The Jacket
Committed to the Alpine Grove asylum for a murder he didn’t commit, brain-damaged war
veteran Jack Starks is subjected to sensory deprivation in a straightjacket, which sends
him fifteen years into the future for several hours at a time where he meets the adult
version of Jackie, a small girl whom he briefly met and was kind to shortly before being
incarcerated. He learns from Jackie that back in the asylum he has only a few days to
live, and together, he and Jackie try to figure out a way to escape that fate.
The
story is loosely based on Jack London’s The Star Rover, although London’s
protagonist travels through the stars and into past lives. Using future information to
change the present was never part of London’s story.
— Michael Main
No, no you didn’t. Jack Starks did, and Jack Starks is dead. He’s dead. His body was
found New Year’s Day, 1993, Alpine Grove. He’s dead.