It was just too hard to concentrate on the task at hand. Dan just
couldn't quite do it right. Perhaps he was just tired. Yes, maybe that's
it, Thought Dan. Maybe a good nights sleep would help. In the morning he
could fix the speakers. Dan looked around the living room. The room was
dimly lit by the light coming in through the front window from a street
light. Perhaps, thought Dan, I should just lie down over there, on that
green couch. Perhaps it just didn't matter where I lay down.
Slowly, Dan began to rise to his feet. They felt very weak, and after taking a couple of steps, he collapsed. Moving over to the couch was going to be a far greater challeng than he had originally planned for. Once again, he slowly hauled his feeble body to its feet, and once again, he fell forward. This time, the room began to spin. Faster and faster. He felt as if he were going to be flung against a wall from the apparent centralfugical forces. The room began to glow, dimly at first, but then brighter, and brighter. Every noise in the room seemed to become amplified to excruciating levels. The clock ticking, and ticking, and ticking. Louder and louder the noises grew, and all of a sudden, everything was still, and dark, and quiet.
Jack laughed. He simply could not remember the last time he laughed so hard with someone. Jenna and himself quickly crossed the quite, residential streets. The sun was just on the verge of rising, giving the sky a beautiful dark blue gradient. The streets were relatively quiet, the silence only broken by Jack and Jenna's laughter, and the occasional baying of dogs in the distance.
"So, do you like living on that island of yours?" asked Jenna, changing the subject.
Jack sighed as he thought for a moment. "It's all right. The people are friendly, and the environment is wonderful. It's just that there's a lot of, religion."
Jenna nodded understandingly. "Ah, religion. I see. What kind of religion?"
"Only two that I know of. The one is Christianity, and the other is some sort of Harvest Goddess worship. Personally, I don't care for either."
"So it's like some sort of religious island?"
"Kind of. Most everybody there is part of one religion or another. From what I understand, that's why my father left in the first place."
"Hmm," replied Jenna as they left the street lamp lit streets, and started down a darkened ally.
"Why are we going down the ally?" asked Jack.
"It's just faster way to get to my house."
"I see."
After a moment, Jenna opened a tall, wooden gate. As they walked across her back yard the motion dector lights activated, flooding the backyard with beams of incandescent light. Jack squinted as his eyes adjusted to the new light. Jenna removed a key from her purse, and unlocked the back door, and the two proceeded to enter the building. She flicked on the kitchen light, plopped her purse down on the table, and headed for the fridge. "Do you want anything to drink?"
"Sure."
Jenna opened the fridge and noticed that the box of beer was already open. "Hmm... that's strange."
"What's strange?"
"I bought that twelve pack of vodka just last night, and four of the bottles are already missing."
"You drank four bottles of vodka?" Jack asked jokingly as he leaned against her green counter top.
"No. I didn't. I was saving those for the party tonight," replied Jenna as she closed the fridge door, and walked into the living room. She stepped through the door that joined the living room to the kitchen, reached over, and turned on the lights. She let out a startled shriek.
"What?" Jack asked as he walked over to her. "Oh..." he said as he saw what she saw.
Jenna walked over to the shivering, unconscious man lying on her living room floor and knelt down beside him. Fortunately for him, he was lying on his side, or else he would have drown in his own vomit. But his breathing was shallow, and laboured.
Jack noted that there was a half dissasembled sterio in one corner, as well as a broken set of speakers and two empty bottles of vodka. Furthermore, the front door was open about an inch. "Do you know him?" asked Jack.
"Yes. He's Dan, my... boyfriend." She replied, hesitant to admit that she knew this drunken man at all.
Suddenly, the unconscious man began to convulse as he vomited, again.
"Gross!" cried Jack, jumping about a foot backwards.
"Come on, help me get him into the shower," said Jenna, placing her hands into his armpits.
"Why the shower?" asked Jack as he grabbed Dan by the ankles.
They lifted him, and began to move him down the hallway.
