Watch You’re Dealing With

• Daniel Hua, Grade 10
• Short Story
• 2018

Jack Kelsey was sound asleep on his worn out bed like his married status he was separated from his beloved wife and 2 sons. Because of this, Jack was in an anxiously light sleep.
He could hear the birds sing as the dark clouds grumbled angrily moving across the hill, he smells the damp, humid air as it caresses his body touching his feet to his head…unexpectedly, horrific thunder screamed from the dark clouds, closely followed by a strike of lighting. Jack was jolted by the violent storm. Breaking the silence of peace, his heart jumped out of his body, he was blinded by the thunder’s flash as he moves upright.He heard a hollow knocking against the front door after following by lighting showers……
“Jacks...”
All at once he rushed down the hallway. Again, the figure shouted he name louder, Jack open the doors to the surprise was it his lawyer, Mark. He welcomed Mark to come into the living room of the apartment.
Mark politely said he had some important paperwork and that Jack needs to sign some of the paperwork soon as possible. Jack could smell the earthiness of the wet mud on Mark’s shoe and coat and the unique smell of the rain mixing with Mark’s musk as he dragged his feet along the floorboards spreading the muddy rain water. Mark locked his eyes on jack sensing the intense tension. Mark had now become motionless, and he kept his head up and locked his eye on Jack's eyes.
"This is going to be a bit of a shock to you, I'm afraid,"

Mark slowly and carefully explain to Jack. It didn't take long, four or five minutes at most, and Jack stayed very still through it all, watching him with a kind of dazed horror as he went further and further away from him with each word, his heart was being rapidly shot by every movement of Mark’s lip. He stops and gazed at his surrounding and wonder if time just stopped, he felt light-headed and a heavy sinking feeling in his stomach he did not cry, nor grit his teeth.
That all changed recently, Jack had been focusing too much on work but on that one fateful night, he recalled getting home late. An argument a broke out loose like Pandora box. Adding fuel to the fire, they didn't stop arguing, insulting, threatening each other. Jack's wife was fed up with it they were separated by the end of it…Snapping back into reality, Jack noticed only a couple of second passed.
"So, there it is," Mark addedJack’s first instinct was not to believe any of it, to reject it all. He realises that his differently and he was wrong all along, he wouldn’t have taken his family for granted. He realised he was stubborn while arguing with his wife, she told him to focus on your family rather than his work.
With a deep breath, Jack picked up the phone and went back into the bathroom. Without any expectations, he decided to pick up the phone and call his wife reconsider the divorce papers. Uncertainty not knowing his outcome…