A DIFFERENT TALE
Chapter Four
Most of the morning, I walked
around the decks, waiting for Jack to come back. Nobody had seen him--not that
I asked anybody. Around noon, I went down and grabbed something to eat for
lunch.
After that, I explored a bit,
pausing to draw a picture of someone or something that interested me. I did
quite a bit of sketching of the ocean. It was so calming, so relaxing; it
helped me get my mind off of Jack, which was the only thing I could think
about.
Finally, I couldn’t sit still
anymore. I went to the bow of the ship and spread my arms out wide, letting the
wind push me back. I took a step up on the railing and continued to lean out.
Suddenly, the ship made a turn
port and I lost my balance. At first I panicked, until I felt Jack’s strong
arms wrap around my waist and pull me back up.
"I got you," he said in
my ear.
I relaxed, and he slid his hands
into mine, stretched out like eagle wings. I laid my head against his shoulder
and he stepped up behind me. After a few moments, we got down. I smiled at him
and rubbed his cheek with my fingers.
"Jack?" Rose’s voice
suddenly spoke up.
I turned her way, feeling like I
wanted to strike her.
"I changed my mind,"
she said.
Jack smiled and let go of my
waist, leading Rose back down to her room.
"Marie, are you
coming?" Jack called after me.
I didn’t answer. We were so
close, and then she had to appear and ruin it all. But strangely, I did follow
the two of them. Rose had gone into her room to change and Jack pulled out his
sketchpad.
"What was that all
about?" I suddenly blurted out.
Jack stared up at me, confused.
"What was what about?"
he asked.
I fumed but didn’t have a chance
to say anything else. Rose was ready for her sketch, so I went in the opposite
room to wait for them to finish.
After about a half hour or so,
Jack had finished. Rose got dressed and Jack took her necklace and her portrait
and stuck them in her safe. But suddenly, the door opened up, a man calling for
Rose.
That’s when we ran. We took off
out of the room, the man following us.
"Wait! Wait! Hold the
elevator!" Jack yelled, laughing.
We got into the elevator and it
slowly went down. The man approached the gate and Rose gave him the finger.
"Bye," I said, and
waved.
Once the elevator had reached the
bottom deck, we ran down certain hallways and finally stopped to catch our
breaths.
"What was that guy, a
cop?" Jack panted.
"I think he was," Rose
replied through gasps for breath.
"Why don’t you go talk to
him, Rose? He called for you!" I snapped.
Before either of them could
reply, the man appeared in the other room.
"Oh, shit!" Jack
yelled.
We ran into the boiler room,
zooming past all the people who worked on the engines. They were stunned, but
none of them tried to stop us.
Finally, we were out of the
boiler room and in the cargo hold.
"Whoa…check this out,"
Jack said, pointing to an automobile.
He was about to climb in front
when Rose went, "Ahem."
Jack bowed and opened the back
door for her.
"Thank you," she said,
stepping in.
Jack waited for me to climb in,
but I didn’t. He sighed and hopped in the front, honking the horn. Soon, we had
to leave, though, because the stewards came looking for us. We ran to the upper
decks.
There was a lot of commotion, and
for a good reason.
We tried to port round the big
iceberg, but we still hit. Jack, Rose, and I went to the rich area to lead Rose
back to her room. If it weren’t for the cop guy who stood next to us, I would
have probably kicked her.
We entered her room, and Cal
approached us.
"What’s going on?" Rose
asked.
"Something of yours has been
stolen. Search them," Cal replied.
A couple of guards took off
Jack’s coat and mine and began to search. Suddenly, one of the guards pulled
out a blue diamond necklace from Jack’s coat pocket.
"This is horseshit!"
Jack roared angrily.
Rose looked stunned, then
suddenly angry.
"Is this why you came to
talk to me? Because you wanted my money and my jewelry?" she demanded.
Now it was Jack’s turn to look
stunned.
"Don’t believe this,
Rose!" Jack yelled.
The men put cuffs on him and
began to drag him away. I stood in the doorway, not letting them pass.
"Jack was with me the whole
time. I never saw him once with that necklace," I said in a low, menacing
tone.
Two of the other stewards pulled
me away from the door and dragged Jack through.
"Marie!" Jack called
from down the hallway.
"Jack!"
Soon, I couldn’t hear him at all.
I wanted to hit Rose so badly, but the stewards had my arms.
"How could you do
that?" I demanded.
She didn’t reply. She turned and
walked into another room.
"What should we do with this
one, sir?" one steward asked Cal.
He thought about it for a moment,
but I didn’t give him a chance. Acting quickly, I stepped on the steward’s foot
and then elbowed the other one in the face. I ran down the hallways, looking
for Jack.
The stewards were chasing after
me, and when I had gone down two levels, I slipped. One of the stewards caught
up with me again, but I backed up and smashed him into the wall. I kept on
running.
But I wasn’t sure how much time I
had.