The Last Jeskey - Chapter 8

 

The Last Jeskey

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 8

 

Natalie

 

I hurried to the door.  As expected, Lila was on the other side.

“Six feet of hair?  Really?” she asked sarcastically as if she didn’t believe me.

I let her come in and closed the door.  Softly I said, “Lila.  Unless I miss my guess, you’re about to meet your first real live slave.  And just so you know, she’s white, and I seriously doubt she even knows she a slave.”

“You’re joking again, right?”

“No.  Unfortunately, I’m not.  And what’s worse, we don’t know what her real name is.  Everyone seems to have just called her Freak.”

Lila was looking at me like she didn’t know what to think.  “Freak?  For real?”

“I’m pretty sure she was a slave Lila,” I told her.  “I’m also pretty sure she has no concept of that.  Her sense of reality is all…totally warped.”

“For real,” she said.

“For real,” I confirmed.  “Come on.  We just got out of the shower.  She’s in my bedroom now.”

I led the way back through the house.  “Can you stay for dinner?” I asked.

“I ate already,” she told me.  “I just wanted to see what you called six feet of hair.”

I briefly looked back at her but kept leading the way.

In my room, it took Lila no time to notice the girl sitting in the chair.  She saw Amanda there too.  “Amanda,” Lila greeted her, despite the fact that her eyes never once left Freak.

Lila stood there and shook her head for the longest time.  “I have never seen hair that long.”

“Freak,” I said.  “Are you rested enough to stand up?”

Freak worked her way out of the chair and dropped her hair, letting it fall behind her.  As wet as it was, and as tangled as it was, it came down to her ankles.  Lila walked around behind her for a better look.  “My God,” she breathed.  “Six feet of hair.  Or close enough.  For real!”  I saw her take a big breath, gathering herself.  “Right!” she said.  “Let’s get to work.”  She looked Freak in the eyes.  “Um…Freak…” she said, “and I hope you don’t mind if I call you that, how about if we cut that hair to a more manageable length.  Something tells me you’d be a lot happier, and it wouldn’t take us nearly as long.  And trust me, I’m a hairdresser, I can make it look real pretty for you.  Wouldn’t that be nice?”

I noticed the panic hit the girl’s eyes the moment Lila suggested cutting it.

“No!” Freak cried as she took a step away from her and grabbed all her hair again, hugging that huge amount of mass tightly to her body.  It’s mine!  I need it.  It’s precious to me.  Please don’t cut it.  Please!”

“Okay!” Lila said quickly.  “It was just a suggestion, that’s all.  No scissors.  It’s just going to take a bit longer to straighten out.”  She paused a moment looking at that huge mass of hair again.  “Maybe more than a bit longer.”

Lila turned to me.  “Any chance we can get a decent chair for her to sit in?  Something I can work behind.”

“On it,” Amanda offered.  She disappeared and reappeared moments later with a chair from the dining room table.  Perfect.  Freak was put in the chair and Lila started pulling tools out of her large bag.  She grabbed both a comb and a brush and instead of starting at the top, she started at the bottom, working little bits of it at a time, trying to untie all those tangles that looked like they had been knotting themselves for years.  I heard her mutter that it would be a lot easier to do if she could cut it, or at least cut the tangles, but she kept working despite that.

The more I looked Freak over, and the more I thought about the way she must have lived, I thought it might be possible that she might have never bothered to brush her hair at all.

Eventually, Lila started to use the comb, the brush, and blow dryer on sections of her hair, all at the same time.  Amazingly, little by little, Freak’s hair started to straighten out.  Since Freak was sitting down, it was hard to tell, but I had no doubt that her hair was getting longer.  There was also no doubt that it was starting to look a lot fuller.  Wow, that girl had a head of hair!  If it was cut properly, any woman would die for it.

Will came into the bedroom while Lila was working.  “Chicken’s done,” he whispered.  “I put some vegetables on the stove, but I don’t want to cook them yet since I don’t know how long you’re gonna be.”

I kissed him.  “Thanks.  You’re a good man William Cobb.  Not like those louts that have been keeping her!”

“I aim to please,” Will replied as he kissed me back.  “If you’re going to be a while still, I’ll be out watching TV.  Call if you need me.”

“Thanks,” I told him.  “I hope it won’t be too much longer.”

Eventually, Lila declared that she was done with Freak’s hair.  “Freak,” Lila said.  “Maybe stand up so we can see what it all looks like.”

“I could see how nervous Freak looked.  Or was that scared?  Maybe both.  Slowly, she stood up and Lila pulled her away from the chair so her mass of hair could hang like a long, beautiful curtain behind her.

“Wow!” I heard Amanda mutter.

I could only agree.  I walked over for a closer look behind Freak.  I stared at the floor.  Her hair actually draped on the floor by a good four or five inches.

“It’s like a train,” Amanda realized.  “If she ever gets married, she won’t need one for her wedding dress, she’s already got it.”

I saw Freak looking at me, that worried look was still plastered on her face.  I had a full-length mirror on the wall.  I grabbed her and pulled her over to it.  “Look how beautiful you are,” I whispered.  I watched as she stood in front of that mirror and stared at herself.  I was about to suggest that she imagine herself wearing something real pretty, when her face screwed up into total fear and she let out a cry of complete alarm.  “Oh no!” she cried.  “No!”  She turned to me.  “What am I going to do?  This is bad.  This isn’t what I want!”

“What’s wrong?” I asked, completely concerned.

“If the guys see me like this, they’re going to want to have sex more often.  All the time!  I hate when they do that too much.  This is just going to make it worse!”

I quickly turned her around and hugged her tightly.  “Don’t you worry about that!” I told her firmly.  “In fact, you never have to worry about that again.  I guarantee it.  That life is over!  As of right now, earlier today in fact, all that misery is long behind you!  You’re free now Freak.  Free!”

There were tears falling from her eyes.  “No,” she wailed.  “You don’t understand.”

“Then tell me.”

