Chapter Ten Starts NOW
Frank hit Jess in the head with his hardback copy of Hemmingway's The Sun Also Rises. Frank loved the book to death, and had caught 11 year old Jess looking at the cover on Frank's bedside table one morning in the tiny apartment. He hit him again, a little harder, and Jess saw stars.
But then, a laugh. Uncontrollable and joyous burst from Jess's mouth.
"You think this is funny? Huh?" Jess laughed harder, the response in that laughter being, yes, he thought it was funny. Another smack, rapidly followed by another.
That one hurt! Jess hit the floor with his knees, still laughing. He was dizzy, and couldn't breath from the chuckling that had overtaken him. He grinned up at Frank as his head hit the floor. Frank stared sourly at the boy before kicking him once in the gut. He tossed the hard back across the room. It hit the wall and sank slowly to the ground. Frank grabbed his duffel bag and left.
Jess couldn't see for a good five minutes, but he could hear. His mother was arguing with Frank- urging him to stay. Frank refused. A door slammed. Jess laughed lightly. Just as his vision cleared, a glass beer bottle came flying at his head. It missed and smashed into the wall a few feet away, shattering.
"Read anything good lately, Jess?" She snarled. She kicked weakly at him, tears streaming down her face. "I hate you." She left. Jess laughed.
He sobered up after a while, and slowly crawled across the floor. He stared at the book. It reeked of alcohol and cigars. He picked it up with a strange gentleness. He hardly read anything. Just what they made him read in school, which wasn't much.
Jess took the book back to his room. It was early in the morning, and Mark was pretending to be asleep on the bed across from his. Jess knew full well that Mark had heard the entire incident, even if Mark was just going to act surprised when Liz would drunkenly inform him in an hour that Frank had left, and that it was all Jess's fault. He opened it to the first page.
"Robert Cohn was once a middleweight boxing champion of Princeton. Do not think that I am very much impressed by that as a boxing title, but it meant a lot to Cohn.''
Jess leaned casually against the counter in Luke's diner, reading an old hardback copy of The Sun Also Rises. It reeked of alcohol and cigars.
Mark was having lunch with Lane Kim a few feet away, and they were arguing about the Velvet Underground. Mark had moved out of Philadelphia, and had an apartment with Lane, since the girl was kicked out upon her mother's discovery of her involvement with her rock band. He was currently working at the music shop where Lane had bought her drums.
Luke was flirting with Lorelai at her table about coffee not too far from the other couple.
The door opened and a bell rung. Jess glanced up as Rory Gilmore flew in threw the door.
"Jess! Look at you! You're all better!" She exclaimed, giving him a once over.
Yes, I am.
She grinned. Here he was, standing on his two feet. Whole again.
"I see you're back from Washington." Jess stated casually, slouching a little so his leather jacket moved upward, and raised an eyebrow. She grinned and nodded affirmative. Yes, she was back. He leaned forward and said:
"Read anything good lately?"
End