Jack And Anna - Back To Winnipeg

4. Well, This Place Hasn’t Changed-2

Anna came through the door behind him, gently taking his hand and waiting for him to say something.

“I’m okay,” he whispered.

She purposefully bumped into him. It was her way of saying that she would always be there for him, and he loved her for it. Summer’s emotions were a faint reflection of his own: joy and sadness mingled together. Being here brought it all back to him. Playing hide and seek with his sister Lauren, sitting on the couch while his mother read him a story, the sounds of a ball game emanating from the television: All those memories and more kept swirling around in his mind.

Arthur was further up the hallway, poking his head into the kitchen. “You can take the guest room,” he said. “I uh…It just occurred to me that I don’t have a lot of food. Been living alone for some time.”

Ever since Crystal left him.

“But we can order a pizza!” he went on. “If you like.”

Jack followed his father into the other room and froze when he saw that everything was exactly as he remembered it. The same white tiles, the same wooden cupboards, the same old fridge that made a chugging sound every few minutes or so.

It just didn’t make any sense. He had been erased from history! Not just in people’s memories but in the physical world as well! His bank accounts had been deleted; most of his stuff was gone! His fat, orange cat was now living with Lauren. Something should be different!

SomethingArthur stood with his back to the door, his hands braced upon the counter. “So, um, is pizza okay?”

Jack blinked, coming back to reality. With a shake of his head, he cleared all those troubling thoughts away. “Yeah, yeah, pizza’s fine. Uh, veggie pizza for us, please. No tomatoes on my half.”

“You got it.”

“We’ll go get settled in.”

He led Anna up the stairs to a narrow landing with a hardwood floor. The door to every bedroom was shut tight. Except, of course, for his father’s room. The was open just a c***k, and Jack could see a couple empty beer bottles on the floor. Maybe Arthur wasn’t doing so well.

He went to the nearest door, intending to reclaim his old room, and gasped when he pushed it open. Well, he had wanted something to be different. Perhaps he should learn not to tempt fate.

His bedroom was gone. The green walls were now a boring, pale gray. The twin bed was now queen-sized with neatly folded sheets and one of those needlessly-ornate headboards. No Star Wars posters, no Spider-Man action figures on the wooden shelf. Every trace of him had been scrubbed clean.

Star WarsShuffling into the room with his mouth hanging open, Jack took a moment to collect himself. He turned around and sat on the edge of the bed.

Anna sat down beside him, linking arms. The feeling of her head on his shoulder eased some of his pain. “Oh, sweetie, I’m so sorry.”

He forced his eyes shut, unable to stop a single tear from leaking. “It’s fine,” he choked out. “I mean we knew this was gonna happen.”

“Yeah, but it’s one thing to know and another to see it for yourself.”

“We made our choices, love,” he mumbled. “This is what you get when you bargain with cosmic beings.”

“Doesn’t mean you can’t be sad.”

For a little while, they just sat in silence.

Jack slipped his arm around her waist, allowing her to snuggle up with her head on his chest. The warmth of her body, the scent of her shampoo, the steady rhythm of her breathing: All of it mingled to form a beautiful reminder of just how lucky he was. He may have been forgotten, but he wasn’t alone.

“Come on,” Jack whispered. “Let’s get unpacked.”

Their dinner came a few minutes after they finished putting their things away. They joined Arthur in the kitchen. He was kind enough to have set the table with some of those old, green plates they used to use when company came over.

With the box’s lid open, Jack could smell the pizza. And he could also tell that his father hadn’t exactly followed his instructions. Half of the pizza was vegetarian; the other half was meat lovers. And of course, there were tomato slices all over the place.

Well, Jack supposed it was only fair. Two pizzas were a bit much for three people, and he could always pluck the tomatoes off. Stupid sensory issues.

He took a chair next to the large window that looked out on his backyard. Evening had come with golden sunlight falling on the maple tree and the old, wooden fence. There were other trees as well. He could just make out the tiny scrap of woodland behind his house. Surely, that wasn’t the forest that had sparked all this weirdness. It would take all of two minutes to run through it and reach the other side. Idly, he wondered if he might end up seeing something spooky tonight.

Drumming his fingers on the table, Jack bit his lip as he searched for something to say. “So, Dad,” he began. “How’s life as a retired cop?”

Arthur flinched, startled by the question. “Not too bad.” He was lying; Jack could hear the strain in his voice. “Just the usual.”

“Yeah?”

Arthur dropped into a cushioned chair, reaching into the box to grab a slice. The cheese stretched and stretched until it snapped. “You know, visiting friends, keeping this old place from falling apart.”

