RUNAWAY ROSE
Chapter Ninety-One
October 3, 1917
Two days later, as the train wound its way
across the country towards Wisconsin, Rose turned to Jack in perplexity. It was
with a sense of deja vu that she had watched the land pass by outside the
window. Once again, she was on a train headed west, eventually bound for
California, but first stopping in another small Midwestern town. It was so like
her journey west with Robert that it gave her a chill, though there were enough
differences that she wasn’t alarmed.
On her first trip west with a man she loved,
they had not yet been married, and they had stopped to see his family in Iowa.
Jack had no family left, except for her and their coming child, and certainly
they weren’t headed for another bitterly cold land. When they came to end of
this journey, they would be in Los Angeles to stay. Both had had enough of
wandering to last a lifetime.
Still, Rose couldn’t help but wonder why they
were going to Chippewa Falls. Jack had grown up there, but he had no remaining
family there, nor friends after so many years. So, what was his reason for
wanting to go there?
"Jack?" Rose turned to look at him,
seated beside her on the train.
Jack sat up straighter. He had been slouched
in his seat, thinking, when Rose had interrupted him. "What?"
"I’m curious...why are we going to
Chippewa Falls?"
"Because..." He hesitated.
"Because...I need to go there, just once, before we settle down."
"Haven’t you visited there in the past
few years?"
He shook his head. "No. I never did. I
promised Amelia that one day we would visit there, but, of course, we
didn’t."
"So you haven’t visited your old town at
all?"
"No, not since...since I was
fifteen."
"Ten years since you’ve been home.
That’s a long time."
"Yes. And that’s why I need to go there.
I need to...settle things there, once and for all, because I don’t think I’ll
come this way again."
"We might travel here someday."
Jack shook his head. "No...not to
Chippewa Falls, anyway. That was where I grew up, and where my parents were
both born—and died—but it’s time to lay that part of my life to rest. I never
have, but like you, I have to face the past sometime. It’s the only way to move
on with life. I never faced the past before, not really, but I need to. You
can’t live in the past, and I think a part of me has been living there since
the fire in 1907." He looked at her, his eyes begging her to understand.
Rose was silent for a moment, thinking about what
he said. He was right. A person couldn’t live in the past—but unlike what he
thought, she still hadn’t quite been able to let go of what was past. She
didn’t know if she would ever be able to let go completely, but she would try.
"I know. You can’t keep living in the
past, though it seems to me you’ve done a good job of living for the
present."
"Not always. I’ve spent a lot of time
trying to escape my memories—but there’s no way to do that without confronting
them. That’s why we’re going to Chippewa Falls—so that I can confront those
memories and finally put them to rest."
He looked at her, but his mind was elsewhere,
thinking of where they were going and what they would see once they got there.
His attention was returned to the present when Rose took his hand, squeezing it
gently.
"Sometimes it helps to have someone else
there—and I’ll be with you every step of the way. I promise."
"I know you will. You always did keep
your promises." He smiled, squeezing her hand in return, as they journeyed
on towards their destination.