Jumper

Jumper

By Jonathan Aquino

Saturday Stories

September 21, 2019

I

There is a small one-way street between the building where I work and the next building. The side of the other building has landscaped grass behind a stretch of concrete that acts as a long bench. I was sitting there the other night before going up, having iced tea from the nearby Jollibee. I had made a request to be in the night shift so that was around eleven, an hour before midnight. When I'm alone and it's quiet like that moment, my mind is at peace. I wasn't thinking of anything in particular, just enjoying the moment. 

II

Earlier that night I've been reading the novel "Jumper" by Steven Gould, where they based the movie. Then I thought how it would be nice to just teleport upstairs, but if someone sees me appear literally out of thin air, he or she will definitely spread it, so I should to land in the stairwell instead. If I'm a teleport, I could literally go anywhere, but if I go to a mall, where would I appear without causing a commotion? It's always easier to teleport back to my house coming from anywhere, but, hey, like they said, there ain't no place like home. 

III

In the movie version, David Rice, a.k.a. Anakin Skywalker, is a jumper, a teleporter. He can go anywhere in an instant, and all he has to do is to visualize that place. He first knew about his power when he fell into a frozen lake and reappeared in a library, soaking wet. When he needs money, he just goes directly inside bank vaults and take what he needs. But jumpers are being hunted and killed by a fanatical group called the Paladins, led by Jedi Master Mace Windu. Anakin first encountered them at the Colosseum in Rome where he had taken his girlfriend Millie. That's where he also met the jumper Griffin who became an ally.

IV

I like the movie and I'm waiting for the sequel, but I like the book better because it is so human. Griffin and the Paladins are not here. David did not fell into the lake: the first time he jumped was when he was being beaten by his father. David's mother had left when he was five because David's father also beat her, and the reunion between mother and son was very moving. There were some very vivid characters in the book who are not in the movie, like the magician Bob The Magnificent, the trucker Topper Robbins who tried to rape David, the cop Sergeant Washburn who beat his wife every night, the terrorist Rashid Matar who killed David's mother. I guess that sometimes, even if you can anywhere, there are some things you cannot escape from. 

Photo courtesy of Libros Gratis