Free Remembering the Titanic by Diane Hoh Page A

Winterthur have yet to return from Europe. They say they couldn’t bear to return to the house on Riverside Drive since their father’s death at sea. They have no intention of coming back to pick up the pieces as you and I have done.”
    Joseph brought the car to a halt in the circular driveway.
    Elizabeth sighed again. “ You have done well, Mother. You have picked up the pieces of your life. I, on the other hand, have picked up those very same pieces.” She sat forward on the seat. “But they aren’t mine . At least, they shouldn’t be. I should have my own. It’s time I started finding them, don’t you think?” She could have sworn she saw Joseph’s black chauffeur’s cap nodding agreement in the front seat. But she couldn’t have. He wouldn’t dare, not with Nola sitting right behind him. Joseph knew who signed his weekly paycheck. It wasn’t Elizabeth.
    To her dismay, she was right about the discussion ending when they entered the house. Nola dropped her fur stole on a chair and went directly upstairs to bed without another word, not even a “good night.”
    Instead of following her mother up the stairs, Elizabeth went into the drawing room and straight to the desk where the telephone sat. She perched on her father’s enormous mahogany desk while she dialed the number, then she crossed her legs and waited, one ear attuned to any sound of her mother returning downstairs, the other glued to the receiver, waiting for Max’s voice.
    When it came, the knot in her stomach melted. His voice always did that, always had, from the first night on board the ship, after that humiliating encounter in the dining room, when he’d come up behind her on the Titanic to say teasingly, “Helped any more third-class passengers since I saw you last?”
    “I had an argument with my mother tonight,” she told him, keeping her voice low. “About my future. I told her I’m not going to Atlantic City in July.” Max hadn’t wanted her to go away this summer. He wasn’t going to Atlantic City with his parents, though they’d thawed enough to invite him. He wanted Elizabeth to stay in the city with him. She had said she couldn’t do that. But … maybe she could. Maybe she should . Be proud of me, Max, Elizabeth pleaded silently. Understand how hard this is for me, because I keep hearing my father’s voice telling me to take care of my mother.
    But when Max spoke, it was to ask, “Did you mean it? Are you going to stick to it? Or will she get round you, like she always does?”
    Elizabeth sagged in disappointment. He didn’t trust her. He had no faith left in her. She needed his support now more than ever, and he wasn’t going to give it. Maybe she shouldn’t have expected him to, after all the times she’d disappointed him this past year. She forged on, “I meant it. I’m not going. I have to think of a way that I can go to college without breaking my promise to my father. There must be something … at any rate, I need the summer to think about it. So I can’t take any trips.”
    This brought the reaction she’d hoped for. “Well, good for you! Is the old Elizabeth back then? About time.” Max laughed. “I’ve missed you.”
    Elizabeth smiled, warmed by his enthusiasm. “Me too.”
    “Tell you what. You can prove you mean it by meeting me on Saturday afternoon. We’ll picnic in Central Park. I’ll get all the food at the deli on the corner. All you have to do is show up. Have Joseph bring you to my place. I’ll drive on over to my parents’ house tomorrow afternoon and pick up a couple of bicycles. We’ll bike to the park.”
    Elizabeth thought fast. Saturday afternoon … Saturday … Nola’s hairdresser was coming to the house at ten A.M. sharp, and after that there was a shopping trip to Lord & Taylor. But … that was for summer resort clothes. Since she wasn’t going to any resort this summer, what did she need with resort clothes? “Mother will be keeping Joseph busy. But I can take a taxi.