EPISODE ELEVEN: SEASICK (Part 2)
( RECAP: Old Farmer Jack mysteriously returns from the far seas, and Jack II is there to find him wash up ashore. While trying to make sure that Jack I isn't seen by the other townspeople (for property of the farm reasons), the whole town gets caught up in a game of hide and seek which ultimately leads to the discovery of Jack I's return. Many questions are still left unanswered, such as where was Jack I all this time? Who was the old lady he spoke to briefly? And how did Jack I become a citizen of Mineral Town when (in season 1) he decided to move back to the city? All these questions and more will be answered in this important episode!)
"Indeed, this is a pickle we have gotten ourselves into," the mayor agreed with Jack II. The townspeople were all sent home in shock of discovering Jack I to be alive and well, and Jack II, Karen, Jill, and Jack I followed the mayor back to his home to discuss what was to happen next regarding the ownership of the farm.
"So there's no way that we can work around it? He owns the farm still?" Jack II asked hopefully.
"Well, technically… he is legally dead," the mayor tried thinking outside the box for this rather odd situation. "If you could somehow convince him to give the farm to you and then disappear…"
"Yo, gramps!" Jack II caught his grandfather's low attention.
"Hm?"
"I'm taking the farm," Jack II stated.
"Where?" Jack blinked curiously.
"Wha?... no! I mean I'm taking over the ownership."
Jack stared at his grandson for a moment before answering in his peculiarly hushed tone, "You have a ship?!"
"Uh… Huh? No! Jeez, not that kind of ship, OWNER ship! Meaning I own the farm? God, it's like talking to a two year old!" Jack II fused.
"You know," Jack I got ready to tell a wise old story like old people sometimes do to their grandchildren. "I was two once,"
"Me toooo!" Jill jumped for joy at this revelation.
"Jack, this isn't going to be that easy," Karen warned her boyfriend. She was correct, and he knew it.
"Mayor, how the hell did he even come to own this farm?" Jack II needed some background knowledge if he ever expected to get anywhere.
"Well, the story goes that his grandfather owned it, and he inherited it after his death. He was said to be quite the moneymaker, but at the end of his probationary period, he ultimately decided it didn't fit his style of living. On that day… the town burned to the ground. The citizens worked together to rebuild it, and thus, Mineral Town was born. I guess Eve decided that the city life was too much for Jack, and they moved right back when everything was finished. Some citizens left, others came, and the community we have now is the end result. Jack stayed there for a long time raising your father, Eve disappeared, you should know the rest."
"…Wow, propagate much?" Jack II said unenthusiastically.
"That was an interesting story," Karen shot Jack II an evil look for his rudeness. "But while you were talking, it seems the small minded ones have managed to escape," she pointed to the table where Jack and his granddaughter had been seated.
"That does it," Jack II banged his fists on the wall. "I need to get drunk."
Intermission
"I have one Jackie, I have two Jackies!" Jill counted on her fingers as her and her grandpa walked unsteadily along the city paths.
"Oh, pretty!" Jack I pointed to the house on their left.
"We can't go in there," Jill warned. "That lady is diseased!" she referred to the poor sick Lillia.
"Maybe I can help her," Jack I suggested.
"Nope, she'll die," Jill decided.
"Jack?" a familiar voice chirped from behind them. It was the old lady that had met him on the path during their game of hide and seek, Jack remembered that this woman had some temper issues.
"He'll get back to you," Jack walked away.
"Wait, Jack!" her words were lost to the wind as Jill stood at her feet and stared steadily into her eyes. "Do you know that man?" the woman asked her.
"He's my special friend," Jill said conceitedly.
"It's our grandfather… I was adopted," Jack II and Karen had arrived at the scene, sweating from the short jog in the hot sun.
"Oh, my! You look just like him, now I understand what is going on," the old lady realized.
"What did you think was going on?" Karen asked as the old woman blushed.
