The Outsiders (ON HIATUS)

Chapter Two - Preceding Effects

     Anyone who attended the funeral of Beverly Duke could surely say that it was probably the most depressing thing they had ever seen. Stood next to the casket was Jack Duke, a small Colton practically glued to his side. The father looked like a mess that had just barely pulled himself together, but Colton, on the other hand, stood tall and strong. Inside, Jack knew that Colton was being strong for everybody else. Even though Trevor and Mason had only been a year old, and Jaylen and Hanley barely aged two months; there was still a somber emotion immanent in the young children. The children's aunt and uncle were sitting with them on the right front pugh. The funeral parlor was dimly lit, with the smell of flowers overpowering the small room. Many faces came and went throughout the day, each one speaking words of gratitude, sorrow, remorse, and pity. When the time finally came to lay his wife to rest, Jack broke down into tears. Colton was right there to comfort his grieving father. Everybody says this was what was the most depressing of it all. The fact that a six-year-old boy was comforting a grieving thirty-two-year-old grown man; apparently that's quite a depressing picture.

     In the months preceding the funeral, Colton began his first grade year. Jack hired a nanny to watch the four youngest Duke children while he tended to the farm. Every night, he faced questions racing through his head. Why had this man only killed his wife? Hanley and Jaylen had been lying asleep in their bassinets, which were directly beside the couple's bed. Trevor and Colton had been asleep in their cribs in the next room. The man had even awoken Colton, leaving him unharmed to watch cartoons. Then another question began to enter itself into his thought process. When did the man arrive? How did the man get in? When did he leave? How did this all go unnoticed by Jack until it was too late? Surely he would've been able to hear a vehicle pull up in the driveway. He was also sure that he had locked all the doors and windows before heading out to the barn that morning. All in all, Jack Duke blamed himself for everything that happened. Maybe if he'd gathered the eggs just a little bit faster. Set out earlier, even. Anything that would've let him get back in the house earlier, prevent the man from entering their home. No matter what he thought, or wished, or dreamt of, Beverly Duke was dead; and there was nothing he could do to change that.

     One year finally passed. One long, slow, agonizing year. Hanley and Jaylen turned one year old, Trevor and Mason two, and Colton seven. It was summertime again, which meant extreme heat in Alabama. As most parents would, Jack took his five children to the city pool. Colton offered to help his father take care of his four younger siblings, and so he did. He gave up playing with his buddies in the shallow end of the big kid pool for taking care of four babies in the kiddie pool. This surprised Jack, because Colton had not been like this prior to his mother's death. Colton had been an eccentric, outgoing, loud, and rambunctious little boy. Although Jack appreciated the help from his son, he had wished that he would go back to being a normal child. What really startled Jack was when he placed small Jaylen in the water of the kiddie pool. For some odd reason, the water began to swirl, forming a small typhoon. Parents grabbed their children from the water at once. A surprised Jack lifted his daughter from the water in the same efforts as the other parents. Almost immediately, the water ceased to swirl. In confusion, he placed her back in the water, and it started creating a typhoon again. He removed her again, and it stopped swirling again. Not only did this utterly confuse anybody who had been watching, but they were also beginning to ask questions, and they were asking a lot of them. Hurriedly, Colton helped his father round up the remaining three Duke children, and they set back off for their truck in the parking lot.

     People around the town started spreading rumors. That little Jaylen Duke was cursed, or other things along those lines. To Jack, the rumors meant nothing. But although they meant nothing, that didn't change the fact that there was something a bit odd about his one-year-old daughter. Questions began to cloud his mind again. Had the man actually done something to Jaylen? If he had, had he also done something like this to Hanley? What about Trevor? Mason? Colton? His world was an unsolved mystery.