As my mother begins to loosen her grip and turns to leave, sighing deeply, I begun to think about the next time I remember meeting the old man, when I was eight, by then my parents had decided I was allowed to wander town not that I ever saw father much after Grandpa Sai had died, a privilege granted to most children at seven in Mineral Town. I wondered around town with the Doctor and Rick's children, Alistair and James. We spent most of the time hackling Cliff and Ann at the Inn ("Oh no! Not you three pests! Go away!") They never really meant it seriously.) Or playing with the chickens at Miss Popuri's chickens at the chicken farm, we enjoyed those moments because they were few and far between, unfortunately Popuri suffered from the same illness as her mother Lillia, who had died some years before and as a result she was constantly in the clinic complaints of various pains and ills, I felt sorry for her, and her brother Rick but there wasn't much that could be done, there was still no cure, and the only thing that Doctor Grant could do was prescribe more and more painkillers, every time increasing the dosage so she could live on borrowed time. Since she knew she had the illness she married early, to Kai and had him settle down in Mineral Village so they could spend as much time together before the end.

Sometimes Alistair and James would go off to 'Uncle Jack's' I never asked why I couldn't go with, because I was always needed at home that day usually so I could reorganise the library with Mother, she had recently taken to expanding the library in size and increasing content. I remember her toying with the idea of letting people borrow the books for a while, but I think in the end she gave up on it, I'm not sure even to this day. One autumn morning I decided to ask Alistair and James who the heck 'Uncle Jack' was. I think they called him that because it was easier to remember who he was.

"Oh come on George! You know who Uncle Jack is!" piped up Alistair "Yeah, he's the guy that runs the Old Summer Farm, you know the guy in blue overalls" said James. "Oh cool!" I exclaimed my memories of him flooding back, "Hey can I visit with you guys sometime?" The both looked at each other then just smiled at me. "Sure we were thinking of going along today anyway," said Alistair "It shouldn't be a problem."

How wrong he was.

We made our way down to the Old Summer farm, where Uncle Jack greeted us friendly, even me. I don't think he recognised me at all, I'd grew from looking like a little cute five year old into a male version of my mother, with my fathers piercing blue eyes and dark hair like my mothers, except I kept my hair short rather than let it grow, I didn't want to look like a carbon copy of mother. I also inherited my father's uncaring, sarcastic nature.

"Uncle Jack, this is George, he lives just down the road from me," said Alistair taking charge of the situation as always. He takes that from his father, Grant (the doctor) who was always the thinker. "He wanted to come along with us today. Can he?" Jack looked down at me; he hadn't changed much at all in the past three years, just that his hair had more grey through it. I noticed that Koro had changed a lot, he was bigger than before, he must have been a puppy when I first seen him, he just wagged his tail happily He was also now wearing a red bandanna round his neck, this caught my interest. I asked Jack why that was.

"Uncle Jack why does that dog wear that on him?" I asked pointing to the bandanna. "Why? Family tradition, when I first came here after my grandfather had died I took over the farm and in all the mess I found a puppy. I just knew he was my grandfathers because he was wearing that red bandanna, at first he was my only friend, but that's another story" said Jack "Now who wants to help feed the cows?" "I do I do!" we all chanted, and so we did. I spent the whole day having the greatest fun playing with Koro, while Jack worked. I had great fun, Koro knew all the tricks like Play dead, roll over, fetch all that sorta crap. It wasn't until it grew dark that the trouble started.

I had stayed out beyond my 4pm curfew so my father came looking for me. When he figured out where I was, he must have been furious. I can remember him marching into the farms grounds, looking around wildly with contempt and disgust; he clearly didn't like something about the place or rather someone. He soon spotted me, and called over to me, when I didn't respond he marched up right behind me.

"George it's time to go home!" Said father.

"I don't wanna go, I wanna stay and play at Uncle Jack's!" I wailed.

That did it, as soon as the phrase 'Uncle Jack' came from my mouth, I knew I had said the wrong thing. Fathers face turned from its normal pale shade to a vibrant purple, he was fuming, and he turned round towards the fields and opened his mouth. But instead of his normal shouting voice there came a thunderous roar, which echoed across the farm.

"JACK WILKINSON!! GET YOUR SORRY ASS OVER HERE NOW!!!" bellowed Father.

A quiet voice answered him.

"Gray Thomson, the one man on earth that I hate to the core. The last time we met here didn't I tell you to get the hell out of my farm and never return?" said Jack who had an expression of extreme loathing at the site of my father, before he continued speaking to my father he turned to face Alistair and James.

"James, Alistair, George it's time for you to go home." Jack said calmly

"George is my son" interrupted my father his voice distorted with rage.

"Aw.. but Uncle Jack..." both James and Alistair groaned.

"I mean it, time to go lads." continued Jack ignoring father's statement. It wasn't until both James and Alistair had left the farm did Jack speak to my father.

"I wasn't aware that he was your son, had I known that I would have kept him away from my farm." Said Jack coldly to father.

"You told him to call you Uncle Jack! How dare you tell him to do such a thing I will not stand for it!" said father his eyes popping, his voice a cacophony of disgust it was pathetic to see.

"I didn't ask or tell him to call me that, he must have picked that up from the other children, but-"

"RUBBISH!!!!" thundered father.

Jack sighed.
"I knew it. As usual you wouldn't believe me Gray, so this is goodbye. Now get the hell off my property and take your son with you, before I have you done for trespassing. Go on get out, before I make you," said Jack stressing the you in 'I make you'

My father stopped his arguing at that point, I didn't understand why at the time, but the way he had said that upset my father who suddenly look scared, as if jack was going to kill him if he stayed any longer. Father ended the conversation, with his trademark sneer.

"I thought you'd never asked" said Father scathingly. "George get moving, we're leaving."

Jack folded his arms and waited for us to leave. We left Father didn't speak until we were home and when he did I didn't want to hear it. I was banned from going near that old bastards farm ever again and if I did, I would be grounded for life. With the fear of being grounded for life I didn't want to cross with my father so I stayed put for a good couple of years.

I didn't go near the farm again until I was twelve. I didn't understand then why my father and Jack hated each other; I probably wouldn't have understood either. It wasn't until I grew up a bit more that I would understand why, why the hated each so much.

There we are Chapter two is up, so Gray and Jack hate each other, and George flared that hatred up by accident. Thank you for taking your time to read this. Please give me your comments on what you think was good and what could be improved. Many thanks.