Chapter 48: First Day on The Job
"I love you," Jack says, kissing Rose.
"I love you too," Rose smiles.
"Are you sure you're going to be okay?" Jack asks with a grin.
"I'll be fine," Rose says, she holds Sybil expertly. "Have a good first day."
Jack kisses Rose once more before grabbing his portfolio and heading out to the waiting car.
Peter pulls out of the driveway.
"Excited?" Emma asks Jack.
"Yeah," Jack says. "And nervous."
"Don't be," Emma says with a smile. "You're a great person, everyone will like you."
"You sure?" Jack asks.
Emma gives him a look. "You got a first class girl to fall in love with you and run away with you, I think you're okay."
Jack smiles and takes out a cigarette.
"Didn't I tell you those things can kill you?" Emma snaps. "You should really quit that Jack, it's not good for you or the people around you."
"Sorry 'Mother'" Jack teases.
"Okay if you insist on doing that, just aim it out the window," Emma says.
"Fine," Jack says. He and Emma were almost like brother and sister, caring deeply for each other and yet arguing like little children. This made Jack feel fine because he never had any siblings growing up, so he felt more like he had a family as he and Rose grew closer to Peter and Emma.
He lights it up and stares out at the city landscape. The morning light is peeking up over some of the buildings, casting a bright glow and sharp shadows onto the street. Some people are already out and about in the neighbourhood; several men are walking towards the train station in their business suits, children are running down the street on their way to school and quite a few women are out watering their gardens. Jack wishes he could be at home with Rose and their baby, but he needed the money more than anything. Jack breathes some smoke out the window and embraces the warm morning air.
Peter pulls up to the police station.
"Stay safe," Peter jokes.
"Thanks, I'll take the bus home."
"Good idea," Emma says. "We might be home late. Good luck."
Jack walks up the large stone steps of the station, his stomach turning several times. He opens the door into a busy and very messy station. The noise overwhelms him at first and several officers rush past him, most likely getting a call, while phones ring off the hook for tips for detectives. Paperwork is piled high on desks and several suspects sit on wooden benches, looking either ashamed or indifferent.
Jack walks up to the front desk. A secretary looks up at him.
"Can I help you?"
"I'm Jack Dawson, I'm the new sketch artist."
"Oh yes, let me just call over Mr. Anderson."
The woman picks up the phone and practically has to scream into the mouthpiece over the noise.
A handsome man, about 30 or so comes through the chaos, dressed in a dark uniform, buttoned up to his neck. His chest is puffed out, clearly proud of being able to don the uniform of the law. He carries his hat under his arm. He has gray eyes and thick black hair that it combed to perfection.
"Welcome," the man says and offers his hand. "Welcome to the force, my name is Officer Joel Anderson."
"Jack Dawson," Jack says, shaking the man's hand.
"Well, we're all looking forward to having a new artist on the force, the last one we had just retired a month ago, we can't tell you how happy we are that you came along."
Jack nods and follows Joel as he guides Jack through the chaos of the office, weaving through desks and around filing cabinets.
"Now your job I consider one of the hardest ones, you only have eyewitness testimony to go off of to create composite sketches of wanted men."
"I'm used to working from scratch," Jack says earnestly.
"Good, good," Joel says as they climb the stairs to the second level. The two men go a down a long corridor, lined with office doors with different names on them. They go to the end of the hall.
"This is where you'll be working," Joel says.
What Jack sees looks almost like an art studio. The room is fairly small, with a desk and chair, a small bookcase and a window. There is also and easel, a stack of blank paper and a cup filled with pencils. Jack's heart beat excitedly. He finally felt like he had a studio of his own, yes, it was small, but he was able to use his talents for the benefit of others. All he ever needed was paper, a pencil, and his imagination. He couldn't ask for more.
"So you'll have people coming in and out all day, mostly escorted by officers. You also might have more than one. There's a series of questions on the desk you should ask the witness. Just keep your demeanor calm. There will be some sad folks you'll be interviewing, just try to remain professional. Once you've got a sketch completed, just hand it over to the supervising officer and he'll process it. It's a pretty easy job. There might be a lot of waiting around too."
"Thank you, Officer Anderson," Jack says.
"Call me Joel, just not in front of the witnesses."
"Yes sir," Jack nods.
"I'll bring up the first witness in a few minutes, make yourself comfortable, but be ready."
"Yes sir," Jack says.
