Old man Jack

          Somewhere in the middle

Anna didn’t know how she got herself into this situation. Her so-called self-proclaimed father had his old wrinkly hand down her shirt while she cringed from the inside out.

Poppa James, as Anna used to call him had always made sure to comment on how perfect her tiny nipples were which made Anna loathe those moments even more.

Anna knew that someday and somehow she would get herself out of this reality she had created for herself.

                           Act now, regret later

Anna had just left her job at a well-established business with no ethical morals. Anna had climbed the promotion and responsibility ladder swiftly. Unfortunately, her salary didn’t follow her up the ladder.

Anna always possessed the ability to stand up for herself in ways other people only wished they could and Anna refused to be bullied any further.

The day arrived that her job went too far and accused Anna of ‘cooking the books’ to cover up one of their own mistakes.

Anna viciously exploded a mountain of cuss words that she’d kept in for so long and made sure they knew where to go screw themselves. 

The joyous feeling that overwhelmed Anna started wearing off as she got closer to the bus-stop. Anna didn’t always think before acting but knew deep down that she would have been much worse off if she hadn’t cut ties with her job when she did.

                          No end to tough times

Months had gone by as Anna struggled to find a new job. Anna’s husband Ricky; had more stress on his shoulders than he could handle while his new business struggled to take off.

Times were tough as a family battled putting food on their plates. Anna and Ricky looked at their daughter Lilly with such sadness because they couldn’t prevent her from living a life they once suffered.

 Having Anna’s mom- Diana, living with them didn’t ease their situation. The fighting began when Anna’s and Ricky’s relationship started feeling the strain of the stress.

Bills continued piling up and Anna knew that soon enough their landlord would be knocking on their door to collect the long-overdue rent.

All Anna could do was hope for something to come along and save them from a road that seemed to have repeated itself in Anna’s life over and over again like a broken record.

          A romantic light at the end of the tunnel

One unsuspected day Anna’s brother Alvin dropped by for a visit- but he wasn’t alone. Alvin introduced the old man standing next to him as Jack Curbs; a friend and business partner.

Jack glared at Anna with a look that she hadn’t seen since her father had left when she was sixteen years old. Anna ignored the feeling of alertness.

Anna and Alvin had developed their own secret language where they could communicate with one another using facial expressions alone. Alvin was trying to tell Anna that he had actually brought Jack as a romantic hook up for their mother.

Anna knew exactly what was coming when Alvin suggested that Jack take Diana out for a light lunch and asked his mom what she thought of the idea. Their mother wasn’t very impressed and her body language didn’t hide it. Before Diana could answer Anna abruptly answered on her mother's behalf ‘’Yes, I think that sounds like a lovely idea’’.

Anna knew that it might be the only chance to get her family out of the financial burden that shadowed over them. Anna’s mom was just going to have to take one for the team.

Anna knew that it wasn’t going to be a pleasant conversation trying to convince her mom to go out on a friendly lunch date with an old man Jack but knew how necessary it was.

 Anna hoped she could get her mom to understand the severity of their circumstances and that going on the lunch date would provide her mom with the opportunity to fish for information on old man Jack’s financial status.

Anna was well aware that she was basically selling her mom out but knew that tough times called for tough measures. Anna would do it herself but had a much better idea -if her plan worked of course.

After a lot of intense debating and bickering, Anna’s mom finally agreed to the lunch date. Diana wasn’t stupid and knew that it might be in the best interest of her daughter and granddaughter. It wouldn’t be the worst thing she’d ever done in her life and knew exactly what it meant to take one for her family.

                          Fishing for lunch

Anna dressed her mom up to impress. She knew this might be the only chance they were going to get to better their circumstances. Anna knew that she had to give it her all and it paid off. Old man Jack nearly died of a stroke when he laid eyes on Diana in her Sunday best.

An intuitive part of Anna’s mind alarmed her to the fact that it wasn’t her mom who almost caused the stroke but rather her as old man Jack glared straight past Diana at her and sent chills down her spine becoming the object of all her nightmares.

