Chapter Text
He climbed ashore and found his clothes instantly dry as he willed it so; good, his money should be dry too then. The sun was rising on the horizon. He walked through the city. He saw a newspaper stand; the headline said something about a bat which he didn’t care about, he just saw the date: June 22nd, 2011. Huh, guess yesterday was the summer solstice, guess that’s why dawn is so early.
As he walked through the city, he tried to read the signs and names on buildings to get his bearings. He was pretty sure this wasn’t New York City. A lot of buildings had Gtohma and Wyaen written in their names. After a while, he deciphered that to be “Gotham” and “Wayne”. Of the two, Gotham sounded like the place name and Wayne sounded like some random guy’s name, so he assumed he was in Gotham. Never heard of such a place before, but maybe that’s just his faulty memory.
As he walked, he found that his shoes were too big, even with the doubled up socks, they rubbed awkwardly against his feet as his feet shifted around. And his pants were too big, the bottoms kept coming unrolled and dragging through the mud and he had to be careful to hold his pants up to keep them from sagging down. He needed a belt….well, he needed better clothes.
He found a thrift store and decided to buy some essentials. He found a navy-blue backpack and a reusable water bottle and then started looking for clothes. He found two pairs of jeans that fit him properly, one a lighter shade of blue than the other. He also found a plain black leather belt. He found a couple pairs of gym shorts, one black and one blue. He found five plain T-shirts in varying shades of blue, ranging from a blue so light it was nearly white to a dark navy blue. He even found a pair of blue swim trunks. They had packs of new underwear and socks with 5 each, so he got a package of each. He found some tennis shoes that looked to be in decent shape that were black with blue stripes and most importantly, they fit him properly.
He realized he’d gotten more clothes than fit properly in the backpack so he looked through the assorted bags again and found a medium size black duffle bag that looked like it would work well as a gym bag, perfect for storing his clothes. He went to the register and paid $75 for his haul of clothes, which he thought was pretty good for buying a whole new wardrobe. He was careful not to show how much money he was actually carrying.
The thrift store had a changing room which he went to use after he checked out. He changed into the darker pair of blue jeans and a bright blue T-shirt. He took off his shoes and the second pair of socks and put the new-old shoes on. He’d keep the other shoes, he’d probably grow into them. He shoved the clothes he had been wearing into the book bag. Lastly, he put on the leather belt. He ran his fingers through his hair, smoothing it out to be less messy. He looked almost presentable.
The bookbag was casual to carry around but he’d need somewhere to store the duffle bag with the extra clothes. He knew that gym memberships sometimes came with a locker at the gym where he could store stuff, and that was probably his best option. Hopefully he could find a gym with 24/7 access so he’d have somewhere to spend his time during the night, that way he wouldn’t be on the streets.
He didn’t know where to find such a gym and he didn’t want to just aimlessly wander around, so he decided to find a library. Maybe he could get a map or something there, libraries are good for finding info. And he’d passed a nice looking library on his walk earlier, so he returned to where he’d seen the library, this time wearing a bookbag and carrying his duffle bag.
He casually walked into the library; it was pretty quiet, not many people were there that early in the morning. He went to the computers to try and look stuff up; he got the impression he didn’t have much experience using computers. He tried to search up “Gotham Map”, but it came out more like “Gtaho m ap”….but the search engine autocorrected to what he wanted. Struggling to read any of the words on the screen, he quickly changed to the images tab. He examined the map, thinking through the places he’d been and the landmarks he’d seen, and concluded he was likely in Uptown Gotham.
He opened a new tab and clicked to the maps section and searched for gyms. He got a lot of results but clicking on various websites, he struggled to make sense of the words on them and figure out which had the features he wanted. And a lot of the user-interfaces were really bad, with confusing fonts and bad colors. Getting frustrated, he groaned, putting his head in his hands, trying to fight off the impending headache.
He heard someone approaching behind him. “Can I help you find anything?” Asked the woman. He turned and saw she had red hair and was using a wheelchair; she was wearing a nametag that he couldn’t read, something with a B? She probably worked here.
He thought for a moment of refusing her help but then thought better of it. “Uh, yeah. I was trying to search for a local gym to get a membership at but I’m not good with computers and I struggle to read the websites. I want a gym membership that has 24/7 access and a locker. If the gym has a pool that would be ideal.”
She gave him an assessing look which made him slightly uncomfortable, guessing she saw more about his situation than he wanted her to. She nodded, “I know of such a gym, go to Grant’s. Here, I can print off a map for you. Tell him I sent ya.”
She printed off uptown Gotham for him, clearly marking where they are at the library and where he needed to go for the gym. “I’m Barbara by the way, what’s your name?” the woman asked.
“Uh, Jackson,” he said after a moment’s pause, uncertain. That felt like one of his names at least.
“Nice to meet you, Jackson,” she said, “Is there anything else I can help you with today? Do you have a library card? If not, I can help you sign up for one.”
“Uh, I don’t really read books,” Jackson deferred.
“That’s okay, we also have DVDs and audiobooks you could listen to, including headphone sets so you can listen to them here if you don’t have anything to play them on,” she replied.
“What would I need to sign up for a library card?” Jackson asked.
“Just need to have your full name for the card, don’t need a phone number or anything,” Barbara replied.
“Hmm, maybe another time,” Jackson replied.