"Good luck to you buddy," Joel says before leaving the room.
Now alone, Jack sits down behind the desk, putting his portfolio down beside him. He feels slightly out of place, but once he gets a pencil in his hand, he feels better. He sharpens a few of them and puts some blank pieces of paper in front of him. He decides to just draw some rough sketches, to practice before his first witness arrives.
He decides to sketch Rose, completely from memory, which is fairly easy since he saw her this morning. His hand works masterfully over the page as he captures the bold shape of Rose's face, the beauty of her eyes and the warmth of her smile. He felt like he missed her already. He can't help but smile until there is a knock at the door. Jack puts the sheet of paper on his desk and sits up, ready to work.
The next two hours, Jack completes three sketches. One for a missing person and two criminals suspected of armed robbery. He especially felt sorry for the family who came in for the missing person, a mother, and her two sons gave a very detailed description of their missing daughter, who had vanished two nights previous. He had to stop himself from crying as the mother burst into tears multiple times during the interview. Jack did his best to comfort the woman and said he's sure his sketch will help people find her.
By lunch, Jack is emotionally exhausted. He eats his sandwich that Rose had packed for him and then goes out for a smoke. As he lights up, Joel comes out to join him.
"Need a light?" Joel asks, offering him a match.
"Thanks," Jack says with the cigarette in between his teeth.
The men stand out in the noonday sun, watching cars go past and people walk by.
"Feel pretty drained huh?" Joel asks.
"Sorry?" Jack asks.
"Pretty drained, don't worry happens to the best of us. It takes some getting used to, we get some sad folks here, turning to us as their last hope, which is true. But you look like you've been through a lot for such a young man, I'm sure this must be hard for you."
Jack simply nods. He had been through a lot in his life, but he didn't feel like sharing with Joel, at least not. He'd lost his parents at fifteen, been homeless for most of his life since then, lost his best friend and seen the worst maritime disaster in the history of the world. He, fortunately, had Rose, who was his shining light. He also had new friends who had taken them both in and treated them like family. Despite the tragedy that befell them all, they were taking slow steps to recover.
Jack notices a silver band on Joel's finger.
"You married Joel?" Jack asks.
"Five years now and we have two handsome boys and a beautiful little girl."
"That's nice," Jack says. His head began spinning when he thought about marrying Rose one day.
"You married Jack?" Joel asks.
"No…but I am courting a girl."
"What's she like?"
Jack exhales some smoke before looking up to the horizon. There are no words to describe Rose, but he had to give Joel something.
"She's the most beautiful girl in the world. When she smiles, you have to smile too. She wants you to be as happy as she is. Her eyes are so lively, like emeralds shining in the sun. Her hair is fiery and lively, much like her personality. She can be stubborn, once she gets an idea in her head you can't change it. She's caring and compassionate. She's as beautiful on the inside as she is on the out."
"You're quite the poet," Joel jokes. "You sound like one lucky man, don't ever let her go."
Jack smiles. "Don't worry I won't."
…
Meanwhile, In the office up a floor from Jack's place of work, the private investigator is looking over the details of the case. He blows out more smoke, covering most of his face and yet he is still able to read the documents in front of him.
Name: Rose Marie DeWitt Bukater
Age: 17
Date of Birth: December 6th, 1895
Hair: Red
Eyes: Green
Height: 5 ft 5 inches
Mother: Ruth Agnes DeWitt Bukater
Father: Arthur Melvin DeWitt Bukater
Fiancé: Caledon J. Hockley
Lived in: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Last seen: Margret Brown's Fundraising Party, Downtown New York, going to powder room. Wearing dark blue dress covered in silver sparkles, Tiffany's diamond flower necklace, leather blue shoes.
The private eye inhales some of the smoke and then looks at the news article that the mother brought with her from Philadelphia. It is an engagement announcement to Mr. Hockley. The woman in the photo is quite beautiful so she may have been the target of some criminal, but there was something that he remembered from is in-depth interviews with each of his clients. He sees that the woman is fairly sad in her photo, clearly not pleased to be marrying this man. No stars in her eyes, nothing. He was building his theory as he reviews his notes and thought back to the interviews.
…
Earlier in the month...
"Now Mrs. Bukater, what can you tell me about your daughter. Was she happy in her life?"
"Why would you ask such a thing?!" the mother snapped. "Are you implying that I was a bad mother?!"