"Oof! He's heavy! What does he eat, bricks?"
Jenna ignored the second question. "I once heard that you can sober somebody up by putting them into a shower."
Jack nodded as he thought about it. He remembered that he had once heard that too. "Is the water supposed to be hot, or cold?"
"So, just how exactly do you plan on getting in?" Ann whispered to Karen as they ran across the darkened path to Jacks house.
Karen merely grinned as she reached into her pocket and pulled out a shoelace, from which an old, rusty key was dangling.
"You stole Jacks key?!" Ann gasped.
"Ssssh!" Said Karen looking around cautiously, making sure they were not being watched. "No! Don't be silly! His grandpa gave it to me several years before he died," replied Karen. "It was so I could let myself in to do housework when he was gone to the mainland for the weekend." Karen slid the key into the keyhole, and unlocked the door with a satisfying click. "There we go..." she said as she swung the wooden door open.
"Now, where did you say this letter of his was?" asked Ann.
"I don't know where he put it. We'll have to look." Karen began to search the house, along with Ann. They looked under the matress, in the cupboards, under the bed, and any other common locations. Karen finally plopped down on the couch as the sun began to peer through the window and into the room. "It's not here..." she groaned.
"Come on Karen, I think that we should get out of here," said Ann, looking nervously out the window.
"Oh come on! What could possibly happen? It's not like anyone will be coming to visit him anytime soon, he's gone for at least a few more days."
"Karen, I really, really think that we should get out of here, now..." said Ann, as Karen got up from the couch, and went to look out the window.
"No..." Karen muttered under her breath. "Your Dad... But what's he doing here?
"He agreed to feed Jacks animals while he was away."
"So? That just means that he won't be coming into the house."
Ann didn't answer.
"Ann?"
"Get down. He's coming."
Karen began cursing under her breath. "We've got to find someplace to hide."
The two began looking around frantically, when the front door suddenly opened.
Jack sat on a red chair in the hospitals lobby. There wasn't much in the lines of reading material except for old magazines, as well as health booklets, none of which he currently took an interest in. He dug around in his backpack, looking for anything that he might of brought that would be of some interest. There were a couple of adult magazines that he picked up at 7-eleven earlier that evening, but right now he wasn't in the mood for it. His hands suddenly felt the paper envelope containing the letter from his grandfather. "Huh, I could have sworn I left this at home..." He sighed, and decided to try reading it. Perhaps, if nothing else, to honor his grandpa's memory.
He skipped over the first few pages of introductory and began to read it.
"When I was 18, I joined the army. I felt it was my duty to fight the Nazis. My parents tryed the best to persuade me that life would be much better on the farm, woking to help support the family. But, I felt that it was my duty to fight for my country. I went and applied for the army, and left on the next bus to the nearest military base. There isn't a whole lot to tell about the training except that it was hard work. I made a few friends during this time. Unfortunately, most of them were killed out on the battle fields, or missing in action.
"Once I finished my battle training, I went across the seas, and began my time as a real soldier. I spent the next 6 months fighting in the trenches, fighting what seemed to be a hopeless battle. I would watch as many of my fellow comrads came in, and died of blood loss, disease, and other battle wounds. For a while, I began to feel as if I might actually be invinsible, and indestructable. But then it happened, the Germans got reinforcments, and began to break through the front lines. Many of our men were mortally wounded by tank shells, and left to die a slow, and painful death. Others had every bone in their body crushed by tanks. It angered me immensly to see my friends being brutally murdered by these people.
"However, not all of us were killed. Some people managed to escape. Still others, such as myself, were caught, and put into labour camps, and concentration. I thought that life in the muddy, disease ridden trenches was bad. I would have gladly returned to fighting in the trenches if it meant that I could leave that concentration camp that I was at.
