Chapter 18
Months had passed. Marc was slouched in front of the television watching Law and Life, a show he secretly enjoyed and watched by himself while Rachel soaked in the bath.Suddenly, he was distracted by an almighty bang.
“What the hell? Jack... is that you?”
‘Could have been something outside; couldn’t have been Rachel, she’d have yelled.’
The house fell silent again, but Marc felt uneasy. He went up to Jack’s room and found what he didn’t expect… nothing. His son wasn’t there.
‘Where’s that kid now?’
“Jack!” he called his name in every room and then ran outside into the yard. Where was he? He began to panic and dashed out into the street, running first one way and then the other. His legs soon tired and he was short of breath; he was seriously unfit but pressed on regardless. He had to find his son.
“Jack!” He looked and sounded desperate and windows and doors opened as he ran past his neighbors’ houses. Everyone could hear him crying out for his son but no one offered a helping hand. Only one showed any concern.
“Is that Marc?” Paula cried out, who lived four doors down from them. “I sure hope everything’s alright…”
But Marc kept running, until he couldn’t run anymore. He had reached the highway, where he looked both ways. His head turned frantically from side to side; there was no sign of Jack anywhere.
‘Shit... oh shit! Where is he?’
* * * * *
“So listen, sonny, just tell me where your mom is and I tell you what, I’ll give you all the candy in the world if you do!”
“I’m not supposed to talk to strangers.”
“No, quite right, you shouldn’t, son, but I’m no stranger to you, you know that by now. At least I shouldn’t be… you see, me and your mom go way, way back. I suppose she hasn’t told you about me and her? Well, let me explain it to you then… see, I used to work with her at this hotel a couple of years back, but then she left all of a sudden. Didn’t tell anyone she was leaving, not even our boss, didn’t give me a reason, didn’t give anyone a fucking reason!”
Jack cringed; the man had used a bad word and he seemed angry.
“You see, boy, your mom is what we grown-ups like to call a…”
He knelt down in front of Jack, who perched nervously on the staircase of a burnt out, derelict house.
It seemed to Jack that no one had ever lived there, although the place was somehow familiar to him. He couldn’t understand how he’d ended up here with this man. All he knew was that one moment he was wandering innocently down his street and the next minute, he was in this man’s car. He was lured in with candy, his one big weakness.
“… a liar. I guess your dad doesn’t know anything?”
Jack didn’t want to talk to this man; he was afraid of him and felt vulnerable as the stranger started walking around the place, taking furtive, sneaky steps.
This could have been a lovely family home before it was… but that wasn’t what Rachel wanted with him.
‘Rachel never wanted you. She didn’t want you then, and she won’t now, stop kidding yourself, right?’
Taking another step, he came across something familiar, something he had not seen for many years. Kneeling down on the ground, his hands and shoes now blackened with ash, he reached for the necklace. It had been a symbol of his love and devotion to this one woman and now it was here, cast away, lying beneath rubble and soot. She had not cared for such a thing, it hadn’t been important. Gazing down at it, it no longer had any meaning for him, and without a thought, he threw it to the wall, smashing it to pieces and shattering his heart as it fell.
