Written by Verity Thompson
Based on some situations originated by James Cameron.
The cold still surrounded her,
the ice biting her. Darkness surrounded her as she realized she was alone in
the world. Her hand was still welded tightly to Jack's. She was still staring
up at the stars in the trance she was in. No more tears came to her eyes. The
boat's flashlight still highlighted the area of the water where she was.
"Come Josephine...in my
flying machine...up...up she goes…"
Another shooting star flew
brightly into the night sky. Smiling slightly, Rose tightened her grip around
Jack's hand. She could no longer shiver in the cold. She was used to it. The
long white dress had somehow tightly tangled itself around her legs. The star
finally disappeared into the distance. That was the longest one she'd ever
seen. Rose knew why.
"My father said when you
see a shooting star, it's a soul going to heaven."
It was Jack going to heaven. But
his body was still next to her, gripping tightly to her hand. Maybe...just
maybe she'd made a mistake. Maybe he was unconscious. What if she helped him to
the boat? He might survive. Despite all her wishes, Rose knew deep down what
the truth was...he'd died for her.
The sudden pain which overcome
her body was one she'd never felt before. Tears spilled rapidly from her eyes.
Her breathing quickened as she tried to catch her breath.
"Jack!" she called
faintly. "Jack!" She burst into yet another heart-wrenching sob.
Turning onto her side, she looked
at the person beside her, his body falling into the water.
Gently touching his face, Rose
smiled weakly through the tears. His skin was soft but cold. His once lively
face was pale and ghostly-looking. He was the same Jack, the same Jack she
loved, the same Jack she'd kissed, the same Jack she'd...made love to just
hours before all of this had happened.
Lying on her back yet again, Rose
watched the sky. Jack's face appeared. He smiled down at her, murmuring
something gently. She couldn't hear what he was saying. His lips only moved.
All the memories of herself and
Jack came flooding back. So little time together, but so many precious memories
to be treasured forever.
"You know, my dream has
always been to just chuck it all and become an artist...living in a garret,
poor but free!" Rose said, girlishly and excitedly.
"You wouldn't last two
days. There's no hot water, and hardly ever any caviar." Jack laughed.
"Listen, buster...I hate
caviar! And I'm tired of people dismissing my dreams with a chuckle and a pat
on the head." Rose's voice was angry, but she soon softened.
"I'm sorry. Really...I
am."
"Well, all right. There's
something in me, Jack. I feel it. I don't know what it is, whether I should be
an artist, or, I don't know...a dancer. Like Isadora Duncan...a wild, pagan
spirit…" Rose smiled yet again, getting carried away with the thought of
her dreams. She'd never told anyone about her dreams, but she knew she could
trust Jack.
She leaped forward, landed
deftly, and whirled like a dervish. Then she saw something ahead and her face
lit up.
"...or a moving picture
actress!"
She took his hand and ran,
pulling him along the deck toward Daniel and Mary Marvin. Daniel was cranking
the big wooden movie camera as she posed stiffly at the rail.
"You're sad. Sad, sad,
sad. You've left your lover on the shore. You may never see him again. Try to
be sadder, darling," Daniel said.
Suddenly, Rose shot into the
picture and struck a theatrical pose at the rail next to Mary. Mary burst out
laughing. Rose pulled Jack into the picture and made him pose.
Marvin grinned and started
yelling and gesturing. Rose posed tragically at the rail, the back of her hand
to her forehead. Jack lay on a deck chair, pretending to be a pasha, the two
girls pantomiming fanning him like slave girls. Jack, on his knees, pleaded
with his hands clasped, while Rose, standing, turned her head in bored disdain.
Rose cranked the camera while
Daniel and Jack had a western shoot-out. Jack won and leered into the lens,
twirling an air mustache like Snidely Whiplash.
That day seemed so long ago, like
forever. The vision of Jack's face in the sky had now gone. She was alone yet again.
"I don't know about you,
but I intend to write a strongly worded letter to the White Star Line about all
this." Jack shivered uncontrollably. 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." Jack knew what was
coming. He just couldn't face leaving her alone in the world. But she'd be all
right. He knew it.
"I'm so cold." Rose's
teeth chattered vigorously as she shivered more with the biting chill.
"You're going to get out
of this...you're going to go on and you're going to make lots of 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?"
Rose didn't want to listen.
They'd get out of here. They'd go on and make lots of babies.
"I can't feel my
body."
