After Before and After

Phase 4: Chapter 7

Time was daringly approaching Halloween, and Jack Merridew was a little more than disinterested in the antics of the holiday. Everyone at school was talking about dressing up, wearing orange and black accessories, hats, masks. Parts of the school were already decorated for the spooky holiday.

Jack didn't used to roll his eyes everytime October rolled around. As a matter of fact, Jack used to be one of those kids who got a real kick out of Halloween. He and his friends would hide gory masks in their lockers, and skip class to jump scare the poor kids who were wandering the halls, using the washroom or bent over the drinking fountain. 1989 was the last year Jack had any fun with Halloween. Of course, he was trapped on the island the following year, and the year before the present one was when he lost interest. The island had taken all the joy out of Halloween. It made Jack uneasy now; people dressing up as monsters and scaring each other shitless. The encounter with a much more real monster on the island, imagined or not, shattered Jack's interest in fake monsters. It was hard to get a kick out of gory masks and childlike growls after spending months running and hiding from a real one. It irked Jack just how innocent and naive the kids around now him really were. It was all fun and games because they had no idea how awful it could be when it wasn't a game at all.

Halloween was less than a week away, and it had now been close to a month and a half since the officer showed up and served Jack the subpoena. Jack still spent a lot of time at the Langleys, in spite of the fact that watching them build Ralph's criminal defense stressed him out. Jack was never one to wear his emotions on his sleeve, but that didn't change the fact that he had emotions, and they had been especially daunting lately. Of course, not even Ralph could tell how deep it ran because Jack was that good at burying it. Jack felt painfully alone in the face of the upcoming trial. He was undeniably stressed, unprepared, and overwhelmed. Even Roger's parents were spending every extra dollar they had on Roger's criminal defense. Nobody was guiltier than Roger Conroy. He was the only boy on the document facing a felony murder charge. And still, his parents believed he was worth fighting for. That alone twisted Jack's heart into an uncontestable knot.

Jack returned home from school on the 26th, less than a week before Halloween. He was already tired of school, of the kids, of the holiday. It was hot outside, or at least it felt like it after the ten minute walk home. When Jack walked into the air-conditioned mansion, he dropped his bag and dragged himself through the archway into the aggressively white kitchen. He stopped abruptly in his tracks when he saw that not only was his dad home early from work, but he was accompanied by a guest Jack didn't recognize.

Jack was reluctant to speak, so he didn't. He just stared at his father, and at the strange man, waiting silently for an explaination.

"Jack, come sit down" Evan said in that quiet, muffled but intimidatingly low voice he always spoke in. Jack carefully stepped across the floor and sat down on one of the barstools on the other side of the counter. Evan stood across from him, and the stranger on the short side of the counter, adjacent to them both.

"Jack, this is Brett Winslow. His father was a good friend of mine about a decade or so ago. Craig Winslow was my divorce lawyer and close confidant, back when he was a family lawyer. Now he and Brett work as a family team of state defense attorneys, specializing in criminal law. I've hired Brett to mount your legal defense" Evan explained, without really looking at Jack.

"Really?" Jack asked in shock as his eyes bounced back and forth between the two grown men. "Why?" he couldn't resist the urge to ask.

"You want to waste Brett's time talking about that or should we just focus on the case?" Evan raised his eyebrows in an unamused manner as he asked.

Jack said nothing, which was an answer in itself. It was quiet for a moment before Evan spoke again.

"I'll leave you two to it then" Jack's father said as he abandoned Jack and Brett in the kitchen.

"Alright" Brett said in a mumble, but in a significantly less heavy and uptight tone than Evan's. Jack watched as the man rummaged through his briefcase before laying out a few documents on the counter. He then turned to meet Jack's eyes for the first time. "How's it going, Jack?" he asked in a calming voice.

"Good, I guess" Jack shrugged as he struggled to grasp the reality of the man's unexpected presence.

"Glad to hear it. So as I'm sure you know, we are quite late getting into the game here. I've reviewed your subpoena and the case in depth for our meeting today. The story is also set to hit the press early next month, so we've got a couple weeks before we have to worry about that. The charges here are a little complex, so I'd like to start off by explaining them to you before getting your count of the events that led to them. Then we'll start breaking down potential defense strategies and figure out what the best way to go is, sound good?" Brett began.

"Sure" Jack nodded carefully.

That first meeting with his lawyer felt like hours long. Jack was listening as best he could, but he was distracted by the why behind his father's sudden decision to hire a lawyer at all. Jack's subpoena came weeks ago, and Evan had known about it for quite awhile now too. By this point, Jack was certain Evan had no plan to help him at all. He wondered what made him change his mind now.

"Paige?" Jack crept into his sister's bedroom as she studied several hours later that same night.

Paige pulled the earplugs out of her ears and spun her chair around to look at her brother. He looked more vulnerable than usual, if Jack ever looked vulnerable at all. He was shier, quieter, gentler. It was a weird sight, one that did a better job of explaining Ralph Langley's attraction to her brother than anything else did up til now.

"What's up?" she asked, giving him her full attention.

"Do you know why dad suddenly decided to hire a lawyer for the trial? I thought didn't care about keeping me out of juvenile prison" Jack assumed.

"Does it matter why? You're gonna have a great defense, isn't that what's important here?" Paige forced him to consider.

"So you do know why, but you don't want to tell me" Jack flatly concluded.

"Jack, come on. Just take the win" the girl suggested as she spun back around to avoid his stare.

"Tell me" Jack demanded.

"Jack, it really does—"

"Tell me" he said with more force.

Paige sighed heavily and spun back around to face him. She dropped her gaze to the floor before she started speaking.

"The first press release is scheduled for early to mid November" Paige began to explain.

"So? What does that matter?" Jack wondered.

"They won't release yours or any of the other kids' names in the initial wave of reports. But if you're convicted at the end of the trial, they will. Your name will be plastered all over the media. It'll tarnish our family name, and Dad worries that the company will go under once people connect the dots between Jack Merridew and Evan Merridew of Solight Energy Corporation. The only way to protect the company is to protect you. I didn't want to tell you because I wanted you to believe that Dad was really looking out for you this time" she finished.

Paige was startled when her brother started to laugh a little, shaking his head in amusement. She looked at him, confused, as she waited for him to come back down to earth. When he did, he stared her intently in the eyes.

"I never would've believed he was looking out for me" Jack seriously and honestly declared.