Having computer issues (again)

With luck my computer will be working again by tomorrow, with luck. Right now it is shutting down without warning every ten minutes or so. Therefore I won't be able to write a page tonight. Must go before it shuts down again.

Amended. My laptop is dead. Mourn it. I will not be posting for a while

Ego

The idea that I might fall as I climbed along the gable roof of my Grandmother’s house never occurred to me. I was famous in my family for my daredevil stunts and this was just another one of them. I was considered quite the athlete and gymnast in our little town. I was proud of my reputation so every once in a while I would reinforce it by some public demonstration, like this one. I had yet to get hurt doing anything, well there had been a few bruises or cuts, but there had never been any broken bones or anything like that.

Everyone was below me as I climbed around like a monkey, screaming for me to get down before I killed myself, or gave them a heart attack. Finally I leaped into the branches of a tree by the side of the house, and shimmied down, ending my stunt just as I had started it.

“You’re supposed to go to your university’s summer practice tomorrow and you’re doing things that could kill you?” my father demanded as soon as my feet touched the ground. He was as proud as I was that I had been accepted on a football scholarship and I could see why he would get worried about me jeopardizing that because of a dumb stunt. On the other hand there was no way that I would get hurt and he should have known that, I was a genius athlete, not the sort of person that would fall off of a roof.

The university I had signed up to attend was in a large city, which made me a little nervous, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me. I had never actually been to a real city, not a large one. Now I was going to be living in one. My family never traveled much because we didn’t have a lot of cash. I was going to be the first of my family to ever go to college even. I was the family pride a joy, the pride of the whole town for my sports ability. There wasn’t a single person in town that hadn’t heard that I was going to be joining the big city football team, they even held a party for me.

When I got to the city however, in spite of all of my confidence when I had left home, I found that I was scared out of my mind just getting out of my parent’s car. Never in my life had I been next to a skyscraper before, or seen so many people moving around without recognizing any of them. I got checked into my room in the dorms, they were mostly empty of course, only the summer school students and the sports students were in them. And then my parents left me, and I was all alone.

I fell asleep that night, on my unfamiliar dorm mattress and I remember dreaming about stands cheering my name, just like they did back when I was in high school. Only in my dreams the stands were much larger then they were when I was back home, and filled with strangers who knew my name even though we had never met. I dreamed of fame.

Of course dreaming of fame and achieving it are two different things. I am a receiver and in my mind I was a pretty good one but my coach disagreed to my shock. He told me that not only was my catching accuracy not to his standards; I also didn’t run fast enough. He put me through hell, me, who had been heralded as the savior of my football team all through high school. It was said that it was thanks to me alone that we had managed to go to state, even if in the end we hadn’t won. My school had never once gone to state before I had enrolled in it. And every day I had the coach calling me trash and shouting at me that I would never be allowed to play while he was coach. I saw the other players they had as receivers, I had to admit that they were better then me, even though it was painful to do so.

To be continued...

The Bus Club VI

“Because she’s a temperamental lady, this bus, she won’t work for just anyone. I got her for cheap because she wouldn’t start anymore, not for anyone. Well I had a seat and talked to her for a bit, turned the key, and she worked like a charm.”

“Mother tried to dive her once,” Yanuva told us in a very low voice.

“You don’t have to whisper about it Yanuva, I don’t mind,” said Bill, though he had stopped smiling for the first time since we had met him.

“Well Mom didn’t like the way Dad kept the bus to himself, wouldn’t let anyone else dive it. She thought father was being silly and wouldn’t let up until he told her she could try.”

“A very stubborn woman, my ex-wife,” commented Bill ruefully. “I tried to tell her that something bad would happen but she wouldn’t listen to me.”

“Did something happen?” I asked.

“I should say so,” said Yanuva sighing. “The engine threw a piston, the diver’s seat collapsed under her, and the two front tires went flat and that just because she tried to turn the key in the ignition.”

“It didn’t take long for her to divorce me after that,” admitted Bill. “It took us a long time to pull her out of the wreckage of the seat, and when we did, well, she never acted the same towards me again. She always was head strong. A real lady though, disappointed her parents horribly when she married me.”

“How did you meet her?” I asked, because it seemed like the logical thing to ask, what with the way the conversation was going.

“I was working at a horse ranch that her parents bought. Her Mother and Father have tons of money; they buy just about anything they take a fancy to. Well, she loved horses and was about the prettiest girl I’d ever seen, so I got to talking with her. You know how it is; it wasn’t long before we were engaged. Her parents had a fit when they found out, tried to do anything to stop us from getting married but we were both young and stubborn as hell. So they told me that first I had to learn to act like a civilized person. I think they thought that would scare me off if nothing else would. So they shoved all of this etiquette and grammar stuff down my throat, made me stop wearing cowboy boots and jeans, and weren’t even satisfied at that. Then they got into business and I had to learn about dividends and trust funds. Took about a year but they finally admitted that I knew enough not to be an embarrassment so me and her got hitched.”

I guessed that the teaching he had received about proper English hadn’t entirely stuck because he switched easily between amazingly good English and the most hick sounding talk I had ever heard. Of course that was back in the early days of me ridding the bus, I would hear much worse but I didn’t know that yet. There was no limit to the interesting people who rode Widow Maker every night. But there is a limit to my time and space before I have to run to get to school and hand this in. Suffice to say, it’s been a fun school year, and I would appreciate if you wouldn’t tell my parents that I’ve been riding the bus this whole time because they’ll kill me. I told them that I was sleeping over at Yanuva’s house.

The Bus Club V

When the bus finally clanked to a stop in front of us Yanuva was the only person who entered the door with absolutely no hesitation. Even Onani paused for a split second on the threshold, and normally he was fearless through indifference.

