Short Story - Stop It Jack!

Stop It Jack!

Illustration by Elisabeth Cintami

Suddenly, I remember her like I always did before today. Her sweet smile, and her bright eyes have defeated me to end my life. It was so weird, but it was real.

I might be a loser or anyword you used to mock me. I was a boy with nothing to be proud of. I thought that my life was worthless, and I just wanted to die until something that was so mysterious came.

"Stop it, Jack!" Those words started to haunt me. I always heard it when I was going to kill myself. I heard it when I was going to cut my wrist, when I was going to hang myself into a rope, and the last, when I was standing on the top of a building.

Those words just flew away, and I heard a voice. It was so real behind me. A girl's voice. It wanted me to stop myself. But, no! I wanted to die! I didn't want to hear it anymore. This place just wanted to throw me away. I was going to jump.

"Stop it, Jack!"

"Who are you?" I shouted.

Suddenly, everything went black.

I woke up, and was suprised when I looked at everything around me. I was in my room, and wondering how I could be there. Then, I saw a girl who was about my age came up into my room. She made her way to me and sat next to me. I was confused. She started to ruffle my hair with her fingers, smiling, then kissed my forehead.

"Who are you?" I was wondering.

"I'm nobody," she said before smiling again.

"What are you doing here? Are you the girl who have stopped me?"

"I just want to save your life."

"Save me?"

I thought that girl was crazy, she was smiling again and over again. I was staring at her eyes. She had brown eyes similar to mine. Her eyes were soft and warm. It was strange because I thought that I knew her personally. I felt that she was somebody who had known me close for a long time. She kissed my forehead again and ruffled my hair with her fingers.

"Don't end your own life! Solve your problems!" she said, softly.

"Why do you care about me?"

"One day you will know, sweetheart."

A kiss just landed on my forehead again before it moved to my cheek. I didn't know why I could feel safe and comfortable with her. It was confusing, but I didn't act against her. I was just lying on my bed with a comfortable feeling. After she kissed me, she left me alone, but I just followed her.

"Wait!" I was trying to stop her, but she just walked away.

I believed and swore that she walked to my backyard but when I was in my backyard, I couldn't find her even her shadow. I shouted, but nobody answered me. That girl was really gone.

I was so desperate looking for that girl, then I found a piece of photograph lying on the ground. I thought the photograph was not strange because that was my dad's photograph. But, I found it was strange after I realized that there was a girl embraced him, and I swore, she was not my mom. That girl looked like somebody, of course, she was like the girl who was with me in my room.

Because I couldn't handle this anymore, I decided to ask my dad about the photograph. I encouraged myself to enter his workroom because I had bad relation with him lately. I started to ask about the girl who embraced him on the photograph in my hand. I started to worry if that girl was my dad's "another girl", and she wanted to enter my room a few moments before I came to my dad's workroom. But that was an old photograph that was taken when my dad was so young.

With little nervousness, my dad started to explain all the things about that photograph. He explained about that girl, who was my real mother.

Her name was Rebecca Dawson. She was about seventeen years old when I was born, and my dad was twenty-five years old. My dad had not married my mother yet, which meant that I was an unwanted child. After I came, dad didn't marry her until she was found dead. She had commited suicide. She felt so alone since her family tossed her out. She cut her wrist until the blood came out and took her life away. My dad was always regreting that incident. He took me with him until he married Joyce Quinn, the only woman I knew as my mother but the fact was she just my step mother.

In the end, I realize and believe that life is so full of surprise. I have understood, that girl really loves me because she is my mother. I started to realize, I have to face all my problems since I knew that my mother didn't want me to repeat her mistakes in my life.

(The End)

Semarang, June 24th 2014 - January 1st 2015 (in Bahasa Indonesia)

Translated June 2015, edited August 12th 2015

ELISABETH DYAH AYU CINTAMI WISNUGROHO