Chapter Twenty-One

May 12th, 1912
Coney Island, New York

"You know, you don't have to do this." Ruth said, tapping her clean fingernails against her bobbing leg. "You can turn around right now and go home and I will understand." Madeline Force Astor sat beside her, her feet propped up onto her large trunk.

Madeline shook her head with a ruby red smile, "Nuh-uh, Ruth. I'm going. I want to be there for you." A silence passed between the two. Some squawking overhead birds caught Ruth's attention for a moment before she returned to staring at the train tracks. I can't believe this is happening. Ruth began picking at an uneven cuticle, trying to pass the time. She felt antsy and impatient. "What are you going to talk to Rose about?"

Ruth snapped from her trance and looked over to Madeline, "To be honest... nothing has come to my mind that I would like to say to that girl." Another silence, "... What would you say to her?"

"Well," Madeline lay her arms over her stomach and looked to the sky for a moment, "I guess I would just really tell her how I feel. You just have to let it all out. Even if it's bringing up things that may not be entirely relevant to the situation." Madeline shrugged, "Talk about money, talk about love, talk about family, talk about death."

Ruth snorted at this, "It will fly right over Rose's head, I'm afraid, Madeline."

"Rose is travelling to come stay at her childhood home with you. I think at this point, she's ready to lend an ear." Madeline told her with an offhanded gesture, "Things may be turning around in your favor, Ruth. Sure, she may have married a man you abhor, but she's still your daughter. They hold the future of grandchildren."

"Grandchildren," Ruth echoed, "How could those two ever provide for a child. They cost a fortune." Ruth shook her head, "This was a bad idea. Maybe I should call back and tell them to forget it."

"And why would you do that?"

"Rose is so independent and bullheaded," Ruth sighed, "She's never wanted to act like a lady. She betrayed me deeply on the Titanic, Madeline. She could have died. And she did it all for some steerage boy that she had barely known before. The girl makes no sense! Who does that?"

"A girl who knows what she wants and knows how to get it." Madeline replied.

Ruth now stared blankly ahead, processing what Madeline had said. "You're right." Ruth finally said, looking over to Madeline. "Rose is a strong independent woman. Something I suppose... I suppose I never was. She had no desire to stick to social norms. She took matter into her own hands." But then anger washed over Ruth, "But then again, she seems selfish. She may know what she wants and how to get it, but she destroyed nearly everything else in the process." Ruth let out a long breath, massaging her temples, "Perhaps I will have something to talk to her about. Thank you, Madeline."

"It's what companions are for."

"Companion?" Ruth lowered her hand slightly, her eyebrows arched.

"That's what I am to you, right?" Madeline asked with big eyes beneath her small hat with a big blossoming sunflower on the side of it to match her light brown dress, "I'm your companion."

"My companion..." Ruth muttered the phrase to herself and thought about it. "It has a nice ring to it, yes." Ruth gave her a curt smile and resettled comfortably beside Madeline, the two ladies smiling as they awaited their train.

...

Fayetteville, North Carolina

"This feels odd." Rose said as she folded a dress and eased it into their leather duffel bag. Jack looked up from taking the film out of his camera. "Are you sure you spoke with my mother? Not just some crabby lady who thought she knew who you were talking about?"

"Well, if it was the wrong woman, you two sure were in the same perdicament." Jack offered a smile and returned to his camera. "To be honest, I'm interested in seeing how this is going to play out. If things go well, our summer could possibly be spent with your mother patching things up to be new again." Rose didn't like the idea of spending the summer with her mother too much at the moment, but she remained silent and listened to Jack go on. "And if things go badly, we tried, and we won't ever have to give Ruth another thought."

Rose paused and thought about this scenario as well. A life where her mother practically didn't exist. Rose kind of liked the idea. Her mother so angry she never talks to her again. She wouldn't have to worry about her mother because her mother wouldn't be giving her a second thought, either. Rose would finally be free of any clutches to fully and 100% be Rose Dawson. No obligation to write, a thought that had been nagging Rose since she left New York. No pressure to keep her life as clean and spotless in her mother's eyes. Just a free life. Rose began smiling at the revelation.

"Rose? Are you alright?"

She immediately snapped to. "Oh, yes! I was just..." She paused, "day dreaming." She continued folding one of Jack's shirts and setting it into the duffel bag. She made sure to grab The Vagabond. She hadn't finished it yet, but made sure to pay extra attention to not leave it behind. Rose remembered leaving a book she was just beginning to get into at a hotel somewhere in France. She realized it just two blocks down the road, but Cal and Ruth insisted it was not important. Rose hoped that book had a proper shelf to live on. "This is just all so surreal, Jack." Rose sat on the edge of the bed, clasping her hands together.

Jack came to sit on the side of the bed with her, "Look, I know this is a little foreign, but we need to go into this with a clear and level headed mind. This is your mother. Not Cal. She's your family. And in the future, I don't want to see you regretting not having your only remaining family member in your life close to you. I want you to try. I know things in your family have always been tense and maybe status and money driven, but now there's none of that. Your mother has no status to keep up with and there's no more money. You and your mother are finally on even playing fields." Jack wrapped his arm around her shoulder and she snuggled her head into the crook of his neck, "Family is really important. They're your blood. Now that things have changed, there may be a chance for you and your mother to have a relationship. There's not a day that goes by that I don't think about my family."

"Really?" Rose's eyes arched. She always as interested in Jack's past.

"Of course." Jack replied, "I loved my mom and dad with all my heart. My mom read me stories and my dad took me ice fishing every winter. I never thought how lucky I was until I lost them." There was a silence between the couple as they huddled together for support.

"Jack?"

"Mm?"

"Do you have any pictures of them?"

"Yeah." Jack nodded, "Before my grandmother passed away back in 1905, she had me give her all their valuables and memories of them. She had a few documents that I guess she held onto for them. She put them into a Safety Deposit Box at a bank in Chippewa Falls up in Wisconsin."

"We should stop at that bank on our way to Montana to gather the documents." Rose told him, "Your family is important to me. I want to know more about them."

"Alright," Jack smiled at her. "That sounds like a good idea. I had nearly forgotten they were there. I wonder what my grandmother put in there."