My Son, Jack
Mischief had come once again in the orphanage where Jack was and had stayed since he was little. Children had chased Jack around the room and while Jack was running he accidentally ran into a stand that held an expensive vase. The impact knocked the vase up into the air and as Jack scuttled around to catch the vase, the vase fell an inch short from his hands and as the vase crashed into the ground, his heart sank.
The woman who ran the orphanage heard the crash and angrily got up her chair, "I swear, if Jack broke my precious vase, so help me I'm gonna kill him!" The lady was a cruel woman with a heart made of nothing but stone. She stomped into the room and when she saw Jack standing as the foot of her broken vase, she lost her temper, "JACK! How dare you break my precious vase?!" The lady picked Jack up from what seemed to be the collar of his shirt. Jack's eyes were wide with fear as tears slipped down his cheeks, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to break your vase. Honest!" Almost out of nowhere there was a sound of boxes cluttering to the ground and a voice that boomed loud throughout the room, "What is going on here?!"
In the sudden loud voice the lady dropped Jack to the ground and swiftly turned around to see who it was. It was a man with dropped boxes at his feet. He wore a formal white military uniform with several medals pinned into the jacket. He had black hair that was barely visible because of the hat that matched his uniform, placed upon his head. When Jack hit the ground he sprang up, ran to the man in uniform and wrapped his arms around him, "Please, sir! Help me." The man looked at Jack with slight surprise then looks up at the manager or the orphanage with an angry look in his eyes, "What were you going to do to this child?" The woman took a step back and stuttered like a crazy person, "I… uh… I w-was…" "Answer me!" "I was-" One of the other orphans shouted out before the lady could lie, "She was gonna kill 'im!" "You what?!" "It was just… um… He broke a vase that was… very important to me." "And you think a stupid worthless vase is worth killing an innocent child over! I don't think so!" The lady stomped over to the man that was a lot taller than her and yelled, "That vase was priceless!" "And A Child's Life Isn't?!" The lady ripped Jack away from the soldier by his hair, "This boy isn't worth even a penny!"
As the soldier saw the boy get pulled away from him and bit his lip trying not to yelp from the pain, his eyes widened with fury inside them, "You take your hands off that boy NOW! That child will be worth more than you any day of your filthy life!" His comrades behind him jumped a little when they heard their higher up raise his voice. The lady filled with anger, "You want me to let go of him?! Okay!" The lady threw Jack to the ground. When Jack hit the ground the high ranked officer went to his side and picked him up. Jack slung his arms around the man's neck and cried into his shoulder. The man looked at his comrades, "Boys take care of her because if you don't then I will have to deal with her and you don't want to see what happens what a monster like her crosses my path." The other soldiers nodded and walked over to the lady.
Jack clings to the man and sobs his little heart out. The man sighs and lifts the distressed child into his arms. He and the other soldiers were at the orphanage to visit the children for the holidays, bringing them presents. Instead, they walked in on the poor boy being yelled at. A young woman, a volunteer at the orphanage in her early 20's, came rushing in at the commotion. "Is everything alright?!" She sees the broken vase and the snickering children who were sneaking glances at Jack. The woman looks over and sees the boy in one of the soldier's arms, crying into his shoulder. "Oh Jack…" She walks over to them hesitantly. The man did not look happy. He practically growled when she came closer. "Are you here to abuse him too?" The woman shook her head rapidly. "No, no! I am nothing like that wretched hag and honestly I've been trying to get her arrested for a long time…" Jack looks up at the sound of her voice and sniffles. "Ms. Rose..?" Rose smiles at him and pats his head. "Everything is okay now, Jack. That lady won't harm you ever again. So, why don't you tell me about your new friend here?" Jack looks up at the soldier and tilts his head. "What is your name?" The man chuckles. "My name is Aster." Jack smiles and looks over at Rose. "Aster!"
After a lot of struggles the soldiers who were attending to the crude lady finally got her tied down on a chair and called the cops. Since the orphanage was not too close to the police station the police ended up taking about an hour to get there and another hour to one get her to move and two to actually get her into the car. Once the lady was gone, Jack felt safe and wanted to go play with his friends. Aster gently put him on the ground and Jack ran to the friends he had. Aster watched Jack smile and play with his friends. Aster smiled, "Looks like he's been through quite a bit." "Yes. He has been through probably more than any other kid in this orphanage." "What do you mean?" "Well, Jack was dropped off here when he was five. When he first got here the children weren't all too kind to him except for the friends that he has now. His parents left him here because they didn't want him to be in a hostile environment." "What kind of hostile environment?" "Well his parents weren't on the best of terms with each other. In fact not too long after they dropped him off here they ended up getting a divorce." "Oh, I see." "Anyways, even with the friends he has the head lady was the meanest to Jack. Since Jack was given to us he never really had a parent or adult influence and we figured out he had separation anxiety because one of his friends got adopted and Jack didn't want him to leave. When the kid left Jack felt alone. He actually acts younger than his age because he doesn't know better." "The poor kid. He deserves better than this." Aster looked at the presents for the children and remembered one of them had a teddy bear and thought it would be perfect for Jack. He smiled, picked up the box, and looked at Ms. Rose, "I think it's about time we started what we came here to do." Aster and Ms. Rose got to their feet. Ms. Rose nodded and called to the children, "Children! We have a special surprise for you!" The children looked up with happy faces. One of Aster's companions took a box from their big stack of boxes and walked over to a child. It was a small little girl. The man squatted down to the little girl's level and smiled, "I have a very special gift that needs an owner." The girl's face brightened. "Would you be happy if the owner of this gift was you?" The girl nodded and the soldier handed the gift to the small child. She opened it and took out a doll. She clutched the doll to her chest with one arm and hugged the soldier with the other.
