Say hello to Jones

​AFTER MIDNIGHT: 1037
 
Jones wondered if his fingers had stuck to the enamel mug. He’d kept them wrapped around the heat of the steaming hot tea until he’d sucked all the heat from it. Now there was nothing left in the cup and he was freezing again. He’d heard of frost bite and wondered if he had it by now. The White Sisters that had led him to this cave never mentioned when they’d return. Or if they would return. They’d given him the mug of tea and told him to drink every drop and then they’d left him. He had been too cold to think of anything beyond getting out of the blizzard, but he possibly should have asked them a couple of questions. Like, where was he? And why were they helping him? And would they be back? And what should he do now? He barely took in his surroundings; he didn’t want to move out of the frozen trance he seemed to be in, for fear that his body would fully go into shock. He was pretty sure he was already half dead and he mused idly about who would find him frozen and lifeless, sitting on a low rock staring into an empty mug. It wasn’t a very heroic position to be found in, but then Jones didn’t consider himself a hero. He just wasn’t that kind of man. Michael was that kind of man. And that actor, Lorcan, he was the hero type. But it was Jones who had been chosen to go by the Mayor - a decision that many questioned, including Jones himself. And they had been right; here he was, with the message undelivered and dying in a most undignified way. He wondered if he would ever be found at all. Who would find him? They had the opportunity for one ‘jump’ as they called it and now that he thought about it, perhaps the Mayor knew what she was doing, since it was always going to be a one-way trip. Who would actually miss him? What world would crumble if he never came back? Eva had promised to take over the care of the animals and he knew both she and Michael would stay with Mother as long as she needed them. Diana was strong and her husband’s death had been expected - or so she said. Jones had been caught off guard, though. Father told him he was feeling well all the time and Jones had believed him. His heart suddenly warmed at the idea that he would see Father again in the Glorious After. He felt his lips crack as he smiled at the thought of it and he resolved to sit up a little straighter so Father wouldn’t know he had suffered any pain at all. He closed his eyes and waited for death to come. He welcomed it now. 

​Before the Great Darkness
 
DALSTON: 1035 (two years earlier)
 
“Well, I don’t see why you can’t.”
“I just don’t…need to, I suppose.”
“Everyone needs an education, Jones. Even pig farmers.”
Jones was looking at his dirty finger nails. He’d meant to have a wash before coming out to meet Eva. Something told him those kinds of things were important, that it would please Eva, although she didn’t seem to mind. She often said the smell of pigs reminded her that he was a man of the earth and she liked that. 
“I know you’re clean underneath.” She said the first time they kissed. “You’re a diamond in the rough, and that’s more important to me.” 
Right now, she wasn’t looking at him at all; she was turned away, scowling for want of a better word, but honestly, Jones considered her far too pretty to wear a scowl properly. Certainly, she was upset and he was the cause of that. He put a hand awkwardly on her shoulder; they were both still fairly new at this love game, and he wasn’t sure of the rules yet. Plus, father was forever telling him that women were difficult creatures and to tread very carefully around them, especially if they seemed upset. 
“Eva, I don’t even want to go back to school. I’ve learned enough.”
“But you could master your skills; learn husbandry.” 
“I’ve been mastering my husbandry skills since I was old enough to walk the walls of the sty, Eva.”
“You could learn to do it more effectively.”
Eva turned her sad little face towards him and Jones wondered if this was the wrong time to plant a kiss on her downturned mouth. There was a pinprick of blood on her lower lip, from where she kept biting it, a habit she had, he noticed, when she was genuinely upset. 
“You could be the richest pig farmer in the Lower Lands! Think of that.”
He touched her lip to wipe away the tiny globule of blood and she took hold of his hand quite earnestly with both of hers. 
“Don’t you want to be rich, Jones? Wouldn’t you like that?”
“Rich?”
“Yes. Wouldn’t you like to live in a nicer, bigger house than your father’s, and have others to do the work for you?”
Jones wasn’t sure how he was supposed to answer but it sounded like a lonely existence. 
“I like working with the pigs.”
“Of course, but if you had qualifications you could learn to expand your farm and then you’d have to employ farm hands and you could tell them what to do. All day long if you like.”
“I wouldn’t think much of them if they didn’t already know what to do.” 
Eva pushed his hands away impatiently. Jones worried that his chances of a kiss were dwindling fast. 
“But…perhaps, I could tell them to do the work faster.”
“Yes, yes you could, Jones. And then you’d get rich faster.”
Jones tried not to frown; he wasn’t as pretty as Eva and he probably didn’t look good with a frown or a scowl. 
“The thing is, Eva, I don’t know what I’d spend money on, even if I did have it. You’ve cut your lip; would you like me to kiss it better for you?” 
That was what the other boys called ‘flirting’ and he felt quite pleased with himself. He would definitely wash himself next time. Eva however, did not look so pleased.
“You don’t know what you’d spend it on?”
“Well…no; I sort of have everything I need already on the farm. We’re very self-sufficient, you know.”
Eva’s eyes were beginning to well up with what he hoped weren’t tears, though she did look quite upset.
“Wouldn’t you ever like to buy some…silver bangles, or…pretty dresses?” 
Jones laughed heartily at that.
“Can you see me wearing bangles and pretty dresses around the pigsty? No, I’d have no use of dresses or anything pretty to be honest.”
And for that, Jones got a good hard slap across his face, before Eva’s tears finally spilled out over her cheeks and she ran away from him, back towards the town and away from the border wall where they usually met. With his father’s words ringing in his ears, Jones felt it was a little unfair; he didn’t know what he had done, he had barely moved never mind tread carelessly around her. His face stung and Jones inwardly admired Eva’s ability to deliver such a strong hit. They had been together since their Cutting, almost three months since they returned, and for the first time, Jones thought about taking a wife. Someone just like Eva. Maybe even Eva. He grinned from ear to ear at that, the idea that he had found himself a woman, and he was still only sixteen. When Eva calmed down over whatever it was that was bothering her, he might suggest it to her. Then she wouldn’t need to bother going back to school either. They could live happily ever after on the little farm. Him and Eva, Mother and Father, and the pigs. 
 
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