The interior of the bus was as shabby as I had imagined. The original seats were still in the bus, tattered and graffiti covered as they were. A radio had been installed by the driver’s seat and it was playing the old country music. The driver himself, Yanuva’s father, was wearing a cowboy hat and boots, blue jeans and a flannel shirt. He smiled at us as we stepped aboard and stuck out his hand to each of us.

“Hi, I’m Bill, folks call me Tex. Yanuva has told me about all of you,” he said, motioning us to the seats right behind him. He was the least formal parent I had ever encountered. I realized as I sat down that I didn’t even know his name and calling him by his first name went totally against the way I was raised. I didn’t get the chance to ask him about this though, because right away he set into talking. I soon realized where Yanuva had gotten her talkative nature from.

“You know, this is the first time Yanuva has brought any friends with her like this, you guys must be special. I’ll let you ride anytime for free,” he added.

“The company you keep Dad, most of my friends would be scared to ride this bus,” Yanuva said teasingly. She was sitting right behind him, with her elbows resting on his neck while he drove. They made a sweet picture but her comment brought to my attention the other passengers on the bus. Most of them were men, dirty men in work clothing. The few women looked just as rough, these weren’t people that you saw in the neighborhood I lived in, but the sort of people who work hard, manual labor for a living. I tried to imagine one of the women, a lady in coveralls, her face streaked with soot, sitting in on my mother’s garden club meeting and almost burst into laughter.

My parents are always telling me not to judge people without getting to know them. It’s something I have been told my whole life. But it just goes to show that my parent’s don’t always practice what they preach I’m afraid. They were all to quick to judge people by status and job position, not once in my life had seen them associate with anyone who would have ridden on the bus I was on. I will say this; it was an eye opening experience. All of us, except maybe Yanuva, were from upper middle class families, that was just the sort of high school that we went to. And while I am sure that there are eccentric people everywhere. I suddenly realized that I was surrounded by them. Normal people don’t get on Tex Bill’s bus. Not twice anyway, and not sober.

I noticed that Bill, as I was forced to think of him as, knew every passenger he picked up, greeted them by name, and sometimes asked after their family by name as well. Of course the bus didn’t have official stops like the city bus did, but word of mouth had worked just as well. Anyone who was likely the ever want to ride the bus knew where he stopped. And everyone was always sure to give him money on their way off the bus. It was a system of trust, so no one ever broke it.

“Dad used to be a cowboy and ride in a rodeo,” Yanuva commented.

“And I was a good one,” said Bill, grinning back at us for a second before going back to watching the road. “I rode anything anyone could put a saddle on for my whole life. That’s why I can handle this bus, not one other person in the whole state could.”

“Why not?” I asked. It didn’t seem that different on the inside from some of the school buses that I had ridden in before, apart from how beat up it was.

To be continued...

The Bus Club IV

As for Yanuva, her father doesn’t have a very good reputation around town and she tends to have to deal with what it rubs off on her. Her father runs a borderline bus in town. The city buses stop running after eleven PM and he takes advantage of this by running an old, repainted, school bus around town. He doesn’t have a license as a bus driver or a taxi or anything but gets around this by never asking a fare, just a tip. This of course adds up to be about the same thing but it made a legal loophole for him to operate in, at least until the city council decides to do something about him. People call his bus Widow Maker because they say they never know if they will get home alive, between the shady people who ride, and the beat up condition of the bus.

Our forth club meeting Yanuva suddenly stood up and declared that she had had enough, that she was bored, and that we should stop meeting like this. We all stared at her in amazement. Like I said, she isn’t the sort to give up one of her ideas.

“After all that work?” I asked her skeptically. “Do you want Shizu to have to join the trading card game club?”

“I didn’t mean it like that,” she said. “I meant that we need to find a more interesting place to meet, or some sort of purpose. Tell you what; you guys should sleep over with me next week instead of meeting in this boring old room.”

“You mean at your house?” asked Shizu.

“No, I never sleep in the house on Tuesday nights. Tuesday nights I sleep on the bus while father makes the rounds. I’m saying you guys should come along for the ride, it’ll be fun.”

“My parents would kill me,” said Shizu bluntly. This got me thinking about what my mother would say if she knew such a thing had even been suggested.

“I don’t think my mother would approve either,” I said, which was a bit of an understatement. As usual Onani didn’t say anything. He just watched us argue.

“That’s why you don’t have to tell them that you’re going to be sleeping on the bus. Just tell them that you are spending the night with me, that we’re having a club slumber party. It will be true too. And you don’t have to worry about anything happening, father will be there to make sure we stay safe.”

Yanuva always gets her way, eventually. This time was no exception. She is truly the driving force behind the club and both Shizu and I caved. Onani had long since made it clear he didn’t care what his parents thought, he did as he pleased. I don’t think that there was a single one of us who wasn’t affected by the sense of adventure that came with Yanuva’s suggestion.

I won’t say that it was easy for Shizu or me to manage to convince our parents to let us go on a sleep over on a school night. Despite being high school students, both of us had problems leaving the house over night without parental permission. Shizu in particular had a hard time of course, but some how she managed. If Onani had any difficulties getting away we would never hear about it. I doubt he did though, he seemed to do what ever he liked; I doubt he even told his parents he was leaving the house for the night. Yanuva of course had it the easiest; she did this every Tuesday night.

Still we all managed to meet at the appointed time at the informal bus stop where Yanuva’s father would pick us up. Yanuva had told us not to bother bringing anything. It wasn’t like we were going to be changing into pajamas or brushing our teeth on the bus she pointed out. And she said she would take care of the snacks.

To be continued...

The Bus Club III

I found that I had class all of my classes with at least one of the other would be club members. Other then Yanuva they weren’t the sort of people you would notice unless you were looking for them. Neither of them spoke during class unless called on and sat towards the back. I found after that first day however that they moved seats so that they were sitting next to me. Like it or not they had accepted me and I was now one of them. They never talked to me and I never talked to them but that didn’t matter. I realized that everyone in the school had already decided that I was one of them as well. There was nothing I could do about it now.

