Hello, my name is Jack.\u00a0 Some flames test us.\u00a0 Some flames break us.\u00a0 Some temper us.\u00a0 Some melt us.\u00a0 We are all a result of the flames that I have burned through our lives, and the way we met them.\u00a0 Did we fight them?\u00a0 Did we accept them?\u00a0 Did we cower before them?\u00a0 Did we meet them with a smile?\u00a0 And sometimes we find that as long as we live, the oldest flames never really burn out.\u00a0 They simmer, spark, and spit, until the time is right for them to burn again.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Jack watched the waves of Rainy Lake washing onto the sandy shore where he and all of the friends of his youth had partied before Yosemite fell.\u00a0 He could almost see the old bonfire at the edge of his vision, flickering as friends danced to the music of an acoustic guitar, drums, and pretty girls singing.\u00a0 That was all he\u2019d ever wanted.<\/p>\n
Taylor and Jennifer stepped up on either side of him and leaned in close, their eyes scanning the beach as well.\u00a0 He wrapped his arms around them and wondered if they could see what he did.\u00a0 Sad smiles on their faces told him they did.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really was amazing,\u201d Jack whispered.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was paradise,\u201d Taylor returned, her head resting against his left shoulder.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes,\u201d Jack whispered into the steady wind coming off the lake.\u00a0 \u201cParadise.\u201d\u00a0 They stood like that for a long time, remembering the life they\u2019d shared in more peaceful times.\u00a0 He wished they could have gone on like that forever.<\/p>\n
Taylor pulled in a long breath and Jack raised an eyebrow at her.\u00a0 She met his look with one that said just how much she missed those days.\u00a0 \u201cWould you take us home, Jack?\u201d<\/p>\n
Jack straightened in surprise, but regained his composure and aimed a debonair smile at her.\u00a0 \u201cWhy, I thought you would never ask,\u201d he said with a flick of the wrist on her waist.\u00a0 \u201cLead on, my lady.\u201d<\/p>\n
Taylor\u2019s smile reminded him of the old days, but she shook her head and placed a hand on his.\u00a0 \u201cYour<\/em> home,\u201d she whispered, silently enough that even he<\/em> had to lower his head to hear.<\/p>\n Jack inhaled sharply and a chill ran down his spine.\u00a0 He shook his head in a spastic motion.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy not?\u201d Jennifer asked.<\/p>\n Jack groaned under his breath.\u00a0 There were so many reasons for that.\u00a0 \u201cThere\u2019s nothing left there,\u201d he muttered, picking one that was least explosive to his composure.<\/p>\n Taylor and Jennifer raised their eyebrows, and he knew they weren\u2019t fooled at all.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s been twenty years,\u201d Taylor whispered.<\/p>\n Jack growled and shook his head again.\u00a0 He never would have returned to International Falls without them pulling him around.\u00a0 He had to admit it hadn\u2019t turned out as badly as he\u2019d feared.\u00a0 Heck, they\u2019d been right<\/em>.\u00a0 There.\u00a0 But that place was different.\u00a0 \u201cNo,\u201d he muttered and stepped back from them.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy?\u201d Jennifer asked, turning to face him with a knowing look in her eyes.<\/p>\n Jack sighed, flexing his fingers to dispel the nervous energy running through him.\u00a0 \u201cThere\u2019s no one left there.\u00a0 It\u2019s just\u2026gone<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf there\u2019s nothing there, why don\u2019t you want to go back?\u201d Taylor asked in a soft tone.<\/p>\n Jack licked his lips.\u00a0 \u201cLook.\u00a0 It\u2019s the past.\u00a0 I\u2019ve moved on.\u00a0 I don\u2019t want to remember<\/em> it,\u201d he finished, willing them to just give up.<\/p>\n Instead Jennifer crossed her arms and peered at him with intense eyes.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re the past.\u00a0 If we weren\u2019t right here, would you forget us too?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo,\u201d Jack growled back.\u00a0 \u201cNever,\u201d he added, though a chill went down his spine as he realized she was closer to the truth than he would have liked.<\/p>\n Taylor placed a hand on his jaw and smiled.\u00a0 \u201cThen why don\u2019t you want to go home?