Adieu
Summary: Reflections from a stuck-up mother.
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"Get into the boat, Rose," I ordered to my only daughter. I was waiting for her to comply and hop right next to me, but to my astonishment she didn't. She just stood there and shook her head. I couldn't believe it! Didn't she understand she was going to die? Didn't she want to live? If she came with me, she would live, and then she could really lead the good life by marrying Cal or someone better! After all, why settle when you can select?
Cal was standing right there, I am certain that he would live, he would get through it, he must have some means of survival. I wasn't worried about him. I was worried about my daughter; whose head takes a turn for the stubborn side occasionally more often of late. It hasn't happened since that Jack fellow came into the picture. I scorned at that third class boy that had "saved her life," yet I can't figure out why she continued to talk to him.
That boy is a menace! He was ruining all of my plans for Rose's future! Why can't he just go away and leave us in peace? I never believed that he pulled Rose back. He was trying to seduce my gorgeous daughter, I could tell! And he had her scared-scared real bad. She wouldn't admit the truth to anybody because she was afraid he would misuse her! That miscreant of a Dawson was forbidden to show his face near Rose again, but did that stop him? Of course not! You don't think that Mr. Hockley didn't show me his drawing?
That drawing was nothing more than a mistake. Cal told me that he would dispose of it after he showed me, and I have no doubt that is floating in the ocean somewhere in a million different little pieces.
"Good-bye Mother," was all I heard when I was jolted back from my thoughts. I panicked then. She was leaving? She would be killed! Even I did the math on that day Mr. Andrews was giving us the tour on the decks, I knew that the higher percentage of people on this ship were going to die.
"Not the better half." Cal's words flashed in my mind. We were the better half, we couldn't afford to die; Jack certainly could, and his little third class associates-but not us, not now, not like this.
I then realized that my beloved Rose was walking away. I shrieked and flailed my arms, she couldn't leave! Come back!
"Rose!" I called, "Rose darling, some back! Mr. Hockley, catch her!" I watched in horror as Rose got away from her fiancée's hold, and ran in the opposite direction of the lifeboats. I tried to break free from that ruffian Margaret Brown's grasp, but she just wouldn't let go! I refused to listen to the soothing words whispered in my ear while the lifeboat was being lowered.
We made it to the water, my hopes and spirit draining as I realized that my daughter would never make it to a boat. How could she do this to me? There will be no one to carry on the family name! Then there would be absolutely nothing left for me, just the pain. The pain I haven't felt since my husband died. I didn't cry when he died, the tears wouldn't come.
But as I looked back to see the grandest ship in the world break into two, I felt something wet on my face. I thought it was rain or the splash of the ocean water, but it wasn't.
I cried the night Titanic sank.
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Because today is the day that Titanic launched ninety-four years ago, I felt the need to post some sort of a oneshot in remembrance. What did you think?