Chapter Two: The Family Business

Mid-July 1991, 5:30am

If there was one thing that Jasper was certain about it was that the world was a very strange and unusual place; of course, the only world he knew existed in the form of the four rickety barn walls that he was forbidden to leave, but it was still strange and unusual regardless. For example, the ground beneath him was sometimes hard and sometimes soft. The hard stuff, so he was told, was called dirt, and the soft stuff was called mud. The latter he enjoyed intensely, rolling around and splashing in the single puddle near the door of the barn where the rain had gathered in a hole for hours on end. There were of course, other things that interested him; among them being what lay in the rafters; if only because it was the only area in the barn that he, and everyone else, had never been able to reach. The idea of being first intrigued him, and thus, began a certain sense of exploration and discovery. Gently making his way out of the small nursery that had been constructed in the barn, in the very place he was born, which was little more than an enclosed space barricaded by a feeble and rather sad looking gate, Jasper casually sniffed the air around him and upon finding that things were relatively normal, continued towards the rafters on the other side of the barn. As he passed the horse pen, taking careful note of Parker, who still lay sleeping, Jasper thought about how nice it would be if the horse were allowed to participate and sit on the rafters and enjoy the view, for he seemed the type of person who would enjoy such things. Jasper found sad that Parker was so big and could not do many of the things he could do, but still, he guessed that there were some benefits to being a horse and so did not feel too terribly sorry.

Reaching the corner of the barn, Jasper found himself with no clear way of completing his objective conventionally; that is to say, the rafters were unreachable. Never one to be deterred or to back down from a challenge Jasper took the lessons that Parker and Ollie had taught him about perseverance and began to think of a way to get up without making too much noise and risk getting caught doing something he wasn't supposed to be doing. Looking around and seeing that the ladder that McAllister used for loft access was much too big for him to try alone, the dog, seeking other options, proceeded to push as many boxes as he could find and subsequently push them into the corner of the room. This, unsurprisingly, was not enough height to accomplish much of anything.

"There's no way I can do this by myself" Jasper said, keeping his voice down, "I need help, but who would care to help me?"

Jasper casually turned around and made his way back to the nursery examining his brothers and sisters as they slept, rather uncomfortably, in a large ball. He laughed as he wondered how many times Turnabout had kicked him in his sleep, or Q had tugged at his ear; furthermore, he wondered why they did it at all. True, Jasper had no illusions about himself, for he knew exactly what he was, he was no different than the rest of them, at least where it counted. No smarter, no stronger, and no kinder.

"They're much too happy" Jasper continued, "I'll leave them alone."

Sniffing the air to read his surroundings, Jasper selected Tic and Tac to be his helpers; if only because out of all of them they were the ones who were the easiest to manipulate. Rousing them by touching his cold nose to their muzzles, Jasper pulled them out of the nursey and onto the barn floor with such quickness that it was impossible for them to protest. Wiping their eyes and looking confused, for they were not used to being so rudely awakened, Tic and Tac yawned collectively, prompting Jasper to silence them, placing his paws over their mouths.

"Hush" Jasper exclaimed as he looked about the room, "I need you to be very quiet. Now, promise me that you won't make a sound."

Tic and Tac nodded, after which Jasper, having their full confidence, removed his paws and quickly gestured to the boxes he had stacked in the corner of the barn.

"See those boxes?" Jasper belayed, "I need you to stand on top of them and lift me up, that way I can get to the rafters-"

Tic stared worriedly at Tac, who shared his look as if they were mirror opposites of each other. Both of them, in their heads, were thinking that Jasper had gone temporarily insane and that this sudden wild streak was a result of bad food, lack of sleep, and paying too much attention to Ollie's stories- which were almost always lies- about his so-called daring feats of spectacle that were presented as truth.

"Stop looking at me like that" Jasper replied, "I know what I'm doing. It'll be easy. And when I'm up there you can go back to sleep or whatever it was you were doing."

Tic and Tac were not really sure why they agreed to allow Jasper to adventure up in the rafters; Tic would later say that it was to see his inevitable punishment, while Tac had always maintained that she wanted her brother to have all the things that he could possibly want. Regardless of their later reasoning, their current reasoning was born out of the desire to go back to bed, and so they enlisted themselves to Jasper's service.

