Pillars, Chapter 2

The title is weird, I know. It's a reference to being a Pillar of the Community.

The witches couldn't believe their eyes when the young lady walked straight up to them asking where Jack lived. Something about her didn't quite add up. She was dressed like an escort, but she was obviously one of Finklestien's monsters, and he never put that much effort into how one of his monsters looked. She called the Pumpkin King by his first name, but she was obviously very young and shouldn't be so familiar with him. She was quiet, polite, respectful, but she obviously had no sense of royalty because she walked straight up to the front door of the Skellington mansion and banged on it with her first calling "Jaaack! JAAAACK! I need your help with something!"

To add to their confusion, Jack answered the door straight away and welcomed her in with open arms.

One witch said to the other, "They've found each other" and the other witch said, "I agree", but they didn't quite remember which one said what first.

"Oh Sally, your dress..." It hugged her curves, accented her hips, added a little weight to her with its horizontal stripes, dulled her nature color with its bland black-and-white palette-

Sally scowled. "I hate it."

Jack nodded. "I agree."

"I want to fix it."

"Fix it- fix it?" Jack stuttered. "How?"

Sally fidgeted- scratch that, she was trying to walk in that too-tight abomination towards the stairs. "You have a mother, so you must have a sewing machine. I'm going to let the seams out a little."

Jack walked directly behind her, unconsciously following her back with his hands to keep her from falling. "It could use a little color, too," he stated. Someone such a cute shade of blue should have a little more variety in their palette. Jack was simply doomed to always look stunning in black and white, but Sally needed every bit of color Jack could throw at her. "A nice purple, maybe."

Sally stopped just before the stairs. "Your ramp is broken."

The house shook with laughter.

As much as Jack wanted to help more, Sally had stripped nearly-naked to work on her dress, and he didn't want anybody to see the both of them through his mother's window and make assumptions. He resigned himself to sitting on the other side of the craft room door, looking through a basket of about-to-be-thrown-away clothes that his mother no longer cared for and picking out the ones-

"I need a red."

- that Sally asked him for. He slipped a red-and-pink striped sarong through the crack in the door. "Will this do?"

"Yes."

All of the commands had been short, clipped, but not rude. Sally was in The Zone. Jack understood very well. He settled onto his hips, seating the box between his legs and sorting the clothes into the primary colors.

"The Doctor is strange."

Jack jumped. It was the first thing Sally had said since she started that wasn't a request for a color. It was quiet... soft. Shy. "Howso?"

"He keeps asking me to stay in his lab and talk to him." Jack placed his "ear" to the door. Sally was just barely speaking over the motor of the machine. "Then he gets mad if I ask him questions... Jack?"

"Yes, Sally."

"Am I stupid?"

She had to ask the hard questions. Even as Jack struggled for just the right answered, he spoke. "No no no, Sally, not at all. You are in no way stupid. Stupid..." He wrung his knuckles. "... implies an inability to learn. No, you, Sally, are 'uneducated', which is understandable. You are only three days old."

Sally responded a bit louder, the shy tone chased away and replaced by curiousity. Jack rejoiced in his mind; he half-expected Sally to bite his head off for a statement like that. How little he knew of this woman! How wonderful! What a mystery to be solved! "How do I get educated?"

"You read books."

"I don't have time to read..." answered Sally. "I spend all day either cooking or cleaning or-"

"Or listening to The Doctor and stroking his ego, how nice of him. Sally!" Jack was struck with such a wonderful idea that his hands flew up from the laundry basket, launching one of his mother's girdle laces directly into his eye socket. "Ow!"

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. It's all fine." Slowly he worked the lace out of his eye socket, crimeny that hurt, and quickly he said, "Sally, when you are done with your alterations, I am going to come to your house and cook YOU dinner. How does that sound?"

"And The Doctor!"

Jack rolled his eyes. "Yes, for The Doctor, too."

"That sounds perfect! I'm done right now!"

"O- oh! Um-"

There were petticoats in the door jamb. There were slips on the steps. There was a bustle on the banister. "I might... need to clean a little, first. Before we leave."

The door opened behind him, and Jack fell backwards. He landed at Sally's feet, looking up at his little patchwork angel, decked in mismatched colors and heavy stitches, her legs free to wiggle and wobble as much as they needed to, her chest covered and hanging naturally.

Sally pumped her fist in victory. "I can help." It wasn't an offer. It was a declaration.

"Sally! When is di-" Doctor Finklestien stopped the second the plate hit the counter, and he stared for a moment. "... what is this?"

"It's a sandwich!" Sally chirped. "Jack made it!"

Said Pumpkin Prince practically danced by the doorway carrying a cauldron. He crooned in a happy sing-song voice. "I'm making pumpkin pie next!"

"... ... indeed." Finklestien gave his creation a hard look. "... ... ... and the dress?"

"I tried to alter it." Sally shrugged. She hadn't tried too hard, but she had tried. "But I messed it up, so I threw it away and made a new one!"

Jack pranced back by the other way, with a cauldron full of pumpkin, still singing. "She did a great job!"

"I did do a great job!" Sally countered. "So as a reward, Jack made dinner today-"

"And desseeeert!"

"So I could stay upstairs and read some books!" Sally clapped her hands together. "I learned Jack was a prince today! Why didn't anyone tell me?"

"... ... ..." Finklestien simply turned back to the microscope.

This was going to be a long year.