REUNION AND CONFRONTATION, 1925
Chapter Three
While the older children entertained Sean in
the park, Jack and Rose and Fabrizio and Nora sat quietly reminiscing. They had
understood Rose's unspoken message that the topic of Titanic would be left
until tonight. For now, they were satisfied to catch up on other aspects of
their lives from the past thirteen years. Fabrizio explained how he had met
Nora and how he had brought his mother over from Italy.
"And my restaurant, this is something
you must see," he said. "Jack, you will see my cooking got much
better."
"It wasn't too bad before,"
remarked Jack, "but I hope you toned down the garlic a little."
The two men laughed as they remembered a meal
Fabrizio had once made. They had smelled of garlic for a week.
Jack explained that he and Rose had gotten
their start in Denver because of the generosity of Molly Brown.
"I started at the newspaper. Drawing ads
and things like that. What really changed everything for us, was my
degree," explained Jack.
"Degree?" repeated Fabrizio.
Jack nodded.
"You see when we went to Chippewa Falls,
I found a little inheritance from my parents. It was what they had wanted for
me, to go to college. It was what I wanted too. So now I teach art in a high
school in Denver."
"You, Jack, a teacher?" asked
Fabrizio. "How can you be a teacher, when you were always so, so
mischievous?"
"Well, I have a good time behaving
there. And," he said looking at Rose, "I save the mischievous
behavior for Rose."
He turned and winked at Rose, who in turn
gave him a dazzling smile.
* * * * * * * * * *
As Nora and Fabrizio hurried along the
sidewalk on their way to see Rose and Jack, she noticed that her husband was
unusually quiet.
"Fabrizio, what is wrong? Here we are
going to spend yet more time with your friends, and you are so sad, so quiet. I
don't understand."
He stopped walking and looked at her.
"Nora," he began quietly,
"tonight we talk of something sad, something hard to talk about. You see,
there is something I never told you."
Nora felt afraid and weak. She was worried
about what past secrets he was about to reveal.
"What is it?" she asked worriedly.
He put his hands on her shoulders and said,
"No, this is nothing bad that I did, that we talk about tonight. It is
something that happened to Rose and Jack and myself."
She looked puzzled.
"You see, Nora, thirteen years ago, when
I first come to America, I come with Jack, on Titanic."
She gasped and put her hand to her mouth.
While she was younger than Fabrizio, she still remembered the grim pictures in
the newspapers and the stories of the thousands of people who died.
"Oh no, I don't know what to say."
"Listen, tonight you will hear many
stories, stories about brave people, stories that are hard to listen to."
He put his head down for a moment as if
reliving something from the past.
"But tonight, I learn at last, what
happened to my friend Jack that night."
* * * * * * * * * *
The four friends sat around the little parlor
of Jack and Rose's hotel room. Their children were asleep in the bedroom. They
looked nervously at each other. It was time to start reliving the past.
"So, Jack, what happened after Rose went
looking for you?" asked Fabrizio.
Jack reached over and took Rose's hand.
"That's when my life began, began and
almost ended."
He told the story of Rose finding him on the
bow, their exploration of the ship, the beginning of their commitment to each
other and finally his arrest for allegedly stealing the necklace.
"When I was chained to that pipe, and
saw the water coming in, I knew for sure, it was over. It was like a miracle
when I heard Rose calling my name."
Rose continued the story.
"When Cal told me that only the better
class would survive, I knew I had to find Jack. Anyway, we made it to where we
found you. Then I refused to get in a boat without Jack."
They looked at each other, their anxiety from
that night still mirrored in their eyes.
"Yes," said Jack, "Rose wanted
to get off the ship when it was sailing and get on when it was sinking."
He smiled grimly.
"We stayed on the ship until the end.
That's when we got separated. I was picked up by a lifeboat and Rose was found
clinging to a piece of wood."
They finished their story by telling of how
Molly Brown had believed in their love and their resilience. She had sent
someone looking for them.
"The rest you know," said Jack.
"But as much as we try, there always seems to be something to remind us of
that night. I think I have never felt as desperate as I did in the hours after
the sinking. Everything precious to me was gone. My love, my friend, even my
drawings."