"As we tried to get on with life in this concentration camp, I again made friends. Most of the were Jewish people that were kind enough to help us get through our first few months there. I can still remember the screams of on particular family, as they were buried alive. In the months previous, I had gotten to know this family very well, and had grown very close to them. In my anger, I began attacking those German soldiers that were burrying my friends. Hatered burned in heart against them, and I fought futily to save them. I noticed, as one soldier grabbed me and brought me eye to eye with him, that he seemed fairly intoxicated. Almost as if he was drunk. That was the last thing that I remembered. He punched me solidly in the jaw, and I took a fall, and hit my head against a jeep.
"I must have lay there in the rain and mud for hours afterwards. I was very lucky that I wasn't killed right there and then. I believe that Jesus was watching over me that day. When I came to, I was in a reasonably comfortable bed. I had a terriable cold, a nasty concusion, a cracked jaw. I was constantly under the watchful eye of a woman named Martha. She was a German girl, probably a year or two younger than I was. The reason her and her family was here was that they opposed Hitler.
"When I became coherent about a week after the whole incident with the German officer, she told me that her father had dragged me in, and was doing everything that he could to help me. I found the fact that she spoke english to be very comforting."
"Hey Jack," said Jenna as she sat down in a chair right beside him.
"Hey," he replied looking up from the letter.
"The Doc says he should be okay now, but wants to keep him overnight. He also said that showers do NOT sober people up."
"I see. I guess you'll have to remember that the next time you find Dan lying, drunk on your floor."
"Uh huh... Well, I'm counting on it never happening again."
"Oh really, why's that."
"Once he's sobered up more, I'm going to break off our realationship. Anyway, what's that you're reading there?" Jenna asked, trying to change the subject.
"Oh, it's just a lengthly letter from my grandfather. He wrote it a few years before he died."
"I see... How's it coming?"
"Fine. Just fine. Well," Jack said, returning the letter to his pack. "do you want to head back to your place?"
"No. Lets go get some breakfast. Does McDonalds sound fine to you?"
"Sure."
AN: I think that this chapter is way overdue. Sorry that it took so long (almost a year). Anyway, if you want another chapter, and I'm not delivering, give me a review or something to get me motivated. I will have a fairly busy summer, but I will try to work on this story more. Anyway, please read and review. Constructive critisism is always welcome, as well as other comments and words of encouragement.
Slowly, Dan began to rise to his feet. They felt very weak, and after taking a couple of steps, he collapsed. Moving over to the couch was going to be a far greater challeng than he had originally planned for. Once again, he slowly hauled his feeble body to its feet, and once again, he fell forward. This time, the room began to spin. Faster and faster. He felt as if he were going to be flung against a wall from the apparent centralfugical forces. The room began to glow, dimly at first, but then brighter, and brighter. Every noise in the room seemed to become amplified to excruciating levels. The clock ticking, and ticking, and ticking. Louder and louder the noises grew, and all of a sudden, everything was still, and dark, and quiet.
Jack laughed. He simply could not remember the last time he laughed so hard with someone. Jenna and himself quickly crossed the quite, residential streets. The sun was just on the verge of rising, giving the sky a beautiful dark blue gradient. The streets were relatively quiet, the silence only broken by Jack and Jenna's laughter, and the occasional baying of dogs in the distance.
"So, do you like living on that island of yours?" asked Jenna, changing the subject.
Jack sighed as he thought for a moment. "It's all right. The people are friendly, and the environment is wonderful. It's just that there's a lot of, religion."
Jenna nodded understandingly. "Ah, religion. I see. What kind of religion?"
"Only two that I know of. The one is Christianity, and the other is some sort of Harvest Goddess worship. Personally, I don't care for either."
"So it's like some sort of religious island?"
"Kind of. Most everybody there is part of one religion or another. From what I understand, that's why my father left in the first place."
"Hmm," replied Jenna as they left the street lamp lit streets, and started down a darkened ally.
"Why are we going down the ally?" asked Jack.
"It's just faster way to get to my house."
"I see."
