Never Spring

Testing

I shivered walking out of the front door as the biting cold welcomed me. It was getting colder, and fast. I wouldn't be surprised if snow started falling soon.

"Hey." Jack greeted me as I approached him at an intersection of our street. For some reason auntie didn't like it if he waited for me in front of the house.
"Hey..." I said and we walked to school silently from there.

I got used to him sitting in a bench next to mine, but so did others.
"Sooo lovebirds..." a classmate started "How was the walk to school? Were you so cold you had to huddle together?"

I felt blood rush to my cheeks. It wasn't like that but I felt to nervous to answer.

"Go sit on a dick, Bill." Jack said, cold as ice.

"Language..." I whispered. When mom taught me English she insisted on keeping it clean. I could still recall her voice when she scolded older kids for trying to teach me some.

"No! You go sit... You sit on a dick!" Bill tried to argue with Jack, but at that moment our teacher walked in.

"William Heron! Watch your tongue, it seems to be running away with you."

Bill looked from Jack to our teacher as if they were conspiring against him. Jack grinned, egging Bill on but the boy went back to his seat mumbling under his breath.

"How do you do that?" I asked Jack in a soft voice.

"Do what?"

"You know exactly what to do and when to do it... When it will rain, when to duck out of the way, when to speak up..."

"It's a gift." Jack said cryptically "It gets stronger around Halloween, it's my favorite time of the year."

"Settle down." Teacher interrupted us and started the class.

Few minutes in, Jacked passed me a note.

"I'll show you more after school today." it said.

We were the only ones left in a classroom and hallways felt silent.
Jack stood in front of the blackboard with a chalk in hand.

"Anyone out there today?" he wrote.

I looked at him, not understanding what he is trying to do.

"Now I relax and see if..." Jack started but his hand moved and wrote out:
"Yes."

"You are just doing that to mess with me" I said even though the handwriting was different than Jack's.

"You two were in my mirror store."

"Jack stop it." I looked at the writing.

"Hey, it's OK. I'm stopping," Jack said but his hand kept moving... The handwriting was...

"I loved the drawing you left me."

"Mom..." I started crying and Jack threw the chalk across the room.

"I'm sorry, Joan please don't cry..."

Jack awkwardly tried to hug me and I let myself go, crying into his shoulder.

"I miss you so much... Mom."