a quick story that could be a longer story

jack was raised by a very careful mother who felt that raising her son in her home was the safe thing to do. the public school system was just to infiltrated with vermin and wicked teachings for her son to be pure, and she couldnt afford the private ones. she was poor enough where she couldnt even afford the books. she took it upon herself to draw up flash cards, they were all the rage when she was in school. she had grand plans for her cards, they would address everything from math to english to astrophysics once jack was old enough of course. since everything she will ever teach jack is going to based on words and communications, it seemed as good a place to start as any. she ran into a problem though when she did not have a dictionary. being ever so resourceful she figured she was smart enough where she could write her own, and they would be just as good as whatever webster had to say on the topic. she started with what was most important:

"Love"

and on a seperate card so as to discourage cheating:

"everything that is good in the world."

further deciding that grouping words together by association would help:

"hate"

and on a seperate card:

"everything that is bad in the world"

and so she continued touching on every topic that she could possibly think of. words were included that would be used in lessons in the future, all with their definitions conjured by herself. war: the absence of love. peace: the absence of hate. color: the absence of tolerance. dreams: adventures of the courageous mind. work: a means to an end. once satisfied that she had a good head start on her project, jacks mother reitred to her bed.
in the room beside hers, her little man slept. aware that tomorrow he would take his first steps towards being a man and conquering the world, even if it meant first learning the fundamentals of speech and arithmatic.

the following morning, jack rose quickly. no alarms had gone off, no bells had rung but he was caught up in the excitement usually reserved for mornings when children would find presents hidden under a tree. he ran to his mothers room to wake her. he called her name. he yelled at her. tugged at the sheets. felt her hand. saw her lips. a blue that rich had never touched his eyes, not even from the sky above. the cold touch of her hand froze his spine and made it tingle with fear. being so young, he had no real concept of death. how much can you know about death when you havent quite figured out what life is just yet?

determined to make his late mother proud, jack set himself to the task of learning. he would learn everything his mother had to teach him. every syllable, every letter, every symbol of punctuation. he picked up the cards his mother had slaved over for months. he picked them up in his hands, the lessons his mother had wished to teach him, all there in sequence. he picked them up in his hands, where they remained for all of five seconds.

funny how grim gravity can be.

they covered the floor. from underneath the table to the ancient hutch in the corner, the room was now carpeted in thought. gathering them back up, jack realized that his mothers teachings would now be all but impossible to learn. lesson number one, arrange the words in their correct order. since his mother had wished to instill honor in the boy and refute any hint of cheating, she had placed the definitions of the words on seperate cards. jack worked slowly.

"France"

what was france? he was sure he had heard the word. was it a place? a country? a religion? he had no idea. searching around he found a definition that seemed like it might fit.

"when two people push their lips together"

that seemed proper. he was sure the context was on as he slightly remembered hearing something about this in the past. moving along.

"dinosaur"

hmmm....this one is a little tougher.

"the most important man in the world"

perfect.

"love"

love?

love?

lllloooovvvveeee????????

love love love love love?

he knew it wasnt a place. he knew it wasnt someone. he knew it wasnt an idea necessarily, or a religion. he knew it wasnt a color or a game or a career. but what was it.

"everything that is bad in the world"

seemed as good as any. next?

"hate"

"everything that is good in the world."

jack proceeded to butcher the english language to a point where it was almost unrecognizable. years past, jack holed up in his shack laboring over these cards as his mother would have wanted him to. after all, she hated him so. she only wanted what was worst for him after nothing.

at the ripe old age of 20 years old, jack finally figured that he had learned all there was to learn about the world and he kept his promise. walking down the street, an old woman looked at him, seeing a new face for the first time in 15 years was a shock to the old woman.

"who the fuck are you?" she asked....delicately.

seeing as how this was the first time jack was being tested on his linguistic skills, his mind raced. fuck? what the hell word was fuck? he had to improvise. maybe fuck meant a relative, or a daughter or a son? she wanted to know who his mother was?

"i am jack. and i am a fuck of my mothers. my mothers fucker if you will"

wide eyed, the old woman was taken a back.

"at least youre honest" and she scurried off.

jack was pleased with himself. not only was his first public encounter over with, but he had learned a new word. strolling along the street for the first time, he noticed a sign for a pub. this was another word that he had never seen before.

"waddya want?

"i am jack, and i am a fuck of my mothers." he said nervously

"yeah well so am i, and im sure this guy here was too" the bartender groaned, pointing at a man, covered in piss and vomit from head to toe."

jack was elated, he did not know that he had relatives. he knew from his teachings that members of a family are supposed to hate each other. so he took it upon himself to declare his hate for his new relative (this is getting ridiculous i know)

"i hate you so so very much, my new fuck"

"wait what? your new fuck? who the fuck do you think you are, coming in here thinking you can bag my ass. aw hell no, takes alot more than that shithead."

when jack woke up, he was in an alley behind the bar. the man that was in the bar covered in piss and vomit was now in teh alley, covered in piss and vomit. jack was also now covered in piss and vomit. but none of it was his.

after cleaning himself off to a satisfactory degree, jack headed towards the park. as soon as he reached the gate, he saw a lovely young lady sitting on a park bench. she had beautiful black hair, neat little glasses, and a smirk on his face. jack was overcome. he melted on the spot. feeling more alive than he has ever felt he felt a sudden uneasiness rise and fall over him like a tidal wave. this cant be hate. it doesnt make sense. he could not go back on his learning though. approaching the girl, he bent down close.

"i hate you. i hate you with everything i have and i want to make war with you."

"uh....what?"

shit. jack learned the meaning of shit at the moment. maybe he was wrong. better try again just to be sure.

"i am full of hate and i want to share that with you. war can be ours for as long as we live."

"uh, im sorry, one more time?"

realizing that maybe this girl wasnt into that type of thing, he switched gears. hoping for the best he leapt:

"i mean..uh...i love you. ive loved you since i saw you. i cant believe how much i love you. does everyone love you because i can see how that would happen. you are probably the reason peace exists."

at this, she smiled, told him he was sweet and that he could sit down next to her.

"so whats your name?"

"i am jack...and i am my mothers...."

"youre mothers?"

i am just my mothers i suppose."

okay, so, you could tell that you loved me at first sight eh? thats pretty remarkable."

"well yes it wasnt hard." jack had to try to find things that he did not like about her. "i think your glasses are lovely, and your black hair means love to me. also, the way you are holding your pen, i do not know why, but even that says love. love love love love love."

"really? i hate these glasses. they make me look stupid."

"why do you hate them if they make you look stupid?"

"well thats why, because i look stupid in them."

sensing that he may be wrong again, jack attempted to consider that he was wrong. he was unsure of himself so he just aked her ubruptly.

"if you hate your glasses, what is love then?"

"wow, well if you can tell me, that would be wonderful to know."



to be continued.....