A Lasting Storm

Growing up in Wisconsin, Jim had ideas about the future. There were things he wanted to do, experience, and enjoy. There were eons of reality between Jim and those aspirations becoming a reality. Yet, Jim would still give it his best shot.

Jim grew up not knowing his father. He only knew what he'd been told. Like many American teens, Jim was filled with angst. Angsty teenagers can go in one of two ways. Who Jim would ultimately become defied the odds, considering his youth. It wasn't always that way, however, as Jim's angst didn't set in until he was a teenager.

Jim's dreams weren't always the same as they wound up being at eighteen. When he was fourteen, he imagined becoming a Marine Biologist. Jim had fallen in love with the idea after seeing Splash, an old movie starring Tom Hanks and Darryl Hannah. He was really in love with the idea of finding a mermaid.

Even at the young age of fourteen, Jim was disillusioned with the world. Nothing about the world was fair. It was already a harsh environment, and Jim felt the pain of the world around him. He wanted to escape from it all. Jim hoped to find his soulmate and live happily ever after.

As far away from being an old-fashioned boy as Jim was, he secretly wanted the life of the person he respected most. For that was what men were supposed to be. Jim knew so little about the world, or himself, that he couldn't see the fate karma had in store for him.

James Macalister wasn't meant to experience the kind of life that included a traditional family. Lofty goals like the love of a good woman or peace in his life would escape him at every turn. Jim's challenges were many and only worsened by his eighteenth birthday.

Despite having a good heart and the best intentions, his life would not go well. Darkness surrounded Jim. Everyone experiences darkness. In Jim's unfortunate case, that darkness followed him. Like a monkey on his back, Jim couldn't escape.

Some might think that the sins of the father visited the son. They would be wrong. What surrounded Jim had nothing to do with his father. His father was a simple man, a gentleman, and a man who couldn't harm others. There was nothing dark about his father.

Jim's buddies in high school were enveloped in that darkness. One by one, they all started to fall. Out of all the friends Jim made in high school, very few lived to eighteen. The ones that did, they took a very different path.

While darkness and death consumed everything around young Jim, he fought to stay positive. Jim learned about having a "code" from his grandfather. As he approached adulthood, coming out of a time in which Jim was out of control, as wayward as he was, Jim valued certain things.

His biggest challenge was about to find him. It should have been a joyous memory. It could have been. Yet, all the joy was robbed from the event. The culprit was unmistakable, but the offenders at the time needed to be dealt with. More importantly, someone needed his help.

He had heard the screams before. Sometimes, they haunted his dreams. Jim could see the nightmares unfold upon the "innocent" and had yet to have sufficient provocation to cross the line he knew existed. Now, there was something about the entire situation that changed. He was about to learn that he had a vested interest. That interest would give him provocation to challenge her parents.

Jim had found the closest thing to his mermaid. And, on every conceivable level, he loved her dearly. He knew that her parents were abusive. Alcoholics often are. Jim had tried everything he could to persuade, convince, and even coerce her father to stop.

Jim would learn who the monster was behind the door across the street. As he watched his mermaid run toward him, holding her stomach, the victim of an assault by her mother, Jim's blood boiled. He ran to meet her halfway, putting his arm around her. She told him, "I'm sorry, but you're going to be a father if my mother doesn't kill me."

When Jayla's stepfather came storming across the street, fire in his eyes, Jim confronted the man in their first and last head-on encounter.

"Step aside, boy," her father demanded.

"Not happening, and you won't touch her again unless you want to find out what I'm actually capable of," Jim warned the man.

The two had an awkward stare down. Jim finally stepped toward the man, one last thing to say to him before he planned on taking Jayla away from the danger and somewhere they could talk.

"I don't want to hurt you, but now I'm more invested than ever. If you push this, I'll show you why the local police pay me frequent visits, and you'll find out the hard way why they haven't put cuffs on me."

The two glared at each other, with Jim prepared to protect his mermaid and her father after all the years, realizing there might be something to the mystery behind the Macalister boy.

"I'll keep her safe, and you and your misses need to allow us the time to talk about the future. She's almost eighteen, you're the only ones guilty of breaking any laws today so I wouldn't push it. Besides, even if you called them, they won't look for us for 24 hours," Jim told him, turning around and walking away.

The two escaped before anything more complex introduced itself into the fray. Jim was in schock when he asked her to repeat what she'd said. He was going to be a dad. In the blink of an eye, fate stepped in and changed the course of his life.

On the run, something he'd never been before. He was prepared for such an event if it ever happened. Who Jim Macalister was at the time was not who he would end up becoming, particularly under the circumstances as they were. Jaylay now understood the duffel bag he kept locked in his trunk.

