Kind of surprised the man turned round to see Rose enter the door. The man was of good length, somewhere in his middle twenties and his brown hair was a bit longer than fashion demanded but not as long as Jack's hair was, Rose always thought when she saw him.

"There you are. I thought I had heard something."

He had a warm and pleasant voice but a little bit too deep in Rose's opinion; it always reminded her of Cal's voice.

"It's very calm today..." Rose said in an ascent tone.

"That's because we aren't open yet."

Rose looked at him in incomprehension.

"Then why did you want me to come so early?"

"I wanted to talk to you, in private."

Suddenly Rose felt very uncomfortable.

He led her to a table in other corner.

"Rose, we only just met but I really like you and..." John in a low voice.

'No please, don't do this to me.' kept running through Rose's mind.

"And, I'm worried about you."

Rose eyes grew wide at those words.

"What do you mean?" she asked surprised.

"I've got a feeling that you're not telling me everything about your past. There is more, isn't there? Something you try to hide."

In her eyes the truth showed as Rose stood up and wanted run out the door somehow she couldn't.

"It's true, isn't it?" John asked again, now certain after her strange reaction.

Rose sat down again and thought about what she should say.

He knew she was hiding something, there was no use denying it but she couldn't tell him about Jack, she wasn't ready for that yet. She decided to tell the truth without telling him about Jack.

"Yes, it's true."

"Whatever it is, it really seems to bother you. Rose, you can tell me, I'll listen."

Tears pricked her eyes and nothing in her entire body seemed to co - operate but in a shaky voice she spoke: "My real name isn't Rose Dawson."

John stared at her in amazement.

"Who are you really?" he asked softly.

Rose sighted deeply and answered: "I'm Rose DeWitt Bukater."

Confused John looked around the kitchen without even saying a word.

"She's dead. She died on board the Titanic. It's been in every newspaper in the damn country."

"No, she didn't. She's sitting right in front of you."

John shook his head in disbelief.

"That can't be. Rose, don't play tricks with me."

"I'm not. If you give me the time, I'll explain."

John could see in her eyes that she wasn't lying.

"Two months ago, me and my fiancé Caledon Hockley boarded Titanic after a vacation in Europe. We were going to get married in three weeks."

John hadn't moved since she started to tell her story, he barely even breathed.

"I wasn't happy, though. I felt like my mother and Cal were suffocating me and I wanted to break free. When the ship hit that iceberg, I finally had that chance. I couldn't take it anymore... I gave up my seat in a lifeboat and ran away from it all. I ran to freedom."

John looked at her in amazement.

"I'll never forget the horror I saw there. Everything went so fast and yet so very slow. I watched children being separated from their father, women dragged away from their husbands..."

By now her whole body trembled as she spoke and tears streamed down her cheeks.

"I saw things you don't even see in your worst nightmares. People being tossed between life and death, nature playing with lives as if they were little puppets. Titanic had overpowered the elements, they said. Nature had its own horrible revenge. The ship that was unsinkable got eaten by the ocean, along with every soul that was on it.

The memory made her even angry.

So many people died that night, people who never deserved to die, good people, brave people, people who had beautiful lives, a family to take care of! Now those people are just another number, a statistic figure while they were real human beings with their own problems, joys and life! The newspapers tell so many lies: the gates of third class were closed; third class passengers were left to drown no matter what they say. I know the truth. I was there! There were only enough lifeboats for half the people aboard; I even discussed it with Mr. Andrews, the ship's builder, the day of the sinking. And the lifeboats weren't even filled to full capacity. The ship didn't sink in whole, it broke in half as it sank, I was on it, I saw the terror. Why are all these lies being told? Who gains with lying that the ship was completely intact when it went down, it's gone now isn't it? It's only the first class passengers who testified, none of them were even on the ship as it sank, they were safe in a lifeboat!" For the first time, John spoke: "How did you survive then?"

"When the ship was down, I ended up in the freezing water. I can't even describe what it's like. Someone who was very close to me, said it felt like a thousand knives stabbing all over your body. You can't breathe, you can't think, at least not about anything but the pain.

That's the way it felt, I guess. I made my way through the huge crowd and I found a piece of wood floating around. I just climbed on it and waited for a life to come.

I'll never forget the cries for help, the screams of pain and knowing there is nothing that you can do to help and that the ones who can don't give a damn whether you live or die.

A few hours later a lifeboat finally came and took me aboard.

1500 people went into the sea, when Titanic sank from under us.

There were twenty boats floating nearby and only one came back, ONE.

Six were saved from the water, myself included, six out of 1500.

Afterwards, the people in the boats had nothing to do but wait. Wait to die, wait to live, wait for an absolution that will never come.

When I got on Carpathia, I did nothing but avoid Cal who came looking for me, of course. When he couldn't find me, he thought I was dead.

When a steward came to take my name, I knew if I told him who I really was, it would be too easy for Cal to track me down, so I baptized myself into Rose Dawson.

And to be honest, Rose DeWitt Bukater died that night along with the Titanic, but a new woman was born: Rose Dawson."