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Disclaimer: All rights belong to the respective owners/creators. I own nothing and no profit is being made.
Author Note: A short, little story I wrote while watching the movie and wondering if Doug would ever have kids given how crazy his own childhood was. And if he did, what would he name them? Would he honour the man who had killed for him?
oOoOoOo
His name was James.
His father called him Jem.
He never understood until he was sixteen and the old man took him to a graveyard in Charlestown.
He stood there, next to his father, and stared down at the gravestone.
James Coughlin
Son, Brother, Friend
1978 - 2010
He could clearly remember the way his father had looked at him as they stood there. And he could easily recall what the old man had said to him.
"I call you Jem in tribute to him. He saved my life when we were a little older than you." His father looked back at the gravestone. "Did nine years in Walpole for it and I…I always tried to help him out. I even…I even wanted him to leave the Town with me. It just…it didn't have the happy ending I'd hoped for."
Jem saw the sadness in his father's eyes and looked at the gravestone again.
"What happened?"
His father let out a low exhale of breath. "He held court on the street and the…the sentence was death."
Jem didn't say anything to that. He recognized the phrase Holding Court on the Street. His father had it tattooed in some fancy font over his chest, just above the name Jem. He'd always thought the name was for him. Now he knew different. The tattoo was a memorial for the man his father named him for. The man his father had honoured by keeping an old nickname alive.
Jem's thoughts, his dislike for the nickname, changed in that moment.
He stared at the name on that gravestone and silently thanked the man he'd never met, would never meet, for saving his father. Both when they were young and that day court was held in the street.
Author Note: A short, little story I wrote while watching the movie and wondering if Doug would ever have kids given how crazy his own childhood was. And if he did, what would he name them? Would he honour the man who had killed for him?
oOoOoOo
His name was James.
His father called him Jem.
He never understood until he was sixteen and the old man took him to a graveyard in Charlestown.
He stood there, next to his father, and stared down at the gravestone.
James Coughlin
Son, Brother, Friend
1978 - 2010
He could clearly remember the way his father had looked at him as they stood there. And he could easily recall what the old man had said to him.
"I call you Jem in tribute to him. He saved my life when we were a little older than you." His father looked back at the gravestone. "Did nine years in Walpole for it and I…I always tried to help him out. I even…I even wanted him to leave the Town with me. It just…it didn't have the happy ending I'd hoped for."
Jem saw the sadness in his father's eyes and looked at the gravestone again.
"What happened?"
His father let out a low exhale of breath. "He held court on the street and the…the sentence was death."
Jem didn't say anything to that. He recognized the phrase Holding Court on the Street. His father had it tattooed in some fancy font over his chest, just above the name Jem. He'd always thought the name was for him. Now he knew different. The tattoo was a memorial for the man his father named him for. The man his father had honoured by keeping an old nickname alive.
Jem's thoughts, his dislike for the nickname, changed in that moment.
He stared at the name on that gravestone and silently thanked the man he'd never met, would never meet, for saving his father. Both when they were young and that day court was held in the street.
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Quick little story written while watching the movie.
© 2012 - 2024 LJ-Todd
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