Two

Jack woke to the creaking sounds of the shed door opening.  He sat up, feeling groggy from his nap, and beamed a big welcoming smile at his mother who stood in the door-way with a tray of food.

Mrs Jacobs, a gentle caring woman, aged beyond her forty-three years placed the tray of food on the top of the draws and sat next to her son on the bed.  She pulled her son into her bosom and cradled him like she did most evenings, she placed a kiss on the top of his head as he hugged her back.  A single tear trickled from her eye onto her cheek, before her son noticed, she brushed it away.  She had to be strong for Jack.  But it was hard, hard to see her son having to live his young life like this.  And nobody in the whole world so far, could help them.   But Mr and Mrs Jacobs were not giving up.  For the last five years they had searched up and down the country for a solution to their problem.  It was hard work, made more difficult by the fact that they could only do it at night, when Ellie-May was tucked up tight in bed.  She thought they were getting close now, a new acquaintance, Doctor Bob, had given Mrs Jacobs a new hope, a faith that soon, her family could once again be happy.

“Jack I have fetched your favourite meal,” she said gently stroking her sons head.  Jack knew already as the smell of fried chicken and chips drifted up his nostrils and it made his stomach growl. He sat up, not wanting to let go of his mum but equally wanting the food, and kissed her on the cheek.

“Thank you” he replied. 

“Do you want me to set it out on the garden for you? It’s still warm outside.”

“Yes please.  Can you stay for a while?” The young boy crossed his fingers behind his back.

“I can " your father has taken your sister out so we have a good hour before they get back.”   Jack jumped at his mum, nearly knocking the tray out of her hands and gave her a big squeeze.  Jack was grateful and appreciative for the small things that made his life so much better and his blue eyes sparkled at this good news.  He followed his mother out to the garden and she set out his meal of fried chicken and chips on the makeshift table.  She also added a glass of pop " a very rare treat " and a bowl of strawberries and cream.

  Jack finished his meal and moved to sit next to his mother on the lawn, the night had darkened and Jack knew he only had his Mother for a little while longer.  Then he remembered the drawing he had done for her.  He jumped up and went to his shed.  There on his bookshelf, among some other drawings he had not yet added to the box under his bed, was the one he was looking for.

“Mum,” he said heading back to sit next to his mother.

“I had a dream last night and when I woke up I had to draw this picture,” he pushed the drawing into his mother’s hands.

“I dreamed that you, Dad, Ellie-May and I were at the fairground and Ellie-May and I had played together all day. We were holding hands and eating ice-cream, laughing together at you and Dad being scared on the ghost train”.  He chuckled, remembering how in his dream he and his sister had taunted their parents for showing fear on the ghost train.  After all, everybody knows that ghosts aren’t real.  His mother opened the picture and gasped at how happy her family looked in Jack’s picture.  The detail Jack had drawn made her feel proud, there was a big wheel in the background with carriages coloured in alternating red, yellow and green. He’d drawn a clear blue sky with a yellow sun.  But right there in the front Jack had detailed Mr and Mrs Jacobs happily walking away from the fairground with their two children skipping in front, holding hands and laughing. 

“When I woke, for a moment I thought it was real”.  His mother, sensing the deep sadness in her son’s voice, put an arm around his shoulder.

“One day Jack, one day, I promise you it will be real,” she offered him a smile as she folded the picture in half and put it in her pocket. 

“I will pin this next to my bed,” she whispered to her son giving him a final hug before clearing away the plates and saying goodnight.

Jack didn’t feel too sad when his mother left.  In fact, he felt quite happy.  His mother always made him feel special and tonight, after eating his favourite meal, he felt extra special. Jack had no electricity in his shed and his main source of light at night came from candles. Sometimes, if the sky was clear, and the moon was in the right place, he did benefit from a little moonshine, but most nights the darkness from the forest blocked any light from the moon. Jack lit a candle and placed it on the top of his draws, the glow from candle broke the darkness from the night sky and he picked up a book and started to read as he waited for his friend to arrive.  A friend who kept him company through the lonely nights and who made him feel safe whilst he slept.

The next morning Jack woke as the sun rose.  He woke with a feeling of unease.  He didn’t know why he felt uneasy and knew of no reason why he should.  He considered for a moment that if he stayed in bed all day than perhaps the feeling would go away.

Jack got out of bed and dressed; he decided he would go about his daily routine and try to forget about the uneasy feeling that was in his tummy.  It was very early and Jack knew this because it was the beginning of summer, the longest day having just passed, and as Jack always woke when the sun rose, he guessed it was about six o’clock.  Jack’s companion was gone. He didn’t expect him to be there because for the five years his friend had been coming, he never once woke to see his friend still there in the morning.

