Because That's How Jack Chose It — Chapter 9 — Kim and Me
The question you held onto the whole story. Jack answers it before the curtain falls.
Nobody ever asked. So he never told. Now he tells it — laughing, the only way he'll do it.
I know there's a question that won't shut up. You held it the whole story. So let me answer it before I close the curtains.
Why me and Kim?
I'll be honest about the beginning, and the beginning isn't pretty.
When I ran into Kim on that corner and we went at each other, what I saw wasn't a friend. It was strength. A physical strength a lot like mine, in a kid the same age. And strength like that is the kind of thing that's much better to have on your side than in front of you.
So, being really honest: on the first day, Kim wasn't a friend to me. He was a good deal.
Over time I saw the rest.
Kim is loyal in a way that barely exists anymore. He's resilient — falls, gets up, falls again, gets up again, no drama. He's strong in the head, not just the arm. And — if you tell him this I'll deny it under a beating — he's fairly easy to talk into things, when the one doing the talking is me.
The deal turned into something else without my sign-off. Turned into a friend. Then best friend. Then brother. Today that's what it is: we've got a brotherhood, and it has no exit clause.
But there's a thing in Kim that almost nobody sees. A strong thing. A powerful one.
And no, it's not the physical strength — that one's thunderous, and by now I can admit it, just to you, because to Kim I'll never admit it: with the right push, in the right state, Kim is stronger than me. Full stop.
What scares you is something else. There's something furious inside him. A sleeping wild animal, and when it wakes — when Kim goes into that state — it's frightening. Frightening even to me, and I don't scare easy. I saw it for the first time when we were still very small, long before anything you know about. There's something in there, in that guy.