This is just a small ficlet about Jess' childhood, let me know how you like it.
Jess loved to watch people, he felt like he could sit all day just to watch them, just to imagine what their lives were like. As if the world was one huge book, and everyone was a character, everyone had a plot, everyone was an antagonist and perhaps the hero too. Watching people made him forget himself, that antagonist part of him. That part of him that wanted to kick holes in the walls, the fiery part of him that wanted to scream curses at his Mom, that wanted occasionally felt hate so bad he thought he may kill somebody. At twelve years old, Jess figured he had it all worked out. All heroes had to have their dismal childhood, to give them strength to do extraordinary things. To save people from burning buildings you had to be beaten as a child, to have a true love you had to be hated, to be someone's hero that was his goal, somewhere in the future, not today.
He picked himself up off the bench, threw his backpack over his shoulder, took a withering glance at his apartment building where his Mom lay still, snoring, hung over.
"Jess! Watching shadows again?" Mordecai called to him, walking over with a crooked smile and lit up eyes that meant two things: trouble and fun.
Mordecai was his best friend, his only friend, his partner in temporary antagonism. They were going to enjoy every minute of it. Mordecai threw every inch of his 5'4 frame into his exploits and Jess was along for the ride one hundred percent.
"Cai! Been waiting on you."
He rolled his brown eyes and gestured with his hands, to a lowly window on the eight floor. "My Mom." He put his voice into a high pitched alto "Now you better be going to school honey, or I'm going to whip your ass."
"Yes mother, so off to school we go?" Jess replied sarcastically.
Mordecai elbowed him. "What do they have to teach us? Right triangles, verbs, behaviour contusive to a public school in the projects? Man I've got all that shit down!" Jess nodded, with a high five.
"Lets get out of here."
They pushed past the other boys and girls heading to school and kept on walking. They were similar in a lot of ways, they were fatherless, had mothers who enjoyed alcohol and men who were less than savoury, and they loved trouble. But perhaps they were more different than the same, Jess was in it for the short hall, he was riding it out, waiting for his moment, waiting for his moment to break out of his life, waiting to break away from his mom, the smell of stale beer, New York and all things that held him back, perhaps even Mordecai. There was no short hall for Mordecai, his father had been shot by a crack dealer when Mordecai was two, and he thought that was heroism. His goal was to experience one lifetime of fun, no interruptions, no stops, till death.
"Well what today?" They were loitering at the subway station, waiting for the right moment.
Jess shrugged, watching the people, drop their money and get their tickets, waiting on the platform, reading their newspapers and carrying their briefcases.
"I'm thinking we could make money today." Cai raised his eyebrows.
"I bet I can make more than you."
"Bullshit, four smokes I beat you."
"Eight."
"Deal." They shook hands. They turned to look at they heard the familiar whistle of the approaching subway station.
Jess turned to Mordecai, smiling. "Ready?"
"Go!" They cried in unison, taking off at a run, and hurtling over at the pay stations, and running into the subway as the chime sounded and the doors closed.
There were few ways for two twelve year old kids on the run from school to make money, besides drugs. One was the tried and true petty crime, and the other was scamming drug addicts in Washington Square park. They knew both, and they were masters. They had travelled all over New York city, and sampled most of its delights on scammed money. From their first drinks down on Ellis island pier, to Jess' first crush on a fifth avenue girl.
The Washington square park drug addicts were gamblers and as long as you didn't take too much, friendly losers. They played three games, chess, chance and cards. Mordecai despite his demeanour, was no good at any of the three.
"You are about to be out some smokes, I hope you got 'em." Jess teased as the entered the park. Jess rustled around in his bag, past the overdue library books, to pull out four rumpled dollar bills.
"That all you got?"
"Pickings been slim on the Mom front."
"I got six." Mordecai handed him a dollar bill and they headed off their separate ways.
Drugs addicts could be nice, friendly even, they had nothing to do with their lives and Jess didn't blame them. They used to be little antagonists that fell through the cracks and never found their way to heroism.
"Jess, little man. You up for a game today?" He was bald, black, wearing too many clothes for the occasion, but he had a smile, and always recommended a good book.
"What you been reading?" The man asked moving his pawn.
"A clockwork orange."
"That's shit, violence, hatred, corrupt governments, the endings good. When you're done, Steinbeck, East of Eden. With that book, you make one of two choices. Aron or Caleb, despite first impressions, pick Caleb. I know how you feel about heroes."
Jess smiled, silently writing down the information in his head. "Check."
"Already? I could have sworn we've just begun." The man replied, moving his knight.