He put his head in his heads, looking
suddenly drained.
Nora sat quietly next to Fabrizio. She had
never heard anything like this before. She could not imagine herself wielding
an ax to save anyone. Rose was a very brave woman. How they must love one
another, to choose to die together. Of course, she loved Fabrizio, but clearly
what Rose and Jack felt for one another was unique.
"Why couldn't I find your names
Jack?" asked Fabrizio.
"For some reason, I guess I was never
around when they were making up the list of survivors. And Rose was too sick to
give her name. I looked for your name, but it wasn't there. So I thought you
were dead all this time. What happened to you?"
Fabrizio sighed before beginning his story.
He still had bad dreams from that night.
"I was helping cut the ropes for one of
the lifeboats, when I fell in the water. I looked up and saw one of the funnels
coming down on me. I knew it was the end. But somehow it missed me. I woke up
in a lifeboat at dawn. They told me later I was babbling wildly in Italian.
Anyway, when they got me on the Carpathia, there were a couple of American priests
on board. They were heading to Italy and spoke the language. They offered to
care for me. I guess I was forgotten when the lists were made."
"What did you do then?" asked Jack.
"Did you stay here in New York?"
"Yes," he said. "I missed you
so much Jack. But I was given a chance to go on. The priest take my back to
their church, here in the city. I stay with them and sometimes cook for them. I
live there and fix things. About eight years ago, a man from the church comes
and asks if I would like to work in his restaurant. I was ready for a change,
so I went. After a few more years, he gets sick and wants to sell me the
restaurant."
He put his hands in the air to indicate that
he was done.
"That's it, that's my story."
They all sat for a minute, with their
thoughts to themselves. There were a few unanswered questions.
"Fabrizio," asked Jack, softly,
"what about Tommy? What happened to him?"
Tears formed in Fabrizio's eyes.
"Dead. He was shot by an officer, an
accident, but he died just the same."
Jack put his hand on his forehead. He was
almost sure of the rest of the answers he wanted. But he had to hear for
himself. He tried to be hopeful as he pressed for information on little Cora
and her father.
Fabrizio shook his head sadly.
"I see them behind the locked gate, then
never again."
Fabrizio too had a question. His had only one
word.
"Helga?" Rose just bit her lip. Her
silence was answer enough. She could not bear to describe the look of horror in
Helga's eyes as her hands slipped for the stern railing.
Jack, Rose and Fabrizio could still hear the
sounds, and feel the icy air. Nora sat rigidly, wondering how it had been
possible to survive such an ordeal.
Suddenly a small voice said, "Daddy,
Daddy, I'm named Cora too."
Rose and Jack looked up in astonishment.
Their four children sat in the doorway of the bedroom.
"What are you doing here?" asked a
surprised Jack.
"Well," said Frank nervously,
"we knew you were going to talk about something serious. We were, well,
curious. We couldn't help it once you got started."
"We're sorry, please Dad, don't be
mad," said Edy.
"It's alright," said Jack gently.
"Your mother and I wanted to tell you this sometime anyway, but no time
seemed right. We didn't want to frighten you."
Molly and Edy went and sat on the sofa next
to their mother and hugged her tightly. Cora climbed into her father's lap.
Frank for once had no smart remarks.
It was Fabrizio who was able to put some
closure to the evening.
"That was a long time ago. We are lucky,
very lucky to be here to talk about it. We must remember the ones who died.
Tonight we have sadness and that is good in its own way. But tomorrow we move
on."
His eyes lit up and he became more animated.
"We have a good time tomorrow. Rose,
Jack, kids, tomorrow you will come to my restaurant. I cook something special
for you. I even get violins to serenade us. What do you say?"
Nora who was relieved to see Fabrizio come to
life again, echoed the invitation.
"Oh yes, please, you must come. You must
end your visit to New York with happy times. And Fabrizio's mother will want to
see the children. Please come."
Slowly the sad mood started to lift. Fabrizio
was right. They had to move on.
A smile started to spread across Jack's face.
"Alright, just tell us when to be there.
I can't think of a better way to spend our last night in New York."