"She thought he was molesting me," Jill surprised everyone with her quick and blunt presumption, which actually turned out to be correct. Even more surprising was that she knew such a long word. The group was stunned while Jill turned and walked in the general direction her grandfather had gone.
"O…kay, we need to go find him," Jack II got down to business.
"Let me go with you," the old woman pleaded. "I would like to talk to him and apologize for my rude behavior earlier."
"Suits yourself, he won't know who you are or what you're talking about though," Jack II trotted off on his way with the two females following close behind.
"So who are you?" Karen asked the old lady.
"Oh, that's right, you must have been too young to remember me. I'm Lillia's mother, I've come to look after her since she is not well. It has been a very hard time for her, with the death of Rick and then Popuri eloping with Kai."
"You knew my grandpa then?" Jack II interrupted.
"Mmmhmm, we used to date when we were young. My name is Nina."
"Huh, never heard of you," Jack II rudely admitted.
Up ahead, the group could now see that Jill had been conversing with her grandfather in town square.
"You're a poopy head!" Jill yelled, it was the first audible sentence.
Jack I ran the tips of his fingers over his face, "(Gasp) Liar!"
"Hey, you!" Jack II yelled. "I'm not done with you yet, we need to discuss the ownership of the farm!"
"Oh! I need to borrow that ship!" Jack I remembered.
"Why do you need a ship?" Karen cut in.
"To use, duh!" Jill mused.
"Use how?" Karen persisted.
"I put it in the water and usually it does the rest," Jack I told the truth.
"Lemme try," Jack II decided it was time to save his girlfriend the hastle. "Why do you want to leave the island?"
"To find Eve," Jack I was proud to know yet another answer.
"Oh, poor dear," Nina said silently from behind the others.
"She's gone! Get it through your head!" Jack II yelled harshly.
"I know she's gone, that's why I have to go and find her,"
"This is hopeless!" Jack II raged. "I just…wait, maybe not!" he pulled Karen aside for a moment. "If we can get him a ship, he'll leave and then the farm will be mine again!"
"We can't trick him! That's evil!" Karen protested.
"We don't have any other choice, he doesn't understand anything."
Tears came to Karen's eyes as she realized, "But, he'll be searching til the end of his life for someone who probably isn't even alive anymore!"
"She isn't," Nina interrupted. "I never really spoke to her after the town burned to the ground, but she did come to my village on occasion with her new family. I never understood what compelled her to leave her husband and newborn, but I do know she did not live a happy life after. Her other children went off and got married, her husband was a drunkard. I know she probably regretted leaving Jack, but felt that the village would no longer accept her if she came back."
"What happened to her then?" Karen wiped away her tears.
"Died of a broken heart is my guess. It's a sad story, but even sadder is the one that Jack must be living through right now," Nina looked upon the withering old form who sat arguing with his retarded granddaughter on the bench. "To think he's spent all these years waiting for her to come back, and then went searching for her… it's no wonder his mind is in such bad shape,"
"Yeah, that's the reason," Jack II said sarcastically. Under his breath, he whispered to his annoyed girlfriend, "Honestly, the people who lived here back then must have been the most ignorant buffoons imaginable to have not discovered what a kook he really is!"
"You have no heart," Karen shoved him with her elbow.
Intermission
In the end, it was decided that Jack would go to live with Nina in the next town over. It would take some time to convince the old bugger to do so, however.
"Jack, do you remember who I am?" Nina asked him.
"You're the old lady that yelled at me," Jack answered truthfully.
"But do you remember my name? The time we spent together as young adults, growing up in this town?"
Jack looked at her with wide eyes, "Are you an alien?!"
"What? Of course not,"
"Then no."
Nina was confused, and immediately she remembered the similar feelings she used to get while talking to him when they were young. Perhaps it was love? Well we all know it was stupidity, but Nina's not so bright herself, so lets not spoil it for her.