The two got on the road and disappeared. Jim was sure he'd given Mike plenty reason not to call the police. Nevertheless, Jim was cautious to the point of paranoia. They took the back roads around town and headed to an adjacent county. Once they were two counties away, they were on the highway toward an urban center.

Jim knew how to disappear, change his appearance, and to blend in when he was outside of his area. He knew how to be older when he needed, and this was one of those times. Getting a room in a nice hotel would throw anyone that came looking for them off their scent. As would having the identification to get a hotel room.

Once there, they had much to discuss. First, Jim wanted to know if she was sure. Jayla had suspected for a while, but had taken the test earlier that day. Nobody knew until her mother, in a drunken fit, started berating her life choices. She made the mistake of standing up to the old hag, and that's when it all came out.

"He won't be there for you," Jayla said.

It was what her mother told her as she ran out the door, moments after the old hag punched her in the stomach, where she was carrying her future grandchild. She didn't think it was intentional, but it was what scared her into running away.

Jim was glad she had run. For years, as they grew up, he watched the abuse unfold. The police would come, and nothing would ever get done about the abuse. Jayla and her siblings were doomed to a life of torture as long as they were in that home. Cops protect cops, and even the volunteer cops.

His temper flared, and his hands shook. He never liked Mike, but that part of him capable of anger wanted to express it on the man's face. How could he let someone beat his child like that? It was unfathomable to Jim that a father could do such a thing.

"What are we going to do?" asked Jayla.

Jim realized there would come a time for him to confront the man, but that would have to wait. Jayla needed to know he had her back, no matter what. He was there for her, and that would have to suffice.

"What do you want to do?" he asked Jayla.

The odds of the two doing well right out of high school were stacked against them. Jayla knew that, yet she admitted part of her already knew she wanted to keep the baby. She knew, however, that she didn't want to be eighteen and trying to raise a child on her own.

"Do you love me?" she asked.

Jim had loved her before either of them were old enough to drive. While he'd had a hard time admitting it because he never felt good enough for her, she was the one that held his heart. Jim couldn't imagine anything he wouldn't do for her.

"Of course I do," he told her, puttitng his hand on her shoulder.

"Enough to..."

He knew what she was asking, and the answer was yes. There was no way Jim would ever leave his child, and there was nothing he wouldn't do to give it the best life he could. Jim knew the pain of a father walking out on him, and he wouldn't put that on a child, no matter the cost.

"We won't be the first teenagers in history to go down this road," Jim told her. "But, we'll get it done and prove we can raise our son to be better than either of us."

Jayla looked at Jim, puzzled. She'd only just taken the test. She had no idea if it were a boy or a girl. Was this the first hint of trouble from the young father of her child?

"What if it's a girl?"

Jim dropped his head. He hadn't considered that possibility. As Jayla sat there, nervously awaiting an answer, Jim heard, "daddy's little girl."

"Oh, my god!" he exclaimed. "I'm going to have to buy a shotgun, a pistol, and another shotgun."

Little did Jim realize, but the picturesqe American dream he once held disappeared before his eyes. While it was common in America, an almost sad state of the eighties and nineties culture, teenage pregnancy seldom led to the same destination the dreams of youth led. Jim was going to find that out.

The two returned to face the music the next day, filled with resolve. Jim stood by her side as she went to speak to her parents. When things got tense, he gave Jayla's parents a warning. Until then, he was forced to tolerate their vile behavior toward their kids. If they didn't want to see his uglier side they'd do well to remember the next time they wanted to lash out they would be lashing out against the mother of his child.

The message was easier for Jayla's father to understand. He understood being protective and the lines a man was willing to cross to protect his loved ones. Her mother was more of a challenge.

"What are you going to do? You're not going to hit a woman," she sneered, knowing she was right.

"No, I'm not," Jim told his future child's grandmother. "However, I can make one phone call and lineup someone to do the job for me. Mike will be buying you your first set of dentures a lot sooner if you forget that."

"Laura, the boy is here to support our daughter. Don't make things any worse than you already have," Mike urged his wife.

"So, what's the plan kids? I suppose you want her to keep the baby," said Mike.

"I want her to be happy, and nothing changes. I loved her before I found out. I've loved her for years, whether she knew it or not. So, whatever she decides, I'm on board with it," Jim told them both. "And, I'm under no illusion that keeping the baby will be easy on either of us at our age. But, I'm going to be there for your daughter and our child."

"You're on your own then," demanded Laura. "Let's see how easily you stand by the little slut now."

"That's fine," said Jim, putting his hand on Jayla's shoulder. "I wasn't asking you for anything but understanding. Now, I won't ask for that either."

To be continued...