleeping, dreaming about
walking barefoot in the sand on a moonlit night with Jack by her side, when
someone singing something disturbed her perfect dream.
"O come, all ye faithful, joyful and
triumphant, O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem!"
Rose groaned and forced her eyes open. Jack
was standing over her singing, at the top of his lungs, one of his favorite
Christmas songs. Rose groaned again and forced her head under a pillow; she
didn’t want to get up now. Jack continued his singing and Rose tried to
mentally block it out. She knew what was going on today; they were getting all
their Christmas stuff down and out and setting half of it up. Finally, Jack
finished his song, hitting the last note a little higher then he should have.
Rose smiled under the pillow, trying to get back to sleep. She was just
starting to doze off again when Jack started singing, rather yelling, Rose’s
least favorite Christmas song of all time.
"Over the river and through the woods,
to Grandmothers house we go! The horse knows the way to carry the sleigh
through white and drifted snow!" Jack belted, knowing full well that it
was Rose’s most hated song.
Rose groaned again and sat up, throwing the
pillow across the room. "Be quiet," she moaned. "I’m getting
up!"
Jack smiled. "Good, we’ve got work to
do."
Rose shook her head and put her feet on the
floor, standing up. Suddenly, a wave of nausea hit her. Putting her hand over
her mouth, she ran into the bathroom. Jack followed her and watched as she
threw up last night’s dinner.
"You okay?" he asked, sitting down
next to her and rubbing her back gently.
Rose nodded before once again hanging her
head over the toilet.
"I’m sorry, Rose. I shouldn’t have made
you get up so fast," Jack whispered, kissing her head.
Rose brought her head up and out of the
toilet. She lay down on the cool floor, and said, "Oh, don’t worry, Jack,
it’s not your fault." Then Rose giggled. "Well, maybe just a
little," she said, smiling at Jack.
Jack smiled, and asked, "You feeling
better?"
Rose nodded. "Yeah, as long as I don’t
eat a thing till lunch, I’ll be fine."
That was the one thing Rose liked about her
morning sickness; it never lasted very long. Jack smiled and pulled her up to a
sitting position, kissing her forehead.
"What exactly do we have to do
today?" Rose asked after a minute. She felt totally fine now, which was
another weird thing about this morning sickness. She would feel fine one minute
and really sick the next.
Jack thought for a moment. "We have to
get the Christmas boxes down from the attic," he started. "Um, we
have to put up half of that stuff, get the Christmas dishes out and washed,
and, ah, just fifty other things."
Rose sighed. "Okay, we’d better get
started then."
Jack nodded and got up to his feet, followed
by Rose.
As they walked out of the bathroom, Rose
suddenly remembered Jack's singing, and then laughed, and warned, "By the
way, Jack, if you sing that ‘over the river’ song again, I swear I will hurt
you."
Jack just laughed. "I’m not saying a
word."
**********
Rose was humming to herself as she washed off
the Christmas plates, bowls, and mugs that she and Jack had bought last year.
They had been going through Sears right after Christmas when they had noticed
that the set was on sale. Since Jack and Rose didn’t really have any festive
china, they decided to buy it. Rose smiled at she looked over the china for the
millionth time since they had gotten it out. The snow colored plates had an ivy
chain around the rim, with cranberries wherever ivy leaves were. The bowls were
the same way, just a smaller print. And the mugs were the same white color with
the design along the top and bottom edges. Finally, the last dish was washed
and dried and set in the cupboard. Tonight would be the first time they would
use these plates, and for some reason, Rose was really excited. She laughed out
loud. She was excited about using plates? Rose shook her head and put the
dishtowel down.
"Hey, Rose!" came a call from
upstairs.
Rose sighed and started toward the staircase.
"What?" she called back up to Jack.
"Come up here! There’re something I want
ya to see!" Jack called back, his voice muffled.
Rose ran up the stairs and into her bedroom.
"What?" she asked, looking around. Jack was nowhere to be seen.
"Where are you?"
"Up here," Jack’s voice said,
coming from the attic.
Rose went to her closet and looked up. There
was a part of the ceiling that you could push up and out and climb up into a
little attic type area. The space wasn’t very big, just about the size of a
bedroom, but it sure came in handy for storing stuff.