\u201d<\/p>\n Jack looked back and forth between them, part of him wanting to turn and leave, part of him wanting to\u2026he didn\u2019t know what he wanted to do.\u00a0 He just\u2026he licked his lips and growled, shaking his head.\u00a0 \u201cLook.\u00a0 Please,\u201d he whispered, a look of pleading in his eyes.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t want to talk about it.\u00a0 I just\u2026want to go somewhere else.\u00a0 OK?\u201d<\/p>\n Taylor\u2019s smile faded, replaced by a disappointed look that cut Jack like a knife.\u00a0 He looked away from her to see Jennifer\u2019s mouth pursed tight, her eyes narrowed.<\/p>\n \u201cJack,\u201d Jennifer said in a tone that left no room for compromise.\u00a0 \u201cYou need to stop running sometime.\u201d<\/p>\n Jack\u2019s eyes narrowed and he felt an anger he rarely let out bubbling for attention.\u00a0 \u201cI.\u00a0 Don\u2019t.\u00a0 Run,\u201d he growled, one word at a time.<\/p>\n \u201cJonathan Michael Christensen,\u201d she returned in an iron tone that disarmed his anger almost like it had never been.\u00a0 No one had called him that in\u2026at least twenty years.\u00a0 She stepped close enough to jab him in the shoulder and her gaze met his.\u00a0 \u201cThat.\u00a0 Is.\u00a0 Bullshit.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJen,\u201d Taylor said in a warning tone, moving to pull Jennifer back.<\/p>\n \u201cNo!\u201d Jennifer shouted and pushed her cousin away.\u00a0 Then she waved her other hand in Jack\u2019s face and glared at him.\u00a0 \u201cCan you honestly<\/em> tell me, Jonathan<\/em>, that you haven\u2019t<\/em> been running from all of this for twenty<\/em> years<\/em>?\u201d she shouted at him.<\/p>\n Jack swallowed, held her gaze, and brought one hand up to grip hers.\u00a0 \u201cLook I\u2019ve kinda been in the middle of a War,\u201d he said in an exasperated tone.<\/p>\n \u201cSo have we!\u201d Jennifer almost shouted.\u00a0 \u201cBut we<\/em> didn\u2019t try to forget where we came<\/em> from.\u00a0 What we are<\/em>,\u201d she marched on, waving her other hand at the beach.\u00a0 \u201cWe did good in the USO.\u00a0 You could have too.\u00a0 Why\u2026why this<\/em>?\u201d she finished, her free hand brushing his uniform.<\/p>\n Jack opened his mouth to answer, to say that he had to.\u00a0 The Marines needed<\/em> people like him.\u00a0 That was true enough.\u00a0 But it would have been a lie to say that Patriotism was why he<\/em> joined, and he clamped his jaw shut.\u00a0 He\u2019d gone to make the Shang pay, which he realized wasn\u2019t really one of the best reasons to fight.<\/p>\n As he considered that he saw the genuine hurt in her eyes.\u00a0 He\u2019d never seen it there before, but then he\u2019d never really looked either.\u00a0 In all the years since he\u2019d left, all the times they\u2019d met on their USO tours, they\u2019d never argued.\u00a0 He licked his lips, and felt a chill go through him.<\/p>\n He turned his head to look at Taylor and saw her just standing there, arms wrapped around herself for comfort, not certain what to do.\u00a0 Her eyes met his, and he saw confusion in them.\u00a0 Anger, mixed with hurt, mixed with a genuine wish to understand.\u00a0 And loss.\u00a0 The chill settled into his spine and he turned to where Betty sat on a bench, hands in her lap, watching.\u00a0 She smiled and nodded towards the two girls, telling him they deserved an answer.\u00a0 She was right.<\/p>\n Jack pulled in a long breath, let it out, and nodded to her.\u00a0 Then he turned back to look at Taylor and Jennifer.\u00a0 \u201cLook.\u00a0 I wanted to hurt the Shang the way they hurt us.\u201d\u00a0 He shook his head.\u00a0 \u201cIt wasn\u2019t right.\u00a0 I know that.\u00a0 But that\u2019s it.\u201d\u00a0 Honesty compelled him to add an \u201cI think,\u201d and both girls blinked at him.\u00a0 He licked his lips and realized he had to say one more thing.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m sorry I hurt you.\u201d<\/p>\n Jennifer twisted her hand out of his and held the arm between them, her gaze not wavering from Jack.\u00a0 \u201cDon\u2019t say that unless you mean it,\u201d she said, her tone firm.<\/p>\n Jack nodded slowly before answering.\u00a0 \u201cI will always mean what I say to you,\u201d he said in a soft tone.<\/p>\n Jennifer sighed, accepting his statement, and the ghost of a smile colored Taylor\u2019s face.<\/p>\n Before he could do anything else, a sound of rushing wind caught his attention and he turned to see their limousine dropping out of the sky.\u00a0 It came to a stop, hovering a few centimeters over the beach next to them, and Betty came to her feet, grabbing the attention of all three people.