The Jovian Legacy (6 page)

“Okay,”
Jack grins, gazing at her in awe.

He
hears Dennis talking on the phone
in the next room. “Aye, that’s richt, Ben, ’twas a
greet success….They’re wi’ Pippa. Thare wis a wee
complication towards th’ end sae thay performed a caesarean.
They’re in perfect health, Julia’s six
‘
n’
a hauf poonds
‘
n’
Theresa’s five poonds three ounces. Julia cam oot foremaist.
Pippa’s okee, juist pure tired.”

What!
Julia
and
Theresa.
Who’s Theresa? Did Mum have twins? Why was Aunt Pippa there
and why was she so tired and not Mum, as if she was the one who’d
had them? What the bloody hell’s going on?
Jack
peeks around the doorway and sees a kind of euphoria on Dennis’s
face.

Chapter
3

B
ack
at his computer, Jack cursed. “Why didn’t I ask for
longer? I stuffed it up big time!”

The
phrase came up on the screen again.
“Thank you for
participating in Part 6 of our research. Please await further
instructions.”

“Please
await further instructions!” Jack angrily mimicked. “I
don’t want to wait for bloody instructions! Just want to find
out what’s going on. Bugger ya Jovian scientists; you’ve
already done the damage; give me the results!”
In
exasperation he went to the fridge and grabbed another can of Coke.

That
evening Jack sat on his porch until late, Coke in hand, pondering
over why his life had suddenly been turned upside down.
Why
can’t I just have a normal one like everyone else? A normal
life with a normal family.
He needed to ask his parents a few more questions.

Deep
in thought, Jack nearly missed getting the phone. It was Megan.

“Hi
ya,” he said, delighted to hear her voice again, “how’s
it going?” Megan wanted to come over and talk to him about
something.

“Half
an hour?” he suggested, his stomach reminding him that he
hadn’t eaten.
Got to
play it cool with her,
he
cautioned himself again
. Just have to chill.

Megan
arrived with a look of worry across her face.

Shit.

“Can
I get you a cuppa tea or something?” Jack asked, wondering if
he had any milk in the fridge.

“Um,
do you have some lemonade?”

“Coke.
That alright?”

“Yeah,
for sure,” Megan replied. “Jack, there’s something
I have to tell you.”

Taking
the can from the door of the fridge, Jack
’s
hand momentarily stilled.
Shit shit.

“At
lunch today Mum and Dad started to ask about you. They were asking
when they were going to meet you. Dad said to me, ‘This Jack,
he seems like a nice lad, does he treat you well?’ and of
course I said yes, and pointed out that we’re just good
friends. He glanced at Mum and then said to me, ‘His name’s
not Jack Dunlop is it?’. When I said, ‘Yeah, how did you
know?’ they looked worried. Dad didn’t know what to say,
then said, ‘Oh, I just saw you’d written that name down
somewhere.’ Seemed to me he’d just made that up. What’s
going on, Jack?”

Jack
handed the can to Megan, averting his eyes, his lips in a tight line
as if he were doing a maths problem. “Really? I wonder what he
meant by that,” he faltered. “Maybe cos my name was
mentioned in the news when my folks went missing. It was talked
about for weeks in the papers.”

“Maybe.”
Megan said, somewhat unsure. “Okay, but why didn’t he
just say that?”

Jack
bent down in front of Megan and held her hands, winging it. “Look,
it really doesn’t matter what your dad was thinking. As long
as he knows that I’m treating you well and that we’re
just good friends, like you said, aye.”

Megan
smiled back at him. “Yeah, I guess. But… is there
something wrong with me, Jack?”

“What?
No way!” Jack replied, feeling relieved that she had changed
the subject.

“Jack,”
she continued, “Don’t you find me attractive?”

Jack
felt himself redden. “What kind of question is that? You’re
the coolest girl I’ve ever met!” he exclaimed.

“Cos
we haven’t, you know...kissed. Is everything okay?”
Megan pressed.

