The Tenth Night: Incog

Night One: Troubling News (final draft)

 "Jack Saundering?" 

" Does this Apartment belong to Jack Saundering?" 

It was a very late ten at night on January 1st when the door to the apartment of a humble Grocery Store Clerk was knocked on. Jack Saundering, the man himself, was in a deep slumber before being woken up by the loud noise. Before getting to the door, the man put on a normal wool, red robe that was given to him the Christmas before, and big, wool socks that he bought at the local Walmart. 

When the man opened the door, there stood a tall, buff, and black-haired police officer and a slightly older female officer with blonde hair in a messy ponytail and brown eyes, but both had stern faces. Despite living in an apartment with some neighbors more deserving of checks by the police, Jack didn't know what he did to have the police show up at his door; he never did drugs, he never stole money, and did anything worthy of going to jail or even prison for. 

"Are you Jack Alexander Saundering?" The Female Police officer said. 

"Uh..." The Man said, unaware of what was happening, then replied yes, "I'm Jack Alexander Saundering."

Although seeming scared by both of them at first, both police officers then looked at each other before taking their hats off and sending terrible news, changing Man's feelings from fear to confusion."

Mr. Saundering," the male police officer, "We're both sorry to deliver some terrible news."

"Uncle Jack?" A little boy whispered. 

 Jack then looked behind the officers to see a familiar face. The little boy turned out to be his Nephew, Jake, with his blonde hair, brown eyes, and light blue pajamas.

"Jake?" The Uncle said confusingly. "What's going on?"

"We're very deeply sad to tell you that your Brother, Vinny, and his wife have tragically died in an accident on the highway." The Female Cop said. "And to our knowledge, you're the only extended blood relative to this little boy." 

The Uncle then stared at his nephew before kneeling and allowing his nephew to come to him for a hug as his nephew started sobbing before him as well. 

"I'm deeply sorry for your loss, sir." The Male Cop said. 

"But Mr. Saundering," The Female Cop said, "Some of the neighbors of Vinny and Greta are hoping that you attend their funeral." Jack knew about the Neighborhood Vinny and his family lived in. Sterling Neighborhoods used to be a small wealthy neighborhood from his knowledge before becoming a medium-sized neighborhood.

 Although he loved his nephew, there would still be some problems with moving to the neighborhood. First, the neighborhood was three times more expensive than his salary in half a year. Another reason was that he would have trouble going from his job to such a place. However, even with this, he knew it would be better for his nephew to stay at Sterling's than stay at his apartment.

"When should I go?" Jack said. 

"Between the next two days would normally be best, sir." The Female Officer said.

Although was still distraught, the uncle then nodded to the idea, so both officers put their hats back on respectively and wished the two of them the best before leaving to their car two stories back. A few seconds later, the man got up to his couch, holding his nephew in his arms. 

"Did you have any dinner yet?" The man said to his nephew. "I've got some food."

"No.", The little boy replied. "Not yet."The man looked at the electronic clock on his counter and saw it was already Eleven at night before getting up from the couch and looking at his fridge. Although just learning the news, the man still felt weak when walking. All the photos of him and his brother felt disheartening to look at, for it instills too much remembrance of old memories. 

One was when they were both at a lake dock in the summer when they were kids; the dock was 12 miles away from their home, and they would often go there. Jack was six years old and was too scared to go into the water for fear of drowning, a fear that had laid on him for years. 

He then remembered his brother, who was seven years older than him, taking his hand before going on the dock with him and every time they thought the water went deeper, they stuck their feet in the water. Jack never knew why, but he soon became more normal when feeling the water in the ocean from then on.

Another one showed a picture of Vinny graduating high school. The man remembered how hard it was to see his brother leave him behind to go college, and remembered when the older man gave him a necklace resembling the ocean to remember him by. More photos showed how Jack was a learning star to his brother's moon of a brother, shedding a small tear, still unable to accept his death, before looking back at his nephew and returning to try and make lunch for him. He looked at his fridge to see what he would like and started to cross in his mind what he wouldn't like. 

Almost everything in the fridge was fruits and vegetables from the Grocery Store he worked at. He knew that Jake wouldn't like any of the vegetables like Carrots, Broccoli, or asparagus. He then looked in the freezer to see some chicken nuggets he bought two days before and decided to make those instead. 

During the three minutes the nuggets were in the microwave, the man decided to cut some apple slices as a healthy side for him. When the nuggets were done cooking in the microwave, the man took a paper towel and got them from the microwave before placing them on a different plate where the apple slices were placed. Whenever he walked, he started to tremble; his brown-reddish hair started frizzling, and the goosebumps on his body started to show on him so much that when he gave the plate of food to his nephew, it felt like he had just walked all 28 years of his life. 

He took a loud breath before trying to calm down again, for the grief that had been struck was not only a tragedy to him. He turned to see his nephew quietly eating his food and looking like he was about to shed a tear.

 "Are you okay, Uncle Jack?" the little boy quietly said. It took a while for the boy's uncle to respond, but then he did with a calm, "Yes dear." 

After the boy finished eating, the man got a blanket from his pantry right near his washing machine, before tucking in his nephew on his couch with a soft pillow before returning to his fridge to take one last picture. It was one where his entire family visited each other for Christmas about 3 years ago.

Jake was still a toddler when that picture was taken, three to be exact. Jack hadn't been to his parent's house in four years and missed them dearly when they died 5 months later. They always had influenced both him and Vinny to do great things, but the pressure for success wasn't something that Jack had always wanted. He then remembered the small necklace that Vinny gave him. It was locked inside the cabinet next to Jack's bed. He felt the hard, shiny metal with the blue and white paint. He took one last look at it before putting the necklace back into the cabinet and slowly going to sleep.