"Wherever your soul was before, mine was there too." - Hira
He's Jackson. But he's also:
Daniel.
Theodore.
Nathan.
Nicholas.
Zachary.
She's Aaliyah. But she's also:
Grace.
Kathryn.
Jessica.
Amaya.
Eve.
It's the same story every time. They meet, they...
It was a cold, Saturday morning but it was the only day Aaliyah told Jackson she could meet up with him. He assumed she hasn't told Elijah about their partnership and deep down, he hope she'd keep it that way. But not because he like, cares or anything. But because Elijah would make this project a thousand times harder by calling multiple times or even by showing up.
Jackson waited by one of the computers for her to arrive, going on ahead and getting started. His family tree was pretty easy to trace back. The real work was probably gonna be Aaliyah's family tree.
"Hey Jack," he heard her say behind him. Speak of the devil.
"Hey," He answers quietly, turning his attention back on the computer.
Discouraged, Aaliyah simply took off her coat and set down her backpack. "Um, what do have so far?" She asks him. Jackson reached into his backpack and pulls out a couple of old family photos, some spanning back a couple of decades. "Oh wow..."
"Yeah, my dad had most of these sent to us, or found them on Facebook posted by other family members," he said. He then pulls out a piece of paper that already outlines his family tree all the way back to the 1940's. "So apparently I'm Jewish on my mom's side," he tells her. "So because of World War 2, I'm missing some family members," he explaining the empty spots on his mom side.
Aaliyah looked at the family tree closely. "You have a brother?" She looked at him now. "You never mentioned him," she pointed out.
"He's not worth mentioning," Jackson practically hisses. Aaliyah backed off, deciding to leave that topic alone...for now. She then looks over the family tree once more before quickly pulling out hers.
There were still a couple empty spots considering her father didn't know his own dad, neither did her mom. And her grandmother's father on her mom's side also was absent. Apparently, absentee fathers were her family's curse.
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Jackson looked it over, his eyes stopping right where her grandmother's name was. "Do...you not know your grandfather's name?" He asked cautiously.
Aaliyah shook her head. "She refuses to talk about him," she lets out an exasperated sigh. "She's barely told my mom about him," she now sits up. "Actually, he fought in Vietnam too."
Jackson perks up hearing this. "Really? That's crazy."
"Mmm, not really," Aaliyah scoffs. "Pretty sure lots of people's grandfathers or whatever fought in Vietnam if they were too young to fight in World War II," Aaliyah tells him. "Anyways, I'll try to get more info about him when I️ get home," she assures him.
"Cool..." he says. Jackson moves to pack up his stuff. "Guess we're done here."
Aaliyah watches him in disbelief. "What about our paper?"
"We can do that later. We have all month," Jackson quickly dismisses. "Or we can just do it individually," he suggests. "It's not like it's that hard."