Once all of the gifts were given out all of the children had a present except for Jack. Jack looked around and saw all of the presents that everyone had and looked down, sad. Just when Jack thought the soldiers including Aster were leaving one of them walk up to him. It was Aster and he had one arm behind his back. "Hey Jack." "Hi Aster." "What's wrong?" "Well I'm not trying to sound jealous or spoiled but everyone got a present except me." Aster looked up and put a hand on his chin looking like he was thinking, "Aha! I knew I was forgetting something." He looked down at Jack and smiled, "I have something very special for you." Jack's face tuned from sad to happy. Aster brought out a box from behind his back. He handed it to Jack and when Jack opened the box he smiled, "It's a teddy bear!" He hugged the bear tightly. Aster sat down in a chair and smiled, "That bear was mine when I was your age." "Really?" "Yes. I thought it would be a worthy gift. Would you like a part two to your gift?" Jack's eyes widened, "Yeah!" "How would you like to come live with me?"
Jack looks at Aster with wide eyes and drops the teddy bear in shock. "Really?" Aster chuckles and winks. "Really, really." Jack couldn't contain the overwhelming happiness and tackles Aster, knocking him over onto his back. "Thank you, thank you, thank you! This is the best Christmas present ever!" The boy snuggles against Aster's chest. Aster laughs and sits up, his arms wrapped around the child. "Alright ya little ankle biter, calm down." The other soldiers look at Aster with amazement. He adored children, but was never one to get attached to them, or to anyone for that matter, but who were they to judge him? Rose smiles at the loving scene. "Jack, why don't you get your things so Aster and I can talk?" Jack jumps up and runs out of the room and up the stairs. "I have a daddy!" His shout could be heard through the whole building. Aster freezes when he hears those words. Dad….
Rose walks up to Aster and laughs, "You okay there big daddy?" "I'm not sure I can do this." "You'll be fine. I know you can do it. If you can please give Jack a better life than he has had here. He deserves better." Aster smiles, "I will."
Rose smiles back and helps him up. "Good, but like I said, Jack tends to act younger than he is. He will throw horrible tantrums if he doesn't get something he really wants, he'll sneak in next to you during the night if he's had a nightmare, and other things that you wouldn't expect from a ten year old." Aster nods and pats the dust off his uniform. "I think I can handle it." The sound of pounding feet made its way back into the room and the owner attaches himself to Aster's legs. Aster chuckles and ruffles Jack's hair. "Ready to go?" Jack nods excitedly. "Yeah!" Rose giggles and looks at Aster. "Don't worry about the paperwork right now; you can wait until after Christmas. Just be sure to call every day to give me updates, okay?" Aster nods and takes Jack's small hand into his larger one. "I will, I promise." He smiles reassuringly.
Aster, Jack and the other soldiers got into the car. Aster focused on the road while Jack conversed with the other soldiers, "So what all is Aster like? What's his story?" The soldiers looked at each other and smiled, "Well, Aster is a nice, good guy when you get to know him. He may look all mean and scary-" Aster heard them and said, "Hey! Am I really mean and scary?" The soldiers laughed and one of them said, "Well you did yell down a lady today." "So she deserved it!" After a couple seconds of silence they all laughed. Getting back to the original subject once the laughing quieted down one of the soldiers continued, "First things first, Aster is actually form Australia." Jack was surprised, "Really?!" "Yup and he's been in enough battles too. He was the best guy in our regime. Whenever he saw a wounded soldier he would put his own life at risk to go help them. He cared about everyone except for the people causing the trouble. When he saw children who were alive he would always find them a safe place to hide and save their lives… If he saw even one dead child you could tell he was upset about it because he would rather be really angry or you could see the sadness on his face." Aster's voice was low, "Could you please stop talking about it? I don't really want to think about it at the moment."