Here
we go again.
“Oh Megs, we’re both a bit young, aye.
Even though you’re way more mature that other
fifteen-year-olds, you’re still only fifteen, and until the
time is right, and we know it’s exactly what we want, we won’t
get hurt.” He knew he was rambling.

“Let’s
go out for some kai tonight, okay?” Jack enthused, rubbing his
hands together, changing the subject. “Where would ya like to
go? Valentines?”

“Yeah,
as long as they’ve got oysters on the menu,” she smiled.

Whew!
that was close. Just gotta think up a stimulating conversation to
keep her off the subject, or better still….

“Why
don’t we ask Brad and Natalie to come along with us, they’re
good company, aye?”

“Yeah,
cool,” Megan grinned.

Chapter 4

I
t
was still dark when Jack was awoken by the buzzing of his computer.
He peered at his digital alarm clock, which illuminated the time:
5.55 a.m.

Jack
moaned. Since he was a night owl, to be woken up at such an ungodly
hour was a shock to his system. Not to mention the grumpy mood he
would now be in for the rest of the day. Not wanting to drag
himself out of his snuggly warm nest, he tried to ignore it, turning
over and throwing the blanket over his head, holding it tight. The
buzzing of the computer didn’t go away. Instead it got louder.
Jack forced himself out of bed.

Heavy
with sleep, he stared blankly at the wording…
“We wish
to continue our research. Are you in readiness to proceed?”

About
to type ‘n’...‘o’, he reluctantly decided
against it given his wanting to find out about Megan once and for
all. Although they could have asked him at a better time, he
reckoned.

“Yes,”
he begrudgingly typed.

“Please
apply virtual reality device and type in a date and duration of
time.”

Jack
thought really hard. As difficult as it was to think at that time of
the morning, he keyed in ‘11
^th
May 1993, three hours’.

Jack
finds himself still living on the farm, driving the farm ute around
the paddocks. He recalls being adept at driving, learning from the
age of nine. He gave himself a fright early one morning while his
parents were still asleep, starting up the ute and bunny-hopping
towards the rock bank. His parents had woken to a high-pitched
squeal coming from outside. It had taken him a good couple of days
to summon up the courage to start the ute up again, and before long
was hooning up and down the driveway, checking his parents’
mailbox six times a day. One day he came in, sheepishly saying that
he’d ‘taken out’ the driver’s wing mirror.
He’d tried to check the mail without getting out of the vehicle
and had gotten too close to the letterbox.

Jack
looks around for his beloved dog, and sees Bud stretched out under a
tree.
Poor old Bud, he must twelve or thirteen by now
.

When
Jack had last been projected back into his old farm environment Bud
had been so full of life, a young dog at the time. This time Bud
doesn’t jump all over him. Instead he moseys over to the ute,
still pleased to see him, as is Jack to see Bud. Jack wraps his arms
around Bud’s neck to give his dog a hug, but stops in his
tracks. He’d forgotten the old dog’s powerful odour.
Jack could almost see the hurt in his eyes as if to say,
“Well
give me a bath then”
. His father used to send Bud into the
sheep dip during their yearly dousing. Ben would whistle Bud to jump
in, using the sheep crook to push his head under to ensure he was
totally immersed. The dog would, like the sheep, then be protected
from infestation against parasites like ticks.

Jack
still loves him and cannot get over the difference in Bud’s
age, especially since the last time he’d seen him was actually
only a few weeks earlier.

Driving
on down to the hay paddock, he sees something disturbing, when he
spots his dad in the distance checking the sheep. The sheep all stop
eating and begin charging around the paddock, bleating. Jack surveys
the paddock, searching for a stray dog that he thinks must have
spooked them, but there is only dear old Bud, who had flopped himself
back down under the tree. Jack looks over at his father, who is also
looking around, confused. A flock of birds abruptly fly out of the
tree, giving Bud a fright. A band of quails suddenly take flight,
their sound resembling fingers strumming an old-fashioned washboard.
Bud struggles up, his tail between his legs, howling.

