Thanks to Windows7isthebest for reviewing.
I had a person commenting about me writing a new chapter for Gus. And here it is. I can't promise I'll always write a chapter someone asks for but I already had ideas for this.
It's a bit similar to the first chapter I wrote for Gus but… Well, I guess you'll see the similarities if you read them both.
Gus Carmichael
"Yeah, there you go."
Some people would say Jack and his son, seven year old Gus's favorite thing to do together was a bit strange. But if now was for the fact that they liked it and it was only for them two anyway.
Today, just before the fact that Jack would move to Germany with his work they had gone to the arcade of Newcastle England. And while Jack played the games they had, Gus stood right nearby holding a notebook in one hand and a pencil in the other while he quickly scrabbled down the points his father scored in the notebook.
"How am I doing son?" Jack asked and ruffled in his son's hair once all the games were done. "Did I do any better than what I usually do?"
Gus read from the notebook, something about numbers, earlier scores and percent and Jack laughed quietly to himself. Where on earth that boy had gotten his brains from Jack surely didn't know.
But he still couldn't help but feel sad when he thought about that this was the last time in a long while they got to have a day together or even met.
"Now come on." Jack said so he didn't have to listen much to Gus's number. "Some mac and cheese and bowling to end this day. What would you think about that son?"
It was their tradition after all.
The tradition before Gus had to go back to his mum's house.
Gus only saw his dad on the weekends, most of the time he lived with his mum Lisa. Gus always kind of keep track on all of his things. And some time during a sale he had gotten shirts and pants, shoes and jackets all that looked the same. With it he didn't have to be upset when his things got lost in all of his mum's stuff.
Because Lisa had stuff. And her piles of things took up the whole two- bedroom house. There were piles in the hallway, in the kitchen, in the living room and both of the bedrooms.
Once she had promised Jack she'd try and keep Gus's room clean at least. But that hadn't last long.
Jack had called Lisa an obsessive compulsive hoarder only earlier this day. And Jack would take Gus to come and live with him. It didn't seem like Lisa liked having Gus around much anyway.
She seemed to care a whole lot more about stuff than her own son.
"Mum?"
Jack came right after Gus when they entered the house and cringed even though he must have known what the inside of the house would look like. Gus led him through the hallways in between piles and piles of things but came to an abrupt stop when Gus saw his mother with bags full of stuff.
"Oh great." Jack said ironically while Gus was frozen. "More things."
"You can't do that when I'm out!" Gus said as a matter of fact-ly. "I need to note everything you own in my notebooks. So that we'll always know what we have. That way we can always know what we still need and…"
"Oh please Gus. You don't think I go shopping whenever you're at school or you two are out. Do you really think you have all of these things noted in your stupid notebooks? But I… I got this today." She held up a big shopping bag. "It's a lot of different notebooks instead of those you use that are only boring."
"No…" Gus had started breathing more and more heavily and didn't even react when Jack stroke his back. "…No. I have to know. Now we have to…" Lisa only rolled her eyes at the dark- haired boy and grabbed another plastic bag from a pile. "I got this when you were in school, and I never showed it to you. And I got this…"
"IT'S WRONG. IT'S WRONG."
Gus sunk down on the floor holding his arms over his head and rocking back and forth.
"IT'S WRONG. I HAVE TO NOTE EVERYTHING YOU GET MUM. I HAVE TO NOTE WHEN YOU GET SOMETHING NEW OR EVERYTHING'S CHAOS. IT'S WRONG."
"Oh please Gus. Don't you think I've been bringing things here without you being around or noting it. If I didn't you wouldn't have let me bring a pack of your stupid notebooks even."
If Jack's look could have killed the woman- the mother of his son right there and right then, there wouldn't have been much left of Lisa. He would have said some quite well- chosen words if it wasn't for Gus there, and how was he supposed to say that in front of an eight-year-old?
"Sch. Sch, sch." Jack kept his arms around the young boy. "It's okay. It's okay… We'll get you out of this chaos…"
Even though he wasn't so sure how.
"It's not chaos." Lisa searched for something in a pile. "I have a box somewhere here with all of your notebooks. All the notebooks you used for noting whatever I bought in… But you didn't, you didn't huh? WHOA."
Lisa gave a shout when suddenly the pile moved and fell right on top of her. She fell and the pile buried her in things. Right nearby sat Jack and hugged his son tightly to his chest to cover him from the falling things when they kept coming from all directions.
And then it went way too quiet…
Jack and Gus went quiet too facing the big pile of things where there earlier had been a hallway in between the piles of things. Footballs, skipping ropes and crayons spoke all about how Lisa had wanted Gus to change ever since he was born…
"Lisa?"
"Mum?"
"Lies? Can you hear us?"
She couldn't hear them.
She was unconscious.
Although she was awake and could see them through a window in between a hospital room and a hallway, everything white and smelling of antiseptic and hospital. And with that she watched as Jack, smiling ruffled in Gus's hair and lifted him to sit on one of the plastic chairs and then slowly came into her room.
"Hey."
"Hey… What did the doctor say?"
"Concussion, sprained both wrists, bruised up my whole upper body but nothing's broken… That's good right?"
"Yeah…" Jack didn't sound as if it was. But he did turn his head only and watched Gus where he sat with a notebook on his lap. "Lies… you know he can't live with you anymore, right? The landlord will take your house and then you'll be left homeless… If it was up to me I would just go there, throw a match into all of it and then stand there and watch it all turn into fire."
"No please." Lisa hadn't said a word when Jack mentioned their son. It was something else when Jack mentioned her stuff. "Don't burn it all. I promise that as soon as I get out of here I'll go there and make a real try and sort out the things. I'll sell things and give them away so somebody else can use them. But it's real, nice things. You can't just burn it all."
"You can choose in between your things and him. And if him then I'll sort something out. Because no way will I let my son- our own flesh and blood, stay in a house with you."
"I…"
Tears rose in Lisa's eyes. Jack stood up and sighed deeply. Lisa had shown her answer without any words and he wasn't going to answer that with a long lecture.
"That's it then. Have a good life."
Lisa broke down crying when Jack left the room, but even though she loved her son she just knew she couldn't give all her things up neither. And as she watched Jack lift Gus up "high" in the air with his muscular arms she turned towards the wall. How was she supposed to watch her only child being carried out of her life?
"Isn't mum coming?" Gus asked while he slipped his little hand in his father's big and strong one. "She wasn't so badly hurt was she?"
"Look." Right outside the hospital's revolving doors Jack Carmichael kneeled by his son and tried to figure a way to tell a child what he had to. "You can't live with your mum right now."
"Is it because of all of her things?"
"Yes."
"Is it because of me? Because I couldn't keep notes to sort it all out?"
"No Gus." Jack took Gus's arms in his stern grips. "This isn't your fault. I don't want you to believe that. Never ever. Do you understand that?" Gus waited for a second, then nodded slightly.
He understood!
But how was Jack supposed to explain something more- something of why Gus's whole life was about to crash around him, just like Lisa's things had only earlier this day.
Random fact
I had this document up on my computer for ages. But I still didn't start it for weeks because I kept wanting to write new chapters for "The search for a family" instead.