If I was going to be a member of their club I decided that I was going to take it seriously anyway. So I went to Yanuva and asked her if there was anything that I could do. It had already been a week since I had joined their club and there still seemed to be some problems in dealing with the adults.

“You have no idea how happy I am to hear you see that. I was worried we were forcing you to join on guilt. I’ll be sure to tell you if I do need any help, don’t worry. Right now I am just trying to get a meeting with the vice principle.” I hadn’t realized that Shizu had come up behind me, she moved very quietly. Now she came into view in the corner of my vision.

“I just had a meeting with the advisor. You better get the club together fast Yanuva, he’s threatening me with the trading card game club. And I’ve never even touched a trading card.”

“Now where’s the trust?” asked Yanuva smiling. “If you two are free after school we can get Onani and go talk to the teacher I think we have the best bet convincing to sponsor us.”

To avoid incriminating myself in this document I will skip the rest of the conversation. Students always talk about their teachers and what they say tends not to be very complementary. I am sure that everyone knows that. Actually I don’t think that the rest of that day really matters much. We got our sponsorship. It was an English teacher which is why I am writing this account anyway. That was the deal, she would sponsor us as a club and in exchange we would each write her an account of the clubs activities. I am a procrastinator so I am writing this at one in the morning. Any mistakes, or poor writing you can blame on highly caffeinated and sleep deprived state. However I have always been good at writing so I am hoping I am not inflicting too much pain on the reader.

The first couple of club meetings that occurred were boring. We didn’t really have a point other then to keep Shizu’s meetings with the advisor pleasant. We had to meet though because I quickly discovered that my companions were on the school watch list and I was quickly becoming guilty by association.

Onani had once tried to commit suicide. Leaving behind a note saying “suicide notes are so melodramatic”, he never told anyone why he had actually thought he should die. The teachers keep a very close eye on him just in case. He never mentions it and neither do the other members of the club, it’s taboo to mention anything about suicide around him, even though he doesn’t seem to mind the, other two do.

Shizu has extremely over protective parents who insist that the school watch her to make sure she doesn’t get bullied or feels left out and to make sure she is making friends. She told me that’s why she is so good at sneaking around; she has to sneak around to have any fun. Her parents still make her watch PG or G films only and she’s a high-schooler and that’s just an example.

To be continued...

The Bus Club II

“She kind of did tell me no, I remember that,” protested Yanuva. “She told me her parents wouldn’t allow her to go over to the house of anyone they hadn’t met. So I told her I would go meet her parents.”

“I wasn’t actually going to introduce her to my parents,” admitted Shizu, “except that I was forced to.”

“Hurrah for school advisors,” said Yanuva. Shizu’s parent’s make her go see the advisor every week because they are determined that she isn’t developing adequate social skills. In order to get the advisor off of her case a bit Shizu told him that she had become friends with Yanuva and was having her over after school.

“After that I didn’t have a choice, he reports to my parents,” said Shizu.

Onani has never told me how he got dragged into Yanuva’s wake and Yanuva alone telling a story is a little unfair so let us just say that he joined the club before I did. But it wasn’t a club still, they were eating together but they hadn’t even thought about making it a club until Shizu’s next meeting with the advisor.

“He told me ‘I still think you should interact more with your peers. I want you to join one of the extracurricular clubs the school has. It will be good for you.’”

“When she told me that I had to help her,” said Yanuva. “That’s what friends are for after all. Why should she have to find a club when we already were one practically?”

They ran into a problem though getting recognized as a club however by the school. And they had to be because the school advisor had given Shizu a time limit of three weeks to find a club or he would find one for her. The guidelines to become a school club however are kind of strict. First of all the club must have at least four members, they were only three at the time. That’s where I came into it.

It was my first day of school. We had just moved from halfway across the country and I knew no one in this new place. Everyone was being nice enough to me but I hadn’t been picked up by a group yet. I therefore was eating my lunch alone when Yanuva spotted me. She must have thought it was a perfect chance.

“Would you like to join our club,” were the first words Yanuva said to me. She sat down across from me. Shizu and Onani joined her. I stared at her.

“What kind of club?” I asked. She looked embarrassed.

“Well we haven’t exactly figured that out yet, we’re just starting out you see. But we need another member.”

“I don’t see why I should join a club when I don’t know what kind of club it’s going to be,” I said.

“Well it will be a social club we think. You know the sort of place where you just go and talk and maybe eat some snacks and stuff. We aren’t sure if we can get a teacher sponsor for such a club though so we may have to scrap that idea though. Please join, we have to have another member.” If I have one fault it isn’t being able to say no to people when they beg me to do something. And she sounded pleading enough to melt the hearts of anyone. Besides she was the first person to ask me to any social event at the school.

“Alright, I’ll join your club if you get it approved,” I said. I have to admit that I thought that I would never hear from them again. Something as disorganized as what they were talking about didn’t hold much promise. I wasn’t accounting for Yanuva’s stubbornness however.

To be continued...

The Bus Club

This is the prequel to the story that I wrote before about buses. I made references in that story to a club that had ridden the bus. Well here's the story of the club.

If you walk into the cafeteria of the Grandview high school, and if you are a careful observer, you might see a group that seems a bit out of place. Two boys and two girls sitting apart from everyone else, lost in their own little worlds, but as a group. Or perhaps I should say a club because that’s what we are.

The first girl is called Yanuva, she talks, constantly. While I may sound as if I am annoyed by this I’m not really. We all have a soft spot for Yanuva; she’s the one who brought us together in the first place. She comes up with ideas and won’t let them go, we’re one of her idea’s and grateful for it.

The first boy is called Onani, he’s reserved and quiet, he spends all of his time watching other people but he never comments. He seems to like his position as a silent observer. He wears old fashioned round rimed glasses that magnify his eyes and give you the impression that he can look right through you. Because he’s quiet and wears glasses people think he’s really smart. Who’s to say that he isn’t? But we have yet to see any proof that he is.

