After Before and After

Conclusion: Chapter 4

It was the first joyous Christmas in Jack Merridew's sixteen years of life. All that time he spent wondering what happy families did on Christmas while he sat alone in his childhood bedroom among the hundreds of dollars of toys he didn't even really want.

All he ever wanted was a family; a father who looked at him and saw the world instead of regret.

And as he sat between Jeffery and Ralph on the big sofa in the Langley family's living room, Jack was sure that he finally understood what he'd been missing out on all these years. On the TV played the movie National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Underneath it, the fireplace pierced the warm room with crackles of gentle light. Red and green lights were strung purposely around the open concept living room / kitchen. A Laurie move, for sure. A plate of cookies and several mugs of hot coca in various stages of the drinking process, were scattered around the living room on different surfaces. The room was filled to the brim with people who adored the Langley family as much as Jack did. Braxton Carson, Jeffery's mentor, grandparents, an aunt, and a young baby from Laurie's side. Everyone was squished together on either the couch or loveseat, something that would've bothered most people but Jack enjoyed immensely. He spent so much of his life being touched only by violence. Love, even a squishy love that costed him the sensation in his left arm, was worth more than all the money in the world.

The holiday season came and went, and so did the rest of 1993. Reality set in as it often did in the week after the new year, and so Jack and Paige were forced to head back to Dalton to grab the last of their things from the Merridew mansion. Paige drove her Mercedes for the last time, knowing it would be the last time. She would order a cab to take Jack, herself, and their belongings away. Jack would say goodbye to first sixteen years of his life.

He would say goodbye to his father too.

Jack stood behind Paige on the doorstep as she unlocked the front door. It occurred to Jack then that this would be the last time they could come inside without knocking first. After today, they'd be guests if they ever returned again. This wouldn't be Jack's home anymore.

Then again, had it ever been?

The two siblings separated into separate rooms as they packed the last of their important things into bags that could fit in the trunk of a taxi.

"Hey Jack?" Paige appeared in the doorway of his bedroom. Old bedroom, he thought. This room was no longer his. "Do you mind checking the attic while I load all the bags into the cab? I think all my old honors certificates and my high school diploma and all that stuff is up there."

"Yeah, fine" Jack waved a dismissive hand at her as he fought with his suitcase to close. He saw Paige disappear out of the corner of his eye, then made his way over to the attic.

Jack hadn't been in the attic at all before. A string hung down from a door on the roof, and Jack had to get a chair to reach it. With the open door came the ladder, and it nearly knocked Jack and the chair down to the floor. Luckily, Jack caught himself and moved the chair out of the way before climbing up.

The attic was surprisingly small for such a large house. It was mostly filled with dusty boxes and old furniture that was ripped or broken somehow. It felt like it could easily be the setting for a horror movie murder scene. Jack pushed the creepy thought out of his mind as his eyes landed on the box labelled 'Important Documents.'

Jack sifted through the box, boring page after page, looking for anything that looked remotely like a certificate or diploma. He began pulling stuff out to make it easier to search, and that's when he realized that this box wasn't his sister's. It was Evan's.

Jack stopped breathing for a minute when he picked up an old picture, a very old one by the looks of it. It pictured a happy little family. Behind them was a big backyard with a pool and lots of bushes and trees. The people were all wearing sunglasses. A mother with her arms over a little girl who stood in front of her. The girl clasped her hands around the mother's forearms. Beside them was a man holding a baby closely. All blond as the daylight.