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Note: Everything Jake, now Mon-Wed-Fri. For at least all of October. I’m also going to hold on to all of the fan art for the Christmas fan art week, I think I’ve taken enough time off this story, don’tcha think? Thank you all who did something, I’ve got it in a locked box under my bed and will show the world the week after Christmas Day. If you want to send me more stuff (for all you who wanted to do something, but didn’t) go ahead and send it on in. Also: What do you think Jake is going to get on his Final Exam? I’m looking for a letter grade, and the reason why. I already know what he’s getting, but for the person who come the closet in grade and reason will WIN A sketch of whatever you want EJAke related. E-mail’s only, first one in who gets it right wins, so that means some of you might have the same letter and reason and NOT WIN. First one in the box wins. Good luck. --Mike Jake leaned back in the chair and stretched his arms. This was it. He was finally done. Sure, there would need to be a rewrite, and when he got back to NY, he would have to type it up. But, for all intents and purposes, his final exam, autobiography, was complete. And it was only a little after one AM. Wonder if Faith was up? Jake crept down the hallway and paused in front of Kelly’s room. The door was open a crack, he could see that Kelly was outside on the beach. In two days Kelly would go back to New York, and then, a week or two after (they had already stayed longer than they had planned) Faith and him would go back. New York seemed like a bad dream, but it would be good to see his dad and sister again. And Megoth. It was like he had almost forgotten about Megoth, wonder what he was up to? The light was off in the room he was sharing with Faith. She was sleeping. Oh well. He looked over and saw that his cousin’s light was also off. There was a twinge of guilt for not spending more time with Mitchell, but he had a job. He was working a lot, same thing with his uncle. But Jake’s work was done. He crept back over to Kelly’s room and went out the sliding glass door to the beach. Jake breathed in the cool ocean air. The beach was dark but the moon was almost full, so everything had a soft glow. Jake looked into the blackness, the vastness of the ocean made him hold his breath. It was so dark and so still, the sheer size of it reminded Jake of how small he really was. His eyes adjusted to the low light and he saw a black clump on the beach about half way to the water. He recognized it instantly as Kelly Rose. Jake walked to where Kelly was sitting, the sand cool between his toes. Kelly said hi before Jake said anything. “You know”, Kelly said, without turning around, “I could almost sense you coming.”  Jake sat down, the smell of Kelly’s cigarette tempted his nostrils. The memory of coughing so violently it cracked ribs pushed the thought of a puff right out of his head. “Can’t sleep, Kelly?” “Can I ever?” Kelly looked at Jake, Jake was started to see Kelly’s eyes as black as the night. It must have been all over his face. “I can almost control it now… the eyes, I mean. It’s different when I… I call it cross over, but it’s more like…” “You have another sense.” “Yeah.” “I know how that is.” Kelly looked back at the ocean. He dunked his smoke in the sand. A beach, nature’s ashtray. “How’s the writing going?” “I’m done.” “Really? Seems like you’d be writing forever.” “Tell me about it. Thanks for your help, the other day.” “Sorry I didn’t take it seriously.” “It’s no problem… I just needed… I missed some parts. So your perspective was helpful.” “I don’t take anything seriously, Jake. I should’ve helped you better.” “Kelly, it’s no pro--” “But it is. It’s been bothering me. You obviously were taking this story seriously, and I came in and treated it like a joke. I treat everything like a joke, man. How do you stand me?” “I’m not sure. But seriously… relax. I said it’s no problem, it’s no problem. What’s really bothering you?” “What?” “Last time you acted like this, something else was bothering you.” “What do you mean last time?” > “Sophomore year? Second semester, maybe? Not too sure when, but you had a bug up your ass the size of the mother fucking, um, Death Star or someshit. You said it was nothing, but then said it was because you haven’t gotten laid in a while. Is that it? No pussy bothering you?” Kelly opened his pack of Reds and pulled one out with his mouth. He lit it, all while facing the ocean. He puffed, blew out. “Ever… Have you ever just felt small?” “How do you mean?” “Like… small, Jake. Like you don’t… like if you disappeared, no one would notice. Small.” “Are you going to kill yourself? I mean, I’d hate to have missed the signs if you did, y’know? Are you telling me I’m going to find you in a red bath tub buck naked?” “What?? Oh hell no, Jake, I would never kill myself. Why would I deny the world the joy that is me?” “See, that’s the Kelly Rose I know talking.” “I don’t think I’m the same Kelly Rose that I was before.” “And you really shouldn’t talk about yourself in third person, Kell.” “I know. But… I’ve changed, you can’t tell?” “We’ve all changed, man. Me, you, Faith, Megoth, we’re all different from when we first met each other. Me especially. You might