MEET ME AT THE CLOCK
Chapter Two
Back in her room aboard the Keldysh, Rose
brushed her hand along the top edge of the picture frames that lined her
dresser.
Although no one else could see it, Jack was
in every single picture with her. The photo she loved the most was taken at the
Santa Monica Pier. She sat on a horse with the boardwalk in the distance behind
her. Even now she could feel his arms wrapped tightly around her waist and his
chin resting on her shoulder as they both stared into the camera. Turning off
the light, she crawled into bed, said a short prayer, and closed her eyes to
sleep. As always, whenever she fell asleep Jack's perfect blue eyes greeted
her. Within minutes, she was standing on the first-class deck of the Titanic
once again. As the doors were opened for her, a steward dressed in his
first-class finery said, "We've been waiting for you, Rose. Welcome home,
Mrs. Dawson." The dress she was wearing felt vaguely familiar.
She glanced down at it and saw that she was
decked out in her dinner dress from eighty-four years ago when she was
seventeen. This time it was pure white. A sense of deja vu engulfed her as she
made her way to the Grand Staircase. She stole quick glances at various
individuals she knew, some of whom survived the sinking, but most who went down
with the "Unsinkable". She took a deep breath before ascending the
staircase again. There he was. As before, his back was turned to her, facing
the clock, this time he wore his third-class finest attire. When she reached
the landing, he turned to greet her. In her lifetime, he had remained all of
twenty years old, and she was seventeen again. He extended his hand to her and
pulled her close as they drank each other with their eyes. Rose tracing Jack's
left jaw line with her finger followed broad smiles of recognition. He took his
cue to hold her as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and kissed him. It
had seemed they were the only ones in the room until a heavily thunderous
applause filled the air. As they ended the kiss, he whispered in her ear,
"Now will you marry me?" The words she waited four days for had taken
eighty-four years, and she wasn't going to lose him again, heaven or not.
"Isn't that what this is? The dress, the guests, and everything?" she
asked, to which he nodded, before turning to greet the onlookers. That night
Rose and Jack spent in her old cabin, never again having to hide from anyone.
As he slowly and tenderly undressed her, she was relieved to discover that
there was no corset underneath to hinder them. She loved him with more passion
and experience than he had ever seen in her. Rose and Jack would now be able to
love each other, as only they knew how, for an eternity with no one to come
between them.
Recalling her last words to Lizzie, she
whispered in his ear, "A woman's heart is a deep ocean of secrets."
The End.