The other soldier frowns. "Sorry, sir." Jack looks at the soldier then at Aster. He could see the sadness on the man's face. His bright, green eyes were dull and his mouth was set in a frown. Jack stares down at his feet guiltily because he was the one who asked about Aster's story. He tears up and wipes his eyes frantically. Unfortunately, some tears escape and slide down his face silently. A small whimper sounds through the silent vehicle. Aster looks up through the rear view and his frown deepens. "Jack…don't cry, mate…" Jack sobs and rubs his eyes again. "I-I'm sorry, Aster…I w-was just c-curious! I-I didn't mean to u-upset you…" Aster keeps his eyes on the road and continues to try and calm Jack down. "I know, Jack. It's alright. You don't need to cry over me." He shoots the boy a small smile.
"It's j-just it's my fault you're sad…" Jack said wiping his eyes. Aster chuckled a little bit, "It's going to be alright Jack. That was in the past. You can't help being curious. Children are known for their curiosity and I'm alright with that. Don't beat yourself up about it kiddo." Jack wiped his eyes, "Okay." A smile came back to Jack's face. Aster smiled, "Atta Boy!"
After the other soldiers were dropped off at their respective homes, Aster finally made it to his own house. It was small two-story house, but very cozy. Jack looks out at the window in tired fascination. "This is where you live?" Aster smiles and nods. "Yep, but it's also where you live." Jack smiles and yawns, fighting to stay awake. Aster chuckles and picks him up to carry him inside. He walks up the stairs to the guest room and lays Jack down. "I think someone needs some sleep, yeah?" Aster ruffles the boy's hair gently. Jack sighs and closes his eyes. Aster stands up to leave but a small hand shoots out and clutches his sleeve. "Don't leave me…" Jack whimpers, hazel eyes tearing up again for the third time that day. "Don't worry, you're safe here." Aster removes the boy's hand, but Jack just latches back on. He sighs and sits back down, noticing his guitar case under the bed. He had forgotten that it was there. Aster pulls it out and takes the guitar out, quickly tuning it. "How about I play ya something? Your full name is Jack Frost, isn't it?" Jack looks at him with curiosity and nods. Aster smiles. "Well then. You're going to love this." He starts to play softly, then after a few seconds, he began to sing. His voice was low and soothing.
"Here is a tale of the trees in a wood
They were never that pleased on the land that they stood.
So they upped and they walked as far as they could
'Till they felt the sun shine on their branches.
I was little boy lost, and I was little boy blue
I am little Jack Frost but I am warm through and through
It's not easy to hide when your heart's on full view
Oh, tonight, cruel world be forgiving
Oh, for once in my life I am living.
There they did stand and there they did stay
When there came a young boy who was running away
From a mad world, a bad world, a world of decay
And its comfort he sought in their branches
I was little boy lost, and I was little boy blue
I am little Jack Frost and but I am warm through and through
It's not easy to hide when your heart's on full view
Oh, tonight, cruel world be forgiving
Oh, for once in my life I am living.
There we found love and there we found joy
And the warmth in his heart oh, it filled the young boy
And his friends taught him magic and secrets of old
While the trees kept him safe with their branches.
I was little boy lost, and I was little boy blue
I am little Jack Frost but I am warm through and through
It's not easy to hide when your heart's on full view
Oh, tonight cruel world be forgiven
I was little boy lost, and I was little boy blue
I'm little Jack Frost but I am warm through and through
It's not easy to hide when your heart's on full view
Oh, tonight, cruel world be forgiving
Oh, for once in my life I am living."
After Aster sang Jack the lullaby, he looked at Jack. Jack was fast asleep. Aster smiled, put his guitar away and kissed Jack lightly on the forehead, "Good night, son."
A few weeks went by and all the paperwork for the adoption was done. Jack now legally belonged to Aster. They got along well, like they had been father and son their whole lives. There were a few bumps along the road, but they overcame them. Jack was now getting into the swing of being a ten year old. He was happy and healthy and even made friends with the neighborhood kids, Toothiana and Sandy. They were the only kids Jack's age. Jack was even enrolled in the elementary school and boy, was he excited. He was bouncing off the walls on his first day.
Before Aster knew it, seven years flew by. Jack was now seventeen and had grown up considerably. The teen still had that playful, childish streak and would pull little stunts every once in a while on an unsuspecting Aster. Aster knew that Jack would always be a kid at heart, no matter how old he gets. He would even tease the boy about his love interests and laugh at the protests of 'Tooth and I are not going out!' Aster knew that his time with Jack was slowly coming to an end, and he wanted to make every second with his son count. Because before he knew it, Jack would be off to college. But for now, Aster will keep the boy as close as possible, until it was time to let him go.
Here is a companion chapter to Bullies Can't be Pardoned! We hope you enjoy!
Also, if you're wondering what the song is, it's called Little Jack Frost by Kate Rusby.
It fits Jack sooooo well! If someone makes a video of Jack with this song, they will get cookies...a lot of cookies! And hugs!