July 20th 1912
Jack's POV
The days were warmer, the skies were clearer, and the whole countryside was rich with the sights, sounds and smell of life in full swing. Summer in Chippewa Falls was a brief, happy time in which the people seemed as sunny as the sky above. Free from the stress of thick snow, frozen fields and hours of darkness, it was a time to relax and enjoy the sight of lush green fields dotted with flowers, like paint splatters on a canvas, feel the warm sunshine on bare skin and swim in the warm waters of the lake.
For us especially, summer brought an extra dose of happiness. With the dark days of Cal's visit finally drifting off day by day into the horizon, Rose and I could now turn our attention to our upcoming wedding. At first Rose had found it hard to focus on the preparations for the day. She found it particularly hard to shrug off the troubles of the previous weeks, and since her mother had taken all responsibility and joy out of wedding preparations for her, she at first struggled to get into the tasks at hand.
However, when she returned from her trip with Sarah Anderson to find a dress, I found her transformed. She was far more excited and joyful that evening than she had been in days, and I could only assume it was the dress she'd found that had changed her. Not that I had seen it yet. It was hidden away inside a cupboard I'd been forbidden to go near.
After that day, we managed to get through the rest of the wedding plans so much easier than before. We already knew that we would be married at the church in the centre of Chippewa Falls; it was the same church my parents had been married in, and where they were now buried.
For several weeks after returning to Chippewa Falls I had put off visiting the churchyard. I couldn't face it, somehow. But as time went on and the unease I had felt about returning subsided, I finally decided to go. I went alone; not through Rose not wanting to go, but because I somehow felt that I needed to go alone. That visit to the silence of the gravesite had helped a lot. I left feeling as though a large weight had lifted from my chest. I finally felt as though I had put the past to rest, and that I could now move on, begin anew, and return the town to a place of happy memories, as it had once been.
Despite this, I was still saddened by the thought that my parents weren't here to see us marry. I was sure they would have liked Rose. But nevertheless, the day would still be made special by plenty of other people who more than made up for both mine and Rose's mutual lack of family.
Nathan, Selina and Lucy had arrived in Chippewa Falls yesterday. They had decided to come up a few days early to make a proper holiday out of the trip, seeing as it was Lucy's first experience of life outside of New York city. From the moment she'd stepped off of the train, she had been an unstoppable force of overexcitement at the new sights, sounds and smells. It was wonderful to see how such an ordinary little town could be transformed into a magical land full of wonders through the eyes of a girl who had been raised on concrete and, for most of her short life, orphanage gruel.
She, along with Selina and Sarah, were to be Rose's bridesmaids. Lucy had at first been excited at the prospect, but after having to endure a fitting for the dress that she'd been warned she had to keep clean, the role of bridesmaid had somewhat soured. Besides, she'd told us all plainly, she didn't like lavender.
That afternoon, with her mother busy helping Rose to sew the finishing details onto the bridesmaids' dresses, I offered to take Lucy with me down to the train station. Despite having spent the last hour dashing around the fields in a game with Nathan, she jumped at the chance. So off we went, heading out to the edge of the village, Lucy racing down the paths alongside Honey, scarcely looking back to check that I was still with her.
By the time we reached the platform, she was finally tired out, so it was a good thing we had a few minutes' wait for the train from New York to arrive before we made our way home again.
"Who are we waiting for?" Lucy asked, scuffing her shoe on the gravel in a a bored manner.
"Some friends of mine" I replied, scouring the crowds emerging onto the platform through the smoke of the train. Finally, I found them.
"Fabrizio! Helga!" I called out, waving to get their attention, Lucy joining in when she realised who we were trying to attract. Finally, they noticed us, and headed over, each with a suitcase in hand.
"Jack! It is so good to see you again!" said Fabrizio with one of his infectious smiles as we embraced.
"Sure is good to see you too" I replied. It definitely was. Both he and Helga looked much better than when we had last seen each other, but then probably so did I. Most people tend to look better when they're not covered in the remnants of sea-water and recovering from a shipwreck.
I turned to Helga and said hello, welcoming her to Chippewa Falls to test her English.
"Hello, Jack" she replied with a confident smile. "It is very nice to be here"
"Well done, that was perfect" I congratulated her.
"Ah, she's a fast learner, this one" said Fabrizio, putting his arm around her with a proud smile. "We hope she'll be good enough to continue to study alone by winter. We still wish to move south before it gets too cold. After the Titanic..."
