Jack remembered. In all honesty, he had never forgotten. He had just ignored it. Suppressed it. Buried it in the deepest corner of his mind in a small box full of his demons, and tossed the key into the abyss. Or so he had thought.

Suppress a memory long enough, and the details become hazy. Suppress it even longer, and it starts to feel like a bad dream. Craft a persona and deny the memory ever existed, and you go back to a normal, functioning adult. But you can never truly forget.

And one day, your past will catch up with you. One day, it will all come crashing back, like an unstoppable torrent of water, washing away all the pretension and the lies.

For Jack, that day had come.

His name, back then, was different. But the name itself held no value, no strong meaning or memory behind it. Back then, he had none of what he had today.

The small dilapidated apartment they lived in could barely be considered furnished. A small box tv was placed on a rectangular table in the center of the living room, opposite which was an ancient creaky maroon sofa that was purchased second hand. Apart from that was a wooden dining table with four banged up chairs, upon one of which a young Jack was sitting, eating a bowl of cereal.

“Mom, can I get more cereal?” A young, twelve year old Jack asked in a cute, innocent voice.

Jack’s mother was a thirty four year old woman five feet nine tall, with long black hair, brown eyes and high cheekbones. Her frame was on the lighter side, which considering her poor appetite was only understandable.

“It’s almost time for the bus, son,” His mother took a glance at her wrist watch before replying.

Jack made a downcast expression, prompting a sigh from his mother. “You just don’t want to go to school, do you?”

Jack’s mouth twitched, and he averted his gaze from his mother.

“What did they do this time?” His mother asked softly, tone turning gentle, caring.

“They….. Nothing,” Jack thought about it, but then decided to keep silent on the matter.

“I’m going to talk to the principal today. This is-,” Jack could feel the anger rising in her voice, so he hurriedly cut her off.

“No! Please, don’t do that. That just makes it worse, mom,” Jack exclaimed, with concern rising in his voice. He had seen first hand how much worse it had gotten for a different kid.

“I-... ,” His mother sighed, and seemed to age a few years in an instant. “Just a few more days, Jack. I’ve been saving up, and one of my colleagues told me there’s an opening for a managerial position in his city. I promise I’ll get the job, so just wait.”

Jack walked up to her and gave her a hug, acting quite unlike children of his age would.But as a child he had never known privilege, and tough times had exposed him to the way of the world far earlier than children his age should. He knew how hard his mother worked to provide for him, never once complaining, never once showing any weakness.

“Okay mom. The bus should be here anytime, so I need to go,” Jack said with a smile, which was only half-feigned.

“That’s my boy,” She replied with a smile.

Jack might not have the many privileges, but he had never felt a lack of love, no matter how tough it got.

He was sitting in class, listening to his physics teacher talk about ‘Friction’, as he doodled the teacher’s face on his notepad. He had to be discreet with his strokes though, his math teacher had already caught him once doing exactly that, though seeing his drawing did mellow him down.

His focus was interrupted when a man Jack barely remembered as a substitute teacher for his english class barged in through the door, quite rudely at that.

“Is Jack here?” The substitute teacher asked loudly, causing the physics teacher to look at him with some irritation. But from the serious expression on the man’s face, he swallowed his complaints.

Jack raised his hand, utterly confused at what was happening.

“Follow me. It’s urgent,” The substitute teacher said, and the physics teacher seemed to understand that something bad had happened.

“Go on. Don’t worry about class,” he added, but didn’t ask any questions.

Jack felt numb after the news, so much so that it didn’t even register that he was being driven by the substitute teacher to the hospital. His mother had been in a car accident- she had survived, but had been injured in the head.

He was taken to the hospital room, where he saw his mother with her head bandaged up, fast asleep.

Tears spilled out of her eyes, but the doctor at his side patted his back reassuringly.

“Don’t worry, son. The MRI just came back, she’s just suffered a concussion. Give it a few days, and she’ll be fine,” The doctor reassuringly said, and Jack could finally breathe again. He pulled out a chocolate bar from his pocket, handing it over to him.

“Now it says here you don’t have anyone else to take care of you, so we’ll be putting an extra bed next to your mother’s. You okay with that?” The doctor asked, his tone steady and calm, which oddly gave reassurance to little Jack as well.

“Yes,” Jack nodded, feeling very grateful to the doctor.

A day passed in relative boredom. Some of the nurses had brought him children’s books and toys to play with, but they could only alleviate so much of it. The doctor’s said his mother would be fine, so now all there was left was for her to wake up.

As he had done hundreds of times before in the last twenty four hours, he turned to look at her mother. His mother was staring back at him, she was awake. For a moment, his mother’s eyes were a bright red, gleaming with the luster of a ruby as they stared at him with complex expressions in their eyes. Jack blinked, wondering if he was more tired than he thought, and his mother’s eyes were back to the comforting hue of brown he was used to.

“Mom?” Jack asked, wondering if she was alright.

“Son,” his mother stated plainly, without much emotion within them. Then to Jack’s surprise, she sat upright- pulling out the IV drip attached to her right hand and tossing it aside without a second glance.

“Mom, I don’t think you’re supposed to do that. Are you okay?” Jack asked with concern rising in his voice, she wasn’t acting like herself.

She ignored his concerns, getting back up on her feet as if nothing happened to her.

“Follow me,” she said, as she walked out of the hospital room with her forehead still bandaged.

“Mom?” Jack followed after her, feeling freaked out by how much his mother had suddenly changed.

Walking up to the reception, they attracted the gazes of many hospital staff and patients alike.

“Ma’am, you’ve just suffered a concussion, you can’t be walking around!” A middle-aged female nurse hurriedly walked towards her hurriedly, with concern in her eyes.

Jack looked at his mother, trying to discern from her expression what was wrong with her. At twelve years of age, he didn’t really understand what a concussion meant, but it didn’t sound good.

He could have sworn that he saw his mother’s eyes flash red once again, after which she spoke, “Listen woman, I have no insurance, so unless you’re offering to pay my hospital bills, get out of my way.”

It felt a reasonable enough answer to Jack, but his mother would never disrespectfully talk to someone who had healed her.

“Yes, ma’am,” The nurse seemed to also find that reasonable, as she nodded and complied, getting out of his mother’s way.

Walking up to the receptionist, she calmly spoke, “I want to be discharged.”

The receptionist seemed confused, looking at the nurse with an odd expression on her face. “Hey Zuri, are you sure this is okay?”

The nurse just nodded, before replying, “It’s fine. She’s already past the worst of it.”

“Well, I’m not the one that’s going to be sued later, so, whatever you say,” The receptionist seemed to agree, beginning to type on the ‘boxy’ paraphernalia they used to call a computer back in the days.

The bill was handed over to Jack’s mother after a ten minute wait, and Jack tried to get a glimpse of it.

His face went white when he saw the final figure, a total of 12,000$ had to be paid for their one day stay. Jack did not know how much savings his mother had, but he was sure that the possibility of relocation just went out of the window.

Jack’s mother did not complain, simply handing over her debit card as if the amount didn't faze her at all.

“Thank you ma’am. I recommend you take a taxi on the-.”

“You just emptied my bank account. Have some respect and shut up,” Jack’s mother retorted, and Jack followed along behind her, as they exited the hospital, leaving behind a receptionist that didn’t know whether to be mortified or irritated.