MEMORIES
Chapter Nine

Mother
Present Day

The next picture was a picture of her and her mother. She remembered the day her mother had appeared in town and their talk about the past and the future.

*****

She’d been married to Jason for five years now, and everything was perfect. Tired of Santa Monica, they had moved back to his hometown of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Nine months later, Rose had given birth to a beautiful baby girl. They had named her Josephine. She had Rose’s red curls and Jason’s blue eyes.

Rose had taken her children to the park and was watching five-year-old Jake play jacks while she fed Josephine. She was putting Josephine back in her bassinette when she spotted a familiar pale woman staring straight at her, shock in her eyes. Rose gasped in fear when she realized who the woman was.

"Jake!" Rose called. "Come on! It’s time to go!"

"But, Mommy, I’m playing with my friend!" Jake called back.

Rose rolled her eyes for the thousandth time. Jake kept insisting that he had an invisible friend he played with. Rose had asked him the name, but Jake had refused to tell her. Both Jason and Rose had tried to get Jake to give up the notion of the friend, but he had refused.

"Jake, we have already discussed this about your friend. Now, come on!"

"Okay, Mommy! I’m sorry. I have to go now!" Jake turned and replied to the empty air before getting up and joining his mother, his blue eyes cast to the ground. "Do we really have to go?"

"I’m afraid so, dear." Rose stroked his blonde head. He was looking more and more like Jack every day.

"Rose, wait!" the woman called desperately. "Rose!"

"Mommy, who’s that?" Jake pointed to the woman, who was quickly approaching them.

"No one, Jake. Come on." Rose pulled him along and out of the park. She didn’t stop until she reached the safety of the house.

"Mommy, why was that lady crying?" Jake asked.

"I don’t know, Jake. Listen, why don’t you go upstairs and play in your room for a while, while I put your sister to bed? Then I’ll be in to tell you a story."

"Okay. Can I play with my friend?"

Rose sighed in defeat. "If you want, Jake."

"Thank you, Mommy!" Jake hugged her and bounded up the stairs.

"Oh, Jack, what am I going to do about your son’s imagination?" Rose sighed, leaning against the door. "And what am I going to do about her?"

No answer. Jack rarely spoke to her anymore. But he was always with her. She could feel him.

"Another one I have to figure out on my own, huh?" Rose laughed, and laughed harder that here she was telling her son to stop playing with his imaginary friends while she stood here talking to an empty room.

Rose jumped when there was a slight knock on the door. She looked out to see the woman she’d been dreading running into for the past six years. She sighed. She knew she didn’t have a choice. She’d have to confront her mother sooner or later.

Josephine began to whimper.

"It’s all right, darling. Mommy won’t let anything happen to you," Rose soothed her daughter.

Taking a deep breath, she opened the door to reveal Ruth DeWitt Bukater, her tear-filled eyes lighting up with happiness.

"Oh, Rose! I knew it was you! I just knew it!" Ruth cried, throwing her arms around Rose, who was not responding. "Oh, Rose, it’s all right now. I’ve found you."

"Hello, Mother," Rose replied coldly, pulling away from the hug.

"Oh, Rose, everything’s all right now. Cal hasn’t married that girl yet, so we can go stop the wedding and everything can return to normal."

Rose laughed at Ruth’s ramblings. "You haven’t changed one bit, have you, Mother? Still trying to get hold of that Hockley money."

"Rose…what’s gotten into you, talking to your dear mother that way?" Ruth asked. "And why didn’t you come to us when you boarded the Carpathia? Cal looked all over for you and couldn’t find you anywhere. Your name wasn’t even on the survivors’ list."

"That’s because I went by Rose Dawson then, and I go by Rose Calvert now."

"What?"

"I’m married now, Mother…with children." Rose sighed.

"You mean those children at the park?"

"They’re mine."

"I guess you got married to that steerage boy, then." Ruth struggled with her temper, not wanting to anger Rose.

"His name was Jack, Mother. Jack Dawson. And no. I didn’t marry him…he died that night, Mother. He froze to death, but I do have his son."

"Then who did you marry?"

"His cousin. Jason. Jason Calvert. He loved Jack a lot and he loves his son even more…and he loves me and takes care of us. And three months ago, we had our first child together." Rose crossed her arms.

"Is that the baby?" Ruth looked over Rose’s shoulder at the bassinette.

