TITANIC: A STORY TOLD
Chapter Sixty-Three
Jack and Rose still floated amid a chorus of
the damned. Jack saw a ship’s officer nearby, Chief Officer Wilde. He was
blowing his whistle furiously, knowing the sound would carry over the water for
miles.
"The boats will come back for us, Rose.
Hold on just a little longer. They had to row away for the suction and now
they’ll be coming back."
She nodded, his words helping her. She was
shivering uncontrollably, her lips blue and her teeth chattering.
"Thank God for you, Jack."
People were still screaming, calling to the
lifeboats.
"Come back! Please! We know you can hear
us. For God’s sake!"
"Please...help us. Save one life! Save
one life!"
*****
In Boat Six, Ruth had her ears covered
against the wailing in the darkness. The first class women in the boat sat,
stunned, listening to the sound of hundreds screaming.
"They’ll pull us right down, I tell
ya!" Hitchens told them.
"Aw, knock it off. You're scaring me.
Come on, girls, grab your oars. Let’s go," Molly argued. Nobody moved.
"Well, come on!"
The women wouldn’t meet her eyes. They
huddled into their ermine wraps.
"I don’t understand a one of you. What’s
the matter with you? It’s your men back there! We got plenty of room for
more."
"If you don’t shut that hole in your
face, there’ll be one less in this boat!" Hitchens snapped.
Ruth kept her ears covered and her eyes
closed, shutting it all out.
In Boat One, Sir Cosmo and Lucille
Duff-Gordon sat with ten other people in a boat that was two-thirds empty. They
were two hundred yards from the screaming in the darkness.
"We should do something," Fireman
Hendrickson said.
Lucille squeezed Cosmo’s hand and pleaded to
him with her eyes. She was terrified.
"It’s out of the question," Sir
Cosmo told them.
The crewmembers, intimidated by a nobleman,
acquiesced. They hunched guiltily, hoping the sound would stop soon.
Twenty boats, most half full, floated in the
darkness. None of them made a move.
*****
Jack and Rose drifted under the blazing
stars. The water was glassy, with only the faintest undulating swell. Rose
could actually see the stars reflecting on the black mirror of the sea.
Jack squeezed the water out of her long coat,
tucking it in tightly around her legs. He rubbed her arms. His face was chalk
white in the darkness. A low moaning sounded in the darkness around them.
"It’s getting quiet."
"Just a few more minutes. It’ll take
them a while to get the boats organized..."
Rose was unmoving, just staring into space.
She knew the truth. There wouldn’t be any boats. Behind Jack, she saw that
Officer Wilde had stopped moving. He was slumped in his lifebelt, looking
almost asleep. He had died of exposure already.
"I don’t know about you, but I intend to
write a strongly worded letter to the White Star Line about all this."
He laughed weakly, but it sounded like a gasp
of fear. Rose found his eyes in the dim light.
"I love you, Jack."
He took her hand.
"No...don’t say your good-byes, Rose.
Don’t you give up. Don’t do it."
"I’m so cold."
"You’re going to get out of
this...you’re going to go on, and you’re going to make babies, and watch them
grow, and you’re going to die an old, old lady, warm in your bed. Not here. Not
this night. Do you understand me?"
"I can’t feel my body."
"Rose, listen to me. Listen. Winning
that ticket was the best thing that ever happened to me."
Jack was having trouble getting the breath to
speak.
"It brought me to you. And I’m thankful,
Rose. I’m thankful."
His voice was trembling with the cold, which
was working its way to his heart. But his eyes were unwavering.
"You must do me this honor...promise me
you will survive...that you will never give up...no matter what happens...no
matter how hopeless...promise me now, and never let go of that promise."
"I promise."
"Never let go."
"I promise. I will never let go, Jack.
I’ll never let go."
She gripped his hand and they lay with their
heads together. It was quiet now, except for the lapping of the water.