#selfless act

Jack spent the next few days recuperating his body after the bullet was removed. While Hellen changed and cleaned his wound, he’d analyzed it, checking to see how the stitches were holding up. He was secretly amazed on how well decent the work was. That was compared to Hellen’s cooking.

Usually, Jack would be cooking the meals for the two of them. Since he was out of commission, Hellen had been feeding him this ham and bean soup that would seem to make a professional chief wanting to hang himself for tasting it. The beans seemed to be half cooked and the broth way to salty; however, Jack was too hungry to care, despite Hellen’s sarcasms to her own cooking. She would also help him get onto his feet to move around and provide some new books from the small library down the hallway; yet Jack was still drawn to the “Adventures of Tom Sawyer” book. One evening, they had a conversation about Mr. Twain’s writing. Jack was asking questions about the landscape of eastern Missouri. Hellen would only give a brief statement about the landscape and the mighty Mississippi river. Jack was even surprised to know that Injun Joe is a real individual living in Hannibal; yet his only statement to Twain after reading the book was that he will outlive him.

Jack even admitted to Hellen that master assassins, Evie Frye and her husband, Henry Green worked alongside Twain and a Pinkerton officer he’d hired from New York in order to retrieve missing pieces of a manuscript known as the Voynich Manuscript from a templar agent that assassinated an associate of Twain’s. 

“Why did Twain had to hire a Pinkerton of all things.” Hellen complained with a snark.

“He didn’t...”

“They do nothing but barge their asres where they don’t belong and throw in rational actions in order to draw the so called “bad guys” out.” Hellen spat on the wooden floor by her boot. She’d obviously had a history with the Pinkertons.

Hellen looked at Jack, blushed as she realized he wasn’t sure of Hellen’s actions. “Sorry. It’s just...well...the Pinkertons and I never really...they’d done a lot of things to the James family, the folks that raised me during the war when my pa served, they’d got caught up in a raid. You’d probably don't want to know.”

“I do.” Jack quickly stated, to which Hellen was caught off guard. “Obviously they meant a lot to you. Especially this Jesse that you’d often mentioned. Why was he so important to you? Were you...”

Hellen blink. Then she bent down and laughed he sides off. “You think...that one of the most famous outlaws in this nation and I were...” Tears escaped her eyes as Hellen continued to roll down. “Sweet holy moss thats robbing the crib.”

“What the Hell are you talking about Hellen?” Jack asked, unsure of what madwoman she was becoming before his eyes.

Hellen caught a breath as she answered his question. “You really must of been under a rock or London never wrote much on America’s new legends, I’m talking about the famous of Jesse James. You know, the infamous outlaw. With his brother Frank and an entire gang with the Youngs. Their farm was close to ours. And you think that he and I were...” Hellen began to laugh again. “Now thats robbing the crib, pa didn’t even care about him too much, well who was to blame Jesse was a formal confederate soldier and gorilla fighter.” 

 “How does it connect to the Pinkertons?” Jack asked, to which Hellen’s laugh ceased, making the air cold in the air.

Hellen took a breath and looked at Jack. “January 26th, ‘74. I’ll never forget that  night. My pa and I were just sitting in the living area by the stove and fireplace, reading some book or something. I don’t even remembered the title. But I do remember the loud booming sound that caused my pa and I’s heads to look up. He saw smoke and flames licking from a distance. When my pa figured out that the smoke came from the James home, he and I rode over to see what happened. I’ll never forget the sight. My pa ran into the building to see what happened and put out the small fire; yet...” Hellen sniffed and rubbed her eyes. “Zerelda, the mother of the brothers and the woman who raised me when pa was fighting...She was bleeding something fierce. Turned out the pinker tons made a homemade explosive to scare them out. Little Archie believed the bomb was a log, so he threw it into the fire, it exploded, killing him instantly and wounding Zerelda while she tried shielding him from the shrapnel. God...” Hellen choked a breath as trying not to cry. 

Jack placed a hand on her shoulders and rubbed them in an attempt to comfort her. 

Hellen breathed deeply as she continued. “My pa found out that the Pinkertons were commissioned by the officials of the railroad who wanted the brothers: dead or alive. They’d analyzed the house for hell knows how long. The men they thought were the brothers that entered into the James home the night before, turned out they never realized that it was my pa and Collin Anderson coming by to check on them after being on a mission. I’d never known about it till after my pa’s death. But how could he had known that his thirteen year old daughter, who was raised with the Samuel children, and was close to Archie, only to see the body of a mangled nine year old boy. Damn those Pinkertons! They’d snuffed the life of a boy who was like a little brother to me! And now Zerelda has a handicap for the rest of her days.”

Hellen again turned her face away, trying to hide her tears. Jack again rubbed her shoulder and pulled her in gently. “You thought of Archie after I was shot.” 

Hellen turned her head to give a look that answered yes.

