It was days that the teen-aged Caledon was locked in his room, unable to leave because his father had him on punishment. He was locked in the room, day and night, night and day, with no radio, just food and water brought to him for days. Caledon couldn't believe it, he was being locked up in a room like some—some sort of slave, like some child and here, Caledon was almost a grown man and he was being punished like a child. There was nothing for Caledon to do except cry and pray for death. He thought back on the day he picked up that knife from his drawer and contemplated suicide. Why oh why didn't he do it? Oh Caledon knew why, his father caught him minutes before Caledon was about to slit his wrists, and thus Caledon's punishment was being locked in his room for thirty days with only breakfast and dinner, no entertainment of the radio, writing or drawing. Caledon knew there was only one thing he could do to get out of the punishment he was in. After days and days of crying and crying, and praying to go to sleep on a night and not wake up in the morning, Caledon knew there was only one thing to do—submit. Yes, he had to submit to his father, it was time to stop fighting back and just completely submit to whatever his father wanted him to do, and to submit to being whoever his father wanted him to be. Yes, this was going to be the day that Caledon Hockley: the loving, kind hearted, naive, friendly young man would turn into Caledon Hockley: the rude, snobbish, controlling, abusive, arrogant man that would soon meet and fall in love with a young woman named Rose, who would later board a ship called Titanic, a ship where he would lose Rose, thus marking the beginning of destruction for Caledon Hockley, and the beginning steps that would soon mark his suicidal death in 1929….yes it would all start with this one simple day, this one simple scene here:
Caledon Hockley was sitting on the floor, in the dark bedroom he had been locked in, thinking, his eyes red and extremely puffy from crying. It was at this moment, that Caledon saw the door to his bedroom creak open. Caledon looked up and raised an eyebrow at the door. Was this a trick? Was he really being allowed to leave? Caledon slowly got up off the floor and wiped the remaining tears from his eyes away, as he walked out the bedroom. He walked into the living room and saw his father sitting at the dining room table, reading a newspaper while drinking coffee. Caledon looked at him with a brief moment of anger and hatred, but then he remembered that key word: submission. Caledon hesitantly walked to the table and sat down across from Nathaniel and looked down blinking repeatedly.
"I—I'm sorry, father." Caledon said in a low, cracked voice. "I—I'll do whatever it is that you say, whatever makes you happy for me to do. I—I'm sorry I misbehaved."
Nathaniel looked up at him with an eyebrow raised and with a slightly amused look. Caledon looked down and frowned slightly. Caledon couldn't believe it. "Sorry he misbehaved?" He felt like he was eight years old all over again, but if this was what Caledon had to do to not suffer the abuse from his father any longer, he'd do it.
"So, you've grown tired of playing by your dead mother's rules, have you?" Nathaniel said coldly with a smirk.
Caledon briefly looked up at Nathaniel and nodded hesitantly.
"Yes father, I—I'm sorry." Caledon said in a low voice.
Nathaniel looked at his son carefully, with Caledon's eyes red and puffy from crying, his eyes had small bags under them, probably from not sleeping. Caledon looked terrible. Nathaniel had finally broke him, just like he broke Caledon's mother before he killed her.
"YES! Satisfaction!" Nathaniel thought.
"Well, go pack your bags, we're going to take a month trip to Rome." Nathaniel said quickly.
Caledon stared at him, half filled with disgust and hatred for his father and half filled with fear. Caledon said nothing, but he just simply stared at his father. Nathaniel scoffed.
"Well go on, Caledon, go get packed, now!" Nathaniel yelled sternly.
Caledon looked away with an eyebrow raised and frowned slightly.
"Yes father, right away." Caledon said before quickly getting up and walking away from the table and out the dining room.