An old hooded crow was resting on the town wall.
There was a noise going on. The old bird pricked its head towards the sound of the noise - to the sound it heard to the sound of people chanting.
CHANTING.
Chanting by the gate house.
By the old and long abandoned gatehouse...
...Voices were chanting there.
They stopped when the old train stopped by the entrance of the gatehouse. The doors on every carriage opened but not a soul stepped out and not a soul stepped in.
The train flew away back across the channel back to England...
Finally the crow had a chance to sleep and to dream.
A dreamless dream of a dreamless land full of dreams that dreams and dreamers would love to dream - a dream that no dream could match, a dreamers delight. O such sights! A dream without heights!
***
The next day Jack answered an immediate summons to the managers office.
Rick was sitting behind his desk and he was fiddling with papers with one hand and rolling his pen around with his fingers on his other hand which meant that he was nervous about something.
'Ah Jack!' said Rick when Jack entered the office. 'Sit down, my friend. We need to have a word you and I...'
There was an ominous tremor in Rick's voice - the kind of tremor that reverberated to the sound of several words which sound like this: I HAVE SOME BAD NEWS FOR YOU BOY.
But Jack didn't get it.
Jack was keen to look keen. He just wanted more work. Nothing much.
He did not want to go home.
He did not want to be alone.
'We are going to have to let you go Jack,' said Rick.
Jack returned with a beaming smile: 'O really? How exciting!' he replied. 'Where do you want me to go? Across the channel? Do you want me to work in one of your factories in France? Or maybe England? O I cannot wait! My mother will be so happy for me! I have never had an advancement before not in anything! I knew all of my hard work would pay off eventually! Yes! This is it! I am finally starting to turn my life around at last.'
'NO!' Jack returned sternly. 'What I meant to say is that we are going to have to let you go...go...go...GO!'
'As in GO?'
'As in you are sacked, Jack.'
Jack fell out of his chair with horror. He could have screamed! This was the worst news he had ever had!
'Look! There has been a crab shortage in Fenwick recently, it started not long after the population rate in the local sealions exploded so we are going to have to make a few lay-offs as it were,' Rick explained in a more tender tone. 'But don't you worry, Jack, once we have got the sealion population back under control you will be the first of our people we will call back. O! And before you leave, here is a five pound note. That is your pension. Have a pint for me won't you mate? These are hard times not just for the crabs, but for all souls living in Fenwick.'
'I beg you don't do this!' cried Jack. 'I will work for free!'
'Don't be silly,' Rick replied. 'You should be happy Jack! This is what you have always wanted, right? An excuse to escape this job so your Mum wont kill you? Now you can spend all day in your bedroom playing video games ALL ALONE!'
ALL ALONE
Jack could hear Sir Kreep cackling in the background. Now the fiend had Jack right where he wanted him... Alone. Cut off. Defeated...
'I will work for free,' Jack tried again with a whimper and a tear.
But it did him no good.
In the end Jack had to be removed from the building physically by two good sized lads who dragged him through the front door and cast him out onto the cold concrete of the courtyard floor.
Jack picked himself up, brushed himself down and ran in the direction for the nearest pub...
He needed to be around people...
Even if he did not know who they were!
He NEEDED people!
In the local drinking establishment the Short Tailed Fox Jack immediately burned his only five pound note on a pint of local Fenwick bitter.
He sat by the bar and like a spy listened in on other peoples conversations.
Jack listened in on one conversation in particular. A middle aged lady was moaning to her friend about her husband of twenty years had left her for another women and how she was dealing with a mountain of debt! Out of sheer desperation to be free of Sir Kreep, Jack did the unbelievable! Stirred up and fortified by his pint of booze (Jack was not a big drinker and got drunk very easily...), he stepped up to the middle aged lady and told her that he would be happy to take over her former husbands role and live with her in her house and help her out with her bills.
The middle aged women responded by giving Jack a good hard kick in the crotch.
Defeated, Jack slowly limped back to the bar and supped the remainder of his pint.
As he healed he listened to the other souls in the bar as they wobbled their tongues and yapped their jaws.
There wasn't a single conversation he could join in. Most of the people in the bar were older than him and were talking about the glory days of the war, or how wonderful free loving was in the sixties and how great it was to get high on LSD in the seventies.