“And...” Jack hesitated, thinking if this was the right question to ask.” Your pa.”

Hellen gripped his hand tight. “I will not allow anyone to die under my watch, even to my last breath.”

After Hellen took a moment, as she reflected back on Jack’s story of Twain and the manuscript.

“Voynich manuscript? Why does that sound so familiar?” Hellen rubbed her forehead with her two fingers. The names...Greeley...Greyling...why do they...” Hellen groaned in frustration. “I remember my pa mentioning those names once. Something about missing key facts relating to a location. Something about, when after my pa served, he would keep the “pages” in several locations. One of them was to Greeley’s position.” Hellen raised her brows. “We need some of our members to do a little digging”

By the time Jack was strong enough to be back in the field, Hellen and her sources have been looking through the old files and records of where Greeley would keep old documents for the paper. One of the sources heard that there was a box full of files that seemed like a foreign language, and had drawings and markings the seemed to be inspired by a Gutenberg bible. So Jack and Hellen, along with Hans and a few members traveled to a warehouse near Queens to an old warehouse. But before they could enter into the warehouse, Hellen stopped Jack and quietly pointed up to the next roof. 

“Looks like someone else has the same idea as us.” Hans commented, preparing his .38.

“Perhaps this is part of their turf. But they seemed to be waiting for us.” Hellen looked both directions to see an all clean. “So Jack and I will be...”

“No.” Jack said, placing an arm across her to block her way.

“Excuse me?” Hellen asked, agitated.

“I will be going in, it seemed they want us all in that building. Only one person is enough to go in. I’ll find the files.”

Jack was making his way in, taking Hellen’s pistol. Her face grew red. She marched over to hi as she grabbed his arm. “It’s one thing to go in there alone, another thing to tell me to stay put; but when you take a woman’s  pistol, your asking for hell from me Jackass. Now unless you give that back, I’m going with you whatever you like it or not!

Jack then turned, and grabbed Hellen’s upper arms, looked intensely into her eyes.

“Hellen, I hope you can forgive me for this.” Before Hellen could protest or ask a question, Jack pulled her head close to his as his lips pressed upon hers. Hellen’s eyes were widened with surprise; she couldn’t think of a simple action to reply; yet when the kiss continued, she closed her eyes and melted into the kiss as she returned it. 

Jack slid his hand down taking in the pleasure of Hellen’s taste; yet his mind focused on the position his two fingers needed at the two nerves at the base of Hellen’s skull. He placed his thumb and index at the nerves where he needed them to be, he’s lightly pressed upon the nerves, and he felt Hellen as breath as they parted, her body going limp in his arms. Jack caught her in his arms and lifted her like a bride. 

He turned to see a couple of the members staring at him with surprise. Jack walked to one of the taller members and handed Hellen’s body to him. “Take her back home, she’ll be up in a few hours.” 

Before Jack could allow a reply from the member, Jack turned on his heels and ran into the building, the thought he had to push aside of his head was the fact that he’d just kissed Hellen Patterson in order to knock her out to keep her out of danger. Jack would probably have hell to pay for that; yet in his secret depths, he liked it, and even for his first kiss, he could tell that Hellen kissed him back.

Jack searched through the rooms, searching for anything that can indicate a container of files. After over fifteen minutes of searching, Jack finally found a box contained in a small room. He knelt down, opened the chest and found a bundle of old parchments, tied with a ribbon. He lifted them gently, seeing the strange markings on the edges, and then tugged them into his coat. 

By the time Jack got us, he heard the sound of a gun hammer being pulled back. “Looking for something?” A french voice asked. 

Jack took a breath and turned to shove the gun away and stab the man in the neck. More men came over, crying out, “Jacque, you got the documents? This place is going to blow any minute now!”

Jack cursed and made his way out. He ran through the halls, encountering three other men along the hallway. Jack had put up a fight as he stabbed two of the men. Another man bigger then jack grabbed his hand holding it away. Before the man can mock Jack, the Lad reached with his free hand for the .38 and shot in square in the mans eyes. Jacks ears rang for a moment. He shook it off, just as the sound of an explosion came from below. Jack being close to the roof, rand to a window close by ran through, and took a leap of faith, landing in another empty room in the next building. Jack checked to see if he was still sound. When he saw that no bones were broken, Jack looked to see the building where he was in flames. Jack checked to see the documents still secured. 

“Now that one fire was prevented, and a pistol is fired, you better to handle the one at home Jack.” Jack paused for a moment, realizing that he just said the word 

A Threads post has gone viral in Malaysia, recounting how a kind Grab driver went above and beyond when she was sick and stranded with only RM30 left. After finding a clinic closed, she broke down while trying to book a ride.  Kind Grab Driver’s Selfless Act The driver not only took her to a hospital but reassured her, walked her into the emergency department, bought her breakfast, gave her…