Jack , livre ebook

Volume 2
Jack
Frank English
2QT Limited (Publishing)





First eBook Edition published 2016
2QT Limited (Publishing)
Unit 5 Commercial Courtyard
Duke Street
Settle
North Yorkshire
BD24 9RH
Copyright © Frank English 2016
The right of Frank English to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that no part of this book is to be reproduced, in any shape or form. Or by way of trade, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition, including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser, without prior permission of the copyright holder
Cover design: Charlotte Mouncey
Cover images: main photographs supplied by © Frank English
Additional images from iStockhoto.com
Other titles: Jack the Lad Volume 1
ePub ISBN 978-1-912014-65-1
A paperback fomat of this book is available ISBN 978-1-910077-98-6



To Marion and George Holmes,
Mi Grandma and Granddad - Marion and Jud





Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Author - Frank English



5


Chapter 1
“H ello, Jack,” a silky female voice surrounded him on his way into town just after his eighteenth birthday.
He swung around, surprised, not expecting to meet anyone. His close friend Gordon Gittins was supposed to go with him, but a last-minute family event had stopped him.
“Hello,” he answered politely. “But am I supposed to know you? I don’t think we’ve met. You obviously know my name, but I don’t have the pleasure of knowing yours.”
“My name’s Irene,” she smiled, “your…”
“…Auntie Blanche’s daughter,” he continued. “We have met, but it was a long time ago. I wouldn’t have recognised you.”
“Yes,” she went on, “it’s been a while. I’m here on a flying visit really.”
“You’re a pilot then?” he chuckled. Well, at least he thought it was funny.
“Look,” she said, allowing a friendly smile to creep into their conversation, “do you feel like a coffee somewhere? So we can have a chat?”
“Why?” he asked, in his usual pragmatic way. “Have you something to tell me that I need to know? Only, I have a lot to do today. I have to get a pair of new shoes with my birthday money.”



6


“And?” she asked, waiting for the rest.
“And what?” he puzzled. “Isn’t that enough for a Saturday morning in January?”
“Well,” she grimaced, “it would be good to have a chat before I fly back to Oz.”
“Oz?” he frowned. “Oh, of course. Australia.”
“Tell you what,” he offered, “seeing as we’re closely related, and I haven’t had the pleasure of getting to know you yet, why not come into town with me, help me to choose my shoes, and then come back to have a cup of tea at home. Me mam would love to meet you, I’m sure. Would that be OK?”
“Sounds like a plan,” she agreed, linking his arm. “Come on, then. Shoes it is. I hear Dolcis is a good shop…”
-o-
“How lovely of you to bring my son home safely,” Flo said, a slightly wicked smile creasing her face, “and with a pair of decent shoes, too. One thing I’ve not been able to do for years – is to get him to listen to the sense of buying decent shoes. Any chance you might come to live here, Irene?”
“I’m glad we met today,” she answered, sipping at her huge mug of tea. “We’ve met before, Auntie Flo, but it was quite some time ago, and I think the last time I saw Jack, I was ten.”
“I don’t remember that at all,” Jack said, scratching his spikes, and raising his eyebrows. “I must have been three or four, mustn’t I? I don’t like choosing shoes, or any other clothing for that matter. So I was glad of your help, Irene, and of your company.”
“You’re honoured, Irene,” Flo said. “Our Jack doesn’t usually do either social conversation or company.”
“To go back to your question, Auntie Flo,” Irene said with a smile, “I’m only going to be here another couple of days or so, before going back to Australia, otherwise I’d love