"Begun? Its over." Jess replied his eyes bright. "Check-mate."
"I have to stop playing you, you always beat me." He handed him two ones and four quarters. "Come back when you've read Steinbeck."
Jess was walking away, when he felt Moredcai grab his elbow at a full run, jerking him along.
"Good news, I made nine bucks, bad news, smack addict figured out how I was cheating."
"Jesus Christ, Cai just play fair, the smack lowers they brain count anyway, they are easy to beat." Jess replied as they sprinted out of Washington Square Park.
"Bullshit, you only beat Pedro."
"You've never beat Pedro, you once lost fourteen bucks and a half pack of cigarettes to Pedro."
"You beat Pedro, I figured I could beat Pedro."
"You can't cheat at chess you fuck-up." Jess replied dryly, as they slowed to a jog. "You are going to ruin our reputation, and we'll end up penniless and stealing TV's from JC Penny."
"Shut up J."
"Cough over the smokes."
"I made more than you."
"You cheated."
"Good point."
Jess smirked. "Damn right."
"Four."
"Eight."
"Six?"
"Deal." Mordecai took out a rumpled pack of cigarettes from his jeans and threw it a Jess. Jess looked at the pack with disgust.
"Reds? You're losing it."
"I didn't hear about you stealing from a sleeping two hundred and fifty pound man sleeping on my couch."
"Reds, it is." Jess was sad to have left the park so soon. He had other people he wanted to talk to, Jamal always told him about politics and Reese, despite always beating him, could tell him the best songs, the best records, the best musician stories. Despite their smack, despite their stuttered quick way of speaking, despite their smell, those men in Washington Square park were his heroes.
"Twenty one bucks." Cai broke Jess out of is silent thoughts and jerked him back to reality.
"I wanna hit the library." Jess finally said.
"Its kind of out of the way J."
"Out of the way? How about that time we followed that girl for sixteen blocks just because you liked her ass?"
"I'm never going to live that down? It was a nice ass."
Jess nodded. "I'm with you, but six blocks of starring at that ass was enough for me."
"Alright we can go to the damn library, but really, too schoolish."
"Not the books I read."
The leaped the barrier on the subway and got on. Jess reached and pulled out his book from his bag. Occasionally looking up from his page to look at a new person who had just come in. So many types of people on subways, by the time they had got off Jess had created his own little story for all of them. The teenager starring moodily out the window, had accidentally killed his brother and was shunned by his family, the middle aged man had cheated on his wife with his floozy secretary who later bribed him with incriminating photos.
Jess always spent time at the library alone. Cai was a self proclaimed no library man. Jess didn't ask where he went and he didn't want to know. Jess climbed the library stairs alone and Mordecai disappeared around a corner.
Jess returned a few books, checked out East of Eden. He sat outside, his back against one the gigantic pillars reading, the sun in his face, his mind floating away. Living another life in print.
"Hey Jess!" Mordecai was at his side. It could have been an hour, it could have been two. He couldn't say, he didn't care.
"Hey Cai." Jess stood up and tossed his bag over his shoulder.
"I got you a hotdog with all of your favourite toppings, and a pack of lucky strike."
"My favourite." Jess replied gladly accepting the both. He shook the pack of cigarettes. "This isn't full."
Cai raised an eyebrow. "I had to take my share."
Jess grunted his mouth full of hot dog.
"So I figured on our way home, we should cut through the school ground's, just so my mother can't guilt me. Just so she can't give me that, 'now don't lie to me boy!' speech because god knows we've all heard that one enough."
"Your Mom has given me that speech Cai."
"I remember. It wasn't pretty."
"Pretty your mother is not."
"Shut up."
Jess flicked his remaining bun to the pigeon population on his right, watching them squawk, and hog over it, inwardly pleased to create such chaos amongst them.
The trip home was long and uneventful. Jess watched people, and Cai occasionally stole from them.
They walked through their school yard, minutes after the final bell rang, just slightly behind the real students.
"How do these losers stand coming here everyday?" Mordecai took a pull on the final red, before dropping it.
"You mean how do they not continuously beat their heads against the windows, until they break, and cut their wrists with them? How should I know? I don't go."
"Me neither."
"Losers don't know what they're missing."
In a blink they were standing in front of their own building again.
"Tomorrow, we'll spend the cash." Cai said with an air of finality, winking at Jess.
"It's a deal."
"You be out here later?"
Jess gestured to a patch of grass over to the right. 'I'll be here." There was no point in going to his apartment yet. His mom would be groggy, cranky, and drinking again. The idea of his book, a square of grass, a package of cigarettes, and a promise of heroism down the road appealed to him far more.
