self-para // pair of jacks
DATE: Friday, April 10, 2020 CHARACTERS: Jack and Caine ABOUT: Big Jack runs into a little problem at the adoption fair.
Jack hadn’t planned on sitting on the grass for longer than a few minutes but when he looked up, Brent and Macey were already gone and the dog pen was much emptier than it was when he had arrived. He didn’t want to admit it, but Jack had grown really attached to the one-eyed ball of fur that had fallen asleep on his lap.
Which made it all the more heartbreaking when Jack realized he couldn’t afford to adopt him.
“What do you mean I have to pay $200?”
“Well yeah,” responded Caine, who was trying his best not to come across rude after a long day of paperwork. “It’s to cover the costs of shots, treatments, if the dog is chipped—there’s a lot of expenses that go into pet care.”
“But like... The dog is defective.”
“Which only makes him that much more expensive.”
Jack sighed. The little dog in his arms didn’t have a care in the world, his face pointed straight into the breeze, eye closed.
“Now what do we have here?” Jack turned to find an older woman walking his way. She was dressed in a flannel and fishing vest, with every pocket stuffed with treats or doggie bags. Jack guessed that the woman was anywhere between 45 and 60. She had youthful eyes, but her face was etched with creases and laugh lines, as if she had laughed so much throughout her life that her face had grown around the shape of her smile. Even though she stood at least a foot shorter than Jack, she carried herself with such confidence that Jack felt minuscule as she approached. “I’ll be damned if I ever saw a dog-human-duo that twinned harder than you two.”
“Uh, thanks,” Jack muttered, suddenly feeling like a child.
“Isn’t that right, Jack?” she cooed.
Jack blinked. “What? Do you know me?”
The woman looked confused. “What? No, I’m talking to little Jack here,” she pointed to the dog. The crease in her brow smoothed away, replaced by the crinkle of a smile in her eyes. “Wait, is your name Jack too?”
No response.
“Stop!” The woman threw her head back and guffawed so loudly up into the sky that the dogs all the way by the back area turned to look. Even Caine, as wound up as he was, couldn’t help but chortle along. Jack shut his eyes, wishing he could combust into a pile of ashes right there.
“Well, it doesn’t matter, because I can’t afford him anyway, so...” Jack trailed off.
The flannel lady was still laughing. She had to catch a breath and wipe away a lone tear that was building up in the crease of her eye. “I’m sorry, honey, you’ll have to say that again.”
“I can’t afford to adopt him,” Jack confessed.
“Now is that so?” She turned to Caine, who nodded in confirmation.
“Just following the list you gave us,” Caine explained. “Says here that with Jack’s shots and treatments, it would be about $125 for you to break even. And then since Jack—er, sorry. Since big Jack hasn’t owned a pet before, he’d have to buy a kennel, food, et cetera, which would bring it up to about $200.”
Jack had never felt so little as when Caine referred to him as Big Jack. “Um, okay, I get it. Can we stop dragging me through the mud for being poor now? Thanks.”
The smile on the woman’s face had melted down to a look of concern. “Hey, Jack, do you work?”
“Um, no. I’m not really qualified to do anything, so...”
The woman held her chin between two fingers, lips curled to the side. After a moment of silence between, she snapped and pointed up in the air. “Here—” she stepped forward. “My name’s Amelia.” She extended a hand toward Jack. “I run the farm upstate.”
Jack looked down at Amelia’s hand. “Uh. I don’t do contact. I’m a son of—” Jack froze. Who is this woman? Does she know where she is?
The look on his face must have been entirely transparent because Amelia just laughed. “Son of... A god?”
Jack stuttered in surprise. “Uh... Phobos?”
Amelia nodded in understanding and dropped her hand to her side. “Say no more. My wife ran with Artemis for quite some time. I’m just a muggle myself, but I know about all your cool powers and tricks.” Amelia and Caine exchanged a knowing glance. “Well, Big Jack, son of Phobos, I’ll cut you a deal.”
“Um, okay, but I really need you to not call me Big Jack.”
“I’m heading back upstate once this event ends and I’m gonna need to load up my truck with all this equipment.” Amelia turned to point towards the dog pens. “All this fencing, all that spare equipment over there, as well as all the stuff for the bunnies—that’s all coming back with me.” Amelia turned back toward Jack and held her hands out. “So why don’t you give me Little Jack for now and he can sit with my friend Caine over here. You can help me start loading up my truck and once I’m all packed up, I’ll pay you. Say... $200?”
Jack’s mouth fell open a little bit. He felt like he had already cried more times this week than he had in the last 20 years of his existence (save for a six-month period a few years ago following a mishap on the ice), but he could feel his eyes welling up once again. “Um...” Jack was sure that he did not deserve this level of kindness. “I...”
“I think you should take the deal, dude,” Caine urged.
“That’s my final offer,” Amelia pressed.
Jack nodded and turned to Caine. “Uh, here—” He carefully passed the little dog over to Caine, who seated him right in his lap.
“Hey, little buddy!” Caine looked down at the dog then back up to Jack twice over. “Wow, you even have the same hairstyle.”
“Alright!” Amelia was beaming. Jack ran a knuckle under his eye to wipe a traitor tear away. When Jack first saw Amelia, her face wrapped around her smile, he had wondered how anybody could be so happy. Now, he thought he was beginning to understand. “Let’s put you to work.”