20
May 8th, 1915
Three years have passed since Titanic and Jack and Rose’s marriage. Jack and Rose had the house to themselves now that George and Sam had moved into their own place, giving the Dawson more room and privacy. So Rose was alone when the morning paper arrived and first to read the tragic headline. Expecting to see more news about the ongoing war in Europe, she gasped in shock and looked at the paper in horror: LUSITANIA SINKS.
Clutching the paper in her trembling hands, Rose went inside the house and sank down onto the couch. Distant memories of Titanic overcoming her. It had happened again. Another ship gone. But this time, it hadn’t been an iceberg that took it out. It was a missile from one of those submarines Jack and George were talking about the other night.
"Mama!" Josephine called from upstairs, bringing Rose back to the present.
"Coming Sweetie!" Rose called back up, forcing herself to her feet. She had to put the incident out of her head. She had a family to take care of. She couldn’t fall apart over such things like she normally would have. Placing the paper on the couch, Rose headed upstairs, knowing all too well the terror those poor people must have faced as that ship sunk into the sea.
~*~
April 6th, 1917
Jack and George entered the house, both looking over the newspaper. Rose frowned. She hadn’t seen either of the men this interested in the news since the articles about the Lusitania tragedy. She frowned at their somber expressions. Did something else happen?"
"Jack? What going on?" Rose asked, pushing down the all too familiar sense of dread. The same dread she had felt when her and Jack had witnessed the iceberg crashing into the Titanic. She felt as if an iceberg was about to crash into her life.
"We’re in the war," his voice was almost a whisper, his blue eyes grim.
"The war? You mean the one over in Europe?"
George nodded. "It’s because
of that ship. Most of the people aboard were Americans and now
the president is calling for blood."
"Yeah. Ours," Jack sighed, tossing the paper onto the
couch. It was obvious that he wasn’t too happy about this,
and to be truthful, neither was Rose.
War? What did it mean for them, really.
What was going to be expected of the Dawson family. What were
they going to have to give up?
"Everything will be alright Jack. It has to be," She
hugged him tight. They wouldn’t take him of course. He had a
wife and child to take care of. They wouldn’t dare take Jack
away from her. Not now. Not ever.
~*~
April 28th
Rose looked at the letter that had just arrived for Jack. It was from the government and was identical to the envelope George’s draft notice had arrived in. That meant only one thing….the envelope contained Jack’s notice to go to war. She closed her eyes tightly, willing the envelope to just disappear. But when she opened them, thee letter was still there.
Why? Why Jack? Wasn’t the separation after Titanic enough? Why did they have to take him from her now?
"Rose! I’m home!" Jack announced as he came in from the job. unaware of Rose’s somber mood and the draft notice, Jack picked her up and twirled her around. "Hello my beautiful wife. How was your day?" Jack smiled lovingly at her. The smile faded as he saw her tears. "Rose? What’s wrong?"
She handed the letter to him and turned away. She couldn’t bare to see his face as her worse fears came true.
Jack’s good mood faded away as he read the letter, a feeling of doom taking it’s place. He should have known that his turn was coming. It was foolish to hope that they’d skip him altogether. "Rose…"
"Please tell me that it’s not what I think it is. Please tell me that I’m just being paranoid."
"I wish I could," Jack sighed, refolding the letter, feeling like his world was coming to an end. "I leave in two weeks."
Her sob was heartwrenching. She turned around and fell into his arms. She clung to him tightly, afraid that if she let go, he’d disappear forever.
"Why Jack? Why must you go? They have enough men don’t they? Why must they take you? Why?"
"I don’t know Rose," he held her tightly, wishing that they could wake up from this nightmare.
They stood there for what seemed like hours. Just holding tight to each other, both willing the war away. If only they could just wish hard enough. If only the conflict in Europe would solve itself overnight.
"Rose," Jack finally pulled away. He looked into her tearstained eyes and fell in love all over again. He hated this. For the life of him, he couldn’t understand why men like Caledon Hockley were spared fate’s sword, while people like Rose and himself were always hit with disaster.
"Write them Jack. Explain to th em that you can’t possibly go. That you have a wife and child that needs you,"" Rose’s eyes lit up with hope. That was it! The government had no idea that Jack was married with a child. Surely they'd change their minds once it was brought to their attention.
"They already know Rose. Remember all those papers we had to sign when we got married?" Jack hated taking away the last strand of hope she had, but it was time for them both to face reality.
"But Jack…" She began to protest, but he put a finger over her quivering lips to silence her.
"It’s no use trying to find a
way out of this Rose. I’m going. That’s that.
We’re just going to have to make the next two weeks count.
That’s all we really can do."
"Oh Jack," She cried even harder, falling back into his
arms. This was so unfair. She had thought that they were finally
going to be h appy. But life had dealt them another bad hand. She
just hoped that they’d come out of this intact.