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Then I remembered my promise I had made to Jack and my body seemed to
reawaken with a determination to live. I opened my eyes and called out for
the boat to come back. My voice was so weak that I doubted that they could
hear me. I arose from the plank and looked one last time at Jack. His
hands were frozen to the debris and I broke the thin layer of ice around
the board by breathing on his hands. I held them in mine for one last time
before releasing him. I tearfully told Jack I would never let go and
kissed his hand as I
watched his body slowly sink into his watery cold grave. His hand
seemed to wave goodbye to me like a spirit returning to the other world.
Maybe it was just my imagination.
The boat was past me and my voice
was too weak to shout. I looked around and saw a gleam in front of me. It
was the officer's whistle. I moved off the debris and swam to the body
grabbing the whistle around its neck and began blowing it. I kept blowing
the whistle until they had reached me. I could feel myself getting weaker
and when they lifted me into the boat, everything went black.
I felt as if I was floating and soon
I thought I was back on Titanic. There was a crowd of people in the first
class reception area and I could see Jack at the stair landing by the
clock. I approached the door to go inside, but the gentleman that was
standing there looked at me and softly said, "I'm sorry miss, but you are
not supposed to be here yet." I was going to tell him that he was mistaken.
then I heard another voice that said, "saints be praised, she is breathing
again."
I opened my eyes and I saw this man
looking down at me. He said, "you had us worried there lass, we thought we
were too late and the waters had claimed another one." He asked for another
blanket and as he draped it over me. He told me to lie still so that I
could regain my strength.
After what seemed
like hours, there was excited shouting as someone exclaimed that there was
a ship ahead! A short time later, there were more voices as I heard
someone say, "is everyone okay here?" They said they were, then the officer
that was caring for me told the other men that they might want their
ship's doctor to check this one, referring to me. He placed his hand on my
forehead. I felt someone step into the boat and then two men lifted me up
into another boat.
When we reached the
ship, they carried me into a small room where the doctor immediately
examined me. He said I was fortunate because had I been in that water
another 10 minutes, I would have been dead or at the very least lost a
limb from the frostbite. He told the nurse to give me some hot tea and to
dry my clothes and keep me warm. As he was leaving I asked him if he could
please tell me where I was. He told me I was on the Carpathia. Then he
asked me how many were on board the Titanic. I told him I believed there
were 2,200. His voice became a choked whisper and he replied "dear God, have
mercy on their souls."
After resting a few hours, I was
beginning to feel a lot better and when the doctor came back to look in on
me I asked him if I could leave. He examined me again and had the nurse
return my clothes. He told me to rest and keep bundled up and he gave me
an extra blanket. I got dressed and then I thanked him for his help. He
told me I was welcome and as I was leaving he said I was a very lucky girl
and that it was a miracle of God that I was still alive.
I spotted a steward and asked him to
direct me to the steerage section of the ship. He escorted me to the area
and then he left. If Cal and mother had been looking for me I knew they
would have found me had I remained in the first class area.
All around me I could see people
with blank stares on their faces, mostly they were women. One tearful
woman was asking a steward if he had seen her husband. He sadly replied he
had not. I saw two children numbly playing hand games with each other.
Then I caught something out of the corner of my eye that made me tremble.
It was Cal. I saw him start down the steps and he was looking carefully at
each face he passed. I knew he was looking for me. I pulled the blanket
around my head and turned away. He never recognized me. I watched as he
stopped a minute to talk with a steward and then he went back up the
stairs.
If Cal thinks that I died on
Titanic, I can finally be free of him. I am sorry to have to hurt mother
this way, but I have no choice. If she knew I was alive, she would only
make me go back to Cal.
After the ship had docked in New
York, I waited until most of the people had gone before I finally left.
The weather was cold and it was raining. It was as if Heaven were weeping
for the victims of Titanic. I stood silent, looking up at the Statue of
Liberty and meditating on my own new liberty, when an officer who asked my
name interrupted my thoughts. I was about to give him my real last name,
but then I paused and said "Dawson, Rose Dawson." He thanked me and left.
I thought of myself as Jack's wife,
presently his widow, and I knew Jack would have been happy that I chose to
have his name be my own. The laws of men may have not married us, but in
my heart, I knew our souls were united and would be forever. Nothing would
change that. Smiling I pushed my hands deeper into my pocket and that is
when I discovered The Heart of the Ocean.
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The
Movie
The End!