Hey Nostradamus! ; Jason (pgs. 44-146)

In the second half of the Jason's narration in Coupland's novel, "Hey Nostradamus!", Jason continues to present events from his life. First, Jason's father Reg fell in his kitchen and was hospitalized due to his injuries. Then, Jason is asked to bring some personal belongings to his father by one of the nurses and as he goes to the apartment to gather them, Jason observes in depth Reg's apartment. As Jason goes to the hospital he is doubting whether to go in and see his father or not because he hasn't had communication with him for some time now. However, he enters the room and has small talk with Reg but then finally, Jason confronted Reg on why he had accused him of a murderer years before. Reg replies to him, "Your soul was perfect. If you'd died in the cafeteria, you'd have gone directly to heaven. But instead you chose murder, and now you'll never be totally sure of where you're headed." (101) and Jason frustratedly leaves. Also, Jason mentions that he began to receive letters from Cheryl's mother, father, and her brother Chris which involved "fake words" according to Chris. The letters talked about the massacre, many apologies, the Youth alivers, and last Cheryl's funeral but Jason didn't pay much attention to the letters. In addition, as Jason's still writing the letter to his nephews, he mentions in it a time when he and a few friends got drunk and somehow was almost killed by a Russian named Yorgo but then Jason had the opportunity to kill Yorgo with a rock just like he did in the massacre but Jason realized that he was a man with a good heart and not a killer, he wasn't going to win much by killing again. Then at the highest point in this chapter, Jason reveals that when Kent died, him and Barb flew to Vegas to marry because that was the condition he proposed to Barb if she wanted him to do her the favor of getting her pregnant. Ironically enough, they ran into an old high school friend which sadly Barb had to kill because he had witnessed their presence in Vegas and also, Jason somehow had a connection to Reg because she killed him. Hence, to end the chapter Jason's mother calls him announcing the great news that Barb was pregnant which appeared to be his sons. Jason lived a troublesome life.

With all this read, I came to a greater understanding of not only Jason's action but also I was able to understand a bit more of where Reg was coming from. I thought it was great that Jason tried to connect to his father once again and also that he didn't kill Yorgo because that really shows that Jason is a good and pure hearted man. I can also say that once again the saying "Don't judge books by it's cover" was right because at first I didn't have many great things to say about Reg i thought he was a heartless man but now that I continued to read I realized that I was wrong. Reg is not so bad after all he's just like any person in need of a lot of help, understanding, and companionship. This made me take in mind to always get to know people better before one can make judgements about them, jumping to conclusions is not a good idea! Also, I was extremely shocked to hear that the twins are Jason's kids and not Kent's. I think this was a pretty cynical thing to do but I guess sometimes people act impulsively and don't think about things twice. I think both Barb and Jason did this desperately because they didn't want to end up alone. Again, this novel continues to impress me!