The second girl is named Shizu. She is only a little more social then Onani but most people think it’s for the opposite reason. The teachers think that she’s stupid because she looks like she’s asleep all the time. No matter where she is she will find a wall to lean against or a chair to slouch down in. She’ll close her eyes so most people think she isn’t paying attention but she can recite back to you anything that was said word for word, which is a lot better then a lot of people who look like they’re paying attention can do.

I am the normal one, or at least I like to think that I am. I probably wouldn’t have joined this group if it wasn’t for the fact that I was a new kid and they got to me before any other clique or group could. It was fast working on Yanuva’s part but I am jumping far ahead in the story because I am actually the last person to join the club. If this is a story about the club then I should start with how the club started I suppose. I wasn’t there but I have heard the story often enough from Yanuva.

Yanuva doesn’t belong to any one category in the school; she isn’t prep, jock, goth or any other of the many other social groups that populated the school. She had social hopped before the founding of the club, talking to one group one day and to another the next. While she had never been snubbed by any of them they had never really accepted her either. Well that’s what I have heard anyway.

Shizu is the first member of the club, actually she is the reason we are an official school club. If it weren’t Shizu we would just be a group of friends who got together and had a good time. Shizu had needed a club though, so that is what they had become.

“She would just sit on her own all the time,” Yanuva once told me in regard to Shizu. “So one day I decided that I would sit next to her. The other people in the school had started to bore me; she was the only one I had never talked to. Of course I did most of the talking our first meeting, but that never stopped me.”

I have seen Shizu often enough at the lunch table to know what that first meeting probably looked like. Shizu, her head resting on a hand, her eyes half closed, listening to the wave of chatter that Yanuva is capable of producing at all times.

“I don’t even remember what was said exactly,” Yanuva admitted to me.

“I remember but it doesn’t make a lot of sense,” said Shizu. “Most of what she was saying was just space filler. But she snuck in some comments about wanting me to come over to her house and I was so put off by the other nonsense she was spouting that I didn’t actually tell her no.”

To be continued...

The Black Sheep IV

Jack started to look for work after we got him clothes but it wasn’t easy for him by any means. I started to get frustrated with the world for him, even though he didn’t act upset by the way things were working out. I mean I was doing well for myself still, but suddenly Jack’s failure was mine too. I knew he was trying because I had sat across from him as he filled out piles of applications spread across the table. I had told him that he could have a place at my house for as long as it took but weeks passed and he never even got a call back.

Jack got up Saturday morning to find me already dressed and about to head out of the door. He took the tooth brush out of his mouth to look me up and down. I had some of my older, shabbier at home clothing on and he seemed to notice.

“Where are you off to?” Jack asked.

“My parent’s home, they asked me to do some stuff around the house,” I said, grabbing the keys from the hook next to the garage door.

“Let me get this straight,” said Jack, giving me a funny look. “You work over forty hours a week at the office, you finally get a day off, and you spend it working at your parent’s house? Didn’t you go over there and help out last weekend too?”

“I don’t mind,” I lied. To tell the truth I was a little annoyed with becoming a handyman at my parents’ beck and call but I couldn’t say no. I had dedicated too much of my life living according to my family’s wishes to change now. They had decided my career, what I wore, where I bought my house, everything. Normally I tried not to think of it like that but that was how it was anyway.

When I got back that night I found Jack drunk on the floor. He hadn’t touched any alcohol since he had moved in with me, not even when I had offered him a beer, but now he had my bottle of cooking brandy next to him, almost empty, and pouring out onto my linoleum. I shook my head and managed to half carry, half drag him, to bed. I cleaned up the brandy, was happy to note that that was the only mess he had made, and went to bed myself.

I didn’t actually sleep that night. I had far too much on my mind. I kept thinking about how hard Jack had tried, and how many times he had failed. I also started thinking about my own life, led completely to please my family, and I couldn’t help but think that was just as sad. I got up in the middle of the night to look some things up on the internet, flipped a coin, and then got to work.

I was eating breakfast when Jack walked into the kitchen. He was already fully dressed and looked very sheepish. He stood there expectantly but I couldn’t figure out why so I just kept eating. I mean I didn’t have time to figure out what he was thinking, I was too busy working out what I had decided to do last night, as well as trying to keep my eyes open after an all-nighter. I had to go into work today though, I had to quit, and it’s best to do that to your boss’s face. Finally he decided he was going to have to say what was on his mind.

“I’m sorry about last night; I guess you probably want me out of the house.” It wasn’t a question and I realized he seriously thought that I was going to order him out of my home and was trying to save me the embarrassment of bringing it up.

“It’s not your fault. I made pancakes by the way; they are over by the stove.”

“You’re not mad?” Jack asked, cautiously.

“I have no reason to be. Who wouldn’t be depressed after trying so hard to get a job and not being able to find one? That’s why you can work for me,” I added, pouring myself another cup of coffee so I could think better.

“You don’t have a business,” Jack said, looking at me like I was crazy.

“I’m starting one, and you’re my first employee,” I said calmly. “I’m going to open a lawn care and house maintenance business and you seem good at that sort of thing so you’re hired. I haven’t thought of a name for it yet.”

“Are you serious?” Jack asked me.

“Yep, I’m quitting work today. I’ll work my two weeks, because quitting on short notice gets you a bad reputation, and that will give me time to set up the basics of my business anyway. Do you mind if I set you up as my agent while I’m at work. I’ll give you power of attorney tomorrow after work. Today I have to go to the bank and get a second mortgage on this house, which will give us some working money.”

“This is all really sudden, aren’t you really about to risk everything? And the family won’t be happy,” Jack pointed out, putting a couple of pancakes on his plate. His disgrace over getting drunk was clearly forgotten with him wondering at my sanity.

“I bet it all on a coin flip, it went with this path, and I’m not sad that it did. Now I’ve made my mind up. I’m good at doing yard stuff and things around the house thanks to my parents calling me every time there is a leaky faucet or a dead limb so I’ll pull my weight as well.”

