Generations

The sky was leaden and overcast as Jack waited for the bus that evening. A group of girls standing nearby were conversing with one another at the tops of their voices. Jack became aware that one of them was shooting him burning looks. He knew not to make eye contact. It was not the done thing for a man to stare at a strange girl. Strange as in a stranger and acting strangely. On the bus he tried to stare blankly out of the window, but he could not avoid her burning stare out of the corner of his eye. She was a beautiful girl he supposed, with smooth, pale skin and long auburn hair, but she had a strangely angular profile with a very prominent chin… like his own, even though she was a girl and he supposed a prominent chin was quintessentially a masculine thing.

Back in his flat, he reflected again on how empty and monotonous his life seemed. A boring, dead end job and no girlfriend or family. And yet he still remembered a strange encounter he had had as a boy. But it was so strange. How to describe it? He still remembered the lady who had deflowered him. How could he forget her? With her round, bald bright green head, thick rubbery features and weird grin… She had said she was his good fairy. But there was not getting around the fact that she had seduced him and he was a mere boy then. What she had done would not have been legal for a human lady. What had she been? She couldn't really have been supernatural. Rather, she must have been on some kind of drug to behave so strangely and move so fast and she was wearing a strange mask… or had shaved her head and applied strange prosthetic makeup. As he slept, he dreamed about her again…

The next evening, he decided to have tea in a café. The tea in the café wasn't great, but at least it was warm. Suddenly he became aware of the strange girl from the bus sitting at a nearby table. She was staring at him again. There was another girl with her who was gazing at her anxiously. Jack tried to interest himself in his baked potato, but he couldn't help seeing her. The lamplight shone off her freckled nose and cheeks and glinted off her auburn hair. She had a long pale face, but she was definitely beautiful when viewed full on. However, her profile was strange and angular, sort of like a pale crescent moon cartoon face. She really must look strikingly like him. He didn't wait to find out what her problem was though, he decided to leave.

"Excuse me, sir," said the girl getting to her feet and striding to block his way to the door. He couldn't get to the door without pushing her out of the way. Well this was awkward… "Just walk with me down the street, OK?" she murmured out of the corner of her mouth. Oh well, if she did turn out to be a maniac, then at least she didn't look very strong. She was tall, but of a slender build. Her friend got nervously to her feet and trailed after them. They strode down the pavement. From side on, the girl's profile really was jagged. Her nose seemed like a beak and her chin jutted out. "Now that we're out of there…" she said. She had a pleasant, quite refined sounding voice really, but it was a bit strange and she had a slight difficulty making rounded vowels. Sort of like his voice would have been before it broke. "I owe you an explanation, Jack," she said. So she knew his name. She had been stalking him.

"Lottie," said her friend with a tone of warning in her voice, struggling to keep up on her shorter legs. OK, so now he knew her name as well. Lottie.

"I'm set on this, Anne," said Lottie tersely. She turned to face Jack. Her eyes were a pretty shade of light hazel. Actually like his were… "Jack," said Lottie. "I know you are my dad." His heart leapt. What was this about? Was she mad?

"I don't think he can be the one, he looks so young," said Anne. "Is he really over thirty?"

"That's the point," said Lottie. "Too young and not ready to be a father, remember?" She addressed Jack again. "We have to talk," she said, "I think in a pub where it's noisy anyway." She pointed sideways at one.

Well Jack knew that he had been seduced when he was just a boy. Could this strange girl have really come about from that coupling? He couldn't bear not knowing.

He followed her into the Duke Tavern and they sat down at a small wooden table. The smokey air was filled with such hubbub anyway. Noone would hear them.

"Now I must be the one to explain first," said Lottie. "Jack, my mother says that you and she got together when you were too young and that she was wrong to do it and that she was not herself at the time. I know you look too young to be a father to a girl as old as me. She said you didn't recognise her, because she wore a strange green mask." Jack gave a start. "That means something to you then," said Lottie, eyeing him shrewdly, "well I have a right to know where I come from."

"Your mother told you she wore a strange green mask…?" Repeated Jack, dazedly.

"Yes," said Lottie, "she said she wanted a child, but that you were not ready to be a father. But I nagged at her until I got an answer as to who you were. She is Nicole… your old art teacher."

Jack shook his head, trying to clear it. Nicole? His art teacher? She had been a really nice lady. Pretty too. He remembered… she had long, glossy honey blond hair, smooth skin, applied makeup so well. She had been young. Only twenty three, he knew that. She had always been kind to him. She never gave off the impression that she wanted anything sexual from him.

Lottie was looking at him anxiously. "Jack… please tell me… what happened? I need to hear your side of the story."

So this was it. If she was indeed his daughter, Jack must tell her how he had done it with the lady in the Mask.