The Family Man

Chapter 5

The second day of Jack's personal hell unfurled a little more smoothly than the first day. His newly betrothed let him sleep in until ten o'clock.

he slipped on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt and crept downstairs. Clangs of dishes and raised voices traveled down the hall and he let the wafting smell of omelets and fresh coffee guide his feet to the kitchen.

Jackie had the phone cradled between her ear and shoulder as she tried to wrestle oatmeal into John Kennedy Jr's locked mouth. The child looked about thirty seconds away from erupting in hysterics. His small fists were clenched around the tray of his high chair, his Elmo bib slathered in what looked like mushed up peas.

"Come on, Johnny," Jackie was pleading, a colorful spoon at his tiny pursed lips. She sighed and spoke into the phone: "No Mom, I'm still here. Yes, John is eating.With all due respect, Mother, I can cook for my own children. They're not eating tar. Shocking, I know."

Jack cleared his throat and found a mug in one of the cabinets.

Jackie held her palm to the mouthpiece and looked up: "You okay?"

"Fine," he swallowed. "Continue."

She took the phone back. "No, that's just Jack. No, he's not sick. No, I am not keeping the AC up again. ...Mom, Lee did not get pneumonia from her air conditioning. I'm hanging up now."

The phone clattered on the kitchen table and Jackie huffed and raked her hair into a messy ponytail. The peas were temporarily abandoned and John took a keen interest in inspecting the spaces between his toes instead.

Jack found that he didn't know how to behave. He leaned against the kitchen counter and constantly adjusted positions, each more awkward than the last. Finally he drew up a chair and sipped his coffee in silence.

"Are you ...?" he cleared his throat. "Uh."

Jackie looked up with curious green eyes. A corner of her mouth quirked into a smile. "I'm okay. You know how I am when she calls me."

"Right," Jack mumbled around his cup. "I guess your mother hasn't changed."

"In the last 24 hour period?" grinned Jackie. "Nope. What a shame."

He smiled bitterly I meant in the last ten years. But explaining this was futile.

Jack shifted his attention to John, who was sucking on three fingers. The boy had light brown hair. He didn't understand why, until he remembered that his own hair had turned darker with age. The kid was cute. It was difficult to tell who he looked like. The eye color, of course, was Jackie. But he saw his own  features in the slightly upturned nose and rosy cheeks. The thought made him sentimental. It almost touched him.

John sensed his stare and looked up. Jack smiled hesitantly, half expecting tears to answer back. But the toddler grinned and reached his hands forward. Jack swallowed. Something urged him to take his little fist, but he couldn't raise his own hands from his lap. It was just too foreign. Too weird.

I'm not your father.

It was like Jack had taken over a different man's life. He had filled another man's shoes and gotten rid of the original model. Like he was no better than a Body Snatcher, and nobody was in on the secret. Nobody understood.

Jackie suddenly clapped her hands and startled Jack from his thoughts. He opened his eyes to find her standing right in front of him. He craned his neck back.

"Okay," she smiled. "I need you to go pick up Caroline."

He looked around. Somehow, he had failed to notice the older child's absence. I'm a natural at this parenting thing.

"From where?" Jack asked, bewildered.

"I don't know, I think the mothership said they'd drop him off around noon." Jackie rolled her eyes and sighed, "Karate, Jack. Did you forget she had a class?"

"...No."

"Good. Keys are on the counter."