blogwithvalor

It was early morning and two tickets to Scotland laid on the kitchen table. Jackson sat at the table and stared at them, wondering what he was going to do. His plan, originally, was to travel to Scotland in a couple months with his girlfriend, Stacy, and visit the city of Dundee, home to some world-famous marmalade makers.

He loved marmalade. Every breakfast would have marmalade incorporated somehow into it, even if there was just some plain toast with a nice smear of marmalade on top. He constantly made his own marmalade and most of his friends and family agreed that it was good. He had started selling his marmalade at the local farmer’s market in town, but over the years, his obsession wore thin on those around him.

Yesterday, Stacy told him that she thought they’d grown apart, citing his obsession as one of the big pieces of evidence. After confronting him about that, she told him it was time they broke up. She left that night.

Jackson got up from the table and poured himself a cup of coffee. His usual routine was to pair this with a scone and marmalade, but he just stared at the open jar of blood orange marmalade on the counter. Next to it sat multiple jars of a variety of homemade marmalades. He turned to look at his jar rack and canning kettle, both were used to can his marmalades that he sold.

He leaned against the counter and sipped his coffee, wondering if he should just throw this all out and work on getting Stacy back. She was pretty, kind, and smart. He always knew he was so lucky to have her. But the more he looked at the marmalade around him, the more he wanted another bite. He grabbed a scone and the open jar of blood orange marmalade and sat back at the kitchen table.

Staring at the tickets, Jackson took a bite of the scone covered in a thick heap of marmalade. Stacy was a right. They had been growing apart. She had just started a new job that she really liked, and Jackson had been diving deeper and deeper into his new obsession. It was better for both of them if they’d parted ways. Jackson chewed on the scone as tears fell down his face. It wasn’t so much the heartbreak he cried over, as much as the loss of a friend and the fear of not knowing what might happen next.

Jackson washed the scone down with his coffee and picked up the tickets. He stared at the destination for a long moment. Scotland, a place he’d wanted to go since early on in his marmalade journey. He had mapped out a few of the marmalade makers he wanted to visit and even started some correspondence with a couple to arrange tours. It was a pilgrimage that he was excited to make.

Jackson took another bite of scone covered in marmalade, the sweet sensation filling his mouth. He loved so much about the taste and, even more, the making of it. Jackson decided he was going to call the airline and ask for a refund on both of the tickets. He wasn’t going to wait a couple of months to go to Scotland. Jackson was going to leave next week. He needed to say goodbye to his hometown, say goodbye to Stacy, and see where his obsession would lead him.