A ROSE BLOWING IN THE WIND
Chapter One
"Rose Dawson." She
turned to the officer who had asked for her name. Yes. Rose Dawson was her new
identity...in honor of her savior...Jack Dawson. She could be his widow if
there were any questions. Her mother and Cal would never suspect...at least,
she hoped they wouldn't.
"Thank you, love." The
officer nodded, then went to the next passenger. Rose sighed and looked back up
at the Statue of Liberty. It meant so many things now. A new life, freedom, and
sadly, it reminded her of her lost love. How she was stepping off a ship without
him.
"Oh, Jack." She placed
a shaky hand over her mouth and stifled a coming sob. She hadn't cried since
they had picked her up out of the icy water, and she wasn't going to start now.
There was no use in it. Crying wouldn't bring Jack back. "What am I going
to do now?"
It was too late to go back to Cal
and Mother, and she didn't want to. That would be dishonoring Jack's memory.
Plus, after experiencing just a couple of days of freedom, she didn't want to
give that up. Her freedom was the only thing she had left of Jack. She was
determined to keep her promise...she was going to go on...never let go of the
freedom he had died to give her.
Sighing, she placed her freezing
hands into the damp pockets of Cal's coat. She furrowed her eyebrows as she
felt something cold and hard in one pocket. She gasped as she lifted the object
out of her pocket and found the Heart of the Ocean. Cal must have taken it for
insurance. She suppressed a laugh as she thought about him kicking himself
after she and Jack had fled from him. No matter what, he had been down in
steerage looking for her. It wasn't her he had wanted. It had been the
necklace.
She wondered what else Cal had
stashed in his coat. She looked in the inside breast pocket of the coat and
found what must be two thousand dollars. A nice nest egg for her to get started
out on. She looked up at the sky and could swear she saw a shooting star.
"Thank you, Jack," she
whispered, the star disappearing into the now partly clouded sky. He had sent
her these two things. She knew it. He was going to make sure she was well taken
care of. The money was for her survival...but the necklace...it was going to be
her keepsake...something to remember that magical night he drew her wearing
only the Heart of the Ocean.
"Where to, miss?" she
heard his voice ask.
"To a nice, warm, dry place
to stay the night," Rose answered. But where? She'd been in New York, but
she had never had to worry about where to stay before. Mother and Cal had
always made those decisions. Now it was her choice, and she had no idea where
to start.
"Miss? Are you from the
Titanic?" A young woman approached just as Rose disembarked the Carpathia.
"Yes, I am. Why?" Rose
was suspicious. She had seen the swarm of reporters crowding the decks, waiting
like a pack of wolves hungry for fresh meat. Could this simple girl be one of
them?
"Well...me and my
hostess...we're offering the young girls and widows touched by this horrible
tragedy a place to stay until they get back on their feet. It's free. What do
you say?" the girl asked.
Rose sighed and took in her
surroundings. Thousands of reporters, passengers from the Carpathia, and
passengers from the Titanic. Then she spotted them...her mother and Cal talking
to a reporter. She had to get out of there fast, before they spotted her.
"Okay. But can we go now,
please? Being around all these reporters..."
"Oh, of course. My
companions can do the rest of the scouting." The girl eagerly nodded,
wanting to get home herself. "By the way, my name's Laurie Collins. What's
yours?"
"Rose. Rose Dawson,"
Rose said, quickly turning her back on her mother and Cal, and followed the
girl to a streetcar. "Do you mind if I ask where we're going?"
"My hostess's house, of
course. Her name is Mrs. Singleton. She's a widow, of course, and she let's all
us girls live there. She's a real nice lady. I think you'll like her,"
Laurie smiled at her new companion.
Rose took one more look at the
dock and sighed as she shut the door on her old life. Any chance she had to go
back to her old life as Rose DeWitt Bukater was now gone forever. Her future
and identity were written in stone now. Rose Dawson had now officially been
born.