Go

He wakes up, every day, regardless of what time ge slept the previous night, the same time, every day, every day. 8am. He doesn’t need an alarm clock anymore. He’s trained his body this way. He’s trained his body in a lot of ways, but this ability to wake up when he wants to, is what he is most proud of.

In two years time, Jack has made a dramatic change in lifestyle. His closest friends don’t recognize him anymore. His family doesn’t either. Nor does his ex-wife.

“Kris…” He whispers as his body quickly immerses itself into the 3 dimensional plane it has found itself in for the past 30 years. “I love you.”

He stands up. Takes ten long, deep, breathes, and throws himself on the ground. Within ten minutes, Jack finishes 5 reps of ten push-ups. The faster he does it, the more tight his muscles become. He doesn’t want to be huge. He just wants to have more energy.

He runs several small businesses, all on the internet. Most are marketing-based, while a few are direct service based. None alone can afford him a decent life, but his formula for success is to acquire as many small ventures, so cumulatively, they make him a large amount of money. If one fails, he still has the rest. And since he is constantly branching out into new avenues of utilizing the internet, he makes a good, consistent living. This is what he learned at his old job.

It’s 8:30am. He’s in the kitchen, same time everyday. It’s Wednesday, so that means cereal and bagels, washed down with orange juice and water. By 9am, he should be in the bathroom, ready to shower, shave, brush his teeth, scrape his tongue, and oxidize his face.

But his cell phone rings. It’s, Anna Lisa Kristina.

“Hello, chum.” Says the raspy voice on the other end.

“Hello, Kris.” He says, prepping his breakfast. “What’s up.”

“Nothing much. Just wanted to interrupt your daily routine with some earth-shattering information.” She says.

“What happened?” He asks, taking the first bite of his cereal, waiting for the bagel to toast.

“I’m pregnant.” She says.

He almost spits out his cereal.

“Just kidding.” She says, giggling. “I’m flying to Hawaii. For business. But I have a Saturday free. It’s on the 7th. Wanna meet me there?”

He wipes his mouth. The bagel pops out of the toaster. He grabs it, puts it on a paper plate, since it’s more time-efficient to throw away paper plates instead of washing dishes. “God damn it, Kris.” He says.

“Well, are you going to meet me in Hawaii?” She asks.

“No. I can’t. I don’t have enough time.” He says. “I’m busy for the next two months. you should have told me earlier. I could’ve put it in my book.”

“You’re soooooo friggin’ boring, Jack.” She says, sighing. “What happened to you? You used to be so much fun.”

“Well, I’m different now.” He says, getting back to his routine. “I need to be this way.”

“Blah, blah, blah. Evolution, blah, blah, blah.” She says, sarcasticaly. “Does this have anything to do with me?”

“It has everything to do with you. Or at least, what you represent.”

“Oh my God!!! If I have to listen to this whole thing about the human species all over the fuck again, I swear, Jack, I’m going to sell this ring!”

“You won’t get a lot for it. That was when I was poor.”

“You’re still poor, buckaroo!”

“Well, poorer.”

“Listen to me, Loverboy. You can be a resonsible man and still have a little fun. It’s totally possible, my friend.”

“Well, not for me. Not right now. I’m not like you, Kris. I don’t have energy coming out of my fingertips. I don’t have the kind of tactical mind you have. You can see what’s going to happen before it even happens. I have to experience it….”

“Blah, blah, blah!” She interrupts. “Jack, you’re so boring! I don’t like this new you.”

“You didn’t like the old me either.” He says, bitterly.

“Well…” She pauses. “Well…shit…if you want to go, let me know. Otherwise I’m probably going to find me a cutecabana boy to hang out with.”

“Okay. Whatever.” Jack says. “I have to get ready, Kris. We’re still for dinner tonight?”

“Yes, Sweetie.” Anna Lisa Kristina says. “Hey, Jack. Don’t get too far into this ‘responsible’ thing, okay? I’m gonna miss you if you go too far. Ya hear?”

