The Last Jeskey - Chapter 1

 Hold on to your hats, because here we go.

The Last Jeskey

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 1

 

Freaky

 

Disbelief!  That’s the only way I could describe what I felt.  About everything!  Especially about what I had just seen.  When it happened, I was standing by the kitchen counter staring at everything and not believing any of it.  Uncle Dave’s friend Roxie had just grabbed Uncle Steve’s gun and shot Uncle Steve, then Uncle Bo, and then Uncle Ben.  Then she turned the gun on Uncle Dave and Uncle Gary and told them to sit down while she kept aiming that gun at them.  When I saw Roxie glance briefly at me after that, I nearly wet myself.  Fortunately, she looked away, back toward Gary and Dave in the living room part of the house, and had kept that gun aimed at them.

I’d heard the guys shooting guns lots of times outside, but hearing the gunshot in the house had been unbelievably loud, and it frightened the daylights out of me.  But that fright was only the first of more frights than I could count that day.

“I’m trying to find a reason not to shoot you two,” Roxie said to Gary and Dave.

 “I know it would be a lot safer for me if I kill you than let you live.  In fact, I know that keeping you alive is probably the dumbest thing I’ve ever done.  So give me one tiny reason to kill you and I’ll be more than glad to leave you both just as dead as your father and your brothers.”

She stood there staring at them for a few moments, then carefully pulled her cellphone from her pocket.  Still aiming the gun at Gary and Dave, she carefully called someone.  “This is Roxie Simmons,” I heard her say into her phone while she kept the gun aimed at them.  “I’m at Bo Jeskey’s place right now, and I just killed Bo, Steve, and Ben.  I’m holding a gun on Gary and Dave right now, so I suggest you send someone out here as fast as possible, because I’m already regretting not killing these other two as well.”  With that, she ended her call and set the phone down on the table.

I noticed that Dave and Gary were staring at her in disbelief, just like I was.  “You called the cops?” Dave asked, clearly surprised.

“Yeah,” Roxie said calmly.  “The only question is, what’s going to happen first?  Will they get here, or will I shoot you two before they get here.”

“Don’t!” Dave had said quickly.

“Don’t what?” Roxie yelled back at him.  “Damn it!  You guys are all just too dangerous to let live, so why the hell shouldn’t I just kill you now like I did with them?”

She got no reply from either Uncle Dave or Uncle Gary.  I just kept standing where I had been in disbelief.  Were Uncle Bo, Steve, and Ben really dead?  I had no way of knowing, and there was no way I was going over there to look.

Roxie turned briefly toward me again.  “Freaky, you okay?”

I didn’t know how to answer.  Not to mention, was I supposed to answer?  So I said nothing.  She looked away, back at my remaining two uncles and ignored me again.

A little while later, I heard it.  The sound that I had always been told to listen for.  Police sirens.  “It’s the cops!” I said, scared out of my wits.  “I’ve got to hide!”

I took off quickly toward the back of the house, but Roxie called me first.  “Freaky!  Where you goin’?  Get back here!”

“I’ve got to hide,” I said, the panic increasing along with how loud the sirens were getting.

“Hide?” she asked.

“Yes!”

“Why?”

But it was Dave who answered from his chair in the living room.  “Nobody is supposed to know she’s here.  Especially cops!”

By the sound of the sirens, the cop cars were practically in front of the house.  “I’ve got to go!” I said, the panic in me probably worse than I had ever felt.

“You stay here!” Roxie commanded as she turned her gun on me again.  She pointed back toward the kitchen.  “Get back by the counter where you were.”

That wasn’t the first time a gun had been pointed at me.  It was something that happened fairly often.  Mostly from Uncle Bo pressing his gun against my head and telling me he couldn’t see any reason why he should keep me alive.  But for some reason, Roxie pointing that gun at me scared me just as much…or worse.  I moved slowly back toward the kitchen counter where I had been.  As soon as I got there, she turned the gun back toward Dave and Gary.

“Nobody knows she’s supposed to be here?” Roxie asked them.

Uncle Dave shrugged, but didn’t say anything else.

