3
Three days later, Jack, Rose, and Emma
Jean step off the train in Eau Claire.
It had been a long and tiring journey and they couldn’t wait to get off
the road and perhaps sleep in a real bed, not in a bunker car. Emma led Jack and Rose to the exit, where the
Dawson family should be awaiting their arrival. Everyone was eager to greet the only son of the eldest Dawson
boy. Ready to welcome him home and
accept his fiancée with open arms.
“Jack,” Emma touched his arm. She needed to warn him before he came face
to face with the family. She felt
guilty for not telling them herself, but she couldn’t think of a way to break
to them over the phone.
“Yes?” Jack turned, his blue eyes
brightened with curiosity.
“They don’t know Jack. They don’t know about Uncle Lucas. I couldn’t bear to tell them over the phone,
especially Granny and Grampy. “
“Emmie,” Jack groaned. “Do you know what this means?”
“A whole bunch of questions. I’m sorry Jack. Really I am…”
Jack sighed, tightening his grasp on
Rose’s hand, reminding himself that he had her and as long as she was by his
side he could do anything. “It’s
ok. I can handle it.” He leans over and
whispers to Rose. “Don’t leave me.”
“Wild horses can’t drag me away,” Rose
squeezed his hand in reassurance.
“Ready?”
“Never been more ready in my life,”
Jack grinned. “Let’s go.”
Together, the trio stepped out of the train
station and into the waiting arms of Jack’s family. Rose kept a tight hold of Jack’s hands as he was embraced by one
relative after another. She listened at
the exclamations of how tall he had grown and how much he had looked like his
father. Not one word as of yet about
his father’s whereabouts. So far, so
good.
“And who is this!” a elderly woman with
kind blue eyes that matched Jack’s exactly smiled at Rose.
“Why this must be the fiancée Emma told
us about,” An elderly man with Jack’s build smiled widely. “Why she is a pretty one Jack. You did well for yourself. I bet your father is proud of you!”
“I hope so,” Jack weakly smiled as his
grandparents embraced Rose, accepting her with open arms.
“Welcome to America honey,” his
grandmother smiled. “We’re Jack’s
grandparents, Myrtle and Henry Dawson.
But just call us granny and grampy like the rest of the children
do. You’ll be one of us soon enough I
imagine.”
“Ok…granny and grampy,” Rose nervously
smiled, not used to using does names with anyone, much less with people she
already knew.
“Come.
Let’s get you two home and fed.
We got a big feast waiting for you,” Myrtle ushered the small group away
from the train station to a truck that will take them to the Dawson farm.
~*~
Rose and Jack cuddled together on the couch in the living room. Well-fed and surrounded by family who all were busy telling stories of Jack’s father and other family members. Rose’s eyes were just about to drift close as her head leaned back on Jack’s shoulder when finally the question they both had been dreading was asked.
“So.
Tell us what’s Lucas is doing with himself now a days and why he and his
lovely wife didn’t join you two lovebirds?” Henry puffed away on his pipe.
“Uh…” Jack looked at Rose as if begging
her for help, but Rose didn’t know what to tell him to say, so he looked back
and swallowed, tightly grasping her hand in his, begging that he didn’t break
down in tears again. “About
father…he…well…you know about what’s going on over in Germany. Right?
About Adolph Hitler and his third riech?”
“Of course. Who hasn’t,” Jack’s cousin Nathaniel shrugged.
“Well…father…you would be so proud of
him…I know I am. He was a part of the
resistance. He risked his life to save
thousands of Jews and others that were targets of the Nazi’s.”
“Oh my,” Myrtle’s hand flew to her
mouth, tears of pride gleaming in his eyes.
“What a noble gesture…”
“Lucas always did have a good head on
his shoulders and a heart to match,” Henry nodded.
Jack smiled at the praise that was
heaped on his father. He was so happy that
he wasn’t the only one that loved and remembered him. “Well…about five years ago…after we returned from visiting with
you…father disappeared. No trace of him
was found. No letter, no telephone calls.
Nothing. Mother had refused to contact you. I would have…but…I was going through a very difficult period at
the time,” Jack’s hold on Rose’s hand tightened as he continued. “Well…recently…I found out that he was
murdered by the Nazi’s over his work.
All that’s left of him now is in this shoe box that was delivered to me
before Rose and I fled.”
Emma took out the shoebox and sat it on
the table. The silence that filled that
room was deafening. One could hear a
pin drop. Finally Nathaniel got to his feet, his blue eyes blazing.
“Those Nazi bastards! I’m going to kill them! One by one!
I’m running down to the registration office right now and signing up for
the war!”
“No you will not Nathaniel
Dawson!” Myrtle’s voice was strong and determined, her grief barely
contained. “You will stay here with the
rest of us and make sure that everything’s taken care of! The last thing this family needs is another
death! Now set down!”
“Yes mam,” the young man quietly
sat back down, his eyes still burning with anger.
“What…what did your mother have to say
about all of this? I’m surprised that
she didn’t accompany you on this trip,” Henry
sat forward, his voice conveying his sorrow.
“…My mother…she could probably care
less about what happened to my father.
She’s too busy becoming the perfect wife of a Nazi officer.”
“What?” Myrtle gasped.
“She’s taken up with a Nazi. That’s why I ran away. Why I’m here now. I couldn’t bare to see her dishonor my father’s memory like that.”
“I knew I didn’t like that woman,”
Myrtle snorted. “Rose…what about you? What was your reason for running away?”
Rose lowered her eyes, not sure how
they would feel about their grandson marrying a girl with Jewish blood. “My mother
was going to make me marry a Nazi.
If I didn’t…she was going to have me sent to a concentration camp.”
“Why would she do that?” Nathaniel
asked, confused. Rose didn’t look like
someone that the Nazi’s would target, unless she too was part of the resistance
over in Europe.
“Because my father was a Jew. If the Nazi’s had found out…I’d be sent away
like all the others. But thanks to
Jack, that didn’t happen. He’s saved
me. In every way a person can be
saved,” She smiled lovingly at her fiancée, who just blushed at the praise.
“Hey you saved me too. Remember, it was you who broke that lamp
over my mother’s husbands head when he
tried to once again beat me into submission,” Jack forgot that he hadn’t
mentioned that part to his family and groaned when he heard the gasps of
outrage.
“Why you hadn’t mentioned that part,” Myrtle
crossed her arms angrily. “Where was
your mother during all this?”
“In the next room. Ignoring what was happening,” Jack sighed.
“How many times did he beat you Jack,”
His grandfather was a bit calmer. It
wouldn’t do to get the boy all worked up.
He had been through enough already.
“Well, actually only once. Rose and a couple of friends of mine took me
in. I grew worried about their welfare,
so I returned. Rose arrived just in
time to stop him from beating me again.
We ran away to a man that worked with my father in the resistance. He brought us tickets to America and
now…after having to go save Rose from her mother and the Nazi’s…here we are,”
He smiled, hoping to lighten the atmosphere.
“My.
That was an adventure,” Myrtle shook her head. “And I bet you two are as sleepy as bears in winter. Let me go make up your rooms and we’ll talk
again in the morning.”
“Yes granny,” Jack smiled, taking
Rose’s hand and following the older woman upstairs. For once, in a very long time, he felt like he was home. Home with his family and the woman he
loved. From here on out , the future
looked bright.