Chapter 4- Jack (pt.1)

Jack stared at the flashing blue dots on his laptop screen that indicated the location of his many devices:
Jack’s phone- online
Jack’s laptop- online
Jack’s tablet- online

On the screen, a cluster of three blue dots covered the satellite image of Jack’s school on the map and when he zoomed out so that the whole continent became visible, there was one more blue dot flashing far to the east in Addis Abba:
Dad’s phone- last seen 5 hours ago

Jack remembered the day he had helped his father set up the “Find My Phone” feature a few months before. At the time, Jack was excited about the chance to teach his father something new and show him what a tech-savvy kid he was becoming. As Jack enthusiastically explained the necessary steps, he looked up to see that his dad had already become engrossed in something more important. Instead of oohing and aahing over Jack’s impressive technological know-how, his dad was frantically clicking away on his laptop’s keyboard, completely oblivious to Jack’s excitement. Jack finished the procedure, linking the new phone’s account to his own computer rather than his father’s and handed the phone back to his dad without saying a word. Jack was disappointed by the missed opportunity to impress his dad, but pleased with himself for this small misdeed.

Since that day, whenever he felt particularly lonely, Jack would log in and watch his father’s blue dot flash wherever it was in the world. He wasn’t sure why he had developed this particular habit, it only ever left him feeling even more isolated and alone.

On this day, his birthday, watching his dad's flashing dot was having the usual isolating effect, but his loneliness turned to confusion when the blue dot indicating his father’s location suddenly came back online and jumped across the map. Jack quickly zoomed in to the new location. What is he doing at the Accra airport? A smile spread across Jack’s face as he realized what was happening. He watched as the blue dot sat still for sometime. Passing through customs… Jack thought. Then, the dot started to move again, along the road outside the airport, then onto a main highway in the direction of their house. Jack let his imagination run wild with dreams of the surprise party that was likely in store for him. When English class ended, the blue dot was blinking atop Jack’s house.

The text messages from the morning were starting to make sense. They had been meant as a distraction to keep him from suspecting the plan. I wonder where we’ll go to celebrate? Jack wondered as he gazed at his dad’s dot, grinning from ear-to-ear. The dot stayed at the house until the end of math.

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