While his siblings were busy pulling the large sacks of grain that McAllister had brought in on top of the boxes, Jasper himself was busy calculating in his head how many boxes it would take to reach the rafters at all. The dog, not being particularly good with numbers- for Turnabout had inherited those genes- and not wishing to involve him directly, turned to the next available option, if not necessarily the best. It was well known that out of the barn community, that is to say, those who slept in the barn: the dogs, Parker, and the secluded rooster Mr. Panhandle, it was Brian who was the most gifted when it came to vertical thinking; making him the perfect candidate for the job. But Jasper also knew that with this vertical thinking came a crushing realism, a mind that was almost devoid of all sense of adventure and exploration, a trait which, in many ways, barred him from assistance and thus eliminated him from service. Deciding against his better judgment to bring Brian on regardless of his thoughts Jasper resolved to continue alone casually inspecting his siblings' handiwork before dismissing them.

While Jasper continued his mission, Turnabout had roused himself awake, eager to face the morning inspection that had awaited him; a common practice, especially among new arrivals to the barn, in which each was inspected and sent to their assigned duties for the day. Looking about himself, Turnabout stumbled and faltered over Q and Misty, as well as Tic and Tac, who had crashed near the entrance once having completed their work, and squeezed himself out of the nursery and onto the barn floor. Dusting himself off, for in his escape effort he had managed to get incredibly dusty, Turnabout could not help but notice Jasper in his endeavor and how, having long given up on finding a support beam, was busy jumping on the highest point of the tower, a sack full of horse feed, his claws just out of reach of the rafters.

"You'll never get up there that way" Turnabout said as he made his approach, "You can't just jump, you got to leap."

Jasper, too busy jumping to properly answer him, ignored Turnabout; not out of rudeness rather due to determination. His mind rationalized that if he continued jumping in the same way that eventually he would succeed. This futile effort was not assisted by his small stature nor was it helped by the faltering tower, the horse feed bag failing in every regard to do the job asked of it, which it was never meant to perform in the first place.

"Hey" Turnabout continued, slowly making his way forward, curiosity and concern manifesting itself, "Did you hear me? I said you won't get nowhere that way."

Jasper continued jumping and antagonizing the wooden beam of the barn, an innocent beam, once part of a tree that had dreams of becoming a great and mighty shipping vessel, that would carry brave souls across the treacherous depths of the Atlantic, fueled by stories of Verne, Melville and London; and thus, ignored Turnabout's remarks, despite their helpfulness. And so, after watching Jasper fail a few more times, Turnabout decided to do the one thing that he had not yet done and help his brother.

Climbing up the tower, almost falling through one of the seed bags, Turnabout positioned himself below Jasper, ready to assist. At the same time, Jasper became aware of Turnabout's presence and promptly stopped his attempts, taking a moment to breathe.

"Can't quite make it huh?" Turnabout said, attempting to be playful.

Jasper nodded, for he was not so delusional as to admit his literal shortcomings, even if he was still too naive to consider quitting.

"What you need to do is grow a few inches" Turnabout declared, measuring Jasper with his paw as a well-meaning smile crept on his face, "Or given your eagerness, aim a bit lower."

It was a strange Turnabout thought that he even dared to suggest the idea of aiming low, referring to dreams and aspirations, when sitting on top of a homemade tower made of boxes and bags. If so much effort was put into the idea, that perhaps it was one worth pursuing. It was so strange in fact, that there was only one possible solution that would ease his mind and, at the same time, fulfill Jasper's desire. Pushing his head underneath Jasper's bottom and climbing on top of the highest feed bag, Turnabout proceeded, without much in the way of difficulty, to lift his brother to the rafters.

"How's the view?" Turnabout asked, laughing a bit, "Mine's not too good."

The view was about as normal and average as anyone would imagine; for the rafters were no different than other part of the barn, save for one distinguishing feature: the large window to the outside world. True, it was only the cow and pig pens, as well as a decent look at the farmhouse, but it also had the hills beyond- miles of pasture- as well as a small group of trees, which was the closest thing to a forest that one would receive. It also helped that just as Jasper lifted his head above the wooden beam that the sun, in all of its glorious magnificence, rose to greet the day.

