Jack Killed Mom

This is a short story I did for my creative writing class.It was based on a song by Jenny Lewis called "Jack Killed Mom".I was actually really proud of it so I thought I would share with the world.Hope you like it.

Jack Killed Mom

Daniel Gauer

I was eight when Jack was born. Momma wasn’t ready to have another baby, and quite frankly no one else thought she should ever have had children in the first place. Momma was a little unstable and had lots of problems so she really didn’t need to take care of someone else. She never wanted me, but she wanted Jack even less. He was named after his daddy, a carnival worker with a glass eye named Jack Powell, his friends called him Glass Eyed Jack. Momma met him one night when the carnival was in town and they shared a little bit of time together. The next day momma woke up in a hotel room and realized that the carnival had left town. Glass Eyed Jack had wandered off into the night never to be seen again. Momma was in a real bad way after that ‘cause she knew that man wouldn’t come back. Eight months later Jack was born and momma went off the deep end.

Momma let me take care of Jack. Like most eight year old girls who are left in charge to raise their baby brother while their momma is out “scorin’ them a new daddy,” I was ill equipped. Jack was a handful. He always needed changin’ and feedin’ and whatnot. I didn’t know what to do with him most of the time. I would just hold him and make sure he was alright, but never once looked after him. She would give me a whippin’ if I did something wrong with Jack. Momma was scary sometimes.

I continued watching Jack for a long, long time. When Jack wanted momma to do something for him she would scream, “Jenny get your ass in here and help your brother.” I did the best I could for him, but I was still little myself. Jack was a sweet boy and wanted momma to do things for him and wanted her to love him just as much as he loved her. He didn’t understand why she was the way she was, but he still loved that woman wholeheartedly. When he would ask me why momma didn’t like him I would say, “She does like you Jackie Boy, but she don’t know how to show it.”

Momma was mean most of the time, but she got real bad when Jack was about five. If he would do somethin’ he wasn’t supposed to or break somethin’ momma would give him a real hard whippin’. She would say that he had problems and that she needed to take care of what was ailin’ him. Jack would cry and come to me. I would console him as best as I could, but I couldn’t stop momma from whippin’ him. I was tired of her treatin’ us bad. We tried real hard to do good at things. I worked real hard in school and got pretty good grades. I had a little trouble in math and momma would yell at me for it. Jack tried to get momma to show him some affection and treat him right, but she never did. I had grown to accept the fact that momma would never be a good person. Some folks just ain’t. It took a toll on Jack though on account of he didn’t know any better and couldn’t understand why momma didn’t love him back. I always wondered if Jack was wrong ‘cause he loved mom.

Jack started goin’ to school when he was six. He wanted to make momma happy so he would try real hard at school. He was a real good reader. In kindergarten he could read at a first grade level. He was proud of himself and I was proud of him too, but when he told momma about it she said he was bein’ rude and interrupting “The Wheel.” Jack was crushed. After that night things started goin’ bad for Jack. He stopped worryin’ about school and started sleepin’ in class. The only motivation Jack had in life was for momma to be proud of him and love him, and after she shot him down he finally lost most of that.

I would try to talk to Jack. I wanted to make him feel better. I told him it was okay if he didn’t love momma no more. I hadn’t for the longest time and I was doin’ just fine. Jack looked at me like I was some kind of fool and at the top of his voice he shouted, “Why don’t you love my momma! She’s a good momma! She just does mean stuff sometimes to make me learn! You don’t tell me what to do Jenny, you ain’t my momma!”

I didn’t know what to say. Jack had never been like that. He was always so sweet and lovin’ and now he was a monster. It scared me how fast he snapped. Jack got nasty with me a lot after that. Everything I did was wrong and stupid. If I would try to help him with something he would tell me he could do it himself. He got mean at school too. He would start fights in the school yard and after school he would hunt down kids to beat ‘em up. His teacher got concerned and called momma to come in for one of them parent teacher conferences.

Momma took me and Jack to the school one night for Jackie Boy’s conference. We walked in and sat down at the main office. They sent us to room 333 where Jack’s teacher Mr. Warren was. He was a good lookin’ man with real shiny teeth and nice hair. He wore a tie and a bright blue shirt. Momma saw him and started makin’ eyes at him. They sat down and Mr. Warren started talkin’ about all the bad things Jack had done. He said Jack had slept in class a lot and that he would say mean things to the other kids. He would push kids down and he even killed the class hamster by feedin’ it rubber cement. Momma should have been mad, but she just kept sayin’ flirty things and makin’ her cleavage slightly more noticeable. I was horrified by her and what Jack had done. I didn’t realize how bad he had gotten.

Later that night after Jackie had gone to sleep. Momma went out to the bar like she did every night. I stayed up late and watched some talk show hosted by that guy with the big puffy hair. Momma came back at about two in the morning with Mr. Warren. I was surprised and I got a little shocked when she started kissin’ on him and made me go up stairs. Jack woke up ‘cause of all the noise and saw momma kissin’ his teacher on the couch in the livin’ room. Jack saw red and went nuts. He started screamin’ and yelin’ and carryin’ on. Momma started doin’ the same thing. Mr. Warren crept outta the front door durin’ all of the commotion. I don’t blame him; I wouldn’t want to be in his situation either. Jack carried on the next few days. He was so mad at his teacher that he refused to go to school. He kept sayin’, “I’ma cut that man in half.”