"Rose, listen to me.
Listen. Winning that ticket is the best thing that ever happened to me."
Tears appeared in Jack's eyes. He was having trouble getting the breath to
speak. "It brought me to you. And I'm thankful, Rose. I'm thankful,"
he continued.
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, Rose, 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." Jack gently kissed Rose's hand as he
breathed harder. He was struggling.
She gripped his hand and they
lay with their heads together. It was quiet now, except for the lapping of the
water.
Why did she make that promise?
Knowing now that she would break it. Rose couldn't live without Jack. She
couldn't even remember her life without him, though it was just a week ago.
Struggling onto her side, Rose laid her head onto the panel of wood keeping her
afloat. She closed her eyes, trying to block out all of the pain she was
feeling. An almost silent sob escaped her mouth.
Slowing opening her eyes, Rose
could hear a voice in the back of her head. "Don't do it. Don't let
go," it whispered at her repeatedly, making Rose's heart ache even
more. Her body was weak and cold. The numbness had worked its way up her body
until she couldn't feel anything but the heart-wrenching, terrible pain she
felt, which tugged at her heart like a puppet on strings.
"Don't do it. Don't let
go," the voice
continued. But Rose knew that anytime now…she knew what was going to happen.
She wanted it to happen, even though Jack didn't. She'd made that promise go
on, but they both knew she couldn't.
Burying her head in her heavy
black coat, Rose closed her eyes, blocking out everything. Every now and again,
a sob could be heard from her, but that soon died down.
"Is there anyone alive out
there? Can anyone hear me?"
Officer Lowe continued to shout,
and listened as his voice trailed off into the cruel black night.
"Is anyone alive out
there?" he shouted once more.
In the boat lay six people who
had been rescued from the disaster. Tears spilled from their eyes as only two
of them slept, blocking out the surrounding of deep, black water and frozen
human beings.
"Louisa!" one of the
women cried. "Louisa!" The woman had seen her sister in the water,
dead. One of the other survivors placed a comforting arm around the woman,
praying hard for something, anything.
The water lay calm and still, the
blackness still hovering over the ocean. The only sound was the water gently
splashing up again the debris, then becoming calm once more.
Rose and Jack lay where they had
been for the past two hours. They lay still. Rose's sobs could no longer be
heard. Overhead, a shooting star blazed one last time as it went on, then
disappeared into eternity.
Officer Lowe and the few men on
his boat continued to row in and out of the bodies, searching for someone,
anyone. After a while, there seemed to be no more people alive in the water. A
few men lay on pieces of debris, and...Officer Wilde, frozen to death, clung to
a deck chair. Tears pricked in Officer Lowe's eyes. Then they came to a man and
woman, their skin as pale as ghosts and hands clinging together for life. Their
hair was matted and straw-like. It was obvious that they had been in love, or
perhaps they still were...in the next life.
"We waited too long,"
Lowe managed to mutter softly. Lowe looked out onto the ocean. As far as the
eye could see, all was calm. As far as the eye could see, bodies bobbed in the
water. Just a few hours ago, they had been on board the grandest ship in the
world. Now, they were gone. Their bodies would remain forever unfound, but
their spirits would live on in the next world.
Heaven
The whole ocean seemed to light
up so brightly, Rose could hardly see. She felt herself floating, floating on
air, higher and higher until she reached the clouds. The world was white.
Rose looked down and noticed her
sudden change of clothes--a beautiful, white, lacy dress, and her hair hung
loosely on her shoulders, no knots, no mats, perfect.
Where on earth was she? Walking
straight ahead, she realized where she was...on the Titanic. Walking curiously,
Rose saw a man. He held the door open. As she entered the Grand Staircase, she
gasped. People looked at her in awe, waving. Then she noticed someone else at
the top of the Grand Staircase with his back to her...Jack.
Nervously, she walked up the
stairs. Jack seemed to notice her, turning to look. Smiling, he held out his
hand. She took it. No words were needed as their lips touched. It was then that
Rose knew where she was...in heaven.
Back in the middle of the
Atlantic, Jack and Rose's bodies remained in the same place, where they would
remain forever, unseen, unfound. Their hollow, empty shells were just there to
show how much they loved each other when they were in this world, but now they
had each other in the next.
Along with the other fifteen
hundred people who went into the water and lost their lives the terrible night,
Jack and Rose were finally reunited by tragedy.
The End.