Everyone has secrets. Some big blotch in life that no one else can ever know about. Some people are extremely fearful that this blotch will be discovered. These people will do anything to make sure no one finds out. Normally, this makes things worse on them than if they just told everyone their secret in the first place. Such was the case with Jason’s secret.
Ironically, his real troubles began just when he thought they had ended. Jason had turned 18 and had moved into an apartment in Babbabo on his own, when he received a note from Mr. Smith. Jason reluctantly read the note to himself.
"Jason," read Jason. "You remember me, your old boss. If you don’t, than you should. I’ve returned to deal with an old acquaintance of mine, Mr. Ben Trim. Your job is to spy on him for me, he trusts you."
Jason put the note down. "I’ll never work for Mr. Smith again." He remembered how he had been tricked into serving Mr. Smith before.
Mr. Smith had casually gained Jason’s confidence by talking to Jason as he walked home from school. Jason had thought that he was very close to Mr. Smith. Then, on what started out as an ordinary day, Mr. Smith told him that he and his family were in grave danger. Mr. Smith led him to "safety" but his parents were killed. That was when Mr. Smith adopted him.
Nineteen months went by. All that time, Jason had innocently been used by Mr. Smith. Then, Jason found out the truth about Mr. Smith. He was so ashamed that he just left without telling anyone where he was going. Now, his past had come back to haunt him.
A sudden thought brought Jason’s mind back to the present. Mr. Smith had to know that Jason wouldn’t serve him again willingly…..unless he had some kind of blackmail. Jason continued to read the note. To his horror, his suspicions were correct.
"Speaking of old acquaintances, Christine is with me," the letter continued. "Surely, you remember Christine. She’s foolish and trusts me blindly. You don’t want anything to happen to her. Do you? If you don’t, meet me at the old lab at 3:30 tomorrow for more details. Sincerely, Mr. Smith."
"OH, NO!" gasped Jason. He knew that he had to do as Mr. Smith wanted. It was his fault that Christine was working for Mr. Smith and he felt responsible for her.
Jason was the one that got Christine to trust Mr. Smith and he left without giving Christine any type of warning about Mr. Smith and his allies. Jason could not let Christine pay for his mistakes.
Jason felt very uncomfortable when he met Mr. Smith face to face. However there was something that made Jason feel even more uncomfortable. Christine was standing right beside him. She seemed to trust Mr. Smith, but did not seem to trust Jason.
"Why did you leave us?" bellowed Christine before Mr. Smith could stop her. Jason knew that he couldn’t speak out against Mr. Smith while he was right next to him, so he just kept quiet. Just in case Jason did want to speak out against him, Mr. Smith quickly changed the subject.
As usual, Mr. Smith intended to do most of the talking.
"Jason," he began. "You know why you’re here. Let’s not waste any more time. Now here’s what I want you to do…"
To shorten a long, boring speech; Jason was to get a job at Mr. Trim’s lab, learn as much as he could about Mr. Trim’s inventions and experiments, and report to Mr. Smith every Friday at noon.
The first part was easy. Mr. Trim owed Jason a favor and was glad to give him a job. However, Jason really didn’t want to give Mr. Smith the information he wanted, so he told Mr. Smith about some of the minor inventions. Just enough to keep Mr. Smith satisfied.
Jason was waiting for a time to talk to Christine, but it seemed like Mr. Smith would always join them before he got the chance. Christine would never let him forget that he deserted her. He felt guilty and isolated from her.
He felt isolated from everyone. There were plenty of people he could talk to, but he didn’t want to share his troubles with anyone.
A month went by. Nothing had changed much. Then, all of the sudden, Mr. Smith made his move. In what was known as the Jesterville Conjunction, Jason was confused and unsure of himself. He had to help the others; but if he did, Mr. Smith would do who knows what to Christine.
Jason thought he had solved this problem by helping the others to defeat Mr. Smith for him, but yet another problem had arisen. The others found out that one of them was a spy. They just didn’t know who. The two main suspects were Mark and Jason. It seemed to Jason that everything he did was self incriminating.
Fortunately, Jason had learned to use this to his own advantage. He had too help rescue the others in order to keep the suspicion off himself; this made everything work out.
Well, almost everything worked out. Unfortunately, Jason had to hurt Christine in order to escape. It was going to be very difficult for her to convince him of anything, but he had to try.
Copyright MCMLXXXVI, MCMXCIX
