A LOVE REBORN IN THE STREETS
Chapter Four
Bill Cutting looked at his son,
Caledon, after he had explained everything that had happened on the Titanic.
Bill expressed his emotions and told Cal to get over it. That he would find
another girl, better than the one he had lost.
Cal obeyed his father and got
over it quickly. His father had taught him everything he knew. He hated the
people who were not native born. He treated the whores just like a bad disease
that they needed to get rid of, but used them for his own sick pleasure . He
wasn't anything like his father. He was worse. He had no heart, no care in the
world for other people at all.
*****
Jack and Rose spent the rest of
the day together. It hadn't been too long when Jack recognized a familiar face,
Caledon Hockley, coming out of a bar called Satan's Circus. It was only been a
moment before he noticed who was by his side. Bill Cutting, his enemy. Rose
hadn't seen them, so he pulled her in another direction, kissing Rose in a
passionate embrace.
When he pulled away from her, he
looked around for his enemy.
"What was that for?"
Rose wondered.
He turned to look at her.
"For love."
"Come on. Let's get back to
your place. Anyway, it's getting late, and I have some things to go over with
the boys." He had to get Rose away from Cal's sight.
"All right." She took
his hand as they walked down the street at a fast, upbeat pace.
*****
He hated to leave her at her
flat. He would have liked to stay with her all night, but he couldn't. He had
promised that he would help the boys out tonight. By the time he reached the
boys, they were already at the docks. They rode in on a small boat. There was
nothing. When they got up on the ship, it was empty. Everything was already
taken. He looked around, and found someone alive, someone who tried to shoot
him, no less. The man keeled over and fell at his feet. All the boys ran off
the ship, fearing the authorities when they heard the gunshot. An idea came to
Jack, and he took the man's body and threw it overboard.
"Hey," Johnny said, and
was going to throw the body into the river.
"Don't throw him over. We
need him," Jack said, getting down and jumping into the small boat.
Jack ended up going to a place
that took cadavers for medical research, and sold the body for no less than one
hundred dollars.
When he met his father and gave
him the money, they were all happy. The next morning, they had even made the
newspapers. That was something they were all proud of. For some reason, Jack
couldn’t care less. The only thing that mattered to him was Rose. He wanted her
so badly.
*****
A few days later, Bill challenged
Jack’s father to a fight. The fight lasted for quite a while. Jack stood on the
sidelines. His father had told him that this was not his fight, that his time
would come. Jack saw his father fight bravely until Bill stabbed him.
Jack ran to his father.
"Come on, Father. Get up."
Bill stood beside him. "It
will all be over soon, preacher."
Jack cried for his father. He
knelt down to hug him, and his father, with one last breath, said, "Son,
finish it."
"I will, Father," Jack
said, clutching his hand.
Bill's boys held him back as Jack
lunged forward with a blade in his hand when his father's last breath had come.
He had made a promise, and he intended to honor it.
"Someday, son, you will earn
my respect, and we will have it out, just like your father and I." Bill
could see the anger in his eyes.
"You bastard." Jack
stared up, to see that familiar face again.
"Jack, you're alive?"
Cal was surprised that he had made it and not Rose.
"Caledon Hockley?" Jack
had an evil look in his eyes as he said the name.
Cal knelt down close to Jack.
"Jack, unlike my father, I could kill you right now. Like I almost did two
months ago."
Anger grew in Jack's eyes to a
ferocious fire. "If I have to kill the whole lot of you Natives, I will,
starting with you." He spit in Cal's face.
Cal punched him. Jack just
laughed, with blood on his mouth. Cal stood up." You'll have your day soon
enough, Jack Dawson."
He walked away, not even knowing
that Jack was related to the Vallons. He hadn't heard him mention the name
father to the preacher. Only Bill had heard. He didn't know anything about him,
except that he had stole his fiancée from him. He hated him for that. Yes, that
one day would come very soon.