“Cripes,
what’s happening? Easy there, old fella,” Jack says to
Bud, patting him on the head.

He
hears a rumble. The ground begins to shudder under his feet. Jack
calls out to his father, who is running towards him. Ben barely
reaches his son when a strange, thunderous cracking runs up the
paddock, creating a wide and frightening cavity in the ground. They
witness Ben’s tractor drop into the large earth fracture,
catching itself and is now teetering precariously on the edge. A
flock of startled black swans that had previously been coasting down
the river, ungainly splash about before taking flight. They hear
another loud crack. The tree that Bud had been lying under is being
ripped from its roots. It falls across the river, forming a bridge.

Jack
then remembers what came next.
How could I forget?
It had
made headlines with a pun that some people took an exception to:
“Ground Breaking News”. A shiver runs up his spine,
reminding him of the ordeal.

His
father yells at him to help. He had raced over to his crippled
tractor, grabbing a rope from its tray. Ben throws one end of the
rope to Jack and tells him to take it across the fallen tree and
secure it at the other end. Driven by adrenaline, Jack sprints
across the trunk. A number of ewes in lamb, spooked by the
earthquake, have hurtled themselves into the river that has now
become, due to the movement beneath the riverbed, an almighty
torrent. A few stricken ewes sweep towards the fallen tree where
Jack prepares himself to make the rescue attempt.

His
father treads carefully across the tree, almost meeting Jack in the
middle, when another jolt is felt. The earthquake causes both Jack
and Ben to lose their footing, and they find themselves in the water
being swept along with the rapidly flowing current. Debris caught in
the river-bend chokes the waterway, making it treacherous for the men
to manipulate. Jack, slightly ahead of his father, who, Jack
notices, is starting to panic. Ben flails his arms, trying to grab
onto something. Jack’s father disappears underwater and
emerges, gasping for air. Jack feels powerless and cannot reach his
father. Ben goes under again and doesn’t surface. In an
almost superman-like effort, Jack grasps a log that is wedged between
some fallen trees, and pulls himself up onto it. He catches sight of
his father who suddenly emerges, gasping, then is swallowed again by
the river. Now pumped with adrenalin Jack is determined not to let
his father drown.

No
way
.

With
a leg on each side of the log, Jack quickly shuffles across it,
feeling a stab of pain as a jagged branch slices into his thigh. The
warm blood oozes down his leg. Ignoring the pain, Jack scrambles
onto the riverbank and fights his way through the trees and scrub
until he reaches the spot where he’d seen his father last go
under. With incredible balance he races across another log to get to
him. Jack spots his father at the bottom of the river, his body limp
and caught on debris. With a desperate grab Jack yanks him out,
lugging him inch by inch towards the riverbank. Ben Dunlop’s
face is ashen, looking like he has already drowned.

Without
thinking, Jack administers CPR on his badly bruised and beloved
father. He cries out an animal-like sound when Ben doesn’t
respond. Hearing a distant scream Jack looks up to see his mother in
the paddock, Bud beside her. With a distressed mother, and his
father not responding, Jack is on the verge of panic. With a last
ditch effort of transferring precious oxygen into his father’s
lungs, Ben splutters to life. Jack quickly turns his father onto his
side into the recovery position, crying with relief and flopping on
the ground. Only then does he take notice of the gash in his leg,
and becomes light-headed from the loss of blood.

He
manages to pull the belt from his trousers and secures it around his
leg in an endeavour to stem the flow. As he pulls it tight he is
alerted to an ambulance bouncing through the paddock. It is
accompanied by the neighbours’ ute with a ladder on its tray.

With
a combined effort the ladder is hoisted across the river and secured.
Jack digs the other end of the ladder into the soft bank and weights
it down with rocks. The medics crawl across to get to Jack and his
father.