Rose just nodded, still blocking Ruth’s way into the house. "I’m sorry, Mother. I guess this means you won’t be getting any of that Hockley money after all."

Ruth looked at Rose sadly and noticed the haunted look in Rose’s eyes. Rose had been through such tragedy, but she had risen above it and moved on with her life instead of living in the past, something Ruth had been doing for the past six years. "Rose…I’m sorry. I’m sorry for the way I treated you before and during that awful voyage."

"Are you, Mother?"

"I am." Ruth nodded. "I am. I ruined your life."

Rose laughed again. "Oh, Mother, please. Let’s not be so melodramatic. You almost ruined my life. If it hadn’t been for Jack making me see that I could break away from you and Cal…that I was a strong person with a mind of my own…my life would have been ruined. You see, Jack saved me. In every way a person can be saved. And even though he’s dead…he made sure I was well taken care of by sending me Jason, and for that, I’m always going to be thankful to him. So you see, Mother, you didn’t ruin my life at all."

"But look at you. You’re stuck in the lower class, married with children, one of them not even your husband’s. You can’t tell me that doesn’t bother him." Ruth shook her head.

"It doesn’t. You see, like I said, Jason and Jack were close cousins. When he found out about Jack’s death, he was devastated. But now he’s feeling better because he is raising Jack’s son and telling him what a wonderful man his father was, and Jason’s a wonderful father indeed. He loves Jake like he was his own."

"Well, Rose. What can I say? I guess you got lucky. But life will never be as easy as it would have been if you had married Caledon." Ruth held her head up.

"You’re right, Mother. It won’t be. And that’s the way I want it." Rose crossed her arms. "Now, if you don’t mind, Josephine needs to be put down for her nap."

"Rose…after you put her down…we really do need to talk. I need you to understand my reasoning all those years ago…I know to you there isn’t a good enough reason, but at least hear me out."

Rose sighed. She wanted her mother gone. She didn’t really care to hear why she had done what she had done. But she’d give her mother this one chance. Who knew…maybe there had been a good reason for trying to force her to marry Cal. But then again, Rose really couldn’t think of one.

"All right, Mother. Wait down here. I’ll go put Josephine to bed and make us some tea. Then we’ll sit, and you can tell me what good reason you came up with for selling me into a loveless marriage." Rose turned to go upstairs.

"Mommy!" Jake called as Rose walked past his room. "My friend said it’ll be all right!"

"What was that, Jake?" Rose stopped in mid-stride.

"My friend. He said it’ll be all right."

"What will?" Rose asked, furrowing her brow.

Jake shrugged, his blue eyes lit with innocence. "I don’t know. He just told me to say that."

Rose just shook her head and smiled. That was her son. His imagination always in action. "Jake, listen for your sister for me, all right? Mommy has a visitor and will be busy for a while."

"Yes, Mommy." Jake nodded, going back to working his puzzle, his blonde hair falling into his eyes. She reminded herself to take Jake to the barber for a haircut. She remembered how Jack’s hair had always seemed to fall into his face. Like father, like son, so to speak.

Ten minutes later, Rose emerged into the living room, carrying a tray containing a piping hot pot of tea and a coffeecake she had made that morning. Jason returned home, unaware of their guest.

"Rose? Cake? What’s the occasion?" He lifted one of the slices off the platter.

"If you’d stop eyeing the food for a minute, you’d see we have company/" Rose uneasily looked between her mother and her husband. What would Ruth think of Jason? Would she treat him like she had treated Jack? Or would she accept him as a part of her family? This was the moment of truth. If Ruth even showed signs of the Philadelphia snob that Rose remembered…she’d be out of Rose’s life forever. There was no other choice.

"Mother, this is my husband, Jason Calvert. Darling, this is my mother. Ruth DeWitt Bukater." Rose introduced them, her eyes never leaving Ruth’s face.

To Rose’s surprise, a smile warmed Ruth’s lips as she stood and took the young man’s hand. This was the man that had given Rose back her heart, and for that, Ruth was eternally grateful. "It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’ve waited so long for this moment."

A weight lifted off of Rose’s shoulders. By what she was seeing, her mother had truly changed for the better. There was hope after all. That night, Ruth met her grandchildren and was accepted fully back into her daughter’s heart. She died ten years later, a happy woman surrounded by family and friends.

Chapter Ten
Stories