Anna ignored the creepy alarm bells and hurried her mom and old man Jack well on their way. Anna knew that her mom was going to need enough time to fish out everything they needed to know about an old man Jack's finances and whether he was going to be of any help to them at all.

Anna tried to silence her mind of the history that came creeping up to the front of her head. Anna knew that reliving the past wasn’t going to help anything and took comfort in the fact that old-timer Jack was of no real threat.

Anna feared for her daughter as she handed her little girl the last bit of food they had in their house.

As dusk set in Anna could hear old man Jack's car pull up at their front gate. She assumed it must have gone well as the date went well past lunch hours. Anna could hear the distinct sounds of grocery bags as her heart filled with hope.

Anna went out to open up the gate and saw the grocery bags in her mom’s hands. Her mom asked for her help carrying the bags as she told her that there were more bags in the boot.

Anna felt pride for her mom that she hadn’t really experienced before. Her mom had done it. Anna knew that she could count on her mom.

                        Living with an old man Jack

It wasn’t too long before Diana moved in with Jack. It wasn’t her most ideal situation but knew that she could get a lot more out of old man Jack if she made it seem like she was committing to his final years.

Diana figured that it was the best way to make amends to her daughter after putting her through everything she had gone through as a child. Diana knew exactly what buttons to push to get anything she desired from Old man Jack.

Anna and Ricky were living a little easier with one less mouth to feed but knew that the day would come that they would get that unwanted visitor at the door. Ricky was still struggling to get his business off the ground and couldn’t find enough money to pay the rent.

The day finally came where the landlord knocked on Anna and Ricky’s door. Not one of them wanted to answer it but knew that eventually one of them would have to answer the door as the problem wasn’t going to magically disappear.

 Ricky trying to do the manly thing walked towards the door but Anna stopped him. She was going to take this one as she believed it was her fault that they were in this situation, to begin with.

Anna opened the door and gave the landlord her best and sorriest smile trying to explain the tough situation that they were in but their landlord wasn’t hearing any of it. Their landlord furiously tossed an eviction notice at Anna that stated that they had to be out by the end of the week.

Ricky and Anna broke out into a huge fight that sadly happened in front of their three-year-old. Again Anna’s past was playing itself over and over like a badly broken record.

Anna’s past seemed to follow her regardless of how careful she was with each decision she had made in her adult life. Except for the decision she made a few months back quitting her job before she had secured a new one.

The only idea that Anna could come up with was to put the final part of her plan into action. The plan she came up with the day her brother brought old man Jack around. Anna was hoping to avoid this part of her plan but knew that she had no other option.

Anna took Lilly for an early morning bus ride to go visit her granny and old man Jack.

Anna was probably going to have to stop calling him old man Jack if she wanted her plan to work at all.

 Anna knew that her mom could get a lot out of Jack but realized that it wasn’t going to be as much as she would get out of him pretending to be a new loving daughter.

 Anna never really had a real father or at least one that loved and protected her. Pretending to be a sweet innocent girl with only good intentions would be as easy as pie.

Anna practiced her ‘’I need a father in my life’’ speech and felt the butterflies bouncing around against her stomach the whole trip. It is not the easiest thing in the world to jump straight to the loan favor or “I need accommodation for my family” question without actually previously putting any time or effort into the relationship. Usually, people see through that kind of thing straight away.

Anna put on her sweetest face while walking up the old man Jack's driveway.

To Anna’s surprise, Jack jumped the gun on the question and offered Anna and Lilly a place to stay. The room came with a condition, however; Ricky wasn’t allowed to move in with them. Jack had no time for Ricky as he gave the next ‘’I already feel like your dad’’ speech.

Anna couldn’t even bear to think of living away from her husband, let alone Lilly living away from her father. Ricky might not have been the most financially successful man in the world but no amount of money could ever come close to the way he loved his daughter. Anna couldn’t have asked for a more loving husband or better father for Lilly.