“Dave and Gary are still there, and it’s a good thing they are.  If they weren’t, I don’t know what I’d do.  I need them.  I need them badly.  Without them, I’d die!”

“What do you mean, you’d die?  No, you wouldn’t.”

“I would.  I know for a fact that I would.”

“Why?” I asked.

“I just would.  I need them to take care of me, and they do.  That’s their job.  That’s what men do.”

Something told me I wasn’t going to get through to her in one fell swoop.  Her rotten life was too ingrained in her.  “Freak,” I said.  “For now, just don’t worry about them ever having sex with you again.  Okay?  Don’t worry about it.  I’ll talk to my husband, and we’ll make sure they never do it.  I promise.”

She shook her head.  “There’s nothing you can do.  There’s nothing anyone can do.  Besides,”  She seemed to sigh as she paused.  “It’s a small price to pay for them taking such good care of me for so long.  And…I guess I really don’t mind that much.  It’s just…sometimes they can hurt, you know?  But most of the time, it doesn’t last that long.  I’m used to it.  And…”  She pulled back and looked me in the eyes.  “I don’t care what you think.  I know girls aren’t supposed to care if it feels good for them or not, but sometimes, as rough as they are, it just…”

She stopped talking.  “What Freak?” I asked, trying to get her to go on.

“It feels good to have someone hold me and touch me like that.  It feels good to know they care about me.  You may not understand, but that’s the way it is.  And I know it’s not right for me to care, but I do.  I…like to be held sometimes.  Sometimes, I need to feel someone touch me.  I need to feel…wanted.  I’m sorry, but I do.”

Wanted.  Needed.  That was the crux of it.  Human contact.  And more than that, love.  The one most essential thing that a human needs.  Even if it was the completely warped imaginary love that Freak had probably convinced herself was the real thing.

I hugged her again.  “It’s okay Freak.  It’s okay.  I understand.  But Freak, we’ll do something to help you.  That much I promise.  Okay?  Just know, we’re going to help.”

She shook her head.  “But I don’t really need help.  I know what they all like.  I know what I need to do, and I’m good at it.  I can take care of all the women’s business on the farm.  I’ve been doing it all my life.”

“Trust me,” I said.  “You need help, even if you don’t understand that.  And like it or not, we’re going to help you.”

“How?” she asked.

“I don’t know yet,” I admitted.  “We haven’t had time to get all the details yet.  I never knew you were out there before, and I’m pretty sure that Will didn’t know it either.”

“Nobody was supposed to know I live there.  Bo was real strict about that.  Girls aren’t supposed to go showing themselves to everybody who comes to the house unless the men want it.  We’re supposed to be quiet and out of sight, not distracting to men’s business.  Girls have their own business to take care of, and it has nothing to do with men’s business.”

I had plenty I could say to that, but something told me she wouldn’t believe me.  “Okay,” I said softly as I pulled back and patted her lightly on the chest.  A thought hit me.  “Maybe,” I said.  “Maybe just for now, you can know that you’ve got a friend.  Maybe a few friends now, that are just yours.  Not their friends, your friends.  And Freak, we care about you.  Okay?  We didn’t know you before, but now we do, and we’re now your friends, and we care about you.  Can you live with that?”

I saw her struggling with the concept.  Did she even know what a friend was?  Maybe not.  I pulled her to me and hugged her again.  I was about to let go of her when I felt her arms hesitantly wrap themselves around me too.  Very lightly, she hugged me back.  When we pulled away I said, “Come on Freak.  Let’s get you some dinner.”

She smiled at that.  Amanda led the way out of the bedroom, and Lila and I followed.  I watched Freak’s hair trail on the floor as she headed out to the dining table.  Her own wedding train.  But would a girl like her ever get married?  I wanted that for her, but somehow I knew it was doubtful it would ever happen.  What kind of prospects for life did she really have?  I doubted she had any at all.  And she probably had no way to improve that situation either.  Another reason why she literally needed to have the Jeskey clan taking care of her…like it or not.

Will was still watching TV as we headed with Lila toward the door, but with Freak in front of me I had to stop when she did.  She was staring at the TV.  “Freak.  What’s wrong?  Anything?”

I watched as she turned her head this way and that, looking at the TV screen.  She moved closer to it.  “Hello,” she said to the screen.

Yeah, I was shocked, and I think so was everyone else.

Freak moved closer to the TV and waved her hand in front of it.  “Hello!” she said louder.  “Who are you talking to?”

She seemed to be getting upset.

“Freak,” Will said quickly.  “It’s just the TV.”

“T…Fee?”

“TV,” Will said again.  “Don’t you know what a TV is?”

She just stared at him for a moment then looked at the screen and waved her hand in front of it again.  “Hello!  Can you hear me?”

“Freak,” Will said.  “It’s not real!  There’s no one there you can talk to.”

“But there are people…”  She pointed to the screen.

“But there not real.  It’s like…pictures.  You can’t talk to anyone there.”

I watched as Freak seemed to take that in, then something seemed to click in her head.  “Like cellphones?” she asked.

“Sort of,” Will confirmed.

Freak nodded.  “The guys spend a lot of time looking at pictures on their cellphones, but I’ve never really seen them.  So the cellphones are like this, only…smaller?”

“Kind of,” Will said.

Freak took that in, then nodded.  “Men’s business.  Sorry,” she said, then moved away.

Men’s business again.  She had never even seen a TV before.  Come tomorrow morning, I wondered which one of those Jeskey men I was going to shoot first.

I said goodbye to Lila at the door and promised I’d be in touch with her tomorrow.  The TV was off, and Will was in the kitchen when I went back to the others.  Amanda was setting the table.  Freak was just staring at it all like she didn’t know what to do.  “Are you okay?” I asked.

She shook her head.  “All day I’ve seen things I don’t understand.  All day.  It’s…too much!  I feel…strange.  Like I’m afraid.”

I was guessing it was a bit of panic.  “What don’t you understand now?” I asked.

