TITANIC ROSE
Chapter Twenty-Four
"Oh, there's Lora now!" Thomas
exclaimed as they pulled into the driveway. Lora, Thomas' sister, came running
out to meet them. Andrew began to wail as the car stopped.
"Oh, dear." Rose sighed. "He
likes the motion of the car so much."
"And there's the baby!" Lora cried
when they stepped out. She hurried to Rose, almost tearing Andrew from her
arms. "Isn't he adorable? He looks like you, Thomas."
Rose couldn't help but laugh at Lora's
overflow of emotions. It was quite funny, the way she grabbed at the child.
"He's only a few months old, and hasn't been around many people,"
Thomas told her.
"Oh, pish-posh. He'll have everyone in
the neighborhood swooning over him when he grows up, don't you think? Why,
he'll be as handsome as Thomas is."
Rose blushed.
Thomas pulled her closer to him as they
followed Lora, who still held the baby, into the house. It was very large, and
had a grand foyer. "I already miss our cozy little home," Rose
whispered in her husband's ear.
"We'll have another soon enough."
Rose nodded.
"Now, your bedroom is upstairs and the
second door on the right. The first door on the right is a nursery for the
baby, and there's a door between the rooms connecting them. Why don't you go
and freshen up. It's obvious you are all tired from traveling."
"Very," Rose replied. She took
Andrew away from Lora and headed toward the stairs.
"Oh, and Rose?" Lora called.
"I'd like to talk to you later. It's been so long since we last saw each
other. Almost a year."
"Sometimes, a year goes by so
quickly," Rose said. "It's hard to believe that last year at this
time, I was out on the streets."
"You had just met Thomas then."
Lora smiled. This time, Thomas blushed and followed Rose up to their room.
"She always has to embarrass me."
Thomas sighed good-heartedly when they placed Andrew in his crib.
"Thomas, she's joking. I find it cute.
Sometimes, I wish I had other siblings to nag."
"I've got to find a job in the
morning."
"Why don't you start your own law firm,
like you wanted to back home--er--in Cedar Rapids? You could still do
that."
"I suppose." Thomas pondered the
opportunities. "There are so many possibilities out here, Rose. Maybe you
will even want to work. We'll need any extra money we can get if we're to get a
place of our own."
"But what shall I do about Andrew if I
work?" Rose asked, shifting her gaze toward the crib where Andrew lay.
"Lora is here all day," Thomas
replied. "The only time she ever leaves the house is at night to work at
the hospital. And by then you'll be home, if you only get a day job."
"I wouldn't be comfortable leaving him
with--"
"Lora is his aunt, after all."
Thomas took Rose's hands in his, and they stood close together. "And it
would be wonderful to not have to worry about him all the time, wouldn't
it?"
"I imagine so, but I don't want to leave
him alone. We may miss his first steps, or he may start calling Lora mommy. I
don't want that to happen. Do you?"
"Rose, until I start any kind of work,
we need some sort of income," Thomas stated. "And until I can get my
own law firm up-and-running, you will have to be the legs we stand on."
Rose sighed. "I fought so hard to keep
my baby away from my mother, and now I'll have to give him up again."
"The difference between my sister and
your mother is that Lora is humane and you like her." Thomas smiled, and
so did Rose.
"I suppose you're right. You know what
you're talking about when it comes to work. To think that women like Maddie
have to go and sell themselves like that just to make money."
"Did I hear someone mention
Maddie?" Lora asked as she passed by the door. "Oh, I suppose I
should tell you, since the two of you were friends for some time."
"What is it, Lora?" Rose asked,
sitting on the bed.
"Well, after you left, she came into the
shelter, big as a house, as in a family way. She gave birth prematurely. She
and the baby died."
Rose's eyes filled with tears. Just like
Jacquelyn had died, and how Rose could have ended up if it weren't for Thomas
and his caring sister. She wanted to break down and cry, not only for Maddie,
but for the way she could have been.
"Rose, are you all right?" Thomas
asked, placing an arm around her and holding his wife close.
"I thought you should know since you
were discussing the subject. I know I was intruding a bit, perhaps, on your
conversation, but it is important."
"You were right to tell me." Rose
caught a fugitive tear flowing down her cheek. "After all, I could have
ended up the same way."