Anna sat across from Jack, observing her father-in-law with a concerned expression. “Sounds like maybe you’re a little lonely.”

As if to prove her wrong, Arthur’s phone started buzzing. He had to struggle to get it out of his pocket, and when he finally answered the call, he looked more than a little annoyed. “Hello…Yeah, sure…Whenever, Pete, it’s fine. Send him by tomorrow.”

He practically slammed his thumb down on the screen. “Sorry,” he muttered with a grimace. “That’s a friend of mine. His kid’s applying to join the police training program, and he asked for a letter of recommendation.”

“Yeah?” Jack replied. “How is Pete doing? The last time we talked, he and Molly were having some problems.”

isOnce again, Arthur stiffened, but this time, his moment of surprise was followed by wide-eyed wonder. “You really are my son,” he murmured. “How could you possibly know about…What happened?”

are“What do you mean?”

“Well, if what you say is true, if you’ve been a part of my life for all these years, why don’t I remember you?”

Planting his elbow on the table, Jack winced as he pressed his fingertips into his temple. “It’s a long story,” he grated. “And I’m not sure how much of it I can tell. But, yeah. Wiped from history. There are aliens out there that are way more powerful than anything we’ve ever seen before.”

Arthur frowned at his plate of steaming pizza. “That doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence.”

“It’s a big, scary universe, Dad.”

“Do you think these aliens are responsible for what’s happening here?”

Anna was halfway through the act of chewing her food, but she raised a finger to say she wanted to chime in. After swallowing, she fixed her blue eyes on Arthur. “It’s possible. But we’ll have to investigate to know for sure. Do you think you can arrange for us to talk to some of the witnesses?”

“Yeah,” Arthur grumbled. “We’ll go tomorrow.”

* * *

An hour later, with the last traces of daylight fading from the sky, Jack ambled up the sidewalk of his little street. The houses were smaller than he remembered. How many times had he passed Mark Reynold’s tiny bungalow with its oversized, maple tree? Or Amy Russo’s place? She still had that creepy candle burning in her upstairs window. As a kid, he would notice it every time he walked past. Especially at night. Hadn’t anyone in that house ever heard the words, “fire hazard?”

Anna was at his side, but for the moment, she remained quiet, content to let him think. And he had plenty of thoughts! It occurred to him that he identified many of these houses by the names of children who almost certainly didn’t live there anymore. Children who had probably grown up and started their own families.

Strange.

But then what else could he do? He had never really known their parents. Hell, he hadn’t really known the kids! He’d gone to school with them, but they never hung out.

kids! “So, what’s up with your dad’s friend Pete?” Anna asked.

Forcing a smile, Jack lowered his eyes to the ground under his feet. “Has a bit of a drinking problem,” he said with a shrug. “Gets mean after he’s had a few. Last I heard, Molly was threatening to leave.”

Anna nodded absently, fascinated by the houses all around her. She had often asked about his childhood. It must have been exciting for her to see the old neighbourhood up close. “You think she did?”

“Don’t know,” Jack admitted. “Dad rarely goes into share mode. Not with me. And that was back when he remembered me. Now, I’m a stranger. I just worry about Randy.”

“Who’s Randy?”

Jack shoved his hands into his pockets, plodding along with his head down. “Pete’s youngest son,” he replied. “He’s about four years younger than me. Which would make him only twenty-one. Geez, I feel so much older.”

“Going to war will do that to you.”

It was true.

These last few weeks were the first time in over a year that Jack had had a chance to just be a normal guy. For months, his thoughts had dwelled on big, soul-crushing issues like the fate of the galaxy or the possible extinction of humanity. Even in his downtime, he would fret about the next huge calamity. So, what did he do now that there was no calamity looming on the horizon?

The Overseers had used humanity in their sick experiments. They had engineered a war between multiple planets just to study humans as they died.

Jack had struggled for so long to put a stop to it. Now that the aliens were gone, he wasn’t entirely sure what to do with himself. In all that time, he had never once stopped to wonder what life would be like after the war. And now, when he asked himself what he wanted, the only answer he got was silence.

afterAnna bumped into him again. “Sweetie? Are you there?”

“Hmm?”

“I was asking about Randy.”

“He’s kind of like me,” Jack said. “Bit of a screw up, got bored easily in school. His dad was always hard on him.”

“You’re not a screw up,” Anna insisted.

“Oh, I disagree.”

He was forced to stop when his wife spun around and planted herself directly in his path. Bathed in the glow of a streetlight, she gave him a no-nonsense stare that promised a most unpleasant fate if he tried to argue with her. “You’ve saved more lives than I can count.”

“I didn’t do it alone.”

She kicked him in the shin.