“You also trust me an awful lot for someone who you know has been in prison,” Jack pointed out.

“I’ve let you into my house for a couple of months now, and you haven’t stolen anything. You’ve even helped me out rather then just free loading. I figure I can trust you,” I said shrugging.

“I was arrested for stealing from an employer you know; I needed the money desperately, but still. No one will hire me, are you sure you aren’t just doing it out of pity or because we’re family. I won’t take charity.”

“Shut up,” I said, finally losing my temper. I hadn’t gotten a lot of sleep and now that I had chosen a path for myself I wasn’t going to let Jack dissuade me. “If you don’t want to work then just say no, you can stay here anyway, I don’t care; I’ll just find someone else to work for me. I don’t know how long I’ll have a house though if this doesn’t work out and I thought you might want to gamble it with me. We could both be homeless by the end of the year if this business fails.”

“Fine, though you’re the one who’s putting everything on the line.” Jack and I shook hands and I drove to work. On the way I called my mother, it was best to get things over with right away.

The Black Sheep III

Jack came up from the spare room and I changed the subject really fast but he looked at me suspiciously. I wondered if he had heard that I was talking about him, and what I had said. Now that I thought about it saying that I knew better then to talk about him was a rather harsh thing to say, though honest. If he was offended though he didn’t act like it.

“I noticed coming up that your gutter was all plugged up with leaves. You have to work tomorrow right? I can take care of the gutter for you if you show me where the ladder is,” Jack said over dinner.

“I don’t expect you to work around the house to pay for your keep or anything,” I protested.

“I know you don’t, but I don’t mind. You had a point about me not being able to go job searching dressed like this and I’d rather not laze around the house all day. If I’m here I might as well be of help, I hate to be a free loader.”

When he put it like that I couldn’t say no, and the gutters really did need to be cleaned, so I showed him where the ladder was in the garage before I left for work the next morning. The gutters were clean when I got back from work that night, plus the hinges on the door that squeaked had been oiled, the bushes had been trimmed and the lawn had been mowed, I didn’t know what to say, except thanks. I made us dinner, Jack admitted to having no idea how to cook except microwave dinners.

“You’ve done so much in only one day. I just don’t have time to do stuff around the house anymore,” I admitted.

“I like to have something to do, and I used to do stuff like this during the summer back when I was a teenager. Earned a decent amount of money at it, people will pay you good money to do stuff if they don’t like the job themselves.”

“Are you going to work at something like that now?” I asked.

“I don’t know, I’m willing to take about anything that I’m offered. There are a lot of places that won’t hire you if you have a prison record,” Jack said casually. There he went, saying things bluntly that I would have been ashamed with myself for commenting on.

After dinner I insisted that we go shopping for things that he would need if he was going to start life again. I offered to take him to a nice clothing store where I bought my clothing but he refused and insisted that we go to a cheap super store instead.

“If I’m going to pay you back for this stuff someday I’d like it to be in my price range. Besides, nowhere that will hire me will need a designer suite.” We got him clothing, toiletries, the basics. More basic then I had ever lived with, and yet he still seemed uncomfortable when the total was rung up, almost like he expected me to be angry with him for spending so much money.

“Didn’t your parents buy stuff for you when you were younger?” I asked, trying to reassure him that it was alright. “We’re family too.”

“My parents don’t have a lot of money,” Jack said, a comment that had about the effect of a bomb on me. “They didn’t buy me a lot.” Now one of the things that my family never talks about is money, and especially not the lack thereof. Jack had just broken one of the rules of family conversation and yet he didn’t seem to care about it.

“They live in a nice house,” I said weakly.

“Yeah, well they would wouldn’t they?” was all Jack said, and I guessed that I had touched on a sensitive subject for the first time with Jack.

The Black Sheep II

My cousin Jack, when I picked him up from the bus station, turned out to be a little shorter then I was, thin and athletic looking. I couldn’t exactly say what it was that I had been expecting, but he wasn’t it. I think I have been allowed to fall into movie stereotypes for too long where all criminals with a prison record are big, muscular, ill educated tattooed guys. Jack was far from any of those.

“Don’t worry; I’m not going to stay for long. I’m going to look for a job starting tomorrow and as soon as I find on get out of your hair. You have no idea how grateful I am for you taking me in like this on such short notice,” he said as he got into my car.

“No luggage?” I asked.

“My parents got rid of all of my stuff after I was arrested, I don’t have anything except what I’m wearing. I’ll buy some other stuff after I get a job, don’t worry about it,” Jack said casually. I thought of my closet filled with designer suites that that I wore to work and I was filled with guilt.

“If you’re looking for a job you’ll need more then one outfit, it doesn’t look professional if you wear the same thing you wore to the first interview to the second. I can afford to get you some clothes, I’m doing pretty well for myself these days, and I can afford it. I don’t look like you even have a comb or a tooth brush,” I added. He hadn’t been exaggerating that all he had was what he was wearing; he didn’t even have a small bag of luggage. No wonder he had sounded desperate, I thought to myself, I couldn’t imagine being that close to homelessness.

“You’re already giving me a place to stay, I’m 26, I don’t need someone to take care of me,” Jack said defensively.

“You can pay me back after you get a job if you want,” I said, shrugging to show my indifference. “But if you want to get back on your feet you have to invest some stuff first. I mean my parents had to pay my way through college for me, there was no way I could have gotten through without their help.” I instantly felt like a horrible person for bringing up parents and my successfulness but Jack didn’t seem to mind.

“I’m still just a stranger though, and not one with a good reputation,” was all he said. It was too awkward to respond to that, mostly because it was a very honest self evaluation, so we drove back to my house in silence. After I had installed Jack in the spare room in my house, and sworn to take him shopping for a toothbrush at least the next day, I called my mother.

