Living Jack: Part 1

Life was living, breathing, enjoying the world, impressing women and making much money. Life was success, life was sadness, life was learning, life was taxing. Jack Skippington knew this, even though he was a very young man. With a head topped by choppy black hair, a long, tall, thin figure and wide, bright eyes, he impressed everyone he met, making just as many enemies in his day-to-day business as friends.

Skippington was off to Harvard University, to study Psychology. He was fascinated by the human brain, human reactions and human feelings. As a child, he had had a mixture of happy and unhappy, peaceful and frightening experiences and was eager to learn more about other peoples' experiences and reactions.

His father was going to take him to his new University accommodation in the family's little blue car, with a boot so small his reasonable amount of suitcases only barely fit into the space. Stroking the paintwork on the car, Jack remembered all the times he had had with his family in this car, going for vacations down to the East Coast to the seaside, visiting Grandma Dentures and Grandpa Knuckles up in Belmont... All those times they'd sung car journey songs, all those times Jack and his little sister Daisy would punch each other and pull each other's hair, even though they loved each other really and would never really fight, only to get attention from parents who could not map-read in the front.

Sighing, Jack looked behind him to see his mother, with rimmed purple glasses and a shock of dyed red hair. Beside her was his sister, in thin blonde pigtails even though she was now fourteen and hair in ponytails was more "the thing." Jack's mother had her head to one side in a sad look, Daisy had her hands clumped and was fidgeting, unsure about a future without her brother around to play or chat with every night.

"Hi guys," Jack smiled, walking over to them. "Thanks for letting dad take me in our car."

"It's the least we could have done, sweetie," his mum told him warmly. "I have no idea what life's going to be like without you."

"Oh mum, it's not as if I'm going to die or anything," Jack reassured her. "I'll be coming on the train next Friday evening to check up on you, remember?"

"JACK!" cried Daisy, running over to give him a huge hug. She only came up to his shoulders, so her brother had to bend down a little to properly hug her.

"What am I going to do instead of – I mean – in between homework every night?" Daisy whined, looking into her brother's eyes imploringly.

"Hey, there's always the boy next door, I'm sure he'd love to chat to you in between homework."

"But you know he's not cute! He's got those awful train-track braces!" moaned Daisy, stepping away from Jack and crossing her arms. Jack laughed, glad that he could result to jokes rather than thinking about how much he might miss his family.

He then received a hug from his doting mother, who was beginning to wish her son had not been accepted into Harvard after all, though it gave her family and him much prestige.

"Don't forget to floss as well as brush your teeth!"

"Yesh mum," Jack mouthed from his position on his very tall mother's chest as she hugged him even tighter.

"And remember, always listen to your lecturer, even though flicking pieces of paper across the room is more preferable during lectures."

Managing to wriggle out of his mother's imprisoning hug, Jack gasped and replied, "Yes, OK, mum, I know." He finished, a little more politely, "Sometimes I think you care about me too much," and he smiled.

"We need to go!" His father called from the driver's seat. "Otherwise you're not going to get enough sleep tonight before your first lesson tomorrow!"

Jack nodded, waving to his mother and sister one last time. He loved them, he really did, but he could see the advantages of being away from them for longer periods of time as well.

"Goodbye!" he called. "I'll see you on Friday!"

"Bye sweetie!" shouted Jack's mum.

"B-bye bro," whispered Daisy, more unhappy at his departure than she had thought she would be.

Reversing in a worrying skid, Jack's dad manoeuvred out of the driveway, disappearing around a block to leave Daisy and her mother by themselves, for what seemed like the first time.

University had been just as Jack had hoped. He was not only enjoying learning his subject and revising for tests, but he had met and talked to many good looking and intelligent girls, had gone out with a party of his fellow lad students to a local bar and had explored the grounds thoroughly, finding the best places to hide if the opportunity ever arose. Though Jack seemed very confident, he was very suspicious of dangerous people and, though he was not a coward, liked to make himself feel secure by knowing where and if there would be any hiding places to save himself from questionable people.

He already had a small group of friends who genuinely liked him. Luckily, Jack liked them in return. Unfortunately, a "rival" of this group, an older man by the name of Manuel Finkel-Kleine, had already formed a strong dislike to Jack, taken aback by his confident, tall posture and unusual enthusiasm for the study of Psychology. Most lads of Jack's age were only fond of the social side of University and passing exams, but Jack talked at great length of his admiration for Freud, his fascination with the execution of research done in Experimental Psychology, as well as hundreds of other little things that he was interested in or he wished to know more about in reference to what he was studying. Manuel studied him closely at every opportunity. He had perturbed Jack a little by sitting next to him during a lecture, but this time, Mister Finkel-Kleine tried a more subtle approach. In between lectures, without Jack's knowing, Mister Finkel-Kleine tracked him down, from his accommodation to the grounds, to a dormitory of one of the girls, to the college eating room and so on. Like Jack, Manuel took great pleasure in finding out more about other human beings and the practice of researching Jack Skippington was no exception.