She pointed to the table.  “Do we all sit down together to eat?”

“Of course,” I replied.  “Why not?”

“But we’re women…”  She looked toward the kitchen.  “And he’s a man.”

“Yeah.  So?”

“So the women aren’t supposed to eat till after the men are done, and only if there’s enough food left.  That’s why it’s so important that we make enough when we cook it.”

“We have got to get you a new life!” I muttered, more to myself than to her.  “Trust me, there’s plenty of food.  And if there isn’t, we’ll cook more.  And like it or not, we’ll all eat together.  In fact, I insist on it.”

“You?  But you’re not a man.”

“Honey,” I said, “if anyone ever tried to stop me, I’d be the one doing the killing.  Just sit down and eat with us and try to enjoy it.”  She looked at me skeptically.

A few minutes later, we all sat down to eat, and when Freak took her first bite of the chicken, she looked like she was going to freak out.  “How do you get it to taste like this?” she asked.  “This is so good!”

“Thanks,” Will said.  “I do try.”

“You cooked it.  I know you did,” Freak said.  “But…it tastes so good!”

“Freak,” I said, wondering something.  “If only women do the cooking, who taught you to cook?”

“Bo can cook some.  He taught me.  He showed me how he likes everything and that’s the way I make sure it is, all the time.”

“So men do some cooking too,” I pointed out.

“Only if they have to.  They have me to do it for them now.”  I saw her face cloud.  “I don’t think Dave and Gary can cook at all though.  They are really going to kill me when I get home.”  She looked over at me.  “At the least, they’ll probably punish me.”

“Punish you?” Will asked.  “How?”

She shrugged.  “I don’t know.  I never know.  They’ve got lots of ways, and all of it is painful.  Plus, I know I’ll be eating dog food for a long time after this.  It’s okay though,” she said.  “I’m used to it.  They’ll get over it.”  I saw her look up.  “Bo’s not there now though,” she said.  “Maybe…maybe it won’t be so bad.”

“Hopefully not!” Will said firmly.  “And they better not do any of that!”

Freak shook her head.  “Dave’s not always so bad,” she said.  “But Gary likes to be mean.”

“Gary?” I asked.

She nodded.  “He likes it.”

It certainly wasn’t the food that was going to make me sick during dinner.  It was Freak’s life!  But that was the point where Will decided to start being the sheriff again.  “Freak,” he said while he stuffed mashed potatoes into his mouth.  “You keep talking about men’s business and women’s business.  What do you know about the men’s business out where you live?”

That was a question I myself was very interested in.

Freak took the time to stick another piece of chicken into her mouth before she answered…while she looked down at her plate.  “Not much,” she told him.  “Men’s business is their concern.  Girls aren’t supposed to know anything about it.”

“But you do hear things,” Will said.  “You have to.  That place where you live, the kitchen and the living area are all like one big room.  So maybe you’ve heard things they talk about while you’re cooking and they’re in the room too, taking care of…business.”

I saw Freak consider that.  “I’ve heard…some,” she admitted.  “But I don’t understand any of it.  Mostly they talk about stuff like that at the table.”

“While you eat?” I asked.

She shook her head.  “While they eat, or drink, or just sit at the table.  I’m a girl!” she said pointedly.  “I’ve got no business eating with them.”

I wanted to ask if eating ever got lonely for her, but I bit my tongue.

“What kind of things do they talk about then?” Will asked.

I saw Freak shrug.  “Deals, I think,” she replied.  “Selling stuff.  Getting stuff.  Shipments.  I really don’t know.”

“Selling stuff,” Will said.  “What kind of stuff?  Drugs?”

“I don’t know,” Freak insisted.  “I don’t know what any of it is.”

“Have you heard them mention any goods they sell?” Will pressed.  “They must have mentioned some things.”

Again, Freak shook her head.  “I’m sure they do,” she said.  “But I don’t know what any of it is.”

“Like what?” Will pushed.

“I don’t know,” Freak said, trying to think of things.  “I’ve heard them say things like meth.  crystal, Opie something.  And lately they’ve been saying things like brownings, AK’s, automat something.  I don’t know.  I can’t remember, and I don’t know what any of it is.  It’s men’s business!  Not mine!”

“You said AK’s?” Will said.  “AK-47s?”

“What?  No.  They just say AK.  I don’t know what that is.”

Will looked over at Amanda.  “We had no idea they were running guns.  And automatics at that.”

I saw how surprised Amanda looked to hear about it too.

“Freak,” Will said.  “Do you know where they keep their drugs?  Or where they keep those guns?”

“I don’t know for sure.  They’ve got hidden places all over the farm.  Places that nobody can find.”

“But you know where those places are?”

“I’ve seen them go into some, but that’s all men’s business and they make sure I stay away.  Why would I be interested anyway?  I’ve got my own business to worry about.”

“It sounds like we’ll be making another trip to their farm tomorrow,” Amanda said softly.

Will nodded his agreement.  “Especially if she can show us where those places are.”

Now that the subject of illegal activities was hopefully over with, I turned to Freak.  “Freak,” I said.  “I should have asked you this before.  I really hate calling you that.  Don’t you have another name?  Something nicer?”

She seemed surprised.  “Nicer?  What’s wrong with Freak?  It’s my name.”

“It’s not something nice,” I told her.  Something occurred to me.  “Do you know what a freak is?” I asked.

She shrugged.  “It’s just my name.  How can a name be something else?”

She had no clue!  “So you don’t know of any other name for yourself?”

“Of course not.  I’m Freak.  Why would I have another name?”

“So you’re okay being called that?” I asked.

She seemed to get frustrated.  “Why does everybody keep asking about my name?  It’s Freak!  Okay?  I’m sorry if you don’t like it.”  She suddenly looked around the table, I could see the terror in her eyes.  “No!” she said softly like she was scared to death.  “I’m sorry.  I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to upset you.  I didn’t mean to yell.  I just…all day today it’s been…I’m…I just don’t understand anything!”  Her head bent down, and I saw tears falling from her eyes.

