MAGIC MORNING
Chapter Twelve
The quiet noises of the night rocked Rose
back to sleep. Something had made her sit up in bed and wonder if someone was
in the room. She had almost feared that it was Cal, or someone else that could
hurt her.
This happened a few times every week and she
couldn't help but wish that her memories would just disappear. That she could
just go on with her life as if nothing had happened. But the sinking played
vividly in her mind. After two months…it was still as real as ever.
She had met and lost the love of her life,
the only man whom she could ever feel anything for. She had left her old life,
escaped her old life, but she had had nothing for it. If only Jack had lived…if
only she had made her decision sooner…
The wind picked up a branch from the tree
outside the window and Rose sat up in bed again, her eyes wide. The branch
appeared to be knocking on the window and she squeezed the pillow in her hands
tightly. She was awake again and her thoughts were clearer now. The wind seemed
to have whirled up the leaves from last year's fall along with her heartaches.
She stood up and walked over to the window.
The night was brighter than she had expected, but the wind produced frightening
sounds as it flew through the trees and grass. She let out a sigh of sleepiness
and then sat down on the windowsill.
Maybe she wasn't strong enough to do this? Be
on her own, have no one but herself…maybe she should have stayed with her
mother, married some new Cal…but that thought made her wince and jump down from
the comfortable seat. She shook her head and rubbed her arms quickly, as if
trying to make those thoughts leave not only her soul, but her body too.
She was going to make it on her own and she
was going to make her life worth something. Jack…Jack would have wanted her to
do that. She closed her eyes and imagined him standing next to her, him
touching her, kissing her, those wonderful hands of his touching her body.
She almost giggled at the thought, but
another knock on the window by the cruel wind made her jump and she crawled
back under the covers, breathing hard.
"You have to sleep now. You have to.
Tomorrow is a long day…the first performance when I'm actually on stage."
She paused her calming whispers and looked at the bedside table where the
advertisement for the play she had a minor part in stood, leaned on the photo
of her on the horse…right in the surf.
She smiled at her own image, knowing that
Rose in the photo was smiling back. She looked so relaxed, so happy, sitting on
the beautiful horse. That had been the morning she had arrived in Santa Monica,
ready to try her luck as an actress.
A few weeks had passed since and it was the
red June sun that greeted her every morning. Eventually, Rose fell asleep
again, having forgotten about the fears that someone would intrude in her
world, that someone would destroy her little dream.
It seemed like only a few minutes had passed
since she had fallen asleep when the light made its way through to her eyes and
she opened them. Morning again…another day to face.
Along with the sunlight, a knock on the door
and a familiar voice made her look up. "Rose, are you in here? There's a
man looking for you. Come on, open the door!" And this time, it wasn't the
wind knocking on the window.
*****
Jack jumped down from the train and landed in
the huge crowd of laughing, talking, moving people. He looked back up at the
train, waiting for Fabrizio to follow. Helga's face appeared right after
Fabrizio's and Jack laughed as he watched his new friend help his fiancée down.
"Let her do something on her own there,
Fab," he said and smiled at Helga, who was rolling her eyes at poor
Fabrizio. His expression was serious and he wouldn't stop frowning at Jack, who
just laughed.
"Let's see what you do when you found
this Rose girl," he retorted and Jack just smiled. Rose…would he ever find
her again? He had been searching for her for almost two months now, in New
York, in Philadelphia, where he had had a very unpleasant confrontation with
her mother.
"No, I will not let you know where she
is when she writes to me, Mr. Dawson. You're a bad influence and I will not
have her know that you survived," Ruth had told him sternly, her mouth a
thin line and her eyes as icy as ever.
Jack had been ready to use force to get
inside the house and find one of Rose's letters, if there were any. But Molly
Brown, who had been helping Ruth to get all the furniture and other things
ready to ship off to an auction, had saved him.
"Hey, Ruth, Jack's as good as the next
guy and it'll probably be better if she has him than some ruffian." This
had made Ruth frown and unwillingly admit that this was true.
After that, Jack had found out that Rose had
still not written any letters and no one knew of her whereabouts anyway.
That had been a sunny Friday in the beginning
of May. It was June now and it had taken Jack, Fabrizio and Helga weeks to get
to the other side of the country. The three of them had decided to travel
together when Jack had been able to leave the hospital.
Fabrizio had loved the idea of "heading
out for the horizon" just as much as Jack had and to his relief, Helga had
agreed happily. In her own country she hadn't had the opportunities to do that,
or so she had believed. Maybe she had just seen this when she had met Fabrizio
at a steerage dance on Titanic?
She had been thrilled when Fabrizio had
introduced her to Jack and had explained with gestures and the few English
words she had managed to learn that he had been the man who had saved her life.
Jack smiled as they walked along the sunny
street that Thursday in Santa Monica. He remembered how Fabrizio had hugged him
tightly, even kissed his cheek in gratitude to the man who had saved his
girlfriend's life.
Fate sure knew more than they did, Jack
concluded and somehow he knew that if he hadn't saved Helga, none of them would
be alive today. Helga would have died, he wouldn't have had Fabrizio to save
him, and who knew what could have happened to Fabrizio?
"Hey, look at this!" Jack suddenly
exclaimed after seeing a sign that said, "Furnished rooms for rent".
He opened the door to reveal an older man sitting down behind a counter,
playing solitaire it seemed.
"Come on, you guys," he said to
Fabrizio and Helga, who had stayed in the doorway for a few moments longer and
were approaching him uncertainly, holding hands.
