Jack

“The Savior and Lord of Fate, I praise your name. We pray for your blessings, and may your children be blessed. Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos glorify thy name. Moirai.” …. Elli bows down as she finishes the last verse of her prayer. “Moirai…” replied jack’s younger brother, Max Morgan. Jack is 19 years old and is fascinated by the secrets that surround him. Since he was a child, he has wondered why his parents prayed every night, before dinner and before going to bed. He didn't get why the gods needed their children to sing praises to their names. Is it true that names are important to them? "Jack! How many times do I have to tell you not to use scissors when it's time for prayer? Lord Atropos would not like his child to act this way." When Jack was about to cut out the part of newspaper his father had read so he could read it later, his angry mother Ellie cried out. Jack kept his mouth shut since he knew that retorting to his mother would only make her reprimand him more. Have you ever considered whether God is real to you? Atropos was said to be the thread of life's cutter. SHE is said to have chosen the method in which each person died, and when the time came, she snipped their life-thread with "HER abhorred shears." Clotho, who spun the thread of life from HER distaff onto HER "spindle," and Lachesis, who used HER "measuring rod" to measure the thread of life assigned to each person, were the other MOIRAI. My family believes in the church of fate and worships the MOIRAI, which are three goddesses of fate who personify man's unavoidable fate and assign each person their fate or portion in the scheme of life. I'm not sure why the church of fate has so many gods to worship, or whether these gods are just one being with multiple names. It's not like anything will change whether or not I believe they are one entity. “Mother... Father, I'm going outside with Amelie to study at a friend's house since we have a project due tomorrow," Jack lied. He had no intention of attending, but Amelie, his next-door neighbor, pleaded with him to accompany her to her friend's house, so Jack excused himself from his parents. Anyway, I'll just wander down the street until anything piques my curiosity. "Son, you need to be careful going out at night; I heard from a coworker that there are criminals prowling in our neighborhood, and it appears that the disappearance of teens is linked to this," my father said, referring to the recent events in our town. "Hansel! I haven't agreed to him going out late at night; you know how unsafe it is out there, and it's already quarter past seven." My mother yells at my father, concerned. "I'll be back before midnight, mother," I argued. "and I'm not going out alone, and I can't leave Amelie out there alone at night." I reasoned out before she got upset at father. As she placed the dishes in the sink, she murmured, "Fine." Max joked, "You're going on a date night with Amelie?" "Don't speak nonsense," I flicked on his forehead. I sat up and got ready to meet up with Amelie. Max screamed, "Mommmmmmmm!" “ Here’s 10 Mora(currency), buy bread for your home”, as he was about to leave, his father called him. His family came from a lower-class family, but fortunately enough, his father was a worker in an industry that is slightly greater than slaves. Workers engage in manual-labor occupations. They barely eat 2 times a day and finding a job only means you have graduated from a professional who takes a living from teaching. The middle class are those artisans, merchants, bureaucrats, officials, professionals, and officers and commissioners. But climbing to a higher class is almost impossible for them. Slaves are especially treated badly by the higher class. The upper class is the highest class, which are those nobles, priests, and kings. To jack, they are like gods who enjoy their life in this world. He sighs just thinking about going outside. To him, the danger is not those mysterious beings but the people in the higher class who discriminate against them. His father earns 100 mora per week, which is almost not enough for them to survive in the week. His brother dreams of being a professor someday, but to achieve such dreams, you need to be a genius and have mora to pay off those money-sucker teachers. Luckily enough, Amelie helped Jack learn from her teacher. Amelie’s father is a merchant who owns a bakery. It's enough for her to achieve her dreams of becoming a professional teacher one day. Her teacher is Mr. Anderson, which gains almost a thousand mora in a month. I picked up my coat as I left the small house that only fits us. Max and I shared the same room while I was waiting for Amelie to get out of their house. I rubbed my hands as I felt the cold crawling through my ears. “Jack, I have gloves with me. Come on, take them. It’s cold outside, you know”. I watched her hand me the pair of gloves. She has always been like this, kind and generous. They are childhood friends and Jack wonders why someone like her keeps a friend from a lower class like him. “Thank you, you know I won’t feel cold if you don’t bring me with you”. I joked. “Mr. Jack, you already promised to come with me, so there’s no backing out. Up we will go now before you change your mind”, she grabbed my hands and started walking, afraid that I might change my mind. “Have you heard that there are missing people around our city?” I asked curiously as we walked towards the slums. She stops walking when we reach Astoria Street. “Well, yes, Dumont city is a small town, so when something happens around here it only has a long time before it reaches everyone,” She replied. It’s not that Dumont City is a small town, but it is small when compared to cities like Ekasia City, which is famous for machinery. Dumont City is like a place for people who had no hope in life. “You need to be careful going out at night, Amelie.” “I am going to my teacher’s house, not in the slums where criminals are lurking everywhere” she argued. “How do you know that the killer lived in the slums” I asked. “There are people who are not really what we think them to be. Sometimes, someone we least expect to be a dangerous person is the closest to us” She didn’t reply to my argument as she silently walked towards our destination. I found it weird that she didn’t retort back to me as she usually does, but I brushed it off quickly thinking that maybe she was just busy enough to give it some thought. We walked through the streets, and we could see a few chariots passing by and a few people buzzing in the modest buildings. There are those who smoke, and the smell of tobacco lingers in our noses. Only a few streetlights are helplessly trying to give light to the town. One look at this town, you could already know how hard it is for people to live here, but the upper class doesn’t care. Maybe King Alexander III didn’t even know this city existed. I was deep in thought just before I realized we had already arrived at Mr. Anderson's house. The tidy apartment welcomes my gaze; it is clear that the people who live here eat three times a day, with extra bread and tea to keep their stomachs full whenever they are hungry. I envy their way of life; if only I could have it. If only my family could live like this. My parents should be able to live happily ever after. I want to see my brother pursue his dreams, but as lower-class people, hope and dreams do not exist for us. "Amelie, I'm just up here; go ahead. I'll just wander around the streets and see if there's anything interesting in town," I explained to Amelie. "Why don't you just come with me, Jack?" She was perplexed as to why I wouldn't go in with her. "No, it's fine... and my father told me to pick up some bread on the way home." "So, be careful on your way home. Don't linger out there for too long," she advised. "I would like to tell you that," I replied. I started walking towards town after seeing her go inside. I wouldn't have lost her if I had stayed with her that night. I never imagined that would be the last time I could see Amelie.