“Freak,” I said softly.  “It’s okay.  Don’t cry, please.  You didn’t upset us at all.  You didn’t do anything wrong at all.  It’s all good.  Please don’t cry.”

She looked up at me.  She stopped crying, but her head bent down toward her plate again.

“Eat your dinner,” I suggested softly.  “It’s all okay Freak.  I promise.”

I saw her pick up her fork again and take another bite of chicken.  I was looking around at everyone else at the table when I heard her softly say.  “It’s funny.  And I don’t know why.  But I kind of like the way Roxie says my name.  It’s not like everybody else.”

“How’s that?” I asked.

“My name is Freak, but she always says it…Freaky.  I don’t know why, but I kind of like it.”

“Would you rather we all called you Freaky instead of Freak?”

She shrugged.  “Why?  My name is Freak.”

Yeah, I was going to shoot someone.  Maybe a lot of someones!

After dinner, Amanda left and I took Freak into the spare bedroom.  “Do you want a pair of my pajamas to sleep in?” I asked.

“Pajamas?” she asked.

I realized immediately that she didn’t have a clue what they were.  “How about a nightgown instead.  Do you know what that is?”  Her face brightened.  “I’ve got one at home,” she said.  “I don’t always bother wearing it, especially when it’s cold out, but when it’s warm, it’s nice.  I’d wear it all the time in the summer if they let me.”

“I’ll get you a nightgown,” I told her.

“Um…” she said.

“Yes?”

“Um…  I’ve kind of got to pee again,” she said.

“You know where the bathroom is,” I told her.  “You don’t have to even ask.  Just go.”

She seemed disappointed.  “Which means I guess,” she said, “that you don’t have a proper pee hole outside.”

Pee hole?  “A what?”

“A pee hole where the girls are supposed to pee and poop.”

“We pee like we’re supposed to!” I said.  “In the bathroom.  In the toilet.  Where everyone, men and women both, are supposed to do it.  Not in some lousy hole outside.”  I got my frustrated anger under control.  “I’m sorry,” I told her.  “Please, just use the bathroom.  I’ll bring a nightgown to you there.”

Two minutes later, I pushed my way into the bathroom with one of my oldest gowns.  Somehow I knew it was probably far better than anything she had ever worn.  But the moment I got into the bathroom, I stopped and stared, not believing what I was seeing.  She was standing over the toilet seat, facing the wall.  The hem of her robe pulled up to her waist.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Trying to figure out how to pee with this thing.”

“Stop!” I told her.  “Just turn around and sit down on it.  That’s how a lady pees.  Always!”

She seemed confused, but she turned around, pulled the robe she was wearing way up out of the way and sat down properly.  And peed.  I breathed a sigh of relief.  “See,” I said.  “Easy.  Right?”

She shrugged.  “So is my pee hole at home.  In fact, it’s easier.  I don’t even have to sit down.”

Something told me I wasn’t going to win that argument, but she had to learn.  I am not going to go into our discussion about using the toilet paper.  It seemed that toilet paper was another one of those things reserved just for men.  Which of those Jeskeys was I going to kill first?

I helped her remove her robe and get the nightgown on, which was a major effort due to all that hair.  Then I led her to the guestroom to sleep.

“Is it okay if I sleep over there?” she asked as she pointed to the floor just past the bed.

I was momentarily confused.  “What do you mean?”

“Where should I sleep?  Do you care?”

“Yes!  Yes I care,” I told her.  “Sleep in the bed!  Don’t you sleep in a bed at home?”

“Of course not,” she said.  “The guys have all the beds.  I’m only allowed to be in them for sex.”

“They don’t allow you to sleep in a bed?” I asked, not believing it.

“There aren’t any left.  Besides, I’m a girl.”

“You’re a girl, you’re a girl, you’re a girl!  Geez!”  We had to straighten out all these misconceptions she had.  I just didn’t know where to start.  Nor was it the time just then.  “Please,” I said.  “Please sleep in the bed.  You’ll love it.  I promise.  It’s got a real good mattress.”

She seemed skeptical, but she climbed up onto the bed and I helped get her hair arranged before I pulled the covers over her.  “Goodnight Freak,” I said as kindly to her as I could.  “Sleep…  Sleep like you’re in the best, happiest place possible.  Because you are.  Goodnight.”  I turned out the light and left her.

A little while later, just before getting into bed myself, I went back to check on her.  She was sound asleep, but not in the bed.  She had moved to the floor without a blanket or a pillow.  Her long hair was wrapped all around her body, and part of it formed a pillow for her head.  Seeing that, it struck me why she didn’t want her hair cut.  Believe it or not, all that hair was like her security blanket.  Having it surrounding her, or even just having it to hold or touch, comforted her.  Very quietly, I pulled a blanket off the bed and draped it over her.

I walked back to my own bed, wondering what the heck we needed to do to help that poor girl.  I was a social worker for the county.  Will was the county sheriff.  But I wasn’t sure that even between the two of us we could do anything for her at all.

Will was waiting for me in bed.  “Is she alright?” he asked.

“Sort of,” I told him.  “She moved to the floor, but she’s sound asleep.”  I saw him shake his head.

“Will,” I said.  “What did they do with the bodies?”

“Bodies?” he asked.

“Bo and his two sons.”

“They’re at the morgue of course.”

“Can I borrow your gun?”

“My gun?  What for?”

“So I can go there and shoot them!”

He laughed.  “Won’t do you any good.  They’re dead.  Remember?”

“Not dead enough!”

The Last Jeskey - Chapter 7

 

The Last Jeskey

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 7

 

Freaky

 

I was wondering if I should lay down on the floor and go to sleep when the door opened and that cop came in again.  I stood up.  Right behind him though was a woman.  A woman who wasn’t wearing those same weird clothes.  Not a cop!  Or was she?  I heard the guys say many times that you had to watch out for cop tricks.  And then that female cop walked in behind them.  Did that mean that the other woman wasn’t a cop for sure?  Cop tricks!  I had to be careful.

