Chapter Three - Like Alice

Jack and Ma were putting the remains of the egg shells on Eggsnake, so she would be even longer. Even though the power was cut and they had no TV, they still found things to do.

"Why did he tell you not to forget where you got me?" Jack asked and he didn't notice his Ma stiffening.

"Can you give me a minute?" Ma asked and Jack sighed.

Jack counted in his head. From one to sixty before he turned to Ma.

"Why did he tell you not to forget where you got me? Wasn't it from Heaven?"

Ma sighed again as she stuck the needle through the egg shell.

"He meant.. who you belong to." she said quietly.

"I belong to you." Jack said, confusedly.

Ma gave him a small smile.

"Yeah." Ma said.

"But why did he tell you not to forget?" Jack insisted.

"You see, Old Nick misunderstands everything. He thinks you belong to him." Ma explained.

"He's stupid." Jack said.

"Yeah. Dumbo."

"Stupid!"

"Idiot!"

Ma and Jack laughed as they came up with more names to call Old Nick.

"Come on, little dude. Let's do the dishes." Ma patted her son's knee and stood up. Jack sighed, putting Eggsnake aside and following his Ma to the kitchen.

"The water is cold." Jack commented as he helped Ma. "When is the power gonna be uncut?"

Ma chuckled.

"I don't know, sorry." she said.

"But what if Room gets colder and colder?" Jack asked worriedly.

"Nah, that can't happen. We'll be in April soon, it's not gonna be so cold outside." Ma said.

Jack didn't say anything after that, he just helped Ma wash the dishes, which weren't many. There weren't many food options when the power was cut.

"Done!" Jack said proudly after the dishes were all clean and dry.

Ma smiled and they sat on the bed, under the covers to get warmer. The brunette sighed and hugged Jack tight.

"I'm sorry, Jack." she said.

"Why are you sorry?" Jack asked with a frown.

"It was my fault. I made him angry, I hadn't done that in years. He doesn't like it when I scream." she said and Jack knew her eyes were filling up with tears. "Now he wants to punish us."

"How is he gonna punish us?" Jack asked, even more worried and Ma pulled apart.

"He already is. Cutting the power so we're cold and our food is getting bad." Ma said.

"Oh that's good." Jack said and Ma chuckled.

"Why is it good?"

"I thought he was gonna put me in Room number 2." Jack said.

"You're amazing." Ma said with a chuckle.

"Why am I amazing?" Jack asked.

"Because you have an amazing Ma." Ma winked.

Jack laughed.

"Come on, Jack. It's getting close to bedtime, let's go to bed." Ma said.

"We didn't brush our teeth." Jack reminded her.

"Oh yeah." Ma groaned. "Come on, let's brush our teeth so they don't go bad!"

Jack giggled and raced his Ma to the bathroom. He obviously won.

oO0Oo

Jack woke up the next morning first, but it was still really cold, even colder now. He turned to Beca with a sigh and shook her awake and she yawned. He knew this meant she was awake all night.

"Ma, what's Chloe?" he asked.

Beca visibly stiffened and turned to him, with a look that meant sadness, pain, hurt, just by the mention of that name.

"What?" she asked.

"You said 'Chloe' a lot at night." Jack said.

"Oh. Chloe's.. Chloe is a name. Like Jack and Beca." Beca explained, trying not to show how hurt she was at the mention of Chloe.

"Who's Chloe?" Jack asked.

"She was my friend." Beca said, praying he wouldn't ask any more questions.

Beca walked out of the bed to the kitchen and she grabbed the last apple with a sigh. She was so tired of this.

"Ma, can I have that apple?" Jack asked.

"Of course, take it." Beca washed the apple and gave it to her son. She looked in the fridge and found vegetables like broccoli and carrots but they were certainly going bad. She didn't like the idea but she grabbed some to eat. She was starving.

"Why is he still punishing us?" Jack asked before sitting on the bed, eating his apple.

"Because he thinks we belong to him because we're in Room." Beca explained.

"Why?" Jack asked.

Beca chuckled a little bit despite the bad taste of the vegetables.

"Well, he built Room." Beca said.

