Page 9 of Jack of All Trades

Jack didn’t know whether to take that as a compliment or not, but it felt like one and totally didn’t fit their tenuous relationship. “I’d love to finish the job, and I will, the job I signed up for, I’m just warning you, it will only work temporarily.”

The man’s voice was softened by a lot as he asked, “That bad?”

“I’m afraid it is. I’ll take some pictures if you like.”

“I’ll follow you up this time. I’m no great fan of heights, but I should see for myself.”

Another surprise. “Okay, sure, but I’ll follow you and hold the ladder while you climb.”

Taking a tentative step to the ladder, Jack watched as Maltin’s entire demeanor changed. “Thank…thank you.”

He started to climb, and Jack held the ladder, though it was bouncing anyway, once Maltin got to the halfway point. He knew that bounce well, and it scared the hell out of him.

Once Maltin was on the roof, he held the top for Jack as he started up the thing, and when he reached halfway, he looked up to catch Maltin staring down at him, a smile playing on his lips. Jack hadn’t realized the man had the muscles it took tosmile. With each rung of the ladder he took, he felt his heartbeat speeding up.

With some of his hatred abating, Jack could look at Maltin Graves in a new light, and all those times he’d seen him, hating him, well, he’d softened as much as Maltin’s voice and demeanor had.

When he neared the top of the ladder, Maltin reached his hand to Jack and Jack took it, ready to be helped the rest of the way. But the second that Maltin touched him, there was a jolt of electricity, like someone gathering static electricity by shuffling their feet over a carpet, only a thousand times that.

It was so jolting that he was thrown backward, which wasn’t good, as there was nothing under him but air.

Panic hit him immediately as he began to fall, and his mind glitched, the adrenaline and fear overcoming everything. It was so powerful that he blacked out, and as the world turned dark, he was grateful he wouldn’t feel his body being broken by landing on the ground.

In the blackness, however, wasn’t pain or fear. He stood in the forest from his recent dreams, checking over his body for injuries, and finding none. His hands were hands, fingernails not claws, and he felt over his face to find it was his normal face.

He was so glad he was just his ordinary, human self that he started running, ducking under branches, and dodging flowering bushes.

The trail wound around trees and stones and came out into a beautiful clearing, the sun rising on the horizon. Finally, the dreamworld he’d been thrown into was brightening.

In the distance, he saw a man sitting, his face pointed to the sunrise. He slowed his pace as he neared the man, wondering who it could be and why he was sitting in the field of green grasses and yellow wildflowers.

As Jack approached, the man turned, and just when his face was about to be revealed, he woke from the dream with a fast, loud intake of air, and looked up to see a cloudy sky. When he turned his head, Maltin Graves was beside him, holding his hand as his face was creased with worry. “Are you alright?”

“I’m…alive?”

“Yes, you’re alive. I…helped. Magic.”

Blinking a few times, Jack tried to sit up, but Maltin wouldn’t allow it.

“Don’t move yet. I’ve called an ambulance.”

“I’m not hurt. Call them…back. I can’t afford the hospital.”

“Jack…my magic isn’t…strong. You still hit, and you were unconscious.”

Jack did sit up and his hand automatically moved to the back of his head, feeling for wounds and finding none. He didn’t even have a headache. “I passed out on the way down, I…I think.”

Maltin got them both to their feet and held him around the waist as he led them into the warehouse via the back entrance. “Still, let them check you out. And you’re not paying, I am.”

Shaking his head, he tried to argue. “I really feel okay.”

“You’ve had a fright, Jack. Please, let them look at you, for my sake.”

Unwilling to fight him on it, Jack let himself be led to the stairs and Maltin walked with him up to the loft, where he was taken inside and sat on the long leather sofa. “Stay here, and I’ll fetch you some water.”

“Th-thanks.”

Staring at his hands, Jack cocked his head, wondering what had happened. The jolt of electricity or static or whatever it had been had come out of nowhere. “Mr. Graves…did you…did you feel that?”

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