have changed a little bit, but you’ve always been the rock, Kelly. Solid. And I’m not saying that you always will, we all go through shit, but to me, you’re the stable one.” “Do you really think that?” “Kelly, I have to. You know what they said to me. Randall Cohen took me away for five years and somehow I got back. I don’t think I wanted to get back, but, for whatever reason, here I am talking to you, the real you, on a beach in Southern California. He left an imprint on me, Kelly. I put a little of it in the story, not too much, but it’s enough of a problem to scare me half to death.” “What does any of that have to do with--” “You’re the anti-me, Kelly. If I ever loose control again…” “I am not the anti-you, Jake.” “When I first got to school, my room was relocated. To your room. I’ve seen and heard enough to think that it wasn’t a coincidence. Someone wanted us to be together.” “That doesn’t make too much sense. Why would someone want that?” “No idea, Kelly. So that I wouldn’t use my powers? So, if I did, you would be there to negate them?” “But I can’t negate them, Jake, I personally can’t be affected. That’s it.” “Are you sure?” “Pretty sure.” “So, if I said to you, Kelly: Try and push out your sixth sense so it encompasses the whole room, you don’t think you could do it?” “No… I never…” “Never thought of that.” “I don’t think I could do that, Jake. And what makes you think that it was for a negative reason you got switched? It could have been because someone wanted us to be friends.” “I… I never thought of that.” “Not everything is for the negative, Jake Bruno.” “But you understand now why I need you around, right?” “Yeah yeah, pansy boy. To keep your ass in check. I gotcha.” Jake looked back at the beach house, to see if maybe Faith’s light was on. It still wasn’t. Kelly lit another smoke. Jake looked again at the ocean. “When you asked me if I ever felt small, Kelly, the answer is yes. And I like it.”  “Faith tell you that?” “Ha-ha. Yes. It’s bad.” “I’m sure it’s not that—“ “It is. Really bad. Like, toothpick bad.” “That bad?” “Worse.” “See what I mean about making jokes about stuff?” “Yeah, you’re an asshole, Kelly.” “Thanks.” “Feeling small… what I mean… look at the ocean. Look up, look at all the stars. Those are big things.” “You want to be a writer? ‘Those are big things’. Classic.” “You know what I mean. There’s… a billion stars. More. Can you even imagine what infinity is like?” “Yes.” “Think more.” “I am--” “More, Kelly. Think of the most you can think of, and then think double that. Then double that. That’s just our galaxy. There are billions of galaxies. On this beach, think of a pebble as one star. From as far as we can see sand, horizon to horizon, each pebble, each grain of sand, that’s a sun.” “I…” “That makes me feel small. Makes me take nothing for granted, not anymore. Not when I can be pulled into another dimension for five years in the blink of an eye. We live on a speck of dust in the middle of no where. What really matters in life?” Kelly didn’t know what to say. He looked up, some stars were in sight, but not a whole sky full. Dull gray clouds and moonlight drowned most of them out. He pointed at one of the brighter ones. “See that star, Jake?” Jake looked up. He smiled. “That’s not a star, Kelly, that’s Mars.” “Wha… you sure?” “Keep staring at it. It’ll turn red.” “How are you sure?” “I couldn’t write too well last night so I took my cousins telescope and then flew above the cloud cover. Best view ever.” “I don’t know if you’re kidding or not, and honestly? I don’t want to know. What my point was, I know what you mean. It’s Mars, right? It’s far, too far for me or you to go in our lifetime. We’ll never know Mars. We’ll never know what it’s like to be burned alive on one of the Martian beaches, or freeze to death in one of the Martian poles. Me? I want to know everything. I want to know… everything. But… we’ll never learn everything, will we? That makes me feel small. But not in a bad way.” “We’ll never know what happens when you die.” “I’m going to hell.” “You believe in hell?” “Um…” “We’ll save that conversation for another time…” “You don’t believe in hell, Jake? To say that, you don’t believe in God?” “Another time, Kelly. I’;m not really in the mood to wax poetic about religion and how it doesn’t exist outside the context of the human mind.” “I believe in God, Jake.” “Sigh.” “Maybe you need Jesus to save you, Jake Bruno.” “Now you’re just being a dick.” “Sorry. I know you don’t want to talk about it, but I really do believe in God. Maybe not the God in religion, I agree with you about how it’s mostly man made, but I think there’s definitely a God out there. Someone’s got to be running the show.” “Why?” “Why? I… it feels right, Jake. That feeling of small you talked about? There are things that are greater than us out there. I… fuck it, you’re right. It’s too late to be all philosophic about this kind of shit now. But, rain check this conversation, I want to hear what you think.” Jake smiled. “Sure. I… I’m tired. I’m going to bed.” “Good idea. Wanna fly us back to the beach house?” “Sure, hold on.”    
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EVERYTHING JAKE is TM & (C) 2000-2011 by Mike Rosenzweig. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