Jack accepted the answer and continued chewing on his apple while Beca ate her vegetables.

Beca just thought about it. She was so tired. The bruise on her neck seemed to get darker everyday. Yes, she was thankful that Old Nick wasn't coming every night, but then again, she needed him to bring food and to turn the power back on.

Beca looked at Jack's book, Alice in Wonderland and an idea sparked in her head.

"Jack, can I tell you a story?" she asked.

"A real one?" he asked.

"A very real one." Beca smiled. "So, do you remember how Alice wasn't always in Wonderland?"

Jack gave his Ma a suspicious look.

"Yeah, she fell four thousand miles in the hole! But she didn't get hurt." he answered.

"Yeah, well I'm like Alice." Beca said.

"Naaah, Alice is a little girl with a huge head!" Jack said.

"Yeah, but like her, I'm from somewhere else. A long time ago, I was —,"

"— In Heaven!" Jack said.

Beca put her finger on his mouth so he'd be quiet.

"I came down from Heaven and I was a kid, just like you! I lived with my dad, my ma.."

"But you're Ma!" Jack said, shaking his head.

"Yeah but I had mine. I called her mom. I still do." Beca said, tears starting to fill her eyes.

"Why are you pretending? I don't like it when you trick me." Jack frowned.

"I'm not tricking you." Beca said. "Anyways, you would call her 'grandma'."

Jack looked down at his half eaten apple and put it on the table, suddenly not that hungry.

"Did you grow inside her?"

"Yeah!" Beca said. "And I had a dad too, you would call him 'grandpa'.."

Jack pushed his apple aside.

"What's for lunch?" he asked, but Beca's face didn't change.

"Jack, I'm talking about your family." she said.

Jack frowned and shook his head, crossing his arms.

"Jack, just because you don't know them, doesn't mean they're not real!" Beca said. The boy didn't say anything, he just stared at her. "Anyway, I lived with my mom and my dad, in a house—,"

"— A house in TV?" Jack asked.

"No, Jack, a real house, in the world." Beca said. "But it.. It did look like a TV house. It was big, it had those big pillars in front of it, two floors, it had a big backyard and a hammock..."

"What's a hammock?" Jack asked.

Beca jumped to the bedside table and took out a pencil, desperate to try to represent to her son things that existed in the world outside, a world Jack didn't know of.

"This!" Beca said. She drew two trees, a hammock tied to both and a girl on the hammock.

"Who's that?" Jack asked.

"That's me! Swinging on the hammock!" Beca said and made the paper swing from side to side. "I had friends, I would go to the park with them and go on the swings.. Grandma and grandpa used to take me and my friends to the zoo, to the beach... I was their little girl."

"Naaah." Jack said.

Beca crumbled the piece of paper and threw it again, burying her head in her hands and finally allowing herself to cry in frustration.

"Don't cry, Ma." Jack said.

"I can't help it." Beca wiped her tears. "I wish I could describe all of this better for you. I miss it."

"You miss the hammock?" Jack looked puzzled.

"I miss being outside." Beca said. "I miss the world."

Jack frowned and tilted his head.

"Did you really live on TV?" Jack asked.

"No, I told you. All of this is real! It's all outside in the world! God, the world is so big, you can't even imagine!" Beca said. "And Room is just a stinky part of it!"

"Room is not stinky, only when you do a fart!" Jack said angrily.

Beca started crying again.

"Your farts are stinkier than mine! You're just trying to trick me and you better stop!" Jack continued.

Beca took a deep breath.

"Alright." she said. "Let's eat a sandwich."

"Why?" Jack frowned.

"Because you said you were hungry." Beca said.

"I'm not hungry." Jack said.

Beca looked at him with angry eyes.

"I am going to make you a sandwich and you're going to eat it." she said sternly and slowly. "Alright?"

Jack remained quiet as his mother made them peanut butter sandwich, which weren't anything special. Then the two got ready for bed after they shared the last apple.

"I know it's a lot for you to take in." Beca said.

Jack frowned in confusion but remained quiet. Was she talking about the sandwich? Or the apple?