“So you did end up taking in Jack, I wasn’t sure how you would take it when he called you. I hope I didn’t force you into an uncomfortable situation,” my mother said rather sheepishly.

“No, nothing like that, but he is family after all and I couldn’t think of a reason to turn him down when he was in need of help. I mean charity starts at home and all of that.”

“Yes, just don’t tell your father that Jack is staying with you, he’ll have a fit,” my mother warned. “You should have heard what he said to Jack over the phone, and Jack didn’t say anything in response, if I was him I would have hung up on your father, but he just listened.”

“I know better then you say anything about Jack to any member of the family, you don’t have to worry Mother.”

To be continued...

The Black Sheep

My family is very concerned with what the neighbors will think, more so then even most families are. So much as a bad test score when I was younger was a great shame that should never be spoken of. It isn’t just my parents that are like that, it’s the whole extended family, at least what I know of them. I mean I’m talking about a family that nearly disowned me when they caught my girlfriend and me in the back of my car one night.

However even in a family like this one there is a black sheep and that would by my cousin Jack. He’s my father’s nephew, the son of my uncle, and there are a lot of arguments about how he ended up the way that he is. I know that my uncle and aunt hate each other and only stay married because of the shame that would be connected with admitting that they hate each other enough to get a divorce. Growing up in a house like that can’t be good for you.

The point of the matter is that growing up all I knew was that my cousin Jack was in prison, and I had no idea why. It wasn’t something that was talked about, and no one ever mentioned his name. Even after I was an adult I still was never told what it was that Cousin Jack had done, and I was too much of a coward to ask. I have worked very hard to keep in my families good graces and keep up the family name. Most of my life has been dictated by what they want me to do; I’m not going to risk their favor by asking after a disgraced cousin I never met. It took me a couple of years to get out of the red after that incident with my girlfriend. It was to my great surprise therefore that I got a phone call one day and heard an unfamiliar male voice on the other end.

“Is this Hunter?” asked the voice. It sounded uncomfortable and unsure of what reaction it was going to get.

“Yes, who is this?” I asked.

“We’re cousins but we haven’t met, this is Jack,” said the voice, sounding even more uncomfortable. I wasn’t even sure how to answer that, what did you say to a man who you had never met and only vaguely had heard of as being the disgrace of the family?

“Uncle Mike’s son?” I asked, weakly.

“Yeah, that’s right. Listen, I know this is asking a lot of someone I’ve never met but could I stay at your place for a couple of nights. I’m out of prison now and I’ve got nowhere to go. Mom and Dad disowned me when I was sentenced.”

“Did you ask Father?” I asked. I wasn’t willing to say yes or no right off, I mean he was a person who was asking me for help, I couldn’t ignore him. On the other hand he was a criminal whose crime I didn’t know, asking to stay in my house.

“Your dad told me that I would set foot in his house over his dead body, but your mother is a little nicer and gave me your number before your father hung up on me,” Jack explained. Well at least I knew how he had gotten my number. I also had a more important piece of information; even though he was a criminal my mother had decided that he would be safe in my home. It might not make me popular with the rest of the family but if Jack was calling me for a place to go he must really be desperate, I did feel sorry for him.

“Yeah, sure, you can stay at my place. Where are you? Do you need me to pick you up?” I asked him.

“You’re serious?” asked a doubtful voice over the phone. It was obvious he hadn’t really expected me to agree as desperate as he was.

To be continued...

The Becoming Sword II

I started to worry about my health however within a couple of weeks of getting the sword. Several nights in a row I woke up unable to move. That didn’t concern me that much; I dismissed it as me being only partly awake that I wasn’t able to control my body. What really worried me was that I was starting to feel cold all the time. I finally decided it was time to call on the doctors.

My people were not famous for their medicine by any means. Good medical practice was to knock someone over the head so they passed out before you cut off their leg. I hated to admit that the people I had conquered were better at anything then my own, but with my health in balance, I decided to call in any captive doctors who were around. We met in my private chambers, I didn’t want my people thinking that I was dying or anything, I was a ruler who ruled with power, there was no way that I could show weakness.

Having listened to what I had to say, and having been given the opportunity to examine me, the doctors went into a huddle that I was too far away to listen to. I was a little nervous about that, not being allowed to hear what was being said about my own body was frustrating but I decided to put up with it. After all these people were considered the best in their fields, it was best to humor them even if I was their king.

“You seem to have contracted a slight illness, your majesty, but it isn’t fatal or permanent. We can give you some pills that will make you feel better sooner but even then you will probably suffer symptoms for, oh, about another week,” announced the oldest of the doctors who was obviously the spokesman

“Thank you doctors,” I said, shrugging back into my shirt. You will be sure not to tell anyone about this?” I added, my voice going a little threatening.

“Of course,” said the doctor nervously and they all filed out. A couple of hours later a page came and gave me a box full of pills and a sheet that had instructions written on it.

“Might I add how becoming that sword looks on you, your majesty?” the boy asked me, and then turned and fled. I had to admit that even as much as I like being flattered that seemed like a rather odd thing to just blurt out with, but I decided the boy was probably just a little crazy and decided that I would spend more of my time getting better then thinking about the odd behavior of a page boy.

I got worse. People started to comment on the fact that my skin was looking gray and even people who just brushed up against me started to say that I felt cold and that my skin was almost hard. I also started feeling more sluggish, and finally one morning I just couldn’t get out of bed. I lay there, enjoying just not moving, until finally I heard someone come in.

“Hello, your majesty,” said the former prince, the one who had given me my sword, leaning over my bed so I could see his face. “Do you recognize this?” he was holding my sword in his hand. For a moment I thought he was going to run me through but instead he just breathed on it and polished it with his sleeve. As I watched the sword turned into the perfect figure of me. I tried to shout out but I couldn’t.