He shook his head, waving his hand dismissively.
"Not anymore. I never wish to feel such cold again"
I didn't blame him at all.
I introduced them to Lucy, who had suddenly decided to turn very shy when faced with new people, as she had when she first met Rose and I. As we set off walking towards the house, she took off once more alongside Honey, happily racing off into the distance.
As we walked, Fabrizio told me more about their life in New York.
"We are renting just a small apartment" he told me. "The money that your wonderful Rose gave us, we want to save as much as possible, for the future. As soon as Helga is ready, we will go to Florida"
"Any idea what you plan to do there?" I asked.
"I have an idea, but I don't know if it will work. I think about opening a restaurant. I love America, but I do miss Italia... Something things more than others, but certainly the food. I think in the south it will be easier to find things familiar from home; tomatoes, olives... Maybe that is how I will make my fortune in this country, eh?"
"That's not a bad idea" I chuckled as the house came into view. "I bet ten years from now you'll be a millionaire restaurateur"
By the time we'd arrived, Rose and Selina had finished with the dresses and were in the process of preparing dinner. It's a good thing they weren't too far in, as the amount of time it took to introduce everyone and catch up, it would have been ruined had it already been on the range.
"Ah, Rose!" said Fabrizio as he greeted her with a kiss on each cheek. "You are even lovelier than the last time I see you"
"Thank you" Rose replied with a happy laugh. "How are you both?"
"We are good, very good, grazie" he replied, as he and Helga exchanged knowing smiles. Something was up.
"In fact... Now that we are all together, we have something to say"
All eyes were on them as Fabrizio gave Helga a prompting nod.
"We are married!" she announced happily, beaming from ear to ear.
The news was surprising, but no less happy.
"That's wonderful!" said Rose, giving Helga a hug as she congratulated her in Norwegian.
"Already?" I asked Fabrizio. In the several letters we'd exchanged, he hadn't mentioned anything about a wedding, and so I assumed that Rose and I had beaten them to it.
"Si" he replied with a smiling shrug. "What can I say? We did not want to wait. The day after we find a place to live, we went to the first church we could see in New York and we were married"
They both raised their left hand to show the gold wedding rings that I was amazed I hadn't noticed before.
"We did not want to wait" Helga added, taking care with her words in a slightly uncertain tone. "I know I love him, and he to me, and so why shall we wait?"
"Fair enough" I replied with a smile, giving Fabrizio another hug.
That evening, I realised how wonderful it was to have the house so full. With just Rose, Honey and I, it tended to be rather quiet, with Rose and I usually spending our evenings completing our separate tasks together - myself working on sketches for work and her preparing notes and plans for lessons. Now, however, with Nathan, Selina, Lucy, Fabrizio and Helga crammed in with us, the house was wonderfully full and loud.
As we headed towards the time when everyone's minds were beginning to drift towards the prospect of sleep, I invited Fabrizio out onto the porch for a cigarette. Never one to turn down a free smoke, of course he accepted.
"This is a nice place, Jack" he said to me as we stared out into the night sky over the fields. "I am sure you and your Rose will be happy here together"
"I'm sure we will too" I replied, tapping my foot nervously as I took a drag on my cigarette for encouragement.
"I have something I need to ask you" I said.
"Aha? What is that?" Fabrizio asked, still staring into the horizon before us.
"Look, I know I kinda screwed up the whole "let's go to America together" plan, getting us tickets on that damned ship-"
"Ah Jack, come on, you cannot say that was your fault. The ship's fate was ill from before we knew her"
"I know, but still, it didn't exactly go to plan. Anyway, yeah, it didn't really go to plan, but, a better plan came out of it. We both found a girl on the ship and ended up going separate ways, but in spite of that-"
"Jack" Fabrizio interrupted, holding up his cigarette which was almost finished. "I have about two drags left of this, and if you have not asked your question before then I am going back inside"
"Fine, screw it" I laughed. "Will you be my best man at my wedding?"
Finishing the last drag of his cigarette, Fabrizio turned to me and chuckled as he tossed the fizzled end over the porch.
"Mio amico, it is funny that you think you even had to ask"
My apologies for the slight gap between this chapter and the last. My excuse, to cut a long story short: Cardiology is a bitch xD
I have quite a soft spot for Fabrizio and Helga, so I wanted to make them happy in this story, considering how awful their original ending was. Hope you enjoyed :) x