Barbara nodded, “Okay, let me know if you need anything else.”
Jackson left the library and followed the map to the gym that was indicated. He walked by a hot dog stand and realized he was hungry, so he bought two loaded chili dogs for $2, eating them on a bench. It was around 10am, so too early for the lunch rush. He then continued to the gym.
He found the gym; it was a nondescript kind of place, but he saw the sign saying “Grant’s Gym”. He went inside and saw a small desk in front of him to the right with an old man sitting there. To the center-left, there was some weightlifting equipment. Along the far left wall, there was a line of boxing bags, with a blond haired girl punching one of the bags. Towards the center of the room was a boxing ring. Along the back wall, he saw doors to men’s and women’s locker rooms and in the center was a double door leading to a room with a large pool. To the back wall to the right behind the desk, there was a staircase going upwards.
He approached the desk and the old man sitting there. “Uh, Hi, I’m interested in a gym membership? Barbara at the library said you have gym memberships including lockers,” Jackson said uncertainly.
“Babs sent you? Interesting,” the old man said, “I’m Ted Grant, yeah we have memberships. It’s $20 a month or $150 for the year if you pay upfront. With the membership you get a locker with a combination lock for you to memorize. You also get a keycard so you can come in whenever, but during the day the door’s unlocked so you won’t need it. If you lose the keycard, it’s a $5 replacement fee.”
“That sounds perfect,” Jackson replies, “I’ll go ahead and pay for the year,” he says, pulling out $150. Ted raised his eyebrows, mildly surprised the kid was paying for the year.
“What’s your name, kid?” Ted asked.
“Jackson,” he replied, more confident this time. Ted didn’t ask for a second name as he did the paperwork to set him up for the membership and activated his card.
“Here’s your card and the combination lock, the combo is written on the paper, I suggest memorizing it, Just go into the locker room and choose any of the unoccupied lockers,” Ted said.
“Sounds good,” Jackson agreed before heading to the locker room with his bags. The lockers were well sized which was good, he could fit lots of clothes in there. He got out the old shoes from his bookbag and put them in the bottom, then put most of his cash in a sock and stuffed it in the shoe. Then he got out the duffle bag, getting out the pair of swim trunks to change into. He put most of his clothes in the duffle bag and just in the locker, leaving the bookbag lightly packed. He put the keycard in a zipper pocket in the bookbag along with a little bit of cash. He changed into the gym shorts, putting his jeans and belt in the locker. He tried to memorize the combination, but put the slip of paper with the combo on it into the shoe he was wearing for safekeeping until he could be sure he had it memorized.
He figured it would be normal to use the gym as, well, a gym. He was still wearing his shirt and shoes, he figured he could work out and then go for a swim afterwards. He grabbed his water bottle. He went to the main room and filled up his water bottle from the water fountain there; it looked like it had a nice water filter on it. Then he went upstairs, curious to see what else the gym had.
Upstairs had more general exercise equipment, such as exercise bikes and treadmills. There was also more weightlifting equipment, a wider selection than what was downstairs. There was also a mat with some yoga balls, perhaps for stretching. He decided to stretch some first then decided to just do the exercise bike for now; he’d already done a fair bit of walking today.
He let his mind wander as he rode the exercise bike. The gym set him up fairly well for a homeless guy, and he had a nice nest egg of cash. He needed to buy some toiletries, should stop at a pharmacy for that later. Aside from that, main expenses would be food and the occasional trip to a laundromat. He would probably need an income eventually, maybe a part time job at a restaurant? He was old enough to get a job without too much trouble, he could pass as 18 if needed. Sounded like something to worry about tomorrow. Whenever he started to get tired on the bike, he took a drink from his water bottle and felt energized.
After riding the bike for a while, he decided to go downstairs and go for a swim. He went down to the pool room. It was a decent sized 25meter pool and reasonably deep. There was a handful of lounger chairs on the edge of the room, that would be good if he needed to take a nap. No one else was in the pool room, guess this gym was kinda quiet. He took off his socks, shoes, and shirt and left them on one of the loungers with his now empty water bottle. Then he smoothly dived into the pool and started swimming laps.
There weren’t any lane lines in the pool, but he swam as if there were, smoothly turning and kicking off the wall on each turn, swimming in a straight line. He knew he could breathe underwater but he pretended he couldn’t, wanting to be as normal as possible; turns out he knew proper swimming technique for how to breathe properly, that was nice. He swam freestyle, stroke after stroke repetitively, it was relaxing, almost meditative.
He didn’t know how long he had been swimming, it must’ve gotten into the afternoon. Some teenagers came into the pool room. Realizing other people were coming to swim, he decided it was time to get out. Not acknowledging anyone, he got out, quickly putting on his shirt. He gathered his stuff and went back to the locker room, he’d successfully remembered the combination. He put the paper with the combo on it into the bookbag pocket and then changed into his jeans. He decided to leave for a bit.
He grabbed his bookbag and filled up his water bottle on the way out. He stopped at a pharmacy and got a kit of toiletries and a box of granola bars for $10. He went out for dinner, getting a couple of cheeseburgers off of the dollar menu. He loitered at the restaurant for a little while before going back to the gym, using his key card to get access. No one else was there. He decided to go swimming for a bit then take a nap on the lounger. He could shower in the morning.