Zenon's Game Chapter 48

My jaw dropped.

"She always looks like this," Zenon said to his... brother.

I swear I'm not crazy. They don't look super similar at all.

"B-b-brother?" I stuttered.

"Yes, well done for catching up Candace," Zenon slow clapped, "OK, I'm done here.  Enjoy your little picnic." 

Zenon lost interest in us.  He'd already caused enough damage.  He leaned over and took a chocolate flake out of the watermelon wave.  I watched him put it between his lips before he snapped it in two.

He doesn't even like chocolate.

Then Zenon left. I looked at Jake, still stunned.

"I didn't realize it would affect you Candace. To be honest, I didn't think you knew my brother. It doesn't really seem like you two were in the same social circles."

I could have laughed at that. Boy was he right.

"It's not your fault Jake," I said.

Poor Jake.  His brother comes in, drops a bomb, and then leaves Jake to clear everything up.

"Zenon and I are half brothers," Jake explained, "It's a long story but we're not fully related."

I didn't say anything.  Family issues were private and I was not about to pry.  I wish I had known sooner!

Jake picked up the spoon and dropped it into the milkshake.  He sighed and leaned back, his black leather jacket rubbing against the leather booth.

"Our father was married to my mother when he had an affair with Zenon's mother," he said, his eyes closing at the pain of the story, "Both women got pregnant at around the same time. When my mother found out, she divorced him and took me to live in Minneapolis. After a couple years, dad married Zenon's mother."

What do you say to that?

Jeez.

"My mother's life is... complicated right now.  So I decided to try living with my father," Jake said, "And his assh*le kids."

Jake smiled when he saw me trying to contain my giggle.  I don't know why I found that funny, but I did.  I was trying to keep it hidden because I didn't want to detract from the sad story.

One of his kids is an assh*le. That's definitely true.

"Go ahead," Jake encouraged, "Laughter is medicine for the soul."

I laughed and he picked up the toffee milkshake, drinking half of it in one gulp. A man with a sweet tooth to rival my own.

I always thought the s*e*x god next door was Zenon.  But now that Jake was living in the same house, he was next door too.  Which one was The One?

Brothers.

Those are good-looking genes. I could understand the rivalry and the pressure... to be perfect.

"Jake," the teacher called on him.

We were in English Lit. Jake was sitting next to me, writing something in a worn notebook. I'd been replaying yesterday in my mind, from the way he talked about Zenon to how patient he was with me.

"Mr Albert!" the teacher repeated.

The sound of his name was like an itch on my skin. He was a Albert too. How did I not put two and two together earlier? I wanted to pinch myself for being so oblivious.

The class waited on Jake to respond. I realized how deeply he was concentrating in whatever he was doing and nudged his knee. He looked over at me, and I led his gaze to the teacher standing in front of him.

"Jake, why does Shakespeare introduce comedy within the tragic world of Hamlet?"

Jake lowered his pen and slowly sat back. I glanced at his notepad out of curiosity. What was he doing?

From the format and length of the lines he'd written, it looked like poetry. I guess he's a sensitive soul.

"What are you asking?" 

The teacher looked annoyed, "Comedy in tragedy, Jake. What's the purpose?"

"It changes the tempo," he said.

The teacher waited for him to continue. I could see Jake was not paying any attention. So I wrote one word on the page of my playbook and twisted it towards him. He glanced at it.

CONTRAST.

"Come on, Jake. This isn't a hard question. What is the role of comedy in Hamlet's tragedy?" the teacher pushed him.

"Contrast," he read off my page, and looked up, "Comedy in a serious scene intensifies the ultimate tragedy. It changes the tempo."

"And Candace, since you're so willing to pitch in to Jake's response, what do you have to add?"

Guilty, I covered my hand over my handwriting. The teacher had seen me. "Um.. I think there's a fine line between opposites. Laughter and pain, comedy and tragedy. One doesn't exist without the other."

"Can either of you point to a scene where the juxtaposition is most exemplified?"

Jake and I looked at each other. Nope.

The teacher sighed in disappointment and moved on to someone in the front row whose hand was raised this entire time.