<\/p>\n \u201cWell,\u201d Betty said in a bright tone to her captive audience and began walking towards the limo.\u00a0 \u201cNow that that\u2019s<\/em> settled, we should go home.\u201d\u00a0 The driver\u2019s door opened for her and she slid in with a smile and a wave of her hand for them to get in.<\/p>\n Jack frowned at her.\u00a0 \u201cNow just you wait a minute,\u201d he grumbled in her direction.<\/p>\n She lowered her chin a centimeter in challenge.\u00a0 \u201cAre you really<\/em> going to fight all three<\/em> of us on this?\u201d she asked in a sardonic tone.<\/p>\n Jennifer and Taylor walked between them and Jack\u2019s gaze shifted to follow them as they slid into the back of the limo, leaving him alone on the beach.\u00a0 Betty tilted her head to the side and just looked at him, as if she was waiting for him to get a clue.<\/p>\n He finally let out a long breath, and aimed an uncertain gaze at her.\u00a0 He hated to ever reveal that to anyone, but she was his partner.\u00a0 He licked his lips.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019m up for this,\u201d he whispered, far too quiet for Taylor and Jennifer to hear.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I think you\u2019re wrong,\u201d Betty answered in a cheerful tone that almost brushed his worry aside.\u00a0 Almost.\u00a0 \u201cGet in, Jack,\u201d she added with an understanding look.<\/p>\n He sighed and shook his head, trying one final appeal.\u00a0 \u201cWhat good will it do?\u201d<\/p>\n Betty cocked her head to the side and shrugged.\u00a0 \u201cAs much good as you\u2019ll let it.\u201d<\/p>\n The simple statement, and the nonjudgmental look on her face, disarmed him and he walked over to the limo.\u00a0 \u201cYou knew this was going to happen, didn\u2019t you?\u201d he asked, still too quiet for the girls to hear.<\/p>\n \u201cI hoped<\/em> it would,\u201d Betty corrected cheerfully and waited for him to slide in before commanding all of the doors to shut.<\/p>\n Taylor and Jennifer watched him as the limo shot up into the air, and he looked down, unable to meet their gazes.\u00a0 The silence stretched on, and he couldn\u2019t think of any way to fill it.\u00a0 Instead he looked out the windows to see the ground flashing by outside, remembering when they used to fly over it just like this back in the day.\u00a0 Well, they\u2019d had trucks, not limos.\u00a0 But it was the same idea.\u00a0 And it had never been a long trip from town to home.<\/p>\n The limo slowed and begin dropping again, flying over terrain he recognized with a sad smile.\u00a0 The limo drifted to a halt beneath the small hillock he\u2019d lived on for most of his life, and he stared out through the windows at that hillock and blinked.<\/p>\n Jack pulled in a long breath as the door opened and stepped out into waist-high grasses, seedpods waving in the gentle breeze.\u00a0 He ran his hand through the grasses, and walked to where a field of marble stones rose above the grasses.\u00a0 The grasses parted behind him, snagging on jeans and a sundress, and he licked his lips.\u00a0 He wanted the girls close, but he wanted to be alone too.\u00a0 It was hard to sort through the conflicting emotions.<\/p>\n He grunted and gazed at the stones, unable to read the names through the wild grasses.\u00a0 Generations of his ancestors lay here, on the plot of land they\u2019d settled centuries ago, names carved into his memory by years of tending them.\u00a0 He placed a hand on the freshest stones, though after twenty years they looked weathered and old.\u00a0 A history long past, but never gone.\u00a0 He could almost see his family watching him and wondered if they would be proud of him.<\/p>\n He wasn\u2019t certain he wanted to know the answer to that.<\/p>\n Jack turned and walked away from his family, passing Taylor and Jennifer on his way to the top of the hill that overlooked the lake.\u00a0 They followed as silently as before and he licked his lips.\u00a0 He wanted them to say something.\u00a0 He wanted them to remain silent.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t know<\/em> what he wanted.<\/p>\n He placed a foot where the back step of their house had been and sighed.\u00a0 The family house was long gone, washed away by the wave that had come out of the lake when a piece of Yosemite Yards landed in it.\u00a0 But instead of the mud that had been here the last time he was, nature had reclaimed the whole area with native grasses and even some trees ringing the old foundations.