"What?" Rose asked again.
"Come up here," Jack said, his head
finally poking through the hole.
Rose got up onto the chair that was set up,
and, with Jack’s help, pulled herself up into the attic. "What are we
looking at?" she asked, looking around. All she saw were boxes and boxes
of various things.
Jack took her hand. "Come over
here," he said, leading her to a back corner of the room, where there was
a little alcove.
Rose had never noticed this alcove before, as
she never stayed up here long. She was a bit paranoid about spiders, and never
chose to come up here if she could help it.
"Look," Jack said, pointing to an
object in the corner of the alcove.
Rose looked again, and saw something she
hadn’t noticed before. In a shadowed area of the alcove was rocking chair. A
very old, very beautiful rocking chair. Rose gasped and her hand flew up to her
mouth. "Oh my goodness," she breathed, walking over to the chair and
kneeling down by it, not caring about the spiders now. "This is
beautiful," she whispered, looking at the beautiful wood.
Jack smiled and sat next to her.
"Look," he said, pointing to something on the rocker part of the
chair. It was a little carving, with the date and who made it.
Rose read the inscription aloud.
"‘December 1855, K. L. Brooks.’ Oh, my gosh!" Rose whispered.
"That’s almost sixty years old!"
Jack nodded excitedly. "I know. Its
amazing that it's in such good condition."
"I wonder how it got here," Rose
said, amazed, as she ran her fingers over the wood, wiping the years of dust
off.
"It was probably the previous owners.
They must have put it up here and forgot about it. Look at all that dust,"
Jack commented.
Rose just nodded and looked at the beautiful
rocking chair. There was a beautifully etched design of rose vines on the
headboard, and on the outside of the armrests.
"I thought we could put it in the baby’s
room," Jack suggested, breaking her thoughts.
Rose stood up and wrapped her arms around
Jack. "That would be wonderful," she whispered. She turned around and
let Jack hold her from behind. "Just think," Rose said, smiling, as
she leaned back against Jack. "In a few months, you or I will be sitting
there holding our own little baby."
Jack closed his eyes and kissed the side of
Rose’s head. Visions of his wife holding a little baby girl or boy filled his
mind. She was singing softly to the child and rocking softly back and forth.
Jack smiled and rested his chin on top of Rose’s head. He could hardly wait for
that day when he would get to see his vision come to life.
*************
The rest of the day was spent getting more
boxes down from the attic, placing the rocking chair in the baby’s room,
getting half their Christmas things put up, and planning out ideas for this
year's Christmas. Jack and Rose decided to put the tree up the twenty-third and
they also decided that if the Fosters and Langstons wanted to come over, they
certainly could. Rose smiled as she sat down next to Jack on the couch. The
lights were off and Addy was asleep at Jack's feet. He was staring out through
the bay window at the ocean, not saying a word. Quietly, he pulled Rose into
his arms and she snuggled up against him.
They sat there for a few minutes before Jack
finally whispered, "Look how beautiful the water looks, Rosie."
Rose looked out and smiled. The ocean did
look beautiful. Moonlight was shining off the water and quiet waves rolled
slowly in and out.
"Hmm, it is wonderful isn’t it?"
she whispered back, taking his hand and placing it on her stomach. Rose loved
sitting like this, with Jack’s hand on her stomach and her eyes closed.
Jack leaned down and kissed to top of her
head, and Rose smiled. She softly started singing to Jack, and her unborn baby,
one of her favorite Christmas songs.
"What child is this…" she sang,
closing her eyes and letting the music take over her mind.
Jack hummed along with her, and he too closed
his eyes. When the two had finished their duet, Jack whispered, "You have
a beautiful voice, you know."
Rose laughed softly. "Thank you. Do you
know the song ‘Oh Little Town of Bethlehem’ by any chance?"
Jack nodded, and smiled at her. "Sure.
Everyone knows that song."
Rose began singing softly again. "Oh
little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie. Above thy deep and
dreamless sleep, the silent stars go by…"
Jack started humming along again and
eventually started singing with her. When the song was over, Rose cuddled
closer to Jack. This Christmas was going to be wonderful; she could feel it
already. She was sure something big was going to happen. The question was,
what?