It was Friday afternoon and Jack's last lecture of the week was in exactly an hour's time. After that, he would go down to the train station and travel for a few long hours to see his family, who would be preparing one of his favourite meals for him: pumpkin soup followed by chicken breast cooked in ginger sauce. Mmm-mmm. Wonderful!

Swinging his bag over his shoulder, he began his walk to the dormitory of a lovely young girl called Yvonne, who had invited him over for a little cup of coffee. Where this was going, Jack was not absolutely sure, but even if it was only a chat, it would still be a lovely way to spend an hour before his last Friday lecture. Even people who had skipped Psychology at school would not have any doubts about Jack's feelings and excitement about this meeting.

After Jack dutifully followed the yellow gravel path around the side of one of the college buildings, he happened to walk straight into Manuel, who jumped in front of him, standing up on tiptoe, which was surprisingly intimidating for Jack considering the former man only came up to his elbows.

"Jack Sss-Skippington," hissed Manuel.

"Y-y-yes," Jack replied, a little awkwardly. "What seems to be the problem?"

Mister Finkel-Kleine looked menacingly up at his younger adversary. "You, as it turns out. You sad, arrogant little whelp!"

Jack blinked in surprise. It was not often he had been approached by one of his enemies and it was not often he had been disliked this much.

"I – I'm sorry we haven't seen eye-to-eye," Jack apologized genuinely, "But I certainly cannot understand why I should be such a problem."

Manuel started shaking with anger and thrill. "Constantly saying how much you love Psychology, how this interests you so much and how that fascinates you to no end... How can you be genuine, you young little idiot?"

Jack was becoming provoked. "Manuel, I would rather we didn't speak to each other again. I have important business to attend to, so I will bid you – good day."

Jack attempted to stride around the smaller man, but Manuel leaped into his route again, his hands curling into tight, white-knuckled fists.

"I don't think you quite understand. Let us fight. Only one of us can stay in this place and that one will be me!" Manuel cackled with psychotic madness.

Jack's eyes widened with surprise and fright. "You're mad, man, absolutely mad!"

"BACK AGAINST THAT WALL!" Manuel shouted, pointing to the wall of the college building.

Jack peered back to it nervously, but decided to do as the man asked, hoping that the sooner he had beat him in a fight, the sooner he could have coffee and a chat with Yvonne.

Jack waited for Manuel to strike, his hands also curled into fists. Jack was very surprised to see, that instead of punching him, Manuel was readying himself to knife him. Very slowly, with a sadistic grin on his little face, Mister Finkel-Kleine was fingering a pocket-knife out of his smart trouser pocket.

Jack suddenly started to shiver with fright and realization, but was too paralysed to think straight, or to do anything. Manuel was so close, that if Jack tried to run, he could still be severely hurt, but then if he stayed, he would be even more hurt. Jack just hoped that Manuel was poor in the area of anatomy.

Unfortunately, as the man, cackling, ran over to Jack and stabbed him straight in the heart, he revealed himself to be an expert of anatomy after all. Groaning, Jack slid down the wall like a greasy, crumpling newspaper, looking sadly at his wonderful, departing world, as he closed his eyes -.

Forever?

Wait...

What was this?

This black space? This soft, dark earth sifting through his fingers?

But Heaven – if Heaven existed – was supposed to be cloudy, was it not?

So...

Where was this?

Jack tried to look at his surroundings, until his mind adapted to the quiet, empty, small atmosphere around him so much that it appeared to be the only thing that existed. Harvard, vacations to the seaside, time with his family, schooldays, schoolwork, pretty girls – it was all slipping away as if it were being swept away over the Niagra Falls, never to be seen again.

Jack stood up, wondering if there was anything else – or anyone else – in this dark, ethereal place. He tried walking forward into the murky blackness, seeing more clearly as he walked. First, he saw was symmetrically grey-stone gravestones surrounding his path. Second, he was surrounded by long black metal sticks with pumpkins stuck onto them. Pumpkins... That was lovely, adding a bright orange hue to this black-grey place. It seemed to remind Jack of something, but something he could not quite put his bony finger on... Bony finger? He knew he had never had that before. For the first time since he could remember, Jack checked his body. It was all skeleton, including the bony, round skull he could feel on his head. What surprised him a little more was the empty space where his eyes should be.

"Oh well," he said out loud. "Who cares if I'm a skeleton? I can't remember what it was like before, so I think I'll get used to this quite quickly." He smiled, laughing, taking in more and more of his surroundings, as if his seemingly impossible vision capacity was increasing by the minute. He could see rolling hills, more and more gravestones and pumpkins, withered or dark plants and above – on the highest hill – a large gate-door surrounded by stone pillars, topped with stone cockerels holding up a stone skull. This was a spooky world, a dark world – wait – with a huge yellow moon behind. A beautiful huge moon. Maybe this world would not be so bad after all.

But then – was Jack the only one here? Jack loved company, he enjoyed being with people. He could not remember enjoying spending time with people, but he knew it was something he cherished. Maybe this place was just an empty graveyard and he would find other people elsewhere, but Jack, with a sudden passion, was determined to find someone.