The storm of the previous night had blown itself out by morning to leave a clear sky, a crisp morning and a cold breeze in its wake. Like the weather, Jackson's life had recently become tempestuous in the extreme. Trouble at work and uncertainty in his private life had seemed to co-incide with the fury of the previous night's wind and rain. Jackson often used to like to walk along the beach when there'd been personal problems in his life; he could put things in perspective being alone with nature for a few hours. Sometimes even, he could solve some of the problems he faced. At other times, he could put them in perspective and find a way to face them at the start of a new week. The waves broke on the foreshore and the breeze ruffled his hair. Jackson shivered for a moment then he zipped up his fleece to keep himself a little warmer.
Jackson had been in poor health just recently and also had been feeling quite depressed. Depressed about nothing that he could focus upon even as he walked along in solitude. Perhaps it was because he'd been poorly and he was still suffering from the after-effects of his treatment. His doctor assured him that his recovery would happen, but may take longer than he was prepared to accept. Perhaps it was to do with his upbringing and his life at home or in school. He didn't particularly have a good time of it in school and his parents, though loving and caring, didn't really understand how to treat a young, growing boy struggling with the difficulties of personal relationships and also with puberty. He hated the names he'd been given – Jackson Dexter Morton - he always thought they sounded pretentious – so he always insisted upon being called Jack, which he didn't mind. His few friends and his siblings always called him Jack, but his parents always called him Jackson. He didn't want to offend them by objecting to their calling him by his full name.
Jack still lived at home but at least he had the privacy of his own room. But of course, that wasn't really true privacy as he had to live with his parents and siblings under the same roof. His salary at work did not come anywhere near enough to allow him to afford to move out.
One of the reasons why he was feeling particularly down now was because another colleague at work had been promoted above him. Though he liked Joe and always got on well with him, he knew that he only got this promotion because he was always trying to keep well-in with his superiors. Jack worked every bit as hard, if not harder than Joe, but Jack always tried his best to avoid the bosses of the company; mainly because he didn't feel that he could trust them. That mistrust was now confirmed.
The storm had certainly been a severe one, co-inciding with a particularly high tide in the early hours of the morning. It was fortunate that the wind direction was the opposite of the flow of the tide because a storm surge could have resulted in some damage to the sea wall and coastal defences. As it was, no damage was done, but the fury of the sea had washed up several very large pieces of driftwood and other flotsam and jetsam.
Jack noticed a massive object which had obviously been washed up the beach. It was a massive branch off a tree which upon closer inspection had been in the sea for some considerable length of time. Long enough for barnacles to grow on the remaining pieces of bark and seaweed to have attached itself underneath the branch. There was even a few tiny crabs crawling over the surface of the branch and the remains of a “mermaid's purse” attached to a twig which had been under the surface of the water.
Jack decided that he needed a bit of a sit down after having walked for so long. He'd been walking for over two hours now and needed to retrace his steps back home. So before doing so, he found a dry piece of the branch which could bear his weight and then he sat down.
As he made contact with the branch, it felt like he'd sat right upon some invisible twig which had poked itself into his flesh. It almost felt like an electric shock; Jack stood back up at once and turned around to face the piece of driftwood to see what he'd sat on.
As he did so, something really strange and unnatural began to happen. The sound of the wind began to get more deep-pitched as did the sounds of the braking waves on the beach. Jack stared at the sea and as he did so, the water became as though it were frozen, like you might see in a photograph of a braking wave. Nothing was moving now; there was no sound, everything was completely imobile apart from him. Even the gulls which were flying around above the beach were still; hanging in mid-air without visible support. He looked around him to see if he could see anyone else on the beach. In the distance, he could see a group of people which, like him, had come out for a walk that morning. But they were stock still. Like statues. He ran towards these people. When he reach them, he could see that there was no movement, no life, no vitality. Their ruffled hair was held in its place. The father's open jacket which just a few moments ago had been blown backwards by the wind was still, ignoring the force of gravity.
Terrified, Jack turned to run back towards the way he'd come but then he noticed that his feet had made no impression in the sand as he'd run towards the family. Pressing his foot down into the sand made no impression upon it.
Had he died? Was he in a coma? Was it his illness or the medication making him hallucinate?
Looking in the direction of the branch, he could see that there was now someone sitting on it. He ran as fast as he could towards it, but nothing could have prepared him for what he saw. As he came closer to the place which only a few moments earlier he'd sat on, he saw himself sitting on the log. Completely stock still. Panting and almost out of breath with running and with the shock of what he saw, his vision clouded over and he felt himself falling; falling down on to the sand.
Jack had no idea how long he'd been lying there. He had nothing to go by. When he opened his eyes, the sea was still the way it was before. The silence still surrounded him and all natural movement had ceased. But then he did notice that something was different. Where his inert body had been sitting on the branch, there was nothing. The branch was gone. But he was still sitting where the branch had been!
Turning around to look around him, he saw the branch a few feet away from him and his body. There was no indication as to how it had moved, no mark in the sand, no other person around to have moved it. But as he looked something odd began to happen. A bluish-green aura began to surround the branch. The branch itself began to shimmer and to change its shape. As Jack watched in both terror and fascination, the branch began to twist and turn and started to take the shape of a person. The glow of the aura became more and more intense as the the transition took place. The light became blinding and Jack shielded his eyes with his arm. With a sudden flash of white light, what ever had been happening had finished.
For a moment, Jack couldn't move a muscle. He kept his eyes shielded. But then, a voice spoke to him:
我不知道你何時打破了這個詛咒，它會對打破它的人造成這樣的影響。 我很抱歉讓你大吃一驚
Jack turned towards the source of the sound, took his arms away from his eyes and there he saw a naked man. He looked Oriental, from China or the far east.
“I don't understand you!” Jack exclaimed. “What is going on?”
As he watched the man, the bluish-green aura began to surround him once again. With a blinding flash of white light, a different man stood in front of him. This time, he looked African. He was taller than the Oriental man had been, far more muscular and well-built too.
“Bengingazi ukuthi uphule lesi siqalekiso ukuthi kungaba nomthelela onjalo kumuntu owasiphula. Ngiyaxolisa ngempela ukuthi ngikuhlukumezile”
“I still don't understand you! What is going on, why do you keep changing and why is everything around me like it's frozen?” Jack was beginning to become desperate for an explanation.
Once again, the aura of bluish-green green light surrounded the shape of the African and with a blinding flash, this time a typical looking European man was standing in front of him.
“Non sapevo quando hai rotto questa maledizione che avrebbe avuto un tale effetto sulla persona che l'ha spezzata. Mi dispiace davvero di averti spaventato”
Jack recognised this language as being Italian as he'd learned a little Italian a few years ago.
Jack turned to the man and said to him “Non parlo bene l'italiano. Io sono inglese.”
“Tu sei inglese! Aspetta un momento mentre faccio un altro cambiamento su me stesso. Ho bisogno di indossare alcuni vestiti e sono nudo. Aspetta ancora una volta il flash!”
“Still can't understand you!” Jack shouted desperately as the aura developed around the body of the naked Italian and the white flash came.
After the flash, the man, now clothed, stood in front of him once more and in the most perfect of English said to Jack “That's better, I think we understand each other now. I think you may have some questions to ask me...”