Goodbye Jack

Mary Ward sat at the table the night before had been fun, celebrating her birthday, the first of Jack and Ellie Ward's children. She sighed; everyone seemed to be having a good time. The party had been very grand for such a small house. All her family members had been there and they all crammed in. the night before she had been surrounded by friendly faces, her father, her mother, her brothers, her sisters, her six uncles, her six aunts and not to mention her countless cousins. Mary had pretended to enjoy her boring family, but it was all the same, everyone just talking about their boring jobs, carpenter, locksmith, farmer and others that she knew off by heart. That night had been good though; everyone had been drinking heavily and laughing heartily.

But, her father wasn't laughing any more, he was stone faced in the morning light, looking up at a figure approaching from the distance, the sun was behind him and Mary couldn't quite make out who he was. All of the people from last night had either left early or where still nursing a massive hangover, so only she and her father were up to see the sight.

"Who is that dad?" Mary asked.

"No-one important," he muttered, "You stay here."

And with that he stepped outside and started clambering up the hill to the stranger. Mary quickly and quietly rushed outside and hid behind the hedge, she followed it up the hill till she could get a good view of the mystery guest.

She gasped, he was a tall man, whose face was mainly concealed behind his large dark cloak, but she could still see a short beard on his chin, his clothes were old and covered in dirty, but what scared her most was the large, menacing wooden staff he carried, he looked thin, but somehow powerful at the same time, she was glad it was dawn because she wouldn't want to run into him on a dark night.

To her surprise her father walked right up to the man and started to talk to him!

"Tom," he grumbled, "what are you doing here?"

The man spoke, his voice was strong, yet had gentleness to it. "I've come to wish your daughter congratulations, like I do every year, Jack."

Jack muttered under his breath and Mary couldn't quite hear him.

"Alice sends her congratulations too, but, somehow I felt that you might throw another fit if I brought her here again." Tom said.

"She's not welcome here and neither are you, Tom. I thought I'd made that clear." Jack muttered slightly louder.

"I know," Tom said, "I just hoped you'd forgiven me."

"Why is that, Tom? You're still a spook, I'm still a farmer, and nothing has changed. And brother or no brother, I don't want you bringing your kind round here." Jack said.

"My kind?" Tom asked, "We fight the dark jack, I don't see…"

Jack cut him short, "Darkness is attracted to you like a moth to a flame, I mean you live with a witch for goodness sake!"

Mary dared another peak over the hedge, Tom was unmoving, he let his hood down to reveal it's face, he was handsome and younger than her father, but his skin was pale and his eyes told her that he had seen things that many people couldn't dream of, his hair was long and flowed down his neck under his cloak, he had several livid scars on his face, some looked older than he did and others looked very fresh.

Tom looked his brother in the eyes and nodded, "Goodbye Jack."

Tom turned and walked back up the hill, disappeared into the sunrise.