Jack finally made it back to school. He was there an hour before he did anything. His teacher handed him a paper and Jackie Boy jumped up at him and stabbed him in the belly with his pencil. Mr. Warren put out a restraining order on Jack and he wasn’t allowed back at school. Momma decided for some reason that she was gonna home school Jack. I was confused, that’s like momma hostin’ an A.A meetin’, it just didn’t make sense.

Momma taught him stuff that she felt was important for a growin’ boy. She told him about ancient times and bible times and all the other times she knew nothing about. Momma didn’t have much schoolin’ so she was giving Jack a bunch of wrong information that Jack knew was wrong on account of he had already learnt it in school. Anytime he told momma different she would up and slap him across the face. Jack was wearin’ thin and was getting’ tired of the whippin’s and slaps and all that nonsense. I was afraid for little Jackie Boy, but there was nothin’ I could do ‘cept be there for him and he didn’t even want that.

Jack and mom kept workin’ on his schoolin’ for a little while. Jack was about twelve at this point and I was getting’ ready to move out of that mess of a place. Jack was still upset with mom and still kept takin’ all of her abuse. He still loved momma though even if she was an abusive maniac. She still thought that there was something wrong with the boy and I was startin’ to think she may be right, but not ‘cause he was born like that, but ‘cause she made him that way.

Jack was turnin’ into a young man and he was turnin’ into a scary one. He was always muttering to himself how he was gonna make momma love him. One day momma was working with Jack and getting real frustrated, which was no surprise ‘cause frustrated was here permanent mood. She was yellin’ at Jackie Boy ‘cause he couldn’t do some sort of math problem that she gave him. I don’t think she really knew what she was doin’, but she would get so mad at Jack when he couldn’t do his work. I don’t think she would have known any of the answers if she didn’t have ‘em in a book in front of her, but she expected Jack to get it right the first try. She had gotten so upset with him that she gave him a big smack on the cheek that left a purple and black bruise in the shape of a hand as soon as she removed her hand. Jack instantly started cryin’. Momma said, “I ain’t dealin’ with any more of yer shit today Jack. I’m gonna go take a nap and when I get up you better have all them questions answered on that paper or yer gonna get even worse than that.”

Jack came runnin’ into my room and was still cryin’. I was shocked to see him in here. He hadn’t wanted anything to do with me for the longest time. I grabbed him and held him close as soon as I seen the bruise on his face. I asked him what happened and he told me all the things momma had said to him and why she hit him. He was a mess. He had a scary look in his eye like he was gonna do somethin’ real bad. I told Jack that I loved him and wanted him to come live with me when I moved out. I didn’t want him anywhere near momma. I knew more of the same would happen and then there would be no one to protect him. He didn’t seem to calm down any. He was still a big ball of rage. Jack slowly walked out of my room without sayin’ a word.

He walked down the stairs and into the kitchen. He grabbed a bottle of whiskey off the counter and broke the bottle on the table. Glass shattered everywhere and the smell of Jim Beam filtered throughout the house. He took one of the many causes of momma’s abuse and went into her bedroom. I walked down the steps to see Jack go into her room with a look of evil on his face. He shut the door and I ran to it ‘cause I knew what Jack was gonna do. I busted the door open to hear momma screamin’ in pain and Jack sittin’ on the floor with the broken bottle in his hands and blood all over him.

I ran to momma first to see how bad she was. She was bleedin’ a lot and screamin’ so loud it was hard to concentrate on what had just happened. I was so shocked by what Jack had done that I threw up. I caught my breath and tried to figure out what to do. I got Jack out of the room and took the bottle away from him. He was in a state of shock and just went quiet. I called the ambulance and they sent some people out. They got to the house and went into momma’s room where she had been screamin’ for a good twenty minutes. They came out after a few minutes and told me they lost her. They also told me that the cops were on their way to see what had happened.

Jack started cryin’ as soon as he seen momma bein’ taken out in a body bag. He run up to her and started shoutin’, “I love you momma! Don’t go! I’m sorry momma! I didn’t mean to do it!”

I grabbed him and held him in my arms. The cops showed up and I told them everything that had happened while Jackie Boy kept on cryin’ in my arms. They took Jack away and talked to him about why he done what he did. He said he just wanted his momma to love him and that he wasn’t sure what he did. He blocked the whole incident out of his memory and doesn’t remember what he did.

They sent Jack to a juvenile center upstate. I would visit him when I could. I always sat there askin’ him if he knew why he was in there and he would say no. He would ask where momma was and when she was gonna come visit him. I told him that she wouldn’t be comin’ and he would get upset.

I was sad that it had ended that way. Jack was just lookin’ to be loved by his momma and instead ended up killin’ her ‘cause of it. When I would sit with Jack I always had a voice in my head askin’ me, “Was Jack wrong ‘cause he killed mom?”