The feeling he had would not leave him no matter how hard he tried to push it away and even though he knew that his family would still be sleeping he took a very slow walk up to the back door of the house and sat on the step.  He was waiting for his sister to open her bed-room window and call him like she did every morning and when Jack heard her call he would hurry up to the house and prepare her breakfast before she went to school.  Jack hoped that being close to his family would help him feel better, but it didn’t. 

***

Ellie-May Jacobs woke from her sleep.  She’d been dreaming that she was in a beauty contest, she was wearing a pink satin dress with white satin gloves, her hair was tied back into a bun and her eyes shone blue, she was even wearing a little bit of make-up and she was just about to be crowned the winner - when she woke.    At first she was annoyed that she had woken right before being crowned but then it hit her " a feeling she’d had before " some-thing was wrong with Jack. 

When Jack got ill Ellie-May felt it.  Like the time Jack had a strange fever, she had woken, just like this morning, and she had known instantly something was wrong.  She had run all the way down to the bottom of the garden and when she got there, feeling a little afraid, she’d found Jack lying in bed looking very pale.  He was coughing and spluttering and beads of sweat dripped down his face but he shivered, she’d called his name and Jack had looked at her but did not know who she was.  She’d stood right there at the bottom of the garden and screamed.  The scream was different to her usual scream, the scream that caused the birds to leave their nests, neighbours woke, and the windows of nearby houses rattled, but this time the scream was a plea, a call for help.  Her parents had ran to the bottom of the garden, surprised to find their daughter raising the alarm for the brother she seemed to despise.

  Ellie-May did not protest when they took Jack to the house and she even insisted they call the doctor right away.  For the first time, since Jack had been banished, the Jacobs lived together in the family home. Whilst the fever was at its worst, Jack was bedridden and when Ellie-May wasn’t at school she would sit by Jacks bedside reading him stories. She told him that if he got better he could play with her in the Wendy house and that he could build a sandcastle in her sandpit.  She even promised him that when he was better they would go to the pet store and choose a dog together a Yorkshire terrier. She said they would call the dog Misty and that their parents would take them and Misty to the seaside where they would run on the beach together and if it was warm enough, they could paddle in the sea. When Jack was well enough to leave his bed, he ate his meals at the table with Ellie-May and they watched T.V. together.  It didn’t last " six-weeks to the day, the sparkle returned to Jack’s eyes and Ellie-May politely suggested that Jack should return to his shed.

This time though, Ellie-May didn’t have the instinctive urge to run to the bottom of the garden; this time Ellie-May got out of bed and peered out of her bedroom window. Ellie-May was surprised to see Jack sat at the back door waiting for her to let him in and with a sigh of relief Ellie-May ignored the nagging feeling in her stomach.

This morning, like every morning, Ellie-May brushed her teeth and washed her face before dressing in her school uniform.  Ellie-May then went downstairs and opened the back door to let her brother in and gave him strict instructions on what to make her for breakfast.  She ordered two eggs - scrambled, one slice of toast, to be toasted just so slightly and buttered with the finest of Danish butters and she demanded a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice, using only the good oranges and more importantly no bits were to be left in the juice.

Jack followed his sister’s orders and provided her with the breakfast she had asked for.  Jack knew should he make a mistake and not scramble her eggs just the way she liked them then the price to pay would be horrific.  Not just for Jack, but his parents and anybody on his street, and anybody on the streets immediately next to his street.  And, should some poor person happen to be passing down one of these streets, then they would also feel the force of Ellie-May’s dissatisfaction.  The birds however, they would sense this just in time and scarper.  But, any budgie stuck in cage would suffer and it has been known that when Ellie-May has had one of her outbursts, the head of an unsuspecting budgie had exploded right off.

So perfection it was.  Not that he ever intended to provide anything less.  Jack understood; he knew that none of this was his sister’s fault.  He didn’t know why he knew this, he just did.  He sometimes wondered if he could do what his sister could do, would he be tempted to take advantage.  He didn’t know the answer to this, nor would he ever know, but for now Jack felt that by keeping his sister happy, he was helping to keep his sister and his parents safe. 

After Ellie-May ate her breakfast she gave her brother a piece of paper where she had written on it a list of chores he must do for her whilst she was at school. She gave him strict instructions, like she did every morning, not to go into her bedroom, or play with her toys, or go into his own bedroom where all his toys were kept or watch the T.V. because if he did, she would know. 

That morning, like every morning, just before Ellie-May left for school, she poured Simple brand cornflakes into a dish and added some milk, she poured some concentrated orange juice into a glass and then gave them to Jack for his breakfast.  That morning, not at all like any other morning, before Ellie-May left for school, she gave her brother a big hug and told him to be careful as she had a funny feeling in her tummy. 

Author's Note

Hi - how have you found chapter two? How have the characters developed for you?