The truth

You’re my honeybunch, sugar plump…

Jackson’s mind wakes up and he opens an eye to taking a look at his phone which is ringing on his nightstand.

Mark- The word that flashes on the phone screen.

He shakes his head, taking a seating positioning his bad and takes a deep breathe. “Hello,”

“Jackson, what are you doing?” Mark says from the other side of the line, almost whispering.

“I am sleeping like a normal person who should be sleeping at two in the morning,” Jackson replies checking the time. He was right; it’s passed two in the morning with three minutes. ”Why are you calling? Did something happen?”

“Actually, I am in front of your house, can you come out for a bit?”

Jackson’s sleepiness goes away in an instant at Mark’s words, taking in a hurry a shirt that was lying on his chair. “I’ll be down in a second.”

He hangs up, fighting with his shirt as fast as he can, his mind wondering what could Mark want at this time.

This doesn’t sound so good and it’s unlike Mark to call someone at this hour, especially Jackson.

Walking slowly to not wake up his dad, he makes his way out of the house on the cold night air.

There on his porch is Mark shivering into a thin jacket, looking like a creature of the night.

“What the hell is going on?” Jackson asks approaching Mark. “Why are you awake at this hour?”

“I needed to see you,” Mark replies a small smile playing on his lips. “-and I need to tell you something.”

“Couldn’t it wait until morning?” Jackson asks, putting an arm around Mark’s waist. “You are freezing, Mark.”

“Can you come to my place? I need to show you something.”

“What?”

“About your father, what I had found in the data,” Mark says taking Jackson into a hug. “But tell me that you’ll be alright.”

Jackson doesn’t reply but he knows that what mark had found out isn’t something good, he could feel that in the other hug and words.

To be honest here, he isn’t sure that he wants to know what is hidden under his father, what his father had done.

“Let’s go, huh?” Mark says pushing Jackson slightly toward his house. “I’ll be there with you, ok?”

“Thank you, Mark.”

“Always,”

*Who are you?*

Mark’s room is warm and cozy, with the moon shining through his window making Jackson a little proud knowing that he made Mark open up a bit to the world.

On Mark’s table is lying his computer with Mark in the chair pressing some keywords into it.

“You better tell me what you found,” Jackson says standing behind Mark, looking at the screen which shows a bunch of numbers.

“Ok, what I found is some secret chat room, which just your father and some people are using it.” Mark starts, pressing a key and suddenly Mark’s laptop screen shows a green box, something like the Facebook chat room. “This is where they are conversing for over twenty years. I haven’t seen the conversations because there are a lot of years but I made this little program which is searching a keyword.”

Jackson looks at the last thing that had been sending on the chat, like a week ago, with the words, ‘it’s been done’. What was done he can’t place, but he is still afraid to find out about it.

“Do you want to search something on the conversation?”

“Sophia, please search that,” Jackson says before he can think. This is the only thing that he knows about his mother, the name.

He knows that she had died because of him and he never had seen her picture anywhere in the house, plus he doesn’t have any siblings to ask beside his father.

Jackson watches as Mark types on the search bar his mother name and waits. “It will take a while because there is a lot of conversation.”

“I am so afraid to know, Mark,” Jackson admits, knowing that Mark won’t judge him.

“May I ask who Sophia is?” Mark asks, turning to Jackson, searching any sort of emotion on his eyes.

“She’s my mom,” Jackson replies, lowering his eyes down, hiding all the misery he had been through all these years.

“Oh, I am sorry for asking.” Mark apologizes, turning back to his laptop. “I shouldn’t have.”

“It’s alright, besides I can’t tell you anything about her because she died when I was young and I don’t even have a picture with her.”

Jackson could feel Mark’s eyes on him as he makes himself busy looking in another part, his tears threatening to fall out.

“It’s alright, you’ll be alright,” Mark says taking Jackson’s hand into his and pulls Jackson into his lap, hugging him tightly.

After his heart calmed down and his eyes are clear of any tears he looks up at Mark smiling sadly. “Whatever, I’ve lived with that all my life.”

“It’s done,” Mark says adjusting Jackson into his lap, so he could see the computer screen. “There’s nothing about Sophia.”

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