"Jack, it's me! Nina!"
Jack studied her for a moment, "You got old!"
"Uh, yes, yes I did. And do did you," Nina smiled.
"What happened to your green hair?" Jack was amused.
"Uh, it was pink. It's like you said, I got old," she was now very uncomfortable. "You lost yours, and mine turned grey,"
Jack put his hands to his head immediately at her remark, "OH… MY… GOD!"
Nina laughed at this, Jack was furious. "You could always make me laugh,"
"I could always make you mad," Jack reflected. He never understood why, exactly, but he knew that most of the memories he still had of her were of her yelling at him. But he did remember that she had also been a gorgeous young girl.
"Haha, that too. Jack, would you like to come to my village and we can spend the rest of our days together, like old times?"
"…You mean like money?" Jack didn't see how time could amount to such value.
"Huh?"
"Nod and say yes," Jack II instructed his grandfather as he and Karen watched from a few feet away.
Jack nodded and said yes, not knowing exactly what it was that he was agreeing to, but that was how it always was.
"Oh, I'm so happy!" Nina hugged him tightly.
"Can I have my hair back now, please?"
"Oh, Jack! Everything worked out wonderfully!" Karen cuddled up close to him as the family spent their last night at the farm together before Jack and Nina's departure.
"Says you! Perfect would have been if they'd take Jill along with them," Jack II grumbled miserably.
"Grandpa, where are you going?" Jill asked Jack curiously.
Jack looked upon her with a wise expression upon his weathered face, "Tomorrow, I don't know. Now? To take a dump," he got up and walked to the washroom.
"Close the door this time!" Jack II yelled.
"And put the seat up!" Karen offered.
"And wash your hands!" Jill was happy to contribute.
"In the SINK!" Jack II saved the day with that final comment.
Jack I turned to face these annoying jerks, "I'll do what I can!"
"So now that everything is all settled, is there anything that's on your mind, Jack? Karen hinted.
"Besides the fact that in a couple minutes I'll probably have to go clean the damned bathroom? I don't think so,"
"Aw, c'mon! Hasn't all this talk of new beginnings made you think at all of the future?"
"Well, there's a certain something I'd like to try out with you under the bedsheets," Jack II hinted in turn.
"Nice try, I'm saving myself for marriage."
"Pff," Jack II huffed. "Saving yourself but you're killing me,"
"Jackie's getting' married, Jackie's getting' married!" Jill exercised her selective hearing through means of a song.
"Shut up, you little twirp! It's bad enough Karen has these ideas in her head!" Jack II hissed.
"And why shouldn't I? Popuri and Kai eloped, the doctor and Elli are engaged. It's just getting to be that time in our life,"
Jack emerged from the washroom with a curious look upon his face.
"What is it, grandpa?"
"Did you say to put the seat up before or after I was done?"
"Before,"
"…We have a small problem."
Summer 20th, Year 2.
Sorry I haven't written in a few days. Nothing of much importance has really been happening… nope, nothin' at all. Anyways, bedtime for me!
Dae 20, Munth 2, Yeer 2.
Grampa cam bak and we plad hid and seeck and tomoro hes going bak with sum uther ladeee to sum uther taoon and stuf. Win I gro up I wont to bee juss lik himm.
So Jack went to live with Nina, and eventually Jack forgot all about Eve and fell deeply in love with Nina. Nina's husband had died many years back, and she had always thought she would be alone for the rest of her life. The two would finally be at peace, for the first time in many years.
Lillia gained a new sense of hope from watching her mother become happy once more, and slowly but surely headed on a road to recovery. But this is not how the story ends, my friends. No, there is much more to tell of this dysfunctional little bunch, so stay tuned!
THE END
(So there we have it, Jack got a happy ending at last! Only four episodes remain of this season and then I'll get started on my side story series "The Legend of the River King" which will be a small 3 part story to tide everyone over until I can start on season 3 of HMTV!)
