Safe

Reminiscing

"Say," you wondered after looking around the kitchen, changing the subject quickly, "was this always an inn?"

"No," Sarah replied flatly as if the backstory of this place held a bad memory. "It used to be our home."

"Yours and Jim's?" But you knew about Sarah's husband and deliberately did mention it im case you were wrong.

Her face turned to a much sadder expression as she gazed upon you. She sighed and fiddled with her fingers on her cup absentmindedly. "And my husband's. Before he left."

You watched her expression carefully and said, "I'm sorry. I don't mean to pry, but why did he leave? I don't understand."

Sarah forced a small smile, the candlelight deeply shadowed the bags under her eyes. "I know you don't mean to. But if you want the whole story, we'll begin when I met Leland, my husband. He and I met when I was 19 and a year later, we got married and had bought a home. You could say that we were happy, most people thought that, and we were, for a while. Leland and I then had Jim, and we were quite happy for about a year or two."

Sarah paused and held out her necklace's pendant in her hand and opened it. A hologram of a man who looked like the older version of Jim -hair, small ponytail, and whiskers on his chin which Jim did not have- was holding a younger, Sarah in a white wedding dress. They were happy, and it showed them waltzing. The hologram switched to Leland holding a baby Jim, but his expression confused you. You expected him to be happy, or at least surprised, but instead, his brows were furrowed in mild disgust and his lips were tight light as if he couldn't believe it was real.

Your heart dropped as you suddenly realized what had happened.

Sarah closed the pendant and continued, "At the time, the coal mining industry was very prosperous in Montressor. We weren't very financially stable, and Leland wanted to gain a lot of money to make us rich. He would work for hours, from sun up to sundown. He would always come home annoyed and angry that they never paid him well enough. I would tell him that we had enough with what we had, but he wasn't satisfied.

"I've also realized that he did not feel ready for being a father. When Jim was born, he paid some affection towards him, but as Jim grew older, he paid him little to no attention. Whether Jim knew this or not, he loved his father. He used to look up to him as his God. One morning, though, Leland said he found a way to gain more money. I told him that it was a crazy idea and that we needed him here. But he argued that he can't be a father yet, that he wasn't ready and he wanted to live a better life. And he packed up his things and left on a ship to some planet and we never saw him ever again. I then had to turn our house into an inn so we could live."

You were silent as you listened carefully, watching with pity as Sarah's face became sadder as she spoke. She sniffled and exhaled, trying to choke back a sob.

You asked a question you already knew the answer to. "Is that why Jim...is the way he is now?"

Sarah nodded, regretfully, and burst into tears. You stood, your chair making a scraping noise, and ran over to Sarah's side and wrapped an arm around her shaking shoulders. You watched painfully as she released long kept tears. You didn't know what to do, how to comfort her, but you held her close and hushed her gently.

"It's okay, Sarah. Let it all out," you said gently.

"Jim was only eight!"* she sobbed. "He shouldn't have had to experience something like that!"

It suddenly dawned on you that Sarah wasn't crying for her lost husband, but for Jim. Jim adored his father and seeing him leave destroyed him entirely.

You handed Sarah a napkin from the tray, and said soothingly, "He is going to be okay. I promise you, that sooner or later, he'll change."

Sarah's sobs stopped and became sharp inhales. "Thank you. I'm so sorry, I just can't stand seeing Jim like this. It's been nearly seven years and I've begged him to get over it, but he just...can't."

You didn't know what to say. You only knew that Jim could never get over something like his father leaving. You didn't know where the words came from, or why they decided to appear, but spoke with confidence as you leaned down and smiled warmly at Sarah. "Sarah, I don't think Jim will get over it, just like you haven't. But, he will learn to live with the pain and be a better person. It may take years, or less if you're lucky. But the Jim you once knew, is already gone. Grown up and becoming an adult. He'll come too, I promise."

Sarah was looking down at her hands in her lap. She raised her head towards you and grinned. You noticed she had a teardrop on her chin. "You're very wise for your age. Thank you. I just wish Jim was here to hear that."

You chuckled and straightened. "Oh, he will. As soon as he decides to speak to me about it. We'be become relatively close, you know? And besides, you need to sleep. I'll clean up."

You helped Sarah stand up and guided her to the door and watched her go up the stairs. Then you returned to the kitchen and cleaned up the table and washed the teacups. Then you picked up your candle, which was already melted to the size of a coin, and went up to your room.

As you crept down the hallway, you stopped in front of Jim's room, remembering the pain in his mother's voice as she told the story of her inn and the reason Jim was like this. Now that you really know what happened, you couldn't help but pity him more than Sarah.

You tore your eyes away from his door and entered your room. You set the candle down on your nightstand and sat on the edge of your bed and continued to listen to the holograms.

You were listening to a new story. One about a female pirate. Thinking you've reached the end of the infamous stories about the infamous pirate, you began to close the book when the narrator said something that caught your attention.

"...she was a big part of Captain Flint's crew and devised the most astonishing creations. She was skilled in many ways. They say that she even helped in discovering Treasure Planet. She was the only true person Flint trusted."

You reopened the book all the way and began to listen. You realized this was the story you were about to read a day ago when Sarah came in to check on you.

The holograms didn't show much. Only frozen images created to add some illustration to the story, which seemed odd to you.

The girl had no name. She was nameless, much like the rest of the crew, but they had nicknames, yet she had nothing. Just Mystery girl.

Strange, but you paid no mind to it since you've read stories about pirates who were famous, but had no name other than a given nickname.

The stories were short but intriguing. One story showed Flint's ship attacking and boarding a ship that looked like a giant hut. The story went that Flint wanted to live forever so he could always watch over his treasure, so he heard that a species of nomadic aliens held a potion to do just that. But the mystery girl went to retrieve it, and when she brought it back, it turned out to be a faux and depleted Flint's life instead. After several more years, Flint grew weak and could no longer lead a pirate life. After that, he disappeared, and so did she.

You frowned as you watched an image of a silhouetted girl hold out a teardrop-shaped vial to the captain. Something about the story felt wrong and you didn't know why.

Did she really retrieve the vial? Or did she know too well that her captain was evil and did not want him to live forever and torment everyone?

You couldn't take your mind away from it. It just bothered you greatly.

Then something dawned on you, like a weight of bricks fell in your chest.

What if she drank the real one?

What if she killed Captain Flint?

You couldn't fathom the idea and wondered who else who has read the story would be thinking the same thing. You'd have to ask Jim later tomorrow, he's read these stories a dozen times at least, you hoped.

But you didn't want to put down the book, you wanted to search more.

You closed the book and placed it beside your dead candle and the rest back where you found them.

You managed to yawn and wipe your eyes and you snuggled back in bed. You then closed your eyes and for the first time, you slept soundly.

***

*I used the Treasure Planet art book for research on Jim's father where it briefly explained who his father was.