“This sword really did become you,” said the former prince laughing. “It was a spell that cost a lot of money but now I have a good question for you. If the sword became you, what do you think you became.” He was almost beside himself with laughter and once again I tried to get out of bed but I couldn’t. To my horror he picked me up in one hand and slid me into the scabbard at the side of what had been my sword.

“Pretty soon your sword will name me his successor, and then he will die, and I will be king, just like I was supposed to be. And if you think that anyone will notice you are mistaken, because I even have your wife, my poor sister, on my side. No one will make a fuss. You, your majesty, will become a family heirloom and get to watch as my family triumphs. And there is nothing you can do about it.” My sword drew me from my scabbard and waved me aloft as the prince continued to laugh until it filled the room.

The Becoming Sword

I looked down at the kneeling former prince at my feet. He was holding a sword, but it was outstretched towards me as a presentation rather then a threat. This was how things should be, I decided, as I motioned for one of my guards to come forward and take the sword from him. I wasn’t such a fool as to let him approach me with the sword himself. After all I was the one who took his title away from him; I couldn’t imagine that he was found of me no matter what gestures he made.

I could hear the people in the court whispering. Most of them were my own people that I had brought with me, but some of them were still the original courtiers who had been around before I took over the country. I found them very valuable, as hostages of good conduct. They were from good families every one of them and their families could be made to bow to my wishes as soon as I reminded them that I had great-aunt so and so in my clutches. It wasn’t as if I didn’t hear the whisperings of the original palace inhabitants, they called me a barbarian, I was a barbarian invader sitting on their throne, filling their castle with my smelly and uncouth men. I didn’t really care what they thought though, culture hadn’t gotten them anywhere except easy to overrun when I had decided that I wanted their pathetic little country.

“I thought it only right that you carry that sword your majesty,” said the former prince, still bowing low at my feet. “It has always been carried by the king of this country so it is yours by right.” By right of conquest I added mentally as I took the sword from my guard and looked it over. Not to mention the fact that this man in front of me was the son of the last king, and therefore was handing his father’s sword over to his father’s killer. That pleased me. It meant that I had finally caused enough fear and earned enough respect that people were willing to betray their family to make me happy. That was as it should be, I would have to remember this man, he would go far in my government, maybe not a prince again, but I would see my way to give him some worthy position.

I stood and made a show of fastening the sword onto my belt for the court. I could tell who was among my people, and who was among the conquered, even if I couldn’t tell by clothing, by their expressions at that moment. The people who had always been a part of this court looked more defeated then they had before, and my people looked more triumphant. I liked the way it felt on my hip, no matter what I could say about my people, these people did have better craftsmanship then ours did. This sword was nicer looking and had better balance then any I had ever worn before.

“As I thought, that sword’s rightful place is on your hip, your majesty,” said the kneeling had-been prince. “It becomes you.” I smiled down at the man, yes, he would go far indeed. Any man willing to throw aside his feeling to the extent he was willing to flatter me after all I had done to him deserved promotion.

I grew to love that sword, I took it everywhere. It truly was a sign of power, no matter where I went people who had refused to look at me out of hatred before now went out of their way to praise me. “That sword becomes you, you’re majesty,” I was told or, “that sword is very becoming, very nice indeed.” Even my queen, the daughter of the former king I had married as a gesture of peace to the populace, became friendlier now that I was wearing the sword.

“You’ll take care of that sword so our son can wear it some day?” she asked me one night, stroking my cheek. I smiled at this, the promise that our union would become warmer indeed.

To be continued...

Child of the Gods IV

“Things are working fine how they are now. People are all working together, if we add money then we are adding a contest,” Jacob argued.

“I don’t know where you have been looking but it’s already a contest, people are already fighting over resources, I’m a nurse, I’m the one who has to heal people that have been knifed for a piece of bread. You are teaching people great skills about how to feed themselves in this world, how to avoid contaminated water and everything, but I think it’s time we add some civilization to this place.” Jacob stared at Alex in horror; didn’t Alex understand that this was paradise? Why try to corrupt it?

“What do you mean by civilization?” Jacob asked cautiously. After all Alex had been a good friend and if all he wanted to do was money then Jacob supposed he could make allowances.

“Well I was thinking that we should start with the money and then move up from there. There are some people who know the basics of electricity for instance; I was thinking we could try to fix the power plant that’s over on the west side of the island. It didn’t get too damaged and I’m sure some of the people who worked there survived and can help us figure out what went where. We still have all the pipes and the broken water main and everything so we could start trying to get some clean water through here if we could find anyone who knew about that. Phones would be nice as well of course, though I don’t expect we could start a cell phone company or anything that would send a message across the water to the rest of what’s left of society.”

This was pure blasphemy. Didn’t Alex realize that if they went through with that plan then he and Jacob would lose all their power? Did Alex think that people would continue listening to them if they no longer needed them to survive? Then Jacob realized, Alex would still be needed, as the only medically trained person on the island Alex would be needed no matter what, he was the one who would no longer be needed. This was all a plot for Alex to take all of the power for himself. Jacob, whose only knowledge was how to survive in harsh conditions, would become unneeded.

Jacob stared at the back in front of him and anger welled up from deep inside. He could see through the plot. As quickly as the thought occurred to him his arms shot forward. Alex only had time for a short scream as he fell off of the cliff and into the vicious pounding ocean below.

As Jacob turned away his mind was working franticly. Now he was the only child of the gods. These ideas of rebuilding had probably already started circulating around the camp through other sources, something had to be done. Not everyone with the knowledge to rebuild the world could be pushed off of the cliff one at a time, people would grow suspicious. He couldn’t call them all to the cliff at once because he wasn’t strong enough to fight them all and he wouldn’t be able to push them off all at once. There must not be any survivors to tell people what he had done.