\u00a0 Birds chirped in the distance, probably the descendents of those that had dropped the seeds the grass and trees came from.<\/p>\n He walked through the grass where the house once stood to the rock embankment that ran down to the water.\u00a0 The dock stretched out onto the lake in his mind, but now his eyes saw only rocks and water lapping up against them.\u00a0 He pulled in a long breath, this time to suck in the smells of the land and lake around him, and felt home flow through him.\u00a0 All the smells of a lifetime awakened his memories and his mind filled with memories he\u2019d not thought of in years.\u00a0 Things he hadn\u2019t wanted<\/em> to remember.<\/p>\n Jack cleared his throat and turned back to Jennifer and Taylor.\u00a0 They stood at the end of the dock that was, now just more grass.\u00a0 Behind them, the memories of his house rose high above them all, and faded away again.\u00a0 His heart ached, but didn\u2019t break.\u00a0 Time hadn\u2019t healed the loss, but it had put enough distance into it that he could live with it.<\/p>\n Jack shook his head and focused his eyes on his two surviving friends.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2026This\u2026\u201d\u00a0 He shook his head and growled.\u00a0 He hated being at a loss for words.\u00a0 He just waved towards where the house once stood.\u00a0 He turned back towards the water and they stepped up beside him.<\/p>\n \u201cWe could have helped you,\u201d Jennifer whispered from his right.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2026I know,\u201d Jack answered with a helpless shrug.\u00a0 \u201cI just\u2026\u201d\u00a0 His voice faded away as he lost whatever words had been on his tongue.<\/p>\n \u201cHave you ever wondered?\u201d Taylor asked on his left.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere we\u2019d be if I hadn\u2019t left?\u201d Jack completed her question and sighed.<\/p>\n \u201cDo you regret it?\u201d\u00a0 Jennifer\u2019s question hit him harder than it should have.\u00a0 He almost said yes, but then he heard the limo parting the grasses behind him.\u00a0 Betty was there.\u00a0 He could never truly regret anything that led to meeting her.\u00a0 And the truth was, no matter how uncertain he felt now, he could be proud of what he\u2019d done in the last twenty years.\u00a0 He\u2019d become so much more than the boy who\u2019d lived here, even if he felt like so much less now.\u00a0 He pulled in a long breath, letting the smells of his youth flow through him and give him strength.<\/p>\n \u201cJack!\u201d Betty shouted and the contacts in his eyes flared to life with danger signals.\u00a0 Behind him, the limo accelerated towards him and the girls. \u00a0There was only a second to react before it ran over them all.\u00a0 He leaned to the side and pushed them.\u00a0 They squawked in shocked outrage as he sent them flying into the open air, and then he dropped into a hollow in the ground as the limo rocketed over him with centimeters to spare.\u00a0 It soared over the rocky bank, momentum sending it past the girls as they fell straight down into the cold water, shrieks cutting off as they hit the cold spring water.\u00a0 The limo\u2019s gravity plating failed in a spectacular shower of sparks and the vehicle dove into the water, sinking in a maelstrom of bubbles.<\/p>\n Jack\u2019s contacts still blinked warnings though and he tore his gaze away from roiling water.\u00a0 He sprang to his feet with all the speed the genetic mutations of the Ageless made him capable of and his eyes followed the blinking warnings into the surviving old growth forest in the distance.\u00a0 Three men watched him from behind fallen logs, each holding a rifle pointed directly at him.<\/p>\n Adrenalin burned through his veins, slowing time to a crawl, and Jack smiled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hello, my name is Jack.\u00a0 Some flames test us.\u00a0 Some flames break us.\u00a0 Some temper us.\u00a0 Some melt us.\u00a0 We are all a result of the flames that I have burned through our lives, and the way we met them.\u00a0[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2325-a-family-affair-1stdraft","uentry","postonpage-1","odd","post-author-jack"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1759"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1780,"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1759\/revisions\/1780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackofharts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}