For a moment, Jack felt a cold hand grab his
heart. He wanted someone to hold hands with too. Someone to talk to, someone to
love. But not just someone…Rose. He had to find her soon.
They took two rooms, one for Jack and
Fabrizio and one for Helga. If they found Rose, she could share a room with
Helga, Jack thought more than once during the rest of the day as he walked
around, trying to find something that could tell him where she was.
They had talked about Santa Monica, about
drawing pictures there for ten cents apiece. They had talked about riding
horses in the surf, about being free. But where was she doing all this? Here in
Santa Monica? Or on the other side of the world?
He sat down in a chair in one of the many
cafes, ordered a beer, cheap beer, he noted and smiled, remembering their
conversation again. But his smile soon faded. He was starting to give up and he
hated that feeling.
Just as he was paying, he saw a young boy,
about ten years old, walk past him on the street. He was wearing one of those
ads that cover the whole body and Jack almost dropped the coins he was holding
when he saw the names on it. Rose Dawson…play…
Jack hurried after the boy, grabbing him by
the arm.
"Hey, what's the big idea?" the boy
asked, offended. But Jack just read the ad again to make sure and then headed
down the street again, running fast now, the gloomy expression forgotten.
*****
The clock hadn't even struck six the next
morning when Jack knocked on the door to the apartment building. A woman in her
sixties answered, her gray hair hanging over her shoulder in a long braid and
her eyes barely open.
"Do you know what time it is?" she
asked sternly.
"Yes, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but…I need
to speak to one of your tenants. Rose Dawson. Please, it's very important. I do
apologize for coming by so early."
The woman seemed conciliated by this and
nodded.
"Wait here. I'll go get her and then
I'll go back to sleep. Never heard of such nonsense. Waking me up on a
Friday…" she said and Jack heard her continue muttering as she disappeared
upstairs.
He took a deep breath and leaned on the rail
of the porch, staring out over the street.
Helga had told him to come later in the day
and Fabrizio had called him pazzo; crazy, but Jack had refused to listen. Rose
wouldn't care about him coming so early…she would just be happy to see him
again. Wouldn't she? He clutched the wooden rail tightly, hoping that she would
be happy. That she still felt the same way about him.
*****
Rose sat up, shook her head and reached for
the light green robe she had bought a few days ago at a second hand shop. Who
could be looking for her? Cal? Cal…he was dead, wasn't he? Or maybe he wasn't,
maybe he had tracked her down here and was ready to take her back, hurt her
again…
She froze and held on to the bedpost tightly
as she stepped into her shoes. A quick glance of herself in the mirror made her
close her eyes and she reached up to make her curls fall more naturally and then
she splashed her face with cold water. She thought that that would make her
think more clearly.
"Who is it?" she asked when she had
opened the door and was staring at her grumpy landlady. "A young man. Says
he has to see you right away. Miss Dawson, this is really not appropriate, but
since you've never caused me any problems, you go on down there and talk to
him. I'm going back to bed."
Rose nodded, feeling utterly confused now.
Who was he? Could it…no, he had died. He was gone.
"Thank you, Mrs. Patterson. I'm sorry he
woke you up." The woman just nodded and Rose walked down the first steps
of the stairs carefully, still trying to make herself look like she hadn't been
asleep a few minutes ago.
"Hello," she said uncertainly in
the doorway when she saw the figure standing on the porch. He turned around and
smiled at her. He looked so familiar…blond hair shining in the light, blue eyes
staring at her…the beautifully heart-shaped face…Jack?
"Hello Rose," he replied and she
took a few shaky steps closer to him.
"Jack? Oh my goodness…it is you."
Her voice was barely above a whisper and she felt like the world was whirling
round and round. The only thing she could see clearly was his face. That
feeling disappeared after just a few seconds and she walked up to him, smiling
shyly.
"Jack…I thought you died," she
whispered and closed her eyes when she felt his hand over her hair.
"I know. I've been looking for you since
April. I saw the ad for your play yesterday and I couldn't sleep, so I had to
go here and see you…I…I've been trying to find you in every possible corner of
this place." He had more explaining to do and she could see it in his
eyes, but she just put her finger over his mouth gently.
"Shh, don't speak. Let's just…savor this
moment. I…I've been wishing that you would come back since I left you
there…I've been wishing that you would touch me and hold me again. I…"
He grinned and brought his arms closer around
her.
"Didn't you just tell me to be
quiet?"
She smiled back, blushing slightly.
"Oh Jack, I must look horrible to you. I
just woke up and…I…" He shook his head gently and his hand came over her
cheek, touching her ever so softly, making her shiver.
"You look like a princess."
"I do?" she whispered, confused,
but when she saw his expression, she just smiled again.
"You have no idea how I've longed for
you…" she breathed softly and stepped closer to him, feeling his embrace
tighten.
"I wanted you to kiss me that day on
Titanic, but…you…know why I couldn't. Cal and…he…" She stopped speaking
quickly, not knowing how much he knew and whether she even wanted to tell him.
"I know," he whispered. Those two
words just summed up everything, made it all stay in the past, for now at
least…and that was where Rose wanted it to stay.
Instead of talking about the past, regrets,
or pain, she felt his lips brush hers, softly at first, as to be careful with
her, but then she just hugged him and leaned even closer. The kiss deepened and
they stood in each other's arms for what seemed like eternity, as the sun rose
above the horizon and splashed its beams over them.
Morning had finally come, the magic morning
they had dreamed about for so long.