Free JACK by Adrienne Wilder

Sarah.”
    Where had I heard that name before? I remembered. “Sarah of the Sunflowers?”
    Noah nodded.
    “And Jonas won’t let him?” Grom stood up and paced around the table.
    His angry voice echoed across the room. “This is an atrocity. You are a barbarian. A scourge. I need to see Sarah, let me see Sarah. I command it!” Grom slammed his fists down on the table. Jonas reached out to him and Grom yanked back. “You, my boy, obviously do not know who you are talking to.” He jabbed a finger towards the sky. “I am the great Gromwaldengreenwich. And I will bring down my wrath upon you. I will blight you with boils and plague. I demand to see Sarah or I shall unleash my wrath upon you and yours!”
    Jonas said something we couldn’t hear and shook his head.
    “Blasphemy! That is blasphemy!” Grom slapped a chair back against the floor and stormed out.
    Jonas slumped against the table with face in his hands. After a moment he ran his fingers through his hair. He looked tired. Standing, he moved like a much older man.
    Noah climbed off the sofa and motioned for me to follow. I stopped near the door and watched Jonas pick up the chair Grom had been sitting in. He slid it under the table next to his. When he turned to walk out he caught me staring. I didn’t understand how someone with such gentle eyes could be so cruel to Grom. What would it hurt to let him see Sarah of the Sunflowers?
    Jonas raised a hand and waved and for some reason I waved back.
    Noah came back through the door to stand beside me. He stopped, gaze narrowing on Jonas.
    “What’s wrong?” He shook his head. “Noah?” He took my hand and pulled me out the door.
    We found Grom standing in the corner of the dayroom looking out at the parking lot. He was far past his prime, but right then he looked a hundred years old.
    “Grom.”
    He swiped his fingers under his eye and grinned at me. “Ah, Just Jack. How are you this fine and wonderful day?”
    “I’m okay. What about you?”
    “What about me?”
    “Are you okay?”
    “Right as rain, my young knight, right as rain.” He put a hand on Noah’s shoulder. “Have you practiced your incantations and your potions today?”
    Noah hid his smile by looking at the floor.
    “Yes or no, boy?”
    “Yes.” Grom looked at me. “Just this morning Noah was showing me the hummingbird spell.”
    Grom’s forehead wrinkled. He looked at Noah. “That’s a very advanced spell. How did it go?”
Noah shrugged and pulled out a straw from his pocket. The end looked chewed on.
    Grom gasped. “I am impressed. So it worked! That’s wonderful!” He clapped Noah hard on the shoulder and he fell against me. I put out my arm to catch him.
    Noah’s hand brushed my hip and his shoulder pressed against my breast firm enough I knew he could feel the swell under my bindings. The contact made my skin tighten and an ache form in my stomach. His gaze met mine.
    My cheeks burned and I backed away. “I’m sorry.” Only I had no idea why. Noah tried to hold my hand and I took another step back. “I need to go.” He said something but I was already running down the hall.
    *** *** ***
     
    I stayed in my room. It was dinner time before I saw Noah again.
    “Jack?” Noah stood in the doorway, checker board under one arm and his pockets bulging. He cleared his throat. “Are you going to eat dinner?”
    “No.”
    “Why?”
    “I’m not hungry.” I was hungry. I was completely empty. A giant hollow space inside me that no amount of mushy beef stew could fill. I was convinced nothing would ever fill it and I realized as much as I’d loved Momma, the hole had always been there. And I knew even if she could come back it would always be there. I ached with the knowledge. It set fire to my insides, turning me to ash. Destroying my will to care or to live.
    Voice gone, Noah held up the checker board.
    “I don’t really feel like playing, either.” Why? I liked Noah, he’d become my friend. He made it possible for