TITANIC: A STORY TOLD
Chapter Sixty-Nine
Old Rose sat with the group in the imaging shack,
lit by the blue glow of the screens. She held the hair comb with the jade
butterfly on the handle in her gnarled hands.
Bodine spoke to her. "We never found
anything on Jack. There’s no record of him at all."
"No, there wouldn’t be, would there? And
I’ve never spoken of him until now, not to anyone." She turned to Lizzy.
"Not even your grandfather. A woman’s heart is a deep ocean of secrets.
But now you all know there was a man named Jack Dawson, and that he saved me,
in every way that a person can be saved." She closed her eyes. "I
don’t even have a picture of him. He exists now only in my memory."
*****
The Mir submersibles made their last pass
over the ship. They heard Yuri the pilot on the UQC.
"Mir One returning to surface."
The sub rose off the deck of the wreck,
taking its light with it, leaving the Titanic once again in its fine and
private darkness.
*****
A desultory wrap party for the expedition was
in progress. There was music and some of the co-ed Russian crew were dancing.
Bodine was getting drunk in the aggressive style of Baker Joughin.
Lovett stood at the rail, looking down into
the black water. Lizzy came to him, offering him a beer. She put her hand on
his arm.
"I’m sorry."
"We were pissing in the wind the whole
time."
Lovett noticed a figure move through the
lights far down at the stern of the ship.
"Oh, shit."
*****
Rose walked through the shadows of the deck
machinery. Her nightgown blew in the wind. Her feet were bare. Her hands were
clutched at her chest, almost as if she was praying.
Brock and Lizzy ran down the stairs from the
top deck, hauling ass.
Rose reached the stern rail. Her gnarled
fingers wrapped over the rail. Her ancient foot stepped up on the gunwale. She
pushed herself up, leaning forward. Over her shoulder, the black water glinted
far below.
Brock and Lizzy ran up behind her.
"Nana, wait! Don’t--"
Rose turned her head, looking at them. She
turned further, and they saw she had something in her hand, something she was
about to drop overboard.
It was the Heart of the Ocean.
Lovett saw his holy grail in her hand and his
eyes went wide. Rose kept it over the railing where she could drop it anytime.
"Don’t come any closer."
"You had it the entire time!?"
In Rose’s mind’s eye, she could see herself walking
away from Pier 54. The photographers’ flashes went off like a battle behind
her. She had her hands in her pockets. She stopped, feeling something, and
pulled out the necklace. She stared at it in amazement.
On Keldysh, Rose smiled at Brock’s incomprehension.
"The hardest part about being so poor,
was being so rich. But every time I thought of selling it, I thought of Cal.
And somehow I always got by without his help."
She held it out over the water. Bodine and a
couple of the other guys came up behind Brock, reacting to what was in Rose’s
hand.
"Holy shit."
"Don’t drop it, Rose."
Bodine spoke in a fierce whisper. "Rush
her."
Lovett turned to Bodine. "It’s hers, you
schmuck." Turning back to Rose, he said, "Look, Rose, I...I don’t
know what to say to a woman who tries to jump off the Titanic when it’s not
sinking, and jumps back onto it when it is...we’re not dealing with logic here,
I know that...but please...think about this a second."
"I have. I came all the way here so this
could go back where it belongs."
The massive diamond glittered. Brock edged
closer and held out his hand.
"Just let me hold it in my hand, Rose.
Please. Just once."
He came closer to her. It was reminiscent of
Jack slowly moving up to her at the stern of Titanic.
Surprisingly, she calmly placed the massive
stone in the palm of his hand, while still holding onto the necklace. Brock
gazed at the object of his quest. An infinity of cold scalpels glinted in its
blue depths. It was mesmerizing. It fit in his hand just like he imagined.
"My God."
His grip tightened on the diamond.
He looked up, meeting her gaze. Her eyes were
suddenly infinitely wise and deep.
"You look for treasure in the wrong
place, Mr. Lovett. Only life is priceless, and making each day count."
His fingers relaxed. He opened them slowly.
Gently, she slipped the diamond out of his hand. He felt it sliding away.
Then, with an impish little grin, Rose tossed
the necklace over the rail. Bodine gave a strangled cry and rushed to the rail
in time to see it hit the water and disappear forever.
"Aw! That really sucks, lady!"
Brock Lovett went through ten changes before
he settled on a reaction...he laughed. He laughed until the tears came to his
eyes. Then he turned to Lizzy.
"Would you like to dance?"
Lizzy grinned at him and nodded. Rose smiled.
She looked up at the stars.
In the black heart of the ocean, the diamond
sank, twinkling end over end, into the infinite depths.
*****
On Rose’s shelf of carefully arranged
pictures: Rose as a young actress in California, radiant...a theatrically lit
studio publicity shot...Rose and her husband, with their two children...Rose
with her son at his college graduation...Rose with her children and
grandchildren at her seventieth birthday. A collage of images of a life lived
well.
One picture in particular stood out. Rose,
circa 1920. She was at the beach, sitting on a horse at the surf line. The
Santa Monica pier, with its roller coaster, was behind her. She was grinning,
full of life.
Rose herself lay warm in her bunk. She was
very still. She could be sleeping, or maybe something else.