He sighs. “Well, it’s not like I have a choice with you.”

He can tell she smiling through the phone. She says, “We’ll always have Paris! Bye, Baby! See you tonight!” click.

A long time ago, Jack and, Anna Lisa Kristina were married. For two days. They’d been close friends for years and one night, in Las Vegas, city of surreal survivor instinct, in a drunken, fun-filled, id-driven, weekend of every vice imaginable, these two ended up at a chapel, and were married. And anulled two days later.

That was three years ago. While, Jack was still a self-proclaimed ‘adventurer of the world’. While he worked at a night club. Where he sold drugs. Where he would get drunk, find a mutually fucked up girl, and have sex with her. During a time where he was reading a lot of eastern philosophy books, social psychology books, self-help books, and alternative medicine books. Back when he thought he could change the world just by walking around and talking to people about what they should and should not do. He didn’t make a lot of money, but, supposedly, his soul was at ease.

Anna Lisa Kristina felt sorry for him, because he didn’t really have a place to stay, and because he didn’t eat a lot, and because he wore the same clothes and shoes for four years. So every so often, he gave him money to support himself. He begrudgingly accepted, vowing to the gods, he would one day repayher kindness.

Two years ago, the adventures stopped. Jack cut ties with his long time friends, and fellow adventurers, Long, Xavier, and, Corn. Not on purpose. He continued to hang out with the boys, he just stopped partcipating in the activities they all used to find exhilirating. Like drugs. Like hooking up with chicks. Like fighting outside of bars. Like walking to coffee shops and drinking coffee and listening to acoustic musicians and beatnik-esque poets. Like playing video games for 25 hours straight in a dusty garage, eating Funyuns and drinking Mountain Dew, talking shit about people that they had no direct impact on in the first place. Gradually, Jack wasn’t invited to the ‘adventures’ anymore.

Two years ago, something happened to, Jack that not a lot of people know. He met a girl from out of town. Her name was, Shelby. From San Francisco. She was studying to become a lawyer. A civil rights lawyer. Her heart was with her cultural community. But her head was in the rules of Life. So she figured out a way to do what she felt she needed to do, without having to romantically die for it. To live and to serve. She called it, her resonsibility.

They fell in love. Whilrwind romance. Moved in together. Had a lot of sex. Had a lot of deep, prolonged conversations. Had a lot of disagreements and arguments. Everything that true whirilwind romances comes with, these two experience. Including the bad break-up. Including the pregnancy scare.

At the same time, his mother had a stroke that paralyzed half her body and most of her family. The most powerful force on earth, was reduced to a bed-ridden, half-corpse, with a speech impediment.

He woke up, noticed the connection between his mother, himself, and his almost-child. And with death and life.

That was it for him.

He looked back at his life. And what he had acomplished with all the ‘adventures’ he and his group had gone through and how, in the grand scheme of things, it meant nothing. No mark, no substance, no reason, other than to flick the middle finger in the face of someone who was too busy to notice. And that was enough for him to change the way he was.

180 degrees. He became a new man. His friends didn’t recognize him. His family, nor his ex-wife recognized him. No one recognized him. And that’s exaclty what he wanted.

In the middle of his immaculately clean room was a letter he wrote to himself two years ago. It read:

“The answer is: The generations. The kids. The children. They are going to be better than you, just like you are supposed to be better than your parents. It’s genetics. Whatever you do, they are going to improve upon, like you were supposed to do. Build on your parents success. Work on your parents failures. This is what your children are supposed to do with you. The better you are, the better they will be. It’s you job to elevate and challenge them, like those that came before you. It’s your responsibility. Go.”

After his ritual in the bathroom, Jack got his clothes together. It was 9:30. He read the note. Put on his clothes. Got his keys, wallet, and body spray. Walked out the door and into his car. Drove off to start his work day.