Jess loved to watch people, he felt like he could sit all day just to watch them, just to imagine what their lives were like. As if the world was one huge book, and everyone was a character, everyone had a plot, everyone was an antagonist and perhaps the hero too. Watching people made him forget himself, that antagonist part of him. That part of him that wanted to kick holes in the walls, the fiery part of him that wanted to scream curses at his Mom, that wanted occasionally felt hate so bad he thought he may kill somebody. At twelve years old, Jess figured he had it all worked out. All heroes had to have their dismal childhood, to give them strength to do extraordinary things. To save people from burning buildings you had to be beaten as a child, to have a true love you had to be hated, to be someone's hero that was his goal, somewhere in the future, not today.
He picked himself up off the bench, threw his backpack over his shoulder, took a withering glance at his apartment building where his Mom lay still, snoring, hung over.
"Jess! Watching shadows again?" Mordecai called to him, walking over with a crooked smile and lit up eyes that meant two things: trouble and fun.
Mordecai was his best friend, his only friend, his partner in temporary antagonism. They were going to enjoy every minute of it. Mordecai threw every inch of his 5'4 frame into his exploits and Jess was along for the ride one hundred percent.
"Cai! Been waiting on you."
He rolled his brown eyes and gestured with his hands, to a lowly window on the eight floor. "My Mom." He put his voice into a high pitched alto "Now you better be going to school honey, or I'm going to whip your ass."
"Yes mother, so off to school we go?" Jess replied sarcastically.
Mordecai elbowed him. "What do they have to teach us? Right triangles, verbs, behaviour contusive to a public school in the projects? Man I've got all that shit down!" Jess nodded, with a high five.
"Lets get out of here."
They pushed past the other boys and girls heading to school and kept on walking. They were similar in a lot of ways, they were fatherless, had mothers who enjoyed alcohol and men who were less than savoury, and they loved trouble. But perhaps they were more different than the same, Jess was in it for the short hall, he was riding it out, waiting for his moment, waiting for his moment to break out of his life, waiting to break away from his mom, the smell of stale beer, New York and all things that held him back, perhaps even Mordecai. There was no short hall for Mordecai, his father had been shot by a crack dealer when Mordecai was two, and he thought that was heroism. His goal was to experience one lifetime of fun, no interruptions, no stops, till death.
"Well what today?" They were loitering at the subway station, waiting for the right moment.
Jess shrugged, watching the people, drop their money and get their tickets, waiting on the platform, reading their newspapers and carrying their briefcases.
"I'm thinking we could make money today." Cai raised his eyebrows.
"I bet I can make more than you."
"Bullshit, four smokes I beat you."
"Eight."
"Deal." They shook hands. They turned to look at they heard the familiar whistle of the approaching subway station.
Jess turned to Mordecai, smiling. "Ready?"
"Go!" They cried in unison, taking off at a run, and hurtling over at the pay stations, and running into the subway as the chime sounded and the doors closed.
There were few ways for two twelve year old kids on the run from school to make money, besides drugs. One was the tried and true petty crime, and the other was scamming drug addicts in Washington Square park. They knew both, and they were masters. They had travelled all over New York city, and sampled most of its delights on scammed money. From their first drinks down on Ellis island pier, to Jess' first crush on a fifth avenue girl.
The Washington square park drug addicts were gamblers and as long as you didn't take too much, friendly losers. They played three games, chess, chance and cards. Mordecai despite his demeanour, was no good at any of the three.
"You are about to be out some smokes, I hope you got 'em." Jess teased as the entered the park. Jess rustled around in his bag, past the overdue library books, to pull out four rumpled dollar bills.
"That all you got?"
"Pickings been slim on the Mom front."
"I got six." Mordecai handed him a dollar bill and they headed off their separate ways.
Drugs addicts could be nice, friendly even, they had nothing to do with their lives and Jess didn't blame them. They used to be little antagonists that fell through the cracks and never found their way to heroism.
"Jess, little man. You up for a game today?" He was bald, black, wearing too many clothes for the occasion, but he had a smile, and always recommended a good book.
"What you been reading?" The man asked moving his pawn.
"A clockwork orange."
"That's shit, violence, hatred, corrupt governments, the endings good. When you're done, Steinbeck, East of Eden. With that book, you make one of two choices. Aron or Caleb, despite first impressions, pick Caleb. I know how you feel about heroes."
Jess smiled, silently writing down the information in his head. "Check."
"Already? I could have sworn we've just begun." The man replied, moving his knight.
"Begun? Its over." Jess replied his eyes bright. "Check-mate."