"Don't say that." Thomas held her
closer. "I don't know what I'd do without you. If you weren't here, we'd
have no son; I'd have no life."
"Yes, you would, Thomas. You're so
handsome. You'd have found another girl."
"Not true," Thomas told her.
"I thought I was done with love until I found you. And I love you so
much."
"I love you, too, Thomas." Rose
smiled and kissed him.
"Now that's what I like to see,"
Lora said. "You are so in love with each other, it makes me want to go on
and cry. Oh, look, Andrew is awake. Can I take him?"
Rose was about to say no, but Thomas' eyes
pleaded with her own to say yes. "All right. Be careful, though. He can be
fussy, especially after such a long day."
"I'll take him for a walk around the
block."
When she had left with the baby, Thomas
stretched across the bed and reached for Rose, who snuggled up next to him.
"It's been a while since we've been alone together."
"I know, Thomas. Maybe being here with
Lora is a very good thing after all."
*****
"Oh, Rose!" Lora cried the next
morning as Rose came down the stairs. Lora and another woman were sitting in
the parlor, obviously one of Lora's friends. "Come in and meet
Sylvia."
"How do you do?" the woman asked.
She was breathtakingly gorgeous, with long blonde hair flowing down her back in
waves. Her eyelashes were long and black, and her lips the perfect shade of
red.
"Sylvia is an actress out here,"
Lora stated happily. "We've been friends since I came, and she was injured
on the set of one of those moving pictures."
"I was rushed to the hospital and met
Lora," Sylvia finished. "She's so very nice, except she was taken at
the fact I changed my name to Sylvia. She couldn't get over it."
"Many actresses change their names here
in California," Lora said.
"Why?" Rose asked.
"My original name was Matilda,"
Sylvia replied. "And you have to have original, more popular names to
become anything in Hollywood."
"So I see. But I would never change my
name."
"Your last name is Calvert?" Sylvia
asked, and Rose nodded. "You would be forced to change your name. No
offense, but Calvert isn't the type of name Hollywood producers go for."
"I'm not exactly aching to become an
actress," Rose retorted, angry at this woman's arrogance and ignorance.
"I could never live a life like that."
"It's wonderful, I assure you. You make
so much money, you have it coming out of your ears. And if you can act, that's
a big bonus, too."
Lora laughed. "I was going to try to
become an actress, but I look nothing of a pretty thing like Sylvia. I'm much
too horsy."
"Oh, no, you're not," Rose said
when Sylvia didn't say otherwise. Rose took it to believe that Sylvia was
narcissistic and egotistical, among other things. "You're very pretty,
Lora. Don't ever say otherwise."
"Perhaps," Lora said meekly.
"Rose, dear, if only your hair wasn't
red." Sylvia let out a melodramatic sigh, and it was all Rose could do to
keep from laughing hysterically. "You'd be so pretty."
"My hair isn't red. It's auburn. And I
look fine with it, much better than your blonde hair."
"Darling, I have professionals work with
my hair," Sylvia said, as though it were the best thing in the world.
"It's obvious you're only a plain housewife by the way your hair is."
How can Lora not see through this woman? Rose asked herself.
"Now, Sylvia, Rose has a baby boy she
takes care of."
"Yes, not all of us have the time to
pamper ourselves every minute of our lives," Rose said harshly.
"I'd better be going," Sylvia said.
"It's all I can take in this hostile environment. Everything was fine
until Rose had to start picking a fight with me."
Rose watched Lora walk Sylvia to the door.
She heard something Sylvia whispered, as though Rose didn't exist. "Why
did you invite them to stay? It was so peaceful without that temperamental
redhead you call a sister-in-law."
"Don't mind Sylvia," Lora said as
she walked back. "She's a head case."
"Really? I couldn't tell," Rose
stated sarcastically.
"She believes I'm her friend. She also
believes she's an actress. Last year, Sylvia auditioned for a part, and when
she was turned down, she basically went insane. So now she lives the life a
movie star would, except she's nothing but your normal everyday Jane."
"So how did you two meet?"
"Oh, she really did injure herself on
the set--when she went on a rampage. Sylvia was so angry at the world she went
in and electrocuted herself on some wires. She's a smart one, all right."
Rose laughed. "Well, I guess while we all
have our own little idiosyncrasies. She has more than anyone else can
bear."