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to spend more time with you. Mum’s been poorly, you know. That’s the reason I’ve been here. She’s on the mend, but Dad has to keep an eye on her.”
“I had heard - but none of us has been to visit, I’m afraid. Not an easy person to visit, your mum,” Flo said. “You always were the adventurous one of Blanche’s brood, and I always thought you’d do something daring. What is it you do out there?”
“I know. Things have never been easy since the breakdown between the triumvirate and Uncle Eric,” Irene answered. “I’m a doctor now, in Adelaide.”
“I don’t know where that is,” Flo said, “but I’m sure Mr Encyclopaedia here will find it as soon as you’re gone.”
They all laughed at the notion, as they finished their tea.
“Triumvirate?” Flo asked, puzzled.
“Rule of an organisation by three people,” Jack explained. “The three here must be Auntie Blanche, Uncle Harold, and Uncle Allan. Dad always thought they were against him.”
“Mmm,” Flo answered, a flash of anger lighting her face, “and we all know why that is, don’t we?”
“Mam,” Jack urged quietly. “Irene doesn’t need to be dragged into our skeleton cupboard.”
“Of course not,” Flo said, throwing her hands in the air. “Just got a bit carried away. Sorry, love.”
“Don’t worry,” Irene said, soothingly. “I think I know all about it, Auntie Flo. I’ve heard nothing else for years. One of the reasons why I left for the other side of the world, really.”
“Then,” Jack said, trying to lighten the atmosphere, “Oz’s gain was our loss.”
“Fancy a sandwich or something before you go?” Flo asked as she put the pots in the sink.
“Don’t want you to go to any…” Irene said.
“Well,” Jack piped in, “ I’ll be needing something to stop me passing out before I walk you back home. So…”



8


“You don’t have to do that,” Irene protested with a smile. “I’m OK to…”
“I insist,” Jack said. “Besides, it’s not every day I get to spend time with my long-lost favourite cousin.”
“I didn’t think you had spent time with any of your cousins,” she said quietly, a puzzled frown beginning to lower her brow.
“They’re all a lot older than me,” Jack protested. “They wouldn’t really want to spend time with an eighteen-year- old, I don’t suppose. Anyway, we’re not too hot on family get-togethers, are we?”
“True,” Irene laughed.
“I’m not about to lose you now, cousin,” Jack insisted. “Besides, I like you. I have only one brother, and he lives a million miles away. Don’t get to see him and my nephews and niece very often, so you’re the closest I have to a sister.”
“Welcome to my Jack,” Flo laughed. “For everything he says, he has a sound reason. You can’t shake his logic, ever. At least you know where you are with him.”
-o-
“I don’t think I even know where you live,” Jack said as they walked along Wakefield Road towards town. He wheeled his bike in the gutter so that when he had delivered his cousin to his Auntie Blanche’s, he would be able to cycle back home. He had been amazed, really, at how much they had found to talk about. He was a good talker, was Jack, but only when he wanted to be. He didn’t see the point of nattering on for the sake of it. Talking for him wasn’t a social nicety. It had to be used to some purpose, and in this people could become irritated with his insistence on accuracy and exactitude.
With Irene he had noticed a difference. He could chat to her without having to find out information, without its being to some purpose. He actually liked her company; the sort of



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company he would have enjoyed had she been his sister. It was with her that he was beginning to learn how to chat socially; to understand there didn’t need to be an outcome. This was probably one of the most valuable lessons he would learn before he inflicted himself on the unsuspecting teacher training institution he would be starting at the beginning of the next academic year.
Depending to a certain extent on the marks he received for his A level exams, he had already been offered a provisional place at the City of Leeds College of Education.
Flo’s pride and emotion at his achievement had overwhelmed her. She could never have imagined this day arriving: her strange, lovely little boy now a man. How could this have happened? It didn’t seem five minutes since he was leaping into the big school at Woodhouse, with his letter from Miss Cordle. All mothers had talked about the milestones their youngsters had passed, most of which seemed to have happened at roughly the same time. Not her Jack. Nothing had ever been straight-forward with him.
And now look at him. A man in all but age.
“Did you say you had only a few days remaining before you went back?” Jack asked Irene as they stopped outside her parents’ house.
“Three days, then I’ll have to be away,” she said. “Time’s gone by very quickly, and I don’t seem to have achieved anything … until now.”
“How do you mean?” Jack puzzled, his socia