"Not at all, I'm just wondering if she had a motive for running away."
"She didn't run away, she was abducted!" Ruth said firmly.
"Pardon me Mrs. DeWitt Bukater, I know you are upset, but I must cover all the possibilities. and just so you know everything you say here is confidential."
After a long pause, Ruth sighed.
"Alright, if you must know Rose was not at all happy in her life…"
The detective writes down all the details as the mother goes in-depth about her life with her daughter. From her friends to the acquaintances, the man wants every connection from Ruth. Clearly, the daughter was rebellious and very upset with her life. From the problems on the Titanic at a first class dinner to running back into a sinking ship to find a man she claimed to love, it was becoming clear to the private eye that Rose probably ran away. He heard about her recent behavior and how she seemed involved with wedding plans, but Ruth never knew what happened behind closed doors. To add to the mystery, the girl's lady's maid had also vanished. The private eye asked if the maid knew more about Rose than she let on. Ruth at first was in denial, but things slowly began to make sense to her. Rose and the maid were close, so perhaps there was a conspiracy between them; the maid covering for Rose's escape. Ruth also mentioned how fearful Rose had become of Caledon, that something had clearly happened between them that scared her daughter away.
The man examines something he circled in his notes, the mention of Rose's sickness. He ponders this thought as he extinguishes a cigar and pulls out another. He drinks from a glass of whiskey next to him. He then turns to his notes with Caledon.
It was very clear to the detective that Mr. Hockley was hardly the ideal husband for anyone. He was vain, self-centred and very angry. Whenever the private investigator tried to ask him about what happened on the ship and if all was well between him and his fiancée, the man became defensive and quite often snapped at his interviewer.
The detective also had a profile made up of the man Rose was "supposedly" in love with. A third-class man named Jack Dawson. What little either of the witnesses knew about him was that he was an artist, very rude and hardly ideal for Rose. Clearly Rose didn't think so. The private eye had suggested that the man may have survived the disaster, but both Ruth and Caledon put that to rest easily. His name was not on the survivor's list and he was never seen aboard the ship.
The detective moves onto the profiles he had on some of Rose's friends. Two people, not much older than Rose herself, Emma Carson and Peter Whitman, along with an infant named Sybil, the sister to Miss Carson. The trio was only ever mentioned by Hockley and the private eye suspected that the man knew more than he was letting on. Caledon had also provided documentation of the girl's recently deceased father. When asked of how he obtained this, Mr. Hockley said nothing. Hockley also made it perfectly clear that both had also perished on the ship, the exact same reasons were given. The infant, however, he neither knew nor cared.
The private investigator stands up and puts the photo of Rose and Caledon on the wall. He tapes his notes all around it and adds pieces of string to make the connections. However, next, to Jack Dawson, Emma Carson, and Peter Whitman, he puts question marks beneath them.
…
Rose has dinner on when Jack comes home. Sybil is playing on the floor and the house looks neat.
Rose turns and throws her arms around Jack.
"How was your day?" she asks.
Jack swallows hard. "Alright, everyone is really nice and I basically have my own studio for sketching."
"That's so great. I'm so happy for you. I have dinner on."
"Everything go okay today?" Jack asks.
"Very well," Rose says, she's practically dancing across the floor in joy. "I managed to clean the house and keep Sybil happy all day. I even made lemonade!"
"That's great, I'm really proud of you."
Rose begins dancing again, up on her toes and humming a tune to herself. Jack sits down and watches as she spins and twirls. He definitely wants to spend the rest of his life with her. Someone so beautiful and someone so graceful. Eventually, he gets up and puts his arms around her. Both of them dance in the kitchen. Rose's heart soars in happiness. This is how her life should be…
Soon Emma and Peter come home and they all sit down to a family meal. They talk about their day and any current news. It feels so natural and so warming. Rose tells Emma that there are several calls for about classes she signed up for. This fills Emma with hope about finally earning the respect she deserves at the office.
The four people then go out with some lemonade and sit on the porch to watch the sun go down. The warm weather made everything pleasant and they watch as the stars come out. All four of them stop for a moment and remember the night of the party on Titanic. It was such a happy time, despite the tragedy that followed. Soon, Sybil falls asleep in Emma's arms and everyone heads up to bed.
Jack snuggles with Rose as she slowly falls asleep. Jack knows without a doubt that he wants to marry this girl and raise a family with her.
"I love you…" he whispers. "To the stars and back."