Funnily enough the one person willing share an ear with Jack was a man who looked to be in his early twenties. He was notably young especially when compared to the other patrons. The young man looked sober and in addition to this he was well spoken and well dressed.
He was actually a soldier and he was in full uniform!
He stepped up to Jack and introduced himself as: 'Corporal Wilkins! You are Jack right? I hear you got the sack from the old Crab Factory the Kings run up North Road?'
'That's right,' said Jack. 'I have got no job. I have got NOTHING! I don't want to be alone!'
'You are a loner, eh?' said the solider. 'You don't look the sort...'
Jack was so drunk that he just let it all out in one great damn buster style gush - 'Too right I am,' he started as the flood gates opened. 'I can't make friends,' he went on. 'I can't even chat up single middle aged women with children. I am doomed!'
'Not so,' said Corporal Wilkins calmly. 'You have got friends. Good friends! Friends you did not know you had! You could join the army! Mr Jack! I would like to recruit you! I am getting myself ready for a train that will take me to the American Barracks at North Ridge You could join me if you like.'
Jack was totally confused.
One he had never seen himself as military material outside of a video game and two, and this was the woolly mammoth in the room that made his head scream - why an AMERICAN BARRACKS?
'I am a Corporal in the American army,' Wilkins explained in a humble manner.
'Why the American army?' said Jack.
'Because Fenwick does not have a standing army and the Brits have a non aggression pack with Brazil because they want cheap G-Juice imports,' said Wilkins. 'The French, well, they could have helped us but they are too busy making love and drinking wine! NO. When we started having troubles with the Brazilian Cartel it was the Americans who stepped up to save us like the true imperial heroes that they are. The American Army was like - 'Well we have put boots down on nearly every single country on planet Earth so why should Fenwick be any different!' and then they invaded and took over to protect us!'
'My gosh! I had no idea!' Jack exclaimed.
'The Americans are looking for fresh recruits all of the time,' the well spoken Wilkins went on. 'They want fresh local Fenwick talent, like you. They need locals who know the countryside. They need people who know the lay of the land to help the US forces defend the town when the day comes the Brazilians finally launch their attack. There is a war going on out there, Jack. The people in Fenwick like to bury their heads and pretend that it isn't going on. But it is going on. It is happening right now as we stand in this bar talking! And it is going to be men like you and me, men who have their eyes open and who are listening we are the ones who are going to make a stand and fight for freedom when the time comes!' and there Corporal Wilkins ended his heroic speech.
'Okay. I get it. Kind of sort of...' Jack replied. 'But you say men, specifically like it is only men who care about the freedom of this town? It's 2026 Wilkins. What about the women? Surely the women of Fenwick will want to be involved in this highly serious matter?'
'Jack! Please! We are talking about a small channel island here,' Wilkins replied. 'Fenwick has a population of about say two thousand people. According to the census of 2020 there are about one thousand two hundred women living on the island. The US put out a petition last year asking the women what they would rather do about the war. AN overwhelming percent, something like 99.9% said they would rather watch Love Island or the Only Way Is Essex.'
'O I see. So the American army is only recruiting men who never leave their bedrooms - right?'
'You have got it in one Jack my son,' said Corporal Wilkins. 'Are you up for the job then lad?'
'I guess I am,' Jack replied.
'Then you will join me on the train when it arrives?'
'I think I will!'
'Private Jack! You will make a fine soldier!' said Wilkins. 'There was a time about a year ago that I was like you, Jack. I was poor, lonely and unloved. I was defeated. The army turned my life around. The army will turn your life around as well Jack I promise!'
'Never break a promise!' said Jack.
The two adult men gave each other a pinky promise (because it was the year 2026 and not 1914 or 1939).
After that Jack and Wilkins swilled down the remainder of their pints and then both fully drunk stepped out and boarded the one train that would take them into the ranks of the American army.
The train headed for North Ridge.
(Remember! All spelling errors and grammatical mistakes are intentional - the author 😆)
(For Part 3 Click HERE).
(For more adventures set in the town of Fenwick Check out: IT HAPPENS AT NIGHT & JIM'S SUBWAY).
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