"I have to stop playing you, you always beat me." He handed him two ones and four quarters. "Come back when you've read Steinbeck."
Jess was walking away, when he felt Moredcai grab his elbow at a full run, jerking him along.
"Good news, I made nine bucks, bad news, smack addict figured out how I was cheating."
"Jesus Christ, Cai just play fair, the smack lowers they brain count anyway, they are easy to beat." Jess replied as they sprinted out of Washington Square Park.
"Bullshit, you only beat Pedro."
"You've never beat Pedro, you once lost fourteen bucks and a half pack of cigarettes to Pedro."
"You beat Pedro, I figured I could beat Pedro."
"You can't cheat at chess you fuck-up." Jess replied dryly, as they slowed to a jog. "You are going to ruin our reputation, and we'll end up penniless and stealing TV's from JC Penny."
"Shut up J."
"Cough over the smokes."
"I made more than you."
"You cheated."
"Good point."
Jess smirked. "Damn right."
"Four."
"Eight."
"Six?"
"Deal." Mordecai took out a rumpled pack of cigarettes from his jeans and threw it a Jess. Jess looked at the pack with disgust.
"Reds? You're losing it."
"I didn't hear about you stealing from a sleeping two hundred and fifty pound man sleeping on my couch."
"Reds, it is." Jess was sad to have left the park so soon. He had other people he wanted to talk to, Jamal always told him about politics and Reese, despite always beating him, could tell him the best songs, the best records, the best musician stories. Despite their smack, despite their stuttered quick way of speaking, despite their smell, those men in Washington Square park were his heroes.
"Twenty one bucks." Cai broke Jess out of is silent thoughts and jerked him back to reality.
"I wanna hit the library." Jess finally said.
"Its kind of out of the way J."
"Out of the way? How about that time we followed that girl for sixteen blocks just because you liked her ass?"
"I'm never going to live that down? It was a nice ass."
Jess nodded. "I'm with you, but six blocks of starring at that ass was enough for me."
"Alright we can go to the damn library, but really, too schoolish."
"Not the books I read."
The leaped the barrier on the subway and got on. Jess reached and pulled out his book from his bag. Occasionally looking up from his page to look at a new person who had just come in. So many types of people on subways, by the time they had got off Jess had created his own little story for all of them. The teenager starring moodily out the window, had accidentally killed his brother and was shunned by his family, the middle aged man had cheated on his wife with his floozy secretary who later bribed him with incriminating photos.
Jess always spent time at the library alone. Cai was a self proclaimed no library man. Jess didn't ask where he went and he didn't want to know. Jess climbed the library stairs alone and Mordecai disappeared around a corner.
Jess returned a few books, checked out East of Eden. He sat outside, his back against one the gigantic pillars reading, the sun in his face, his mind floating away. Living another life in print.
"Hey Jess!" Mordecai was at his side. It could have been an hour, it could have been two. He couldn't say, he didn't care.
"Hey Cai." Jess stood up and tossed his bag over his shoulder.
"I got you a hotdog with all of your favourite toppings, and a pack of lucky strike."
"My favourite." Jess replied gladly accepting the both. He shook the pack of cigarettes. "This isn't full."
Cai raised an eyebrow. "I had to take my share."
Jess grunted his mouth full of hot dog.
"So I figured on our way home, we should cut through the school ground's, just so my mother can't guilt me. Just so she can't give me that, 'now don't lie to me boy!' speech because god knows we've all heard that one enough."
"Your Mom has given me that speech Cai."
"I remember. It wasn't pretty."
"Pretty your mother is not."
"Shut up."
Jess flicked his remaining bun to the pigeon population on his right, watching them squawk, and hog over it, inwardly pleased to create such chaos amongst them.
The trip home was long and uneventful. Jess watched people, and Cai occasionally stole from them.
They walked through their school yard, minutes after the final bell rang, just slightly behind the real students.
"How do these losers stand coming here everyday?" Mordecai took a pull on the final red, before dropping it.
"You mean how do they not continuously beat their heads against the windows, until they break, and cut their wrists with them? How should I know? I don't go."
"Me neither."
"Losers don't know what they're missing."
In a blink they were standing in front of their own building again.
"Tomorrow, we'll spend the cash." Cai said with an air of finality, winking at Jess.
"It's a deal."
"You be out here later?"
Jess gestured to a patch of grass over to the right. 'I'll be here." There was no point in going to his apartment yet. His mom would be groggy, cranky, and drinking again. The idea of his book, a square of grass, a package of cigarettes, and a promise of heroism down the road appealed to him far more.