Anna couldn’t afford to think of her feelings when the roof over her daughter's head was in question. She knew that Ricky had a room at a friend’s house but that there wasn’t enough space for the whole family. So just for a while Anna and Ricky would go their separate ways until they made enough money to move into their own place again.

                  How does Poppa Jack sound?

Anna wasn’t taking any prisoners as she used Jack to her full advantage. Anna took what she could and a little more all in the name of survival. Anna called him Poppa Jack which seemed to give Anna an extra inheritance boost when Jack let her know that she had made it into his will.

Anna started to feel guilty about the mind game she was playing and felt even worse when she looked around her and saw that everyone else in the old man Jack's life was doing the exact same thing. Surely Jack must have picked up on the false smiles somewhere along the line; maybe he did and just decided to ignore it. Perhaps a fake family is better than no family at all.

The feeling of guilt quickly faded away the first time Poppa Jack came looking for payment for all the nice things that he had done for Anna and her family. So subtle in his approach that if you were a virgin to it you wouldn’t even have noticed what was going on until it was too late.

Anna knew that she had made a fatal mistake trying to take advantage of this old man who had no family; where was his family? A fact that should have been more carefully examined on the fishing date, however poverty doesn’t give you much space to think.

Anna knew that she was once again going to be taking a trip down memory lane the second Poppa Jack put the cash in her bra after winning it for her on the horses. Reminding her that he will always be there for her as the father she never had and that she shouldn’t worry when he gets a bit touchy as he never meant it sexually.

Anna tried to find some way out of it, she didn’t even know how she got herself into that situation. How did she manage to let it slip and why did she keep quiet about it.

Anna would ask herself all of these questions day in and day out while driving to the job sites with Poppa Jack. Once again she felt trapped by her job and her husband’s words in her head “just don’t lose your job”. Anna knew that she and her mom would lose their accommodation if she had to mention anything about it. Even worse she would lose her job and destroy the lives of countless people depending on their income from his business.

                          Sleep the pain away

Through all the time that Anna thought she was playing an innocent game with an old man’s feelings to survive, the old mad was doing the exact same thing to her, however, the old man’s games weren’t so innocent, in fact, they had become sicker than Anna could have ever imagined. At least the question of the ware bouts of his family was not a mystery to Anna anymore. Poppa Jack's family cut ties with him because they knew what was good for them.

 Anna concentrated on the clouds and the wellbeing of her daughter every time Poppa Jack would take her to a job site. She would fantasize of what she was going to write on his tombstone once the filthy old man had finally pegged.

Anna would sleep most of her free time away while zoning out on whatever drugs she could get her hands on the rest of the time. Anna was living in a fantasy world where Poppa Jack would finally meet his grave or better yet where she would help him get there. Anna had a couple of tricks hidden up her sleeve that would kill the old man and put her out of her misery.

Every time Anna got close enough to kill Poppa Jack she chickened out even though she knew that something had to be done to cut ties with Poppa Jack without losing everything she had suffered through for so long in silence.

                                The final game

Anna and Ricky had finally moved into a place together after Anna had saved up enough money. The first morning Anna had to return to work she messaged Poppa Jack letting him know that she couldn’t return to work as she had suffered a major mental breakdown and needed to work through her depression at home.

Anna told the rest of her family to carry on with their life as normal and not to worry about her as she was seeking professional help for her breakdown. Anna’s family line defines the definition of mental illness so it’s something she knew she could pull off.

The final move that Anna played in her game left Poppa Jack stuck in a condition where he lost his beautiful golden girl but still had to take care of the rest of Anna’s family and couldn’t say anything about it without everybody finding out what a dirty old man he is.

Anna carefully let one by one of her family members know of what she was going through vowing them into silence. Poppa Jack now surrounded by Anna’s family who knew his dark secret would use Poppa Jack until there was nothing left of him.

For now, Anna spends her time at home waiting for the day to arrive for that old man Jack to die a lonely death and finally receive her hard-earned inheritance, surrounded by the family members of the young woman he tried to play like a little girl.

Anna’s final words to Poppa Jack would read; You lose Old man Jack.

   The End.