Jack's made some new friends, and actually revealed his secret to them, but now he seems to be on hot on the trail of solving the "Jacob". Will we finally find out the secret behind this mysteriously missing boy? Read on to find out!
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Mrs. Bennett looked up in surprise as the door to her classroom "banged" open. She was even more surprised to see Jack standing there, panting as if he'd just run a marathon.
"Jack, are you alright?" she asked, standing up and hurrying over to him.
"I'm fine," he told her, swallowing in huge gulps of air. "But we need to talk."
"Certainly," Mrs. Bennett said, motioning for him to sit down at a desk. "Is something wrong?"
"Not exactly," he replied, taking a seat. "But I need to ask you something, and I need you to be honest with me."
"Of course," she responded. "I try to always be honest with my children and my students."
"All right then." Jack took a deep breath before blurting out, "Who is Jacob?"
"What?" Mrs. Bennett's face froze. Her whole body, in fact, seemed to go rigid as the question sank in.
"The first morning I came to live with you guys," Jack said, nervously twirling a discarded pencil in his hands, "you called me Jack. Later that day I heard you talking to your brother about someone named Jacob that I looked exactly like. And this morning in the office, I'm pretty sure you put 'Jacob' on the forms, not Jack. Please—I need to know who he is."
Mrs. Bennett's whole face seemed to crumble as she burst into tears. "Oh Jack," she sobbed, "I am so sorry. Jacob—was my son."
"Your son?" Jack felt an odd mixture of nausea and relief filling his stomach. His mind went back to that first morning where he'd found that picture of the family in the bathroom drawer. The teenage boy he'd seen in the background—it must have been Jacob.
"What—happened to him?" Jack choked out.
"It was three years ago today," Mrs. Bennett explained between tears. "My husband and Jacob went out for a drive. It should have been fine, but a freak snow storm blew up. They were out on a country road when a semi truck driver fell asleep at the wheel and went right into their lane. They didn't see him until it was too late. The truck driver was fine, but Jacob and his dad… they didn't make it."
"I am so sorry," Jack told her, feeling his heart squeeze as he recalled his pain at losing his own family. "But what exactly does this have to do with me?
Mrs. Bennett shook her head. "When you showed up out of the blue on Saturday, just days before the anniversary, it seemed like a miracle. I knew you couldn't be my son, but I wanted so badly to believe that you were that somehow I convinced myself that it was true. You looked and sounded just like him—down to the tiny freckle by your left ear." She reached out and brushed a tiny lock of Jack's hair back so that she could see it. "I know it was wrong of me, but this morning when I was filling out those forms, it seemed as my hand had a mind of its own and I just started putting in all of Jacob's old information. I knew you probably didn't have any old school records, so I figured it would be so easy for you to just slip in where he'd left off. You were fitting in so well with Jamie and Sophie, and it would have been so easy. I just…I think I wanted you to fill in the place in my heart that's been empty for so long."
"So…you just wanted me as a replacement?" Jack asked, feeling his heart sink.
"Oh honey, no!" Mrs. Bennett cried, looking like her heart was going to break. "No! That may have been my first thought, but the truth is what I really wanted was a second chance. A second chance to do things right. To be the mother I never could be to Jacob."
A second chance. Jacob felt the words resonate in his heart. Hadn't that been what he'd been looking for too?
"You must think I'm a terrible mother," Mrs. Bennett sobbed. "And I can't say I blame you."
"No," Jack told her after a minute. "Actually, I think you're a pretty great mom."
"Why?" Mrs. Bennett looked up at him through tear stained eyes. "What could I possibly be doing right? I tried to replace my dead son with you. And I wake up every morning and go to bed every night praying for wisdom and help in raising Jamie and Sophie, but no matter what I do I still feel like I'm failing them somehow!"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Jack put his hand on her shoulder. "Hold on a minute. You are most definitely not failing Jamie and Sophie. I mean, look at you: you've got two little kids to watch out for; you're working two jobs to support them; you're still grieving the loss of a husband and a son; and yet you're more devoted than most parents I've seen who have tons of money and time to spend on their kids. And trust me, I've seen a lot of families in my time. Sophie and Jamie absolutely adore you! Jamie brags on you all the time. He thinks you're the world's greatest mom! And the fact that you were actually willing to take in a kid off the streets and love him as your own? I'd say if there's a list of the best moms of all time, you'd top it."
Mrs. Bennett gave a half sob, half laugh. "Thank you. I don't think I deserve half of what you just said, but thank you."
"C'mere," Jack said, reaching out and drawing her into a hug. He let her rest her head on his shoulder as she cried softly. He felt like the roles had been momentarily reversed of parent and child, but he honestly didn't mind.
"Someone must have raised you right," Mrs. Bennett finally whispered.
"Yeah, she did," Jack agreed. And for the first time since he'd regained his memories he realized that he could think of his family without pain—as if the hole in his heart had started to mend too.
His eyes involuntarily glanced over towards the window, and suddenly he froze. No, that couldn't be right! He blinked, just to make sure that his eyes weren't playing tricks on him. No, he was definitely seeing it. There was snow coming down outside. He glanced down at his skin, wondering if somehow he'd refrozen. But no, he didn't feel the inner cold that he should have if he had. Then he looked back at the window and saw a bunny standing outside and knocking on the window. A large, grey, Australian bunny dressed in a trench coat.
"Uh, mom?" Jack said, a twinge of worry spiking in his stomach. "I've got to go."
"Go?" Mrs. Bennett lifted her head and looked up at Jack. "Go where?"
"Mom, you're just going to have trust me on this one," Jack told her, getting up and heading for the door, glancing back over at the window. Mrs. Bennett followed his line of sight and let out a startled gasp.
"Oh Jack, no!" she cried. "No! Tell me you're not going out in that storm!"
"Mom, there's something I've got to go take care of," Jack responded, taking hold of both her hands and looking her straight in the eyes. "But I can't do that if I don't know that you're safe."
"And I can't feel safe if I don't know that you're safe," Mrs. Bennett returned. She gave him a pleading look. "Please Jack—don't go out there. I can't stand to lose you agai—" She stopped herself short. "To lose you."
"I know." Jack squeezed her hands. "But I promise you, no matter what happens, I will come back to you." He gave a tiny laugh. "Trust me, I'm a lot more resilient than you'd think."
"I know you are." Mrs. Bennett gave a tiny sniff, then nodded and let go of his hands. Jack knew it took a lot of courage for her to do that, and it made him even more determined to do his best to fix whatever this mess turned out to be. He took three long strides for the door, then turned back one last time to face her.
"I love you mom," he whispered.
"I love you too Jack," Mrs. Bennett whispered back. And then Jack was gone. Mrs. Bennett took two faltering steps towards the door to follow him, then turned back to her desk. She was going to help him in the only way she could right now. Bowing her head, she began to pray. "Heavenly Father, I beg of You—please, please watch over my son…"
