Nightshift 29, Patient Library

[mister_radio]

There was music playing in the library.

The door was closed and shut, but music filtered out anyway.  Inside, the room was lit with battery operated lanterns set on tables.  The tables themselves had been moved and arranged into a U formation, one table horizontal in the center of the room with two tables parallel to one another set against its ends

Comments

[mister_radio]

"Bound I am by the rules of three," Jack said, his voice taking on the tone he used when making his broadcasts. "I was born in the cold, dreaming of the light. I counted stars at night when I could not see them. I had a dream, of a world where children didn't go hungry, where death didn't come with fiery quickness, where our land was truly the land of plenty. And as I grew I learned the words and the numbers and the formulas to change the world. Among the ungulates I worked my craft, until fortune and fate smiled upon me." Jack paused to take a drag of his cigarette

[mister_radio]

"But that's all there is." Jack shrugged. "My story is not particularly interesting, I'm afraid. I tried to do that which was right, I saw the error of my ways, and now I fight to bring down the evil I once climbed into bed with." He hadn't ever said he'd give intimate details.

"There are only two characters that matter, my friend. The rest are background players, naught but friends who flew before, cardboard cutouts to pad the scenery. Were you expecting Shakespeare? I'm afraid you're going to have to be content with something more along the lines of Chaucer. But hey, you've still got some juicy betrayal and redemption going on."

[mister_radio]

"Ha!" Jack laughed, obviously pleased. "But social satire is such a handy illustration tool." Had L gotten his little hint? Maybe. Interesting. It was so very interesting.

"I like a guy who can play with me," he said, nodding. "You understand how it works. But now, my real question, if you'd be so kind as to indulge me." He leaned forward, a serious expression on his face. His questions had been chosen carefully, lined up in his mind like bullets ready to be fired.

"Have you ever been in love?"

[mister_radio]

"I'm afraid I can't agree, my friend." Jack's expression didn't change that much, and he leaned back. "You're not human unless you love. Even if you can't act on it, even it comes to naught, there is no greater nepenthe than that small stirring of the soul that is sweet passion for another human being. It is that which reminds us we are alive. Without it..." He shook his head, almost sadly.

"Sometimes hindrances are worth it. Sometimes the pain and mistakes and misfortune that follow are nothing in the face of yearning. But thank you, for your answer. You have another question, go ahead and lay it out."

[mister_radio]

At first Jack simply stared, as though he'd misheard.

And then he grinned, widely, once more delighted and impressed with this strange young man before him.

"And if there is no room upon the hill?" he countered, falling into this oh so easily. "Those freaks were right when they said you were dead, hmm? Paul isn't that bloody, only his hands, but there's a shadow hanging over him. But we'll play the game until the end, won't we? All of us, I suppose. You and I and Lucifer Sam here. They say the fallout was all the fault of a woman. Funny how that works, isn't it? Maybe there were other factors at work, but it all comes back to a woman. History repeats, the pages writing the same lines again and again and again."

He snuffed out his cigarette and lit another, one hand moving to lazily stroke the cat's head.

[mister_radio]

Jack steepled his hands under his chin and chuckled some.

"Another place you and I differ," Jack mused, the words seemingly coming with no prompting. "You don't mind a life of solitude. Ah well. We're bantering on and on and our game still stands, and time is ticking away the moments. It's my turn to ask a question, and I have one ready and waiting." Jack lowered his hands on the table in front of him.

"Have you any regrets?"

[mister_radio]

All this 'can't'. Jack didn't buy it. "Everyone has free will," he mused. "It's not a matter of can or can't, it's a matter of won't. I don't care what you want to do or not do, but own up to your choices."

So few people did, though....

"You've got one last question."