TO THE STARS
Chapter One
Come Josephine, in my flying
machine,
And it’s up she goes, up she goes!
Josephine Calvert squealed in
delight as she clung to her parents’ hands, her squeals intensifying as they
raised her up every time they said, "Up she goes." Her blue ribbon
and her light red ringlets bounced in the air, playing with the sea breeze and
sweeping around her plump-cheeked little face.
Come Josephine, in my flying
machine,
Going up she goes, up she goes!
Izzy Calvert wandered after her
parents, humming the song off-key and pausing every few moments to examine a
seashell or cave in a crab hole or poke a dead jellyfish with her wet and
brittle stick. Her own red curls carried sand and seawater, making them stick
to her neck and forehead. The flouncy little dress that her mother had gushed over
was now also smudged with sand and damp. She seemed oblivious to the rest of
her family ahead of her.
"Come along, Izzy!"
Rose called to her oldest daughter, beckoning with her free hand to the
five-year-old. The little girl complied instantly, trotting forward and
giggling as her father caught her up in his left arm.
Balance yourself like a bird
on a beam,
In the air she goes!
"Where?" Izzy cried,
right on cue.
There she goes!
Up, up, a little bit higher,
Oh my, the moon is on fire!
Rose turned to look at her
family, beaming as they all looked so carefree. These yearly trips to Santa
Monica were the biggest excitements they had now, but that was just fine with
all of them. There were no more trips abroad for Rose, no more seeing the world
for Jack. And still, that suited the both of them just fine. Cedar Rapids had
proved to be the perfect place for them to settle; it was quiet and out of the
way. They were safe from their old lives. Ruth and Cal had no doubt been--and
might still be--searching for Rose DeWitt Bukater and Jack Dawson or Jack and
Rose Dawson, but they would never look for Mr. and Mrs. Calvert in a sleepy
little town in Iowa.
There were some downsides to
Cedar Rapids; everyone knew everyone’s business, and everyone was somewhat
miffed that they knew so little about the Calverts. The money they had gotten
from pawning the diamond was in a bank, where it was earning interest and would
someday give them the little push they needed. Jack’s job was not a spectacular
one. Rose wanted to help, she really did, but raising a family took precedence
over that. This was not to mention that the issue of, "Mama, where did you
and Daddy meet?" which would inevitably come up someday, and neither
Dawson, now Calvert, had a good lie yet.
Come Josephine, in my flying
machine,
Going up,
All on,
Good-bye!
"Again, Daddy, again!"
Izzy shouted, her cries echoed by her little sister.
"Again?" Jack asked,
pretending to sound surprised.
"Yes, again!" the two
little girls said, their voices growing excited when they realized that his
smile was one of compliance.
"Okay! Ready?" Jack
asked, voices rising with his own childish delight at belting out the song
along the beach.
Oh, say, let us fly, girl,
Where dear?
To the sky, girl!
Oh, you flying machine,
Come please, please, Josephine!
And yet…and yet, Rose wouldn’t
trade any of it for the world. Neither would Jack, for that matter. Rose loved
faking surprise at her daughters’ latest escapades, making cheese sandwiches
without the bread, exclaiming over the weeds they would pick for her in the
small backyard, pretending that she could interact with Izzy’s imaginary
friends--of which there were several--and inventing new stories almost every
night about two princesses named Isadora and Josephine and their good parents,
King Daddy and Queen Mama.
She always counted herself lucky
for meeting Jack and starting a family with him. Her losses--her once powerful
name, her money, her mother, her social standing, her friends, her finery, her
life, namely, everything that the Titanic had taken away from her--were
absolutely nothing compared to the gains she had, courtesy of Jack Dawson. The
small band on her finger, the tiny house in Cedar Rapids, the man who had slept
beside her ever since they had been taken to the Carpathia, the two little
girls who seemed to adore every aspect of her--and hopefully the children that
were still to come…all of them made her thankful that she had once tried to
jump off the stern of the grandest ship in the world.
In some ways, she almost felt
guilty because of her gratefulness. If it hadn’t been for her attempted
suicide, she would never have met Jack. If it hadn’t been for her overbearing
mother and fiancé, she would never have realized her love for him. If it hadn’t
been for that iceberg, the ship that sank beneath them…they wouldn’t be
strolling along on this beach just now, singing their favorite song with the
two angels they had been gifted with.
Jack caught her eye and beamed,
his blue eyes twinkling. She returned the grin immediately, already feeling
lost in those eyes. After eleven years, he still made her knees buckle, and she
knew that it would always be that way.
Come Josephine, in my flying
machine,
Going up,
All on,
Good-bye!