The House that Jack Built

response 4:
Fictitious 'job history' for yourself or a character. Follow Proulx's model (aka no dialogue)
-this was the first time i didn't use dialogue or first person. it was hard. I like how it turned out, and i'm going to use it as my final project and revise it into a full short story.

The Home that Jack Built
Jack Healy is born in the quite town of Aurora, Illinois on January 26th of 1948. Two days later a huge blizzard blankets the town and causes Jack and his mother to stay in the hospital an extra three days. His older sister and father can’t get to the hospital at all. In six years, Jack is the older brother to four more boys. The boys all look alike; sandy brown hair, heavy brows and crooked smiles. Jack’s green eyes make him stand out. His brothers like to tease and say the mailman must be his daddy.
The joke is no longer tolerated the summer after Jack turns 16 and their dad skips town. Jack takes a cashier/ stocking job at the local hardware store to help out. Aurora gets a record 16 inches of rain in 24 hours and most of the town is shut down due to flooding. The owner of the hardware store takes a liking to Jack and teaches him how to pick lumber for houses and gets him construction jobs in the summers.
In 1966, Jack graduates from high school. His grades are decent enough for him to get into the local college. He attends classes at Aurora College for three semesters before he gets too restless and goes back to construction. Jack meets Jaime in 1970 and they are married in two years. Jack adopts Jaime' s three-year-old daughter, Ginny, and is sure he is capable of being a father. A year later, they have another daughter, Emma. Jack is working at the hardware store again, but as a manager. He and Jaime decided to purchase a plot on the shore of Lake Holiday. Jack builds the house himself, breaking a wrist and spraining an ankle when he is blown off the roof during the onset of a tornado. When the yearlong project is almost finished, Jaime accuses him of being distant and a bad father. She takes the girls and moves them to Kansas and divorces Jack long distance. Jack sells the house his family should have shared and quit the hardware store.
He lives in Seattle for a year before the death of his stepfather brings him back to Aurora. He takes a job selling lumber to contractors. 1n 1977, while at a bar with some friends, Jack meets Alice. She is 23 and a teller at a bank downtown. In two years they are married and living in a small town house. Jack is doing well at the lumber company and Alice celebrates six years at the bank. After much deliberation, Jack decides he is ready to be a dad again. In 1983, Jack and Alice have a daughter, Kate. Alice’s parents spoil her and Jack spends a lot of weekends at home. Jaime still refuses to let Jack see the girls, but his child support payments are always on time. Sixteen months later, Jack and Alice welcome another baby girl, Lulu. That Easter, there is a freak ice storm and the family spends the holiday without power in their new house.
Jack celebrates 10 years at the lumber company and Alice is promoted to Senior Teller at the bank. In 1987, Jaime lets the girls visit their father in Illinois. Jack assures his daughter Emma that he refuses to leave Alice alone, even if he is unhappy. Ginny and Emma like Illinois enough and Jaime allows them to stay with the new Healys every summer. The girls grow up and closer together. Jack keeps his promise to Emma and stays with Alice and at his job at the lumber company. All four girls graduate from high school and go to college.
In 2005, instead of a thirty-year anniversary at the lumber company, Jack is fired so the company can hire younger, cheaper workers. Alice is still the Senior Teller at the bank. The girls all move to different states, and Jack only needs to search for a week before a competing lumber company hires him. He has the same job, but only half the pay. That summer, there is a drought and all water usage is carefully monitored. Two years later, Alice informs him that her father is getting old and she wants him to move into the house. He takes on this challenge, and builds a room onto the back of the house. It takes two years to complete, Jack is moving a lot slower than he used to. Alice’s father moves into the room, Lulu moves home and Alice celebrates thirty-five years at the bank. Two towns away a tornado flattens all of downtown. The Healys feel lucky.
A week before Christmas that year, the lumber company decides there is not enough business and fires Jack. After a month of searching, Jack takes a job at the newly built Home Depot and sells lumber to customers who don’t listen to his advice. Alice is still at the bank, her father is still in the back room, and Lulu works in the city and commutes every day. Temperatures dip to a negative 20 wind chill, but everyone goes to work anyway. Skipping work is not an option.

21 February 2007