Written by Emily
Based on some situations originated by James Cameron.
"Mummy?" asked the
small girl curled up beside Rose as she drifted off to sleep.
"Yes?" Rose replied.
"Why don’t I have a
daddy?" the young girl asked inquisitively as she turned to face her
mother. Her piercing blue eyes set their gaze upon Rose. Her golden blonde hair
fell across her eyes. She had an expression of concentration on her face, just
like he had when he had drawn her…she was all Jack.
Rose had always known this
question would come. She had never wanted to face it, but now she had to.
"He died," she said
sadly, trying to force back the tears in her glassy green eyes.
"How?" she asked
softly. For a girl so young, she was smart. She had seen the tears in her
mother’s eyes and didn’t want to upset her.
"Well, we were both on a big
ship that sank on its way over here to America…lots of people died that night.
Your daddy was one of them," Rose tried to explain.
"But why didn’t you die,
Mummy?" she asked, a confused expression on her face.
"I…your daddy helped me
before he died, so I didn’t," she tried to explain as simply as possible.
"What was he like?" she
asked.
"He was wonderful…he was
kind and helpful, he was funny…he didn’t care what anyone else thought of him.
He was just himself." Rose smiled, remembering the electric personality
that had been Jack Dawson.
"Have you got a
picture?" she asked.
"Why, darling?" Rose
asked.
"I want to know what my daddy
looked like," she said.
"Well, he looked just like
you." Rose smiled. "He had blond hair, blue eyes like yours…"
she said, having to stop to cough to block her tears.
"If you haven’t got a
picture, Mummy…are you scared you will forget him?"
Rose chuckled slightly at the
question. She had never asked it of herself, had never needed to. "I’ll
never forget him, because all I have to do is look at you. You’re just like
your daddy."
"Oh, good." The little
girl yawned. "I love you, Mummy."
"I love you, too, Jacqueline
Cora Dawson." She smiled sadly, and as soon as she heard her daughter’s
first sleepy breath, she let a lonely tear roll down her cheek.
The End.