“Freak,” the man cop said.  “I’d like you to meet my wife, Natalie.”

Wife?  Bo had explained to me once what a wife was.  Bo had a wife once, but she died.  This new woman was staring at me like she thought I was a ghost or something.  I knew I wasn’t supposed to talk to anyone, but Roxie had said I should.  Still…this seemed important.  “Wife?” I asked.  “You belong…to him?”

My question seemed to snap her out of something.  “Belong to him?” she said.  “I guess in a way.  I’m just not sure it’s the same way you’re thinking.”

She slowly moved closer to me until she was standing right in front of me.  She seemed to look me over, then shake her head.  “My dear child, what have you been through?”

“I’ve been through a day of things I can’t figure out,” I told her.  “And I just want to go home!  I’ve got wash on the line that needs to get in before it rains and I’ve got to get dinner on the table.  And they’ll kill me if I don’t do it soon.  If you’re a wife, then you know how important that is.”

I saw her turn to look at the man cop, then back to me.  “Huh!” she breathed.  “Maybe better than you think.”

“So please?” I begged.  “Take me home.  I don’t understand anything around here.  I don’t want to be in this jail cell.”

She snorted a laugh.  “Honey, this isn’t a jail cell.  This is just another room in this damn place, and not a very nice one at that.  But compared to a jail cell, this room is a luxury hotel.”

A what?  “What’s lux…”

“Luxury,” she said.  “You know…nice, fancy…”  Was she reading my face?  “You don’t understand that at all, do you.”

“Not really,” I told her.  “Please.  They’ll kill me if I don’t get home and make dinner.”

“Honey,” she said.  “I’m taking you home personally!”

I started to breathe a sigh of relief when she added, “Just not to your home.”  She turned towards the man cop.  “Will, we’re taking her home with us, and she’s gonna get a decent bath, and a real good meal, and then we’re gonna do something with all that hair!  And we’re not getting pizza tonight, no matter how much you’d rather have it.”

Her home?  And why was she telling the man what she was going to do?  She was going to get in so much trouble!

“Natalie,” the woman cop said.  “If you want, I’ll be glad to help.”

“Thanks Amanda,” the woman said.  She looked me over again.  “Something tells me I’m going to need all the help I can get.  And girl,” she said to me.  “Don’t worry about your laundry, or the stomachs of those no-good men out where you live.  Tonight, it’s all about you!”

My stomach went into knots.  What did she mean?

I got taken out of that room and all the way out the door.  It was just starting to get dark outside.  I prayed it wasn’t going to rain tonight or all my wash was going to get wet.  The woman cop, Amanda I guess, said she was going home first to change, then she’d be over.  Over what?

I got put into the cop car with the man cop who Natalie had called Will, and Natalie got into another car.  I was shocked.  She was going to drive herself?  Driving was men’s business!  And this cop, Will, her husband, didn’t mind?  What was wrong with him?  And then we were going, and I was riding in a car again, where I had no business being.  And I wasn’t going home.  At least, not to my home.  Don’t kill me Dave and Gary.  Please don’t kill me.

“It didn’t take very long to get where we were going.  The cop, Will, stopped the car and I could see Natalie getting out of her car.  But get this, her car looked like it was inside the house!  Was that a tiny barn for the car?  It had to be!

The cop, I guess Will, opened the door for me and I got out and looked around.  Another strange building.  I had seen nothing but weird buildings all day, but the only building I wanted to see was my own house…where I belonged.  The cop led me up a few steps where he opened a door in front of the house.  I went inside with him and Natalie followed me.

“Welcome, um…Freak,” she told me.  “This is our home.”

I was looking all around.  Was my mouth stuck wide open?  “You’ve got to be rich!” I breathed.

“Hardly!  Trust me,” Natalie replied.  “Come on,” she said after she dropped a leather bag she was carrying on a little table by the door.

“Do you mind if we give you a bath first?” Natalie asked me.  “Besides, I haven’t had a chance to make dinner yet.  Will is just going to have to wait a bit to eat tonight.”

I didn’t answer.  I was too busy looking all around.  Yes, this was a house.  A home.  There was a living room, a kitchen, and I was betting there was a nice bedroom too.

“This way,” Natalie said as she led the way through the house toward the back.  I passed a bathroom along the way.  It was huge, and also fancy and shiny.  More so than that ladies’ room I had been in back where I had been with all the cops.

“We’ll use our bathroom,” Natalie said as she walked into a bedroom.

I followed her and stopped.  What a room!  The bed was…humongous!  That’s the only way I could describe it.  “How do you make a bed that big?” I asked.

“It’s not hard,” she replied.

I looked around.  “Why does he need a bed that big?”

“It’s more comfortable with two of us,” she told me as she headed for another door inside the room.

“Two of you?  In the bed?  You sleep there too?  All the time?  Not just for sex?”

She turned back to me.  Of course.  Where did you think?”

“But you’re a woman.  Girls sleep on the floor, unless they’re having sex,” I said as I stared in awe at the huge bed.

“They what?” Natalie exclaimed.  She looked at her husband.  “Don’t get any dumb ideas.”  I heard the cop laugh.  “Come on,” Natalie said to me, then she looked me over again.  “Maybe we better start with a shower, then we’ll move on to a bath.”  She looked me over again.  “Yeah, definitely both!  And as for your hair.”  She shook her head.  “I’m not sure what we’re going to do.”  She looked at her husband, the cop.  “Will, there’s chicken thawed in the fridge.  Can you get it started?  Maybe on the grill tonight.”

“Sure,” Will told her.  “Glad to.  Sounds good.”

I wasn’t sure what was going on here.  “Is he…going to cook?  But he’s a man.”

“Hell yes!” Natalie replied.  “Now come into the bathroom.  Let’s get you undressed and into the shower.”

“But it’s not raining,” I told her.  “How do you shower with no rain?”