After a moment, Jenna opened a tall, wooden gate. As they walked across her back yard the motion dector lights activated, flooding the backyard with beams of incandescent light. Jack squinted as his eyes adjusted to the new light. Jenna removed a key from her purse, and unlocked the back door, and the two proceeded to enter the building. She flicked on the kitchen light, plopped her purse down on the table, and headed for the fridge. "Do you want anything to drink?"
"Sure."
Jenna opened the fridge and noticed that the box of beer was already open. "Hmm... that's strange."
"What's strange?"
"I bought that twelve pack of vodka just last night, and four of the bottles are already missing."
"You drank four bottles of vodka?" Jack asked jokingly as he leaned against her green counter top.
"No. I didn't. I was saving those for the party tonight," replied Jenna as she closed the fridge door, and walked into the living room. She stepped through the door that joined the living room to the kitchen, reached over, and turned on the lights. She let out a startled shriek.
"What?" Jack asked as he walked over to her. "Oh..." he said as he saw what she saw.
Jenna walked over to the shivering, unconscious man lying on her living room floor and knelt down beside him. Fortunately for him, he was lying on his side, or else he would have drown in his own vomit. But his breathing was shallow, and laboured.
Jack noted that there was a half dissasembled sterio in one corner, as well as a broken set of speakers and two empty bottles of vodka. Furthermore, the front door was open about an inch. "Do you know him?" asked Jack.
"Yes. He's Dan, my... boyfriend." She replied, hesitant to admit that she knew this drunken man at all.
Suddenly, the unconscious man began to convulse as he vomited, again.
"Gross!" cried Jack, jumping about a foot backwards.
"Come on, help me get him into the shower," said Jenna, placing her hands into his armpits.
"Why the shower?" asked Jack as he grabbed Dan by the ankles.
They lifted him, and began to move him down the hallway.
"Oof! He's heavy! What does he eat, bricks?"
Jenna ignored the second question. "I once heard that you can sober somebody up by putting them into a shower."
Jack nodded as he thought about it. He remembered that he had once heard that too. "Is the water supposed to be hot, or cold?"
"So, just how exactly do you plan on getting in?" Ann whispered to Karen as they ran across the darkened path to Jacks house.
Karen merely grinned as she reached into her pocket and pulled out a shoelace, from which an old, rusty key was dangling.
"You stole Jacks key?!" Ann gasped.
"Ssssh!" Said Karen looking around cautiously, making sure they were not being watched. "No! Don't be silly! His grandpa gave it to me several years before he died," replied Karen. "It was so I could let myself in to do housework when he was gone to the mainland for the weekend." Karen slid the key into the keyhole, and unlocked the door with a satisfying click. "There we go..." she said as she swung the wooden door open.
"Now, where did you say this letter of his was?" asked Ann.
"I don't know where he put it. We'll have to look." Karen began to search the house, along with Ann. They looked under the matress, in the cupboards, under the bed, and any other common locations. Karen finally plopped down on the couch as the sun began to peer through the window and into the room. "It's not here..." she groaned.
"Come on Karen, I think that we should get out of here," said Ann, looking nervously out the window.
"Oh come on! What could possibly happen? It's not like anyone will be coming to visit him anytime soon, he's gone for at least a few more days."
"Karen, I really, really think that we should get out of here, now..." said Ann, as Karen got up from the couch, and went to look out the window.
"No..." Karen muttered under her breath. "Your Dad... But what's he doing here?
"He agreed to feed Jacks animals while he was away."
"So? That just means that he won't be coming into the house."
Ann didn't answer.
"Ann?"
"Get down. He's coming."
Karen began cursing under her breath. "We've got to find someplace to hide."
The two began looking around frantically, when the front door suddenly opened.
Jack sat on a red chair in the hospitals lobby. There wasn't much in the lines of reading material except for old magazines, as well as health booklets, none of which he currently took an interest in. He dug around in his backpack, looking for anything that he might of brought that would be of some interest. There were a couple of adult magazines that he picked up at 7-eleven earlier that evening, but right now he wasn't in the mood for it. His hands suddenly felt the paper envelope containing the letter from his grandfather. "Huh, I could have sworn I left this at home..." He sighed, and decided to try reading it. Perhaps, if nothing else, to honor his grandpa's memory.