"I wouldn't lie to you about this." Beca said. "I couldn't tell you before because you were too small to understand, I think that's why I've been lying to you at the time. But now you're 5 and I think you're capable of understanding."

Jack shook his head.

"What I'm doing now it's the opposite of lying. It's like I'm undoing the lie, I'm unlying." Beca said.

Jack remained quiet as he quietly tugged on Ma's shirt and she sighed before pulling up the shirt so he could nurse from her breasts.

It was quiet for a moment, Jack noticed his ma was looking at him as he switched breasts.

"Why don't you like living here?" he asked.

Beca pulled her shirt back down and sat up.

"I wasn't finished!" Jack said.

"Yes you were, you were talking." Beca said.

"Why don't you like living in Room with me?" Jack asked.

Beca sighed and hugged him tight.

"Jack." she said and there was a moment of silence. "I always like being with you."

"But you said Room was stinky." Jack said.

Beca sighed again.

"Yes, I'd rather be outside. But with you." Beca said.

"I like it here." Jack said.

"Okay." Beca sighed, deciding to not drag this any longer as she pulled apart.

"How did he build it?"

Beca knew who Jack was talking about.

"Well, actually it was just a garden shed. There was nothing inside, it was this 12 ft by 12 space. Then he added a soundproof skylight, a lot of isolation foam inside the walls, some lead because lead cancels out any sound. And finally a door with a security code. And he brags about his work." Beca said with a slight roll of eyes and a tired sigh.

Jack remained quiet as he turned on his stomach and looked at Skylight. He was thibking about all his Ma just said. It wasn't true, she was just tricking him, he was shre of that.

"Hey little buddy?" Beca asked as she sat up.

"Yeah?" Jack asked.

"Wanna hear a story?"

"A real one?!" Jack asked, his eyes brightening.

"A very real one, like the one I just told you." Beca said and Jack sighed but listened to her anyway. "So I was 21, I was in college. I was on a date with this girl named Chloe—,"

"— What's a date?" Jack cut her off to ask.

"Oh.. a date is something two people who like each other go on, so they can be boyfriends or girlfriends." Beca said.

"Did you wanna be Chloe's girlfriend?" Jack asked.

"More than anything, kid." Beca sighed, fighting the tears. "Anyway, Chloe and I were on our third date, it was a lunch date. We were going to rehearsal when this came came running towards us, desperate—,"

"— What guy?"

"Old Nick! It was Old Nick!" Beca said. "Anyway he came and said his dog was sick, he thought the dog was dying and he needed help. Chloe suspected him but I wanted to give a leap of faith."

"What was the dog's name?"

"What? Jack, there was no dog! That's my point! He was tricking me!" Beca said. "He only said that so I would go with him! So he put me in his truck and I was screaming so he punched me. And I blacked out. So he brought me to his garden shed. Room."

"I wanna hear a different story." Jack frowned.

"No, this is the story I'm telling you. The one thag happened." Beca said. "Anyway when I woke up, I realized he had given me a sleeping pill. And I was desperate."

"I don't like this story! You're lying! The Outside and Chloe don't exist!" Jack shouted.

"Hey!" Beca's eyes looked angry again. "Don't speak like that about Chloe, do you hear me? It's all true, Jack. It's all true."

Jack loosened his frown but he didn't say anything.

"Are dogs real?"

"Very real. There are different sizes of dogs." Beca said.

"What about cats? And trees? And squirrels?" Jack asked.

"Yeah, all real." Beca said.

Jack laid back down.

"When Old Nick comes back, I'm gonna kick him in the butt." Jack said.

Beca chuckled and laid down next to her son.

"You know, dude. I've tried to kick Old Nick in th butt. One time, I hid behind the door, I was holding the lid from the toilet tank, it was the heaviest thing in Room—,"

"— Bed is heavier." Jack said.

"Yeah but I couldn't lift Bed alone now could I?" Beca asked and Jack laughed. "Anyway, I failed. So he grabbed my wrist and twisted it, that's why it's sore now."

There was a moment of silence while Beca thought about it and Jack looked at her.

"But now, we have our chance! You and I, dude, can trick that bastard." Beca said.