He would call them all to the ruined power plant he realized, with the idea of rebuilding it like Alex had suggested. Poor Alex had the cliff face crumble beneath his feet, a hero lost. Jacob had of course tried to save him but hadn’t made it in time. That was the story he would use. And in memory of Alex he would announce he would try to finish what Alex had suggested in his last moments. Once everyone with the proper skills was gathered at the power plant he would blow it up. There was surely something that would blow up at a power plant. Another tragic accident that would end all hopes of rebuilding, so many more poor lives lost, men of such talent. Useless talents, talents that were in his way, they would all have to be removed. It would be written of as the men’s fault too, Jacob promised himself. He would accuse the men of doing something stupid that triggered the explosion. And then Jacob would be free, free to do what ever he wanted with his kingdom, because people would live like he wanted them to forever, and ever, and ever.

Child of the Gods III

As the medical problems slowed Jacob took control more and more of the other survivors. It was a time of emergency and anyone who could keep their head was more then welcomed by the others who followed his orders mindlessly. Shelters were built, more survivors were found, they began to pull themselves together.

Jacob started to explore their island, it was decent sized, large enough to hold all of them comfortably but not big enough to get lost on for any great amount of time. He could recognize the streets if nothing else, by the tipped over signs and the ruined land marks. There were people here as well, and he recognized some of them, they were people who he himself had ordered to go look for more survivors. It was somehow nice to see his influence was spreading so far.

That night there was a surprise for Jacob when he got back to the main camp, everyone was waiting for him. As he walked into the camp a large cheer went up, and then they shoved him and Alex into makeshift chairs and started setting food out in front of them. Finally a man stood up.

“You two have done so much for us in these last two days that we can’t even start to express what heroes you are. This is a start however. We don’t have a lot to party with but we thought that after these last few days we needed a chance to relax and forget our troubles. You two are the guests of honor tonight. It’s like you two are the children of the gods who were sent down to aid us during this disaster.” Jacob and Alex were both struck dumb, neither had expected to be called heroes, so they let people pill food on their plates and they enjoyed themselves. No one was in the mood to hear a speech of gratitude anyway.

It was the morning after, once Jacob realized what power they held that things really started moving. People would literally do anything that they were told if it was either from Alex or himself. A couple hundred people had put their lives in his hands and the feeling was a welcome one. Houses started to be built from the rubble. Of course things were dangerous, rubble could shift, water was contaminated, the air was filled with dust, but Jacob knew how to deal with all of these things and he told everyone else how to as well. They trusted him implicitly and the only person who got even close was Alex who it turned out was the only person in the whole island with any formal medical training. Something that was very important with all of the hazards around, as well as the people who were still injured from the original earthquake.

Jacob and Alex started to go off on long walks away from everyone else to talk about what still needed to be done for their community. No one would bother them, after all the leaders were entitled to their conferences. They would wander while they talked, going one way or another. The island had such steep cliffs that there were no lonely beaches to walk on but since the cliffs made people nervous because of their height they were pretty lonely just the same. Therefore it was the cliffs that became the favorite spot for the leaders when they wanted to speak without being overheard.

“I think we should make a currency,” Alex said to Jacob on one of these walks. He was standing with his hands behind his back, looking over the lonely water of the ocean. “We need to bring some civilization back to this place; it needs to stop being a contest of strength and survival of the fittest.”

To be continued...

Child of the Gods II

The desk protected Jacob from most of the debris but even one the roof was over the ground continued shaking like the ground was going to split open. It was the ground still shaking that saved Jacob’s life, if the ground had stopped shaking his life would have most likely ended under the pile of rubble that had at one time been an office building but as the ground shook it evened out the pile and a lot got knocked off. Jacob had been somewhere in the middle of the building and like the bones of a prehistoric giant being revealed, so too was Jacob’s desk. There was still rubble to dig through but Jacob could see sun light and as soon as he could see sunlight he knew he would live. As the earth still shook with after tremors, Jacob climbed up to see what the world had become.

How many people died that day, and the days following as a result of the earth quake has never been counted. It was a world wide disaster that brought down buildings in all nations and formed new islands. The rough estimates of casualties numbers in the millions. Jacob was on one of these newly formed islands, cut off from the rest of the world, with huge waves washing the beaches around him, and every ship that had sat in the marina near his office was gone, smashed against the shore into little pieces.

Jacob of course wasn’t the only survivor, though the dead far out numbered the living. All around him other people climbed out of the wreckage, most of them sporting at least bruises and some of them were crying with pain. Jacob realized that he didn’t have any time to be shaken himself, no one else seemed to be doing first aid.

Another man finally came forward who said that he was a nurse at a hospital and they started to work through all of the wounded. Jacob wasn’t a nurse but as part of his interest in survival training he had learned how to basic things, like set bones and do field stitching on cuts. As they worked through the wounded Jacob started to order the people around him who weren’t hurt, or not hurt badly, to save people buried under rubble and to salvage what supplies they could find in the ruins. As people were uncovered they were brought forward to be taken care of. Some of them were past saving, at least with the medical equipment that they had available and Jacob ordered people to at least try and make them comfortable. Giving people something to do was important, Jacob knew, you couldn’t let people think and panic themselves, they had to be kept moving.

Jacob worked all that night by the light of fires, there had been enough smokers among the survivors that things to make fire hadn’t been a problem, yet. Jacob had to wonder what would happen when they ran out of tobacco; right now everything was fine in that area though. It had been agreed by all parties that whatever could be found was common property, and that included the ruins of any tobacco shop. Jacob prayed for anyone who would be foolish enough to try to protect their damaged property and keep up business as usual with the mood people were in at the moment.

As dawn finally started to peek over the horizon Jacob and the nurse, whose name was Alex, finally sat down for a short break before doing the rounds again. There would be people who had died during the night while they had tried to do what they could for others, and there would be people who needed bandages changed. All around them people were sleeping around the dying embers of their fires, they had slept in groups, like animals, but it wasn’t an ugly scene for Jacob. This was after all the stuff that he had day dreamed about, only a week ago now that he thought about it. It hadn’t even been a full twenty-four hours since the earthquake and already it seemed distant.