"It's beautiful" Jasper declared, summoning the words that his heart had already spoken, "Simply beautiful."

Turnabout, for his part, could only smile, happy that his brother was happy, content to stay where he was in order to allow Jasper the moment he had desired since he had woken up. The same content however, could not be said for Jasper himself, who despite having achieved his long sought goal of twenty minutes, felt empty, as if there was a missing piece to the success. Turning towards Turnabout, Jasper smiled and leaned down.

"Wanna come up?" Jasper invited, "There's plenty of room."

Turnabout shook his head, for he had done more than enough for his part and did not wish to involve himself in Jasper's shenanigans and risk getting in trouble. Jasper however, refused him the luxury of retreat and subsequently used what strength he possessed, which was not much given his size, and hauled his brother onto the rafter.

"Jasper" Turnabout said, annoyed at the prospect of being in the loft, "Why can't you just take no for an answer?"

Jasper laughed, not oblivious to the fact that the word was not in his vocabulary, for on a matter of principle he believed that everything was worth doing. It was a flawed perspective, in that it lacked judgment and proper temperament, and yet despite this, Jasper's willingness to perform any task for its own sake was something to be admired; his certain sense of exploration extending far beyond literal interpretation and into symbolic and figurative meaning.

"Come on" Jasper exclaimed, pushing his brother on, "This'll be fun!"

Turnabout huffed and slowly began to hate himself, for inside his heart tinged a small glimmer of longing- the desire to seek and experience, which came with exploration.

"Your definition of fun is hazardous" Turnabout returned sharply, "Besides; some of us have chores to do."

The mentioning of chores was something that Jasper absolutely detested, if only because, being the runt of the litter, meant that he was stuck with what most would consider the shit work, in the most literal sense of the phrase. Mostly, Jasper's job consisted of rounding up the pigs to the feed trough, which included the misfortune of wading through mud, and given the nature of pigs, their droppings. It was work that was meant for McAllister and delegated to Jasper on account of his easily impressionable nature. In the case of the rest of the children, particularly Ollie's lot, their work was mostly house related, for they were still young enough where they could be spared most physical labor. The only real exception was Turnabout, whose eagerness to serve the farm physically refused to be denied; as a result, his duties, restricted to the barn, were related to cleanliness and well-being, a perfect beginning to his career as a sheepdog.

"Those chores can wait" Jasper continued, ignoring Turnabout and his excuses despite their validity, "Take some time for yourself."

"Don't you remember?" Turnabout stressed, "At sun's rise we wake the barn, have the slop that McAllister feeds us and then do our work. You corral pigs, I keep this place organized. We each owe it to the family to do our part."

While many found it strange that Turnabout had possessed such a work ethic at a young age, it was mostly due to necessity, for his siblings, including Jasper, were incredibly lazy and lax in their work when they decided to attempt it. This, in a way, was due to their age; Ollie in particular doting over them all as if they were fragile Italian Renaissance artifacts. It was to them a fact of life, one that Turnabout could not accept no matter how hard he had tried; for instilled in him was a desire to service and work, traits normally reserved for the eldest child. Turnabout found it unfortunate that out of all his litter he was the one who carried the most burdens, who shouldered all of the weight and responsibility and all of the failure that came with it. True, his job was simple and equally thankless as any other, but it was a job that he took pride in, which was more than he could say for the others.

"There's more to life than counting eggs and cleaning" Jasper declared, tired of Turnabout's moral and ethical superiority, "What about experiencing things?"

Turnabout sighed, for it seemed absolutely ridiculous that he was spouting about life and its apparent meaning when the only life he knew existed within the confines of the barn. Still, if only to appease him and to knock him down a few pegs, Turnabout obliged and answered Jasper question.

"Considering that neither of us have any experience with anything you should welcome the opportunity to learn" Turnabout replied, "You're not going to be anything staring out a window."

With this, Turnabout took his leave and proceeded down the precarious tower. Jasper, for his part, said nothing and turned to face the window. As the sun rose to greet the day, and barn community woke up of both its own accord and Turnabout's rousing, Jasper hummed and whistled to himself. Yet, as the barn began to stir, so too did the farm, and the house beyond, as McAllister began his daily routine and the morning inspection.