“Rain?  Who needs rain?”  She grabbed my arm and pulled me into another room.  Another bathroom.  And it was a whole lot bigger than the bathroom the guys used at home.  And fancy wouldn’t begin to describe it.

Do you know they have a little room…inside the bathroom…where they can make it rain – hot water!  Inside the house!  I took my dress and my boots off, and she took them and threw them out of the bathroom.  Then she started getting undressed herself.

“Something tells me you’re going to need a little help,” she said.

While she was getting undressed, I saw her looking me over again.  Why?  I also saw her do another of those head shakes like she wasn’t happy about something.  How could you not be happy about everything if you had a room where it rained hot water inside your house, and you were allowed to use it?

When she was as naked as me, she reached her hand into the little rain room, and let the water hit her hand.  “Perfect,” she muttered.  I wasn’t sure what that meant.  She had told me it would be hot water, but how hot?  Could I get burned?

She was looking at me again.  “Honey,” she said.  “Maybe it would be a good idea if we cut some of that hair of yours.  Shorten it so it’s easier to take care of.  Would you like that?”

I immediately panicked and grabbed as much of my hair as I could, holding it as close as I could.  “No!” I wailed.  “Don’t cut it.  I need it!”

“For what?  It’s too much!”

“No!  It’s mine!  Mine!  I need my hair.”

She shook her head again.  “Okay, no haircuts.  We’ll just wash it…somehow.”  She pointed toward the rain room.  “Okay kid, in you go.”

I was a bit scared, but also curious.  I looked at her, but she was just waiting for me to go in there.  Slowly, I stepped in and the water started to hit me.  Aaahh!  The water wasn’t too hot at all, something I had been a bit worried about.  In fact, it felt…delicious.  She got in with me, but she stood in the corner where she wouldn’t get as wet as me.  “This feels…unbelievable,” I told her.  “It’s the best thing I’ve ever felt.”

“Yeah,” she said softly.  “I don’t doubt it.”  She grabbed something from a tray on the wall.  “Here,” she said.  “Put this to good use.  There’s a washrag hanging right behind you.”

I took the thing she gave me and looked at it.  “What is it?” I asked.

She stared me in the face for a moment before she replied.  “You don’t know what that is.  What the hell have those men out there been doing with you?”

“What do you mean?  They feed me and give me a place to live,” I told her.  “They’ve kept me alive, even though sometimes they come close to killing me.”

“I’m gonna kill them myself!” she said.  “Just as soon as I can!”

I couldn’t help myself.  I chuckled.

“Here,” she said as she took the thing from me.  She held it up in front of me.  “This is soap,” she said.  “You use it to get clean.”

I didn’t understand how it could do that, but I didn’t say anything.  She grabbed a piece of cloth that was hanging behind me and then she started rubbing that soap stuff all over the piece of cloth.  Then she did the weirdest thing of all.  She started rubbing it…hard…all over me.  She scrubbed my front, my back, my arms, my legs, my face, my feet, everything!  She even did my clit.  She was very careful about it though and said she was worried about hurting me.  She didn’t…too much.

“Nat?” A woman’s voice called into the bathroom.  “You okay in there?”

“I’ve got this Amanda,” Natalie yelled back.  “It’s gonna take a bit though.”

“I don’t doubt it,” Amanda called back.

“Check with Will,” Natalie told her.  “He should be out back with the grill.  See if he’s got time to help you find something for her to wear when she gets out.”

“Good idea,” Amanda answered.

Natalie went back to scrubbing my entire body again.  By the time she was done, my neck was beginning to get tired.  Whenever my hair got all wet, it got real heavy.  I had to pick it up and drape it over my arm so my neck wouldn’t hurt so much.  “Can we get out of here now?” I asked.  “My hair is killing me.”

She grabbed the hair where I had picked it up and lifted it.  “Oh my god!” she said.  “That is heavy.  I should have known.  No, don’t get out yet.  We’ve still got to wash all that hair.  And I hope I’ve got enough shampoo to do it.”

There was that word again.  The one that Roxie had used.  “What’s…shampoo?”

“Soap,” she said.  “For your hair.”  She looked around.  “But your hair is too heavy for you to keep standing there.  Wait!  Here,” she said.  “Try sitting on the floor over here.  See if that helps.”

She pointed toward a spot on the floor, and I sat down.  Most of my hair was now lying on the floor so it wasn’t nearly as heavy on my neck as it was.

“Do you think you can manage that way for a bit?” she asked.

“Yeah,” I told her.  “It’s still heavy, but not nearly as bad.”

“Good!”

Then I felt her doing something with all my hair right on top of my head.  She made me close my eyes tight and keep them that way.  “Otherwise,” she said, “this stuff will sting them like the dickens.”

I sat there and felt her massaging my head and doing stuff with my hair.  Pulling it and pushing it and doing all kinds of things.  Eventually I realized she was gradually moving further away from my head as she attacked the rest of my hair.  When she got far enough away, I chanced opening my eyes.  There were what looked like thick laundry suds all over my hair.  Laundry suds.  For hair!

And then she made me stand up and make sure my eyes were closed tight again, and she pulled me back under that real nice rainwater.  I felt her doing it all over again while she pulled and pushed every bit of my hair all over the place.  I realized she was rinsing all the laundry suds out of my hair.

“Okay,” Natalie said when I thought she was done.  “Cream rinse time.  And I’m sorry, but with all that hair, I’m afraid we’ve still got a long way to go.”

I sat back on the floor and let her start all over again.  I had no idea what she was putting in my hair, but it smelled nice.  I just hoped it wouldn’t take so long.  My head and my neck were starting to really ache.  Eventually, it was all over, and she turned that nice warm rainwater off.  I watched as she grabbed big lengths of my hair and started wringing it out.  And then we were done.  Finally!  Something told me I would be dreaming about that little rain room for the rest of my life.  And they would be happy, happy dreams.

“My neck and head are really tired and hurting,” I complained as I grabbed as much of my hair as I could and held it up.

