Джордан Шор - The Search

Saturday morning

They’d walked since early morning. Eventually, they’d stopped by a high, flowing creek with shallow waters. Jack gathered worms under the nearby rocks, as Julie drank from the creek. Julie was on her knees, but she’d stopped drinking to stare at her reflection in the water. For a brief second, her lips almost touched the surface.

Jack came up behind her, and focused on the back of her neck. Julie twitched when she noticed him, appearing startled by his sudden appearance. Jack sat down next to her, and washed the worms in water.

“You know, I’m not wearing any makeup, right?”

Jack didn’t respond. He just kept chewing his food.

“Women look a lot different without makeup. You know that, right?”

“Good for you, Julie,” Jack muttered, and kept chewing.

“Excuse me?” Julie looked puzzled.

“I mean, women wear so much makeup these days,” Jack mumbled. “And some women even have surgery.”

“So you prefer women who aren’t wearing makeup?”

“I guess.” Jack shrugged.

Julie looked disappointed and then turned her head away from Jack. Then she closed her eyes for a brief second and exhaled before she turned her head around and faced Jack with a stiff smile.

“So what gets you going, Jack? Is it the wrinkles? The tired eyes? The pimples?”

“I don’t know.” Jack sniffed. “It feels closer, I guess.”

“Closer? You mean, as in intimate?”

“And genuine,” Jack added.

Julie glanced at the water surface before she turned her head away from Jack. Then she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Jack briefly glanced at the water surface, but then he kept staring at the back of Julie’s neck.

“Nowadays, it seems as though women strive to appear less human. Like being human, isn’t fashionable anymore,” Jack said. “Nowadays, women don’t have wrinkles and they smell like pastry.”

Julie turned around and made a face. “You don’t like pastry?”

“No, I like pastry.”

“Then you should like the perfume I’m wearing,” Julie said with a modest smile. “It’s apple pie and cinnamon.”

“No, that’s not it.”

“I’m pretty sure it is, Jack.”

“No, you don’t smell like apple pie.”

“I think I know my own perfume.” Julie leaned into Jack. “Smell me.”

“I can’t smell your perfume now, but when I carried you around for the first couple of days, I thought you smelled like chocolate or something, but now you smell—”

“Careful now Jack,” Julie interrupted, and looked Jack in the eyes. “I believe the word you’re looking for is genuine.”

Jack chuckled, and then coughed a few times. “I was about to say, like a human being, but I guess genuine is just as true.”

Jack focused on the worm that sprawled around between his fingers.

“Can I interest you in a worm?”

“I’m more in the mood for apple pie, now.” Julie smiled.

Jack chuckled. “Me too.”

Jack threw the worm into the creek. Then suddenly he jumped to his feet and ran out into the middle of the creek; with water up to his knees.

“What’s wrong?”

“There’s fish in the creek.”

Jack dashed a yard to his left and tried to catch a fish with his bare hands.

“That’s not going to work, Jack. Even if you catch one, you’d lose it just as fast. It’s too slippery,” Julie said. “Do you still have the steel wire from my bra?”

Jack pointed at Julie as a sign of acknowledgement and then reached into his inside jacket pocket. But he didn’t take out a wire—he took out a note. Jack read the note with a puzzled look on his face. Then, he turned his head all the way back, and looked at the sky; he looked defeated.

“What’s wrong?” Julie asked. “What does it say?”

“I shouldn’t have made those remarks.” Jack shook his head. “Now, I feel bad.”

“Why, what did the note say?”

“Read it yourself.” Jack said, and handed Julie the note. “I’ll find a branch to attach the wire to.”

Jack came back a few minutes later with something that resembled a spear.

“You shouldn’t feel bad, Jack.”

“I shouldn’t have made those remarks.”

“Well, you didn’t know.”

Julie extended her arm toward Jack, the note still in her hand.

“You hold onto it, Julie. Your pocket has a zipper.”

Jack reached into his left pants pocket and took out a gold ring.

“Hold onto this too, so I don’t lose it while fishing.”

Jack handed Julie the ring before he walked out into the middle of the flowing creek. Julie carefully studied the ring before she put the ring in her right pocket along with the note; she closed the zipper.

Jack moved several rocks around in the shallow creek.

“Are you searching for gold?” Julie smiled.

“I’m building a horseshoe out of rocks, so I can lure the fish into a dead end.”

A while later, after several disappointing stabbing attempts, Jack lifted the spear in the air, and smiled triumphantly; the fish sprawled at the end of the spear. They had plenty of fish for the next couple of hours, and they picked the fish to the bones.

Jack stood up. “We should get a move on.”

“So, you’re married?” Julie suddenly asked while she rose to her feet.

“No, I’m not married,” Jack responded.

Julie took the ring out of her pocket. The note fell to the ground, but she didn’t notice. Julie held the ring up for Jack to see.

“You’re telling me this isn’t a wedding ring.”

“No, it’s a wedding ring all right.” Jack nodded. “But it’s not mine. The ring belongs to Andrew. I checked his pockets when I took his pants. I put the ring in my pocket, so it wouldn’t get lost.”

Julie put the ring in her pocket and closed the zipper.

“So Andrew had his wedding ring in his pocket?”

Jack nodded, and raised his left eyebrow.

“That sounds about right.” Julie shook her head. “So, do you have a girlfriend, perhaps?”

“No, it’s just me.”

Julie bowed her head as she climbed on Jack’s back; she looked just as disappointed and confused as previously.

They walked along the creek, the note still on the ground.

Saturday morning

George expected Mike Williams to be alone in his office this morning, but instead he was in the company of two men George recognized as legal representatives. Mike gestured through the glass windows that George should wait outside the office. He noticed the envelope lying on Mike’s desk and he feared that his assumption was right—Captain Daniels had left a suicide letter.

George wonder if the company had already begun the process of filing for bankruptcy, as he assumed the insurance company wouldn’t cover the damage if the crash was deliberately caused by one of the F.A. employees.

The two legal representatives had looks of defeat as they left the office.

By now, George Stanton had grown accustomed to the CEO’s office, which didn’t feel as intimidating as it had the week before. However, the envelope lying on his boss’s desk did look menacing. George felt a tension in his chest.

“What do you have there, Mike?”

George felt certain he knew the answer to his question.

But Mike Williams didn’t provide his employee with an answer right away. He just handed George the envelope. George thought his boss had a look of resignation.

George opened the envelope and sprinted his way through the single sheet of paper. To his relief, the envelope didn’t contain a suicide letter from Captain Daniels. Rather it was a formal complaint about Daniels from one of his co-workers, from a man named Isaac Gregorian.