He skipped over the first few pages of introductory and began to read it.
"When I was 18, I joined the army. I felt it was my duty to fight the Nazis. My parents tryed the best to persuade me that life would be much better on the farm, woking to help support the family. But, I felt that it was my duty to fight for my country. I went and applied for the army, and left on the next bus to the nearest military base. There isn't a whole lot to tell about the training except that it was hard work. I made a few friends during this time. Unfortunately, most of them were killed out on the battle fields, or missing in action.
"Once I finished my battle training, I went across the seas, and began my time as a real soldier. I spent the next 6 months fighting in the trenches, fighting what seemed to be a hopeless battle. I would watch as many of my fellow comrads came in, and died of blood loss, disease, and other battle wounds. For a while, I began to feel as if I might actually be invinsible, and indestructable. But then it happened, the Germans got reinforcments, and began to break through the front lines. Many of our men were mortally wounded by tank shells, and left to die a slow, and painful death. Others had every bone in their body crushed by tanks. It angered me immensly to see my friends being brutally murdered by these people.
"However, not all of us were killed. Some people managed to escape. Still others, such as myself, were caught, and put into labour camps, and concentration. I thought that life in the muddy, disease ridden trenches was bad. I would have gladly returned to fighting in the trenches if it meant that I could leave that concentration camp that I was at.
"As we tried to get on with life in this concentration camp, I again made friends. Most of the were Jewish people that were kind enough to help us get through our first few months there. I can still remember the screams of on particular family, as they were buried alive. In the months previous, I had gotten to know this family very well, and had grown very close to them. In my anger, I began attacking those German soldiers that were burrying my friends. Hatered burned in heart against them, and I fought futily to save them. I noticed, as one soldier grabbed me and brought me eye to eye with him, that he seemed fairly intoxicated. Almost as if he was drunk. That was the last thing that I remembered. He punched me solidly in the jaw, and I took a fall, and hit my head against a jeep.
"I must have lay there in the rain and mud for hours afterwards. I was very lucky that I wasn't killed right there and then. I believe that Jesus was watching over me that day. When I came to, I was in a reasonably comfortable bed. I had a terriable cold, a nasty concusion, a cracked jaw. I was constantly under the watchful eye of a woman named Martha. She was a German girl, probably a year or two younger than I was. The reason her and her family was here was that they opposed Hitler.
"When I became coherent about a week after the whole incident with the German officer, she told me that her father had dragged me in, and was doing everything that he could to help me. I found the fact that she spoke english to be very comforting."
"Hey Jack," said Jenna as she sat down in a chair right beside him.
"Hey," he replied looking up from the letter.
"The Doc says he should be okay now, but wants to keep him overnight. He also said that showers do NOT sober people up."
"I see. I guess you'll have to remember that the next time you find Dan lying, drunk on your floor."
"Uh huh... Well, I'm counting on it never happening again."
"Oh really, why's that."
"Once he's sobered up more, I'm going to break off our realationship. Anyway, what's that you're reading there?" Jenna asked, trying to change the subject.
"Oh, it's just a lengthly letter from my grandfather. He wrote it a few years before he died."
"I see... How's it coming?"
"Fine. Just fine. Well," Jack said, returning the letter to his pack. "do you want to head back to your place?"
"No. Lets go get some breakfast. Does McDonalds sound fine to you?"
"Sure."
AN: I think that this chapter is way overdue. Sorry that it took so long (almost a year). Anyway, if you want another chapter, and I'm not delivering, give me a review or something to get me motivated. I will have a fairly busy summer, but I will try to work on this story more. Anyway, please read and review. Constructive critisism is always welcome, as well as other comments and words of encouragement.