She looked me over.  “Yeah, I guess they might be,” she said.  “You’ve just got way too much hair.  Why don’t you cut it?  It would be so much easier.”

“Bo doesn’t want it cut.  He wants it as long as possible.”

“Bo is dead honey,” she reminded me.

“But he wasn’t,” I told her.  “Until today.”

“Yeah.  True.  We’ll discuss cutting it later.”

I had to think about that.  My hair was precious to me.

The bathroom door opened, and I heard the man cop say, “Nat…how you doing?”

“We’re making progress,” Natalie told him.  “Is Amanda still out there?”

“I’m right here,” Amanda said.  “Can I come in?  I’ve got something she can wear…for both of you.”

“You can come in,” Natalie told her, but I think we’re going to have to do something with her hair first.  In fact…  Will, you still there?”

“Right here Nat,” I heard him call back.

Grab my cellphone from my purse.  Give it to Amanda to bring in with her.”

Natalie grabbed two towels that were hanging nearby and handed one of them to me.  It was amazingly thick and soft…and big!  I saw her using her towel to dry herself off, so I tried to do the same.  I couldn’t believe how fast it dried my body.  Not like the one I had at home.  This towel was thick.  Mine was thin and full of holes.

Amanda opened the door.  “Hello?” she called before she came in.

“Come on in,” Natalie told her.  Amanda had a robe in her hand that she handed to Natalie.

“Thanks,” Natalie told her as she slipped it on and tied a rope of some sort that went around her waist.  “I found this one too,” Amanda said as she took another robe from her arm.  “I thought it might be good while were trying to do something with all that hair.”

“Yeah,” Natalie agreed.  “Perfect.  Since it’s wet, that hair is too heavy for her to manage with.  I think we’re going to need to find her a chair before we get started.  You got my phone?”

“Right here,” Amanda told her.  I saw her reach into a pocket on her pants and pull one out.  Pockets!  What were they like?

While Amanda helped put the robe on me, having to work it under all my hair, I heard Natalie talking to someone on the phone.  “Lila?  It’s Nat.  The sheriff’s wife.  …  Yeah.  Sorry to call you, but I’m afraid we’ve got kind of an emergency here.  I need you to come to my house and bring your stuff.  All of it!  …  No, it’s not for me.  We’ve got…the strangest case you’ve ever seen here.  I just used an entire big bottle of shampoo on her hair and an entire bottle of cream rinse, and I’m not sure even that much was enough.  …  No, I’m not joking or even exaggerating.  This girl’s got the longest head of hair you’ve ever seen.  About six feet of it!  …  No, for real.  Six feet!  And it’s a tangled mess!  We’re about to start working with the blow dryer next.  …  Don’t?  Okay, if you say so.  …  Yeah, thanks.  See you soon.”

Amanda ended the call and put the phone down.  “That was my hairdresser.  She’s on her way.”

“Great idea!” Amanda said.

Hairdresser?  How did you dress hair?  Did they have clothes for hair?

“You got a blow dryer?” Amanda asked.  “I can get started with it.”

“Lila said don’t.  She’ll do it when she gets here.”

They took me out of the bathroom and let me sit in a real nice chair in the bedroom.  With my hair in my lap where I usually kept it, the weight of it wasn’t so bad.  It smelled nice too.  Not to mention, I was really enjoying wearing that nice robe.  It was so soft and comfortable.

“You should have shaved her legs,” Amanda noted as she looked me over again.

“I was going to give her a bath next.  I was planning on doing it then, but her neck can’t take much more of that weight.”

I watched while Natalie quickly got dressed.  She wore underwear, including a bra.  I hated that bra I had tried to wear once.  She pulled some pants up her legs then a real pretty top.  She slipped her feet into a pair of shoes, and she seemed to be done.  I looked around for my dress, but I didn’t see it.  “Can I get dressed now?” I asked.

“Not yet,” Natalie told me.  “We’ll wait till after Lila helps with your hair.”

“What’s she going to do to it?” I asked.

“Not nearly what I’d like her to,” she replied.  “But maybe someday.”

I heard a bell ring somewhere in the house.  “What was that?” I asked as I saw Natalie hurry out of the room.

“Doorbell,” Amanda told me.

 

The Last Jeskey - Chapter 6

 

The Last Jeskey

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 6

 

Sheriff Cobb

 

Deputy Amanda and I spent a long time talking with Roxie about what she had discussed with…Freaky.  We had to get a real name for that girl, or at least a better one.  For the time being though, she might be stuck with it.  Everything Roxie told us sounded unbelievable.  On the one hand, I was sure Roxie was making everything up.  But on the other hand, I had already been through the pee hole thing with Freaky, and I knew for a fact that it was all true.  But as to the rest of it?  I remembered how filthy and unkempt the girl was.  Not to mention how cruel I was sure that Bo Jeskey could be.  But that cruel?  Unbelievable!

When we were done with Roxie, I thanked her for her efforts and promised I’d put in a good word with the D.A. on her behalf.  She said she didn’t care.  She had just wanted to kill Bo Jeskey for what he had done to her brother, and she didn’t care what happened to her.  She might not care, but I did.  And killing the Jeskeys was in reality a very good thing.  Maybe more so than I ever imagined.

“Sheriff,” Amanda said as we were heading back to the offices.  “It’s getting late.  What are you going to do with her?”

Good question.  “I don’t know,” I admitted.

“Maybe protective custody in the cells?” she suggested.

“Maybe,” I agreed.  “Maybe.”

“I’ve got another suggestion too,” she said.

“Oh?”

“Ask you wife.  Maybe she’ll have an idea.”

“Natalie?”

“She’s a social worker, isn’t she?”

“Maybe,” I said again and turned into my office.

Amanda had been right about one other thing too.  It was getting late.  As soon as I got back to my desk, I picked up the phone and called my wife.

“Hi Will,” she said as soon as she picked up.  “How’s it going?”

