Heartless Jack

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Everyone in town called Uncle Jack "Heartless Jack". He never married. He had plenty of "ladies" by his side most of the time, but never gave them the time of day. He never told any of them he loved them, because he didn't. He never attended funerals of his so-called friends when they were killed in "the line of duty". He didn't have time to, he would say. He once left a man down, so as to make a clean getaway for himself. He didn't go to church on Sundays, as was the way back then. Everyone went to church on Sunday. Not Uncle Jack. Foolishness he called it. If he won in the card game, he didn't care if the other guys couldn't put food in their kids' mouths. "They shouldn't have bet what they didn't have", he would say. "Serves 'em right." He wouldn't feed a stray animal. "Feed 'em, you gotta keep 'em, Keep 'em, you gotta take care of 'em. Take care of 'em, you might end up lovin' 'em. Ain't got time for that". Yes, Uncle Jack had a big black hole in his chest, where his heart should have been. Or so it seemed. Uncle Jack felt betrayed by the opposite sex. He felt that if he loved them, they would leave him. He was always somewhere in the vicinity, having his own little private funeral for the lost friends. He went to the houses of the card buddies who had lost, during the middle of the night, and put bags of food on the front steps. He bought bags of dog and cat food and left them at the animal shelter when no one was looking. And on Sundays, when all of the people who called him heartless was in church, Jack was at the cemetery, curled up in the fetal position, sobbing at the grave of a 24 year old woman. His mother. She left him when he was only 5. Never judge a book by its cover.