Switched Lovestruck

What would it have been like if the beloved Jack and Rose were of the opposite gender as well as their social class and things happened faster than expected?

Somewhere off the coast of Newfoundland Rose made her way aboard the ship with little time to spare. She had just gambled her way into a third-class ticket to America. She was not like most women many a man stumbled across, she loved cars, ships, and even gambling when she heard a combination of some of her favorite things she couldn’t turn a blind eye. With nothing but the change in her pocket from breakfast, she decided to chance her luck which happened to work in her favor.

Rose made her way to the room she would be staying in until she reached New York City in due time. The size of the cabin she had to share with another was smaller than her room back home, but it was a free trip who could say no to that.

After counting the money she had gambled from the men she decided to see how big the ship really was, she had seen pictures but had never been on an actual ship until now. Going above your given class was permitted but Rose never followed the rules she just made sure to never get caught. Curiously she made her way to first-class, the people on the deck looked at her like she had been naked as the day she was born. Though she was fully dressed she could imagine they were staring at her ripped-up jacket as well as ripped pants, the men had on very expensive-looking suits and the women had on dresses that made them look like Victorians.

A baboon could tell that Rose was not where she was supposed to be but she could care less what these snobby people thought of her she felt at peace, alive, happy for the first time in a while, not having to worry about what the next meal would be or where it would come from. Rose suddenly felt the need to look over the ocean and think about what her new life would be like in America. She headed to the forward of the ship and gazed at the blue water ahead.

Minutes after minutes of gawking endlessly Rose decided to return to her cabin when she saw a rather handsome man looking frustrated, he started to climb onto the rail, it looked like if he’d take one more step he would fall, Rose had seen a thing or two but didn’t want to add a suicide to the list, she hurried and called out. “You should get down... You could fall over” The handsomely frustrated man turned and looked straight at Rose, if looks could kill she would be dead by now. “That’s kind of the point, I’d like some privacy now thank you”. Rose was debating on saying go ahead but knew that if she did, she would be haunted by this for the rest of her life, if she let this man die in front of her even if he was falling to his death instead of a gruesome death. “How about you get down and we can talk about what's troubling you”? Rose was nowhere near sympathetic for strangers but she felt sad for this man what could he possibly be going through on the best ship in the world.

The man looked hesitant but climbed down “Jack” he went in for a handshake, if I had known one thing about upper-class people they didn’t shake hands with the lower class but I still went in for the handshake to be polite “Rose” “Thank you for knocking sense into me, my parents want me to marry a very wealthy woman but between us shes the snobbiest person I know and trust me I know a lot”. I was surprised he had actually told me what had him upset. “That sucks but it’s not worth your life” I had a feeling about Jack, he was something special. For the first time in my life, I wanted to get to know someone, He just had a specialty no one else did that interested me.

“If you knew her you wouldn’t feel that way I would do, anything to get away from her”

I had known a thing or two about men and that they are easily manipulated, I didn’t want to manipulate Jack but I wanted to get closer to him. “Could you show me back to my cabin it’s getting late”? “Of course”.

The next day I went to first class in my fanciest outfit a shirt and jeans that weren’t ripped, I was determined to know more about Jack, I had spotted him smoking a cigar on the deck talking to a crowd of other men. Rich men together always amuse me because they always look like a flock of birds, the exact same. I didn’t intend to intrude so I took a seat on a lawn chair and waited until he finished his conversation. As Jack finished the conversation he gave all the men a firm handshake and they walked away one by one until it was just Jack standing alone. He spotted me before I could even stand. He started walking over to me and I swear I could feel my heart beating in my lungs, at first I thought it was some kind of illness I had caught from being in my dust-filled cabin, but I later realized that feeling was because of Jack. What had he done to me in so little time?

“Hello, Rose was it? good to meet your acquaintance again, I would like to thank you for yesterday I was having a rough day”. “It's no problem really sometimes I feel like jumping off moving ships into the ocean too”. “Really” Jack replied curiously “No, I was trying to be funny” My joke didn’t quite get the laugh I was yearning for but it brought a smile to Jack’s face and a butterfly in my stomach. All of a sudden a jolt of confidence shot through me, “would you like to have dinner with me” Jack looked at me hesitant but content “sure I would like that”.

The End

Trina Green