“Hey Nat,” I replied.  “It’s been…a day,” I told her.

“I hear you had a big murder case,” she said.  “Bo Jeskey.”

“Bo, and his two oldest sons, Steve and Ben.”

“So you’ve been busy.”

“Huh!  The murders were easy.  We know who did it and why, and she’s cooperating better than anyone could expect.”

“She?”

“Yeah.  Roxie Simmons did it.  I can’t tell you more than that, and I probably shouldn’t have said even that much.”

“Will, how long have you known me?”

“Point taken.  Listen Nat, are you home yet?”

“Five minutes ago,” she replied.  “I take it you’re going to be very late?”

“Nope.  Not if I can help it.  In fact, I’d like to leave here in a little while.  I just need to have a little conversation with the D.A. first.”

“Didn’t you talk to him yet?”

“There hasn’t been time.  “Listen Nat, I really hate to ask this but, is there any chance you can swing by here as soon as possible?  Since your job is social stuff, I’d like to ask your advice on…something.”

“You can’t ask me at home?”

“Maybe it would be better if I do it here.  I’ve got the darndest situation here, and it’s not only boggling my mind, it’s pretty much got everyone stumped.”

“Situation?  What?”

“Just…can you come here?  I’ll fill you in on it then.”

I heard her sigh.  “I’m on my way Will.”

“Thanks,” I told her.  “And maybe we’ll stop for pizza on the way home.”

“Depending on what you’re about to tell me, I might want something better than pizza.”

After talking to my wife, I made another call.  This time to the one person I should have talked to right after I had taken care of rounding up the dead bodies out at the Jeskey farm.  The local District Attorney, Dale Murphy.  I had to call his cellphone to finally get in touch with him.

“Will,” he greeted me once he had connected.  “Rumor has it that you’ve had a busy day.”

“Yeah,” I replied.  “Sorry I didn’t call you earlier.  I know I should have.  So I’m calling you now.”

“Don’t bother,” he told me.  I’m in Knoxville still.  I’ve been here all day.  I’ll get the details from you tomorrow.  I’ve already heard though that we’ve got a few dead Jeskeys on our hands.”

“Yeah,” I replied.  “Three of them.  And the perpetrator is in custody and has been more than willing to tell us everything…and then some.”

“Good!” he replied.  “We’ll talk tomorrow.”

After that, I left my office and found Amanda getting ready to go home for the night.  I asked if she could stick around for a bit to give me…moral support while I talked to my wife.  She just rolled her eyes and agreed.

Natalie showed up ten minutes later.  I led her into my office and had Amanda join us.  I could see Nat wasn’t overly happy to have Amanda there.  She was going to have to put up with it though.  Now I just had to figure out where to start to explain my problem.

“Roxie Simmons murdered Bo Jeskey, Steve Jeskey, and Ben Jeskey today,” I started.

“You told me that on the phone,” Natalie replied.

“Yeah.  But what I didn’t tell you was that when we got there, there was another girl in the house.  Someone a bit more…surprising.”

“That’s an understatement,” Amanda muttered.

Natalie looked briefly toward Amanda, then back to me.  “What’s that mean?”

Where to start?  “First of all,” I said, “there’s her name.  We haven’t been able to get two words out of her all day, and especially not her name.  And when I asked Dave and Gary Jeskey about her, all they did was laugh about the fact that we don’t know.  And neither of them would tell me either.  When I talked to Roxie about her, Roxie said the only name she ever heard anyone call her is Freak.”

“Freak?” Natalie asked, surprised by the name.

“Freak!” I confirmed.

“Roxie calls her Freaky though,” Amanda threw in.

Natalie shrugged.  “So?”

“The girl is…” I started to say but my wife interrupted me.

“You said girl.  How old is she?”

I considered it.  “I don’t know.  We can’t even get her name.”

“Is she a young kid or is she older, in her teens?”

“I would think…maybe teens, maybe early twenties.  It’s hard to tell since she’s so filthy.”

“Filthy?”

“Filthy!” Amanda confirmed.

“What happened that she got that way?”

I shook my head.  “Let’s not go there yet.”  I looked to Amanda.  “You want to tell her about your little visit with the doctor.”

“Since she had a bullet hole and dried blood on the back of her dress,” Amanda started.

“Bullet hole!” Natalie exclaimed, coming half out of her seat.

“Bullet hole,” Amanda confirmed.  “We figured it might be a good idea to see if she had been actually shot anywhere, so we took her to the hospital and arranged for a doctor to look her over.  What a shock!”

“Shock?” Natalie asked.

“First of all, as soon as we got her naked, she suddenly came alive and started talking.  But it was to ask the doctor if he wanted to have sex with her, or just give him a blowjob.”

“Prostitution,” Natilie murmured.

“Maybe,” I said.  “Just maybe.  But I doubt it.”

“According to what we found out from her, she’s been having sex with her…uncles, as she called them, for as long as she can remember.”

I saw Natalie’s face suddenly look sick.  “Her uncles?”

“We’re guessing Bo and his boys,” I supplied.

“Was she?”

I shrugged.  “Sounds like it.  But trust me, that’s all a lot of nothing on top of a whole mountain of other things.”

“Like what?”

Between Amanda and I, we explained as much as we had heard about everything, all of it sending Natalie into a world of total disbelief.

“It can’t be!” Natalie finally said when we were done.  “It just can’t be!”

“That’s what I want to believe too,” I told her.  “The problem is, all the evidence we have so far, backs it up.”

She looked at the ceiling for a while, then finally looked back at me.  “Where is she now?”

“Right now?” in our interview room.  Before I leave tonight, I’ll be locking her downstairs in one of the cells.  Protective custody.”

“I should think!” Natalie agreed.  “Um…damn, I hate to ask this, but…can I see her?  I am a social worker.  She sounds just like someone I should be talking to.”

“I was kind of hoping you’d say that,” I replied.

“Which is why you wanted me to come here in the first place,” my wife realized.

“True.”