“This is the sheriff!” a voice yelled from the other side of the front door.  “Drop your gun and come out with your hands up.”

“Just come in sheriff,” Roxie yelled back.  “The door is open.  I’m not going to shoot you or any of your men, but I still might shoot these other two before it’s all over.”

I saw the door open slowly and a gun appear in the opening.  The gun was followed by a man pointing that gun at Roxie.  “Drop the weapon.  Now!” the man ordered.

Roxie turned her head toward him and smiled.  “No problem.”  With that, she set the gun on the table and raised her hands in the air.

The sheriff rushed in, quickly followed by more men than I could count.  He grabbed Roxie, turned her around and did something to her hands behind her back.  After that, Roxie kept her hands behind her back all the time.  I was guessing the man had used something the guys had called handcuffs on her, but I couldn’t see them or what they looked like.

All the men who had come in with the man were wearing weird clothes.  They were all dressed pretty much alike.  Weird!  I had never seen a cop before, but I somehow knew that these men were all cops.  And I wasn’t supposed to let any cops see me.  Ever!  Just like I wasn’t supposed to ever talk to anyone, especially cops.  If I ever did, the guys had told me more times than I could count that they would kill me.  I had no idea how many times they had pointed their guns at me just to make that point.  But now I was stuck here in the kitchen, and there were cops all over the house, and I had no idea what I was supposed to do…except not talk to them.  That was the only thing I knew for sure.

When two of them led Roxie out of the house, I got a brief glimpse of something metal connecting her wrists together.  I was guessing that was the handcuffs the guys had mentioned.  That was something I didn’t know anything about.  It was men’s business, not mine.

While the first man was looking at the dead bodies, I saw more of the cops talking to Uncle Dave and Gary.  But then one of them walked right over to me and stood in front of me.  He had some kind of thing in his hand and a pen like he was going to write something.

“Who are you?” he asked.

Don’t talk to cops!  Especially cops!  I kept my mouth shut and just stared at him.  The cop tried a number of times to get me to tell him my name.  He even asked me if I could speak, but I knew better than to say anything.  If I ever did, they guys would kill me.  And I knew that for a fact.

“Look!” the cop finally said as if he was angry with me.  “If you don’t answer my questions, I’m going to arrest you.”

Don’t talk to cops!  I continued to say nothing.  I was very glad when he walked away and went over to talk to another of the cops in the room.  I saw them both looking in my direction.  The second cop came over to me instead.

“What’s your problem?” he asked me.

I said nothing.

“Answer my question!” he yelled.

I still said nothing.

“At least tell me your name,” he said.

I kept my mouth shut like a good girl.

The cop looked around then spoke to another of the cops.  “Stick this one in a car and we’ll take her back to the station.”  He looked at Uncle Dave and Gary.  “In fact,” he said.  “Take them all back to the station.”

Before I knew it, there was another cop in front of me.  He reached out and grabbed my arm.  I tried to pull away, but he held me too tight as he dragged me to the front door and all the way outside.  Out the door, I was shocked to see not just so many cop cars, but the entire place seemed to be alive with flashing lights.  I still tried to pull away from the cop, but I got dragged over to one of the cars anyway.  He opened the back door and pushed me inside.  If I hadn’t grabbed my hair fast enough he would have closed it in the door!

I looked all around.  I had never been in a car before, and the only times I had ever ridden in the guy’s pickup trucks was when they drove me into the woods to punish me.  Were they really going to take me away from the house?  Away from the farm?  It looked like it.  Panic was setting in once again.  I wasn’t allowed off the property.  I wasn’t even allowed to go far from the house.  Not even into the woods.

I pushed desperately against the door, but it wouldn’t open.  I banged my hand against the glass, but it didn’t break.  I was trapped.  And worse, I was trapped inside a cop car.  How many times had they told me, you don’t talk to cops – ever!  I wasn’t even supposed to talk to anybody – ever!  Bo, Steve, and Ben were dead now, but if I talked to anyone at all, I had no doubt in the world that Gary or Dave would kill me just as soon as they got the chance.  Or maybe they would both kill me at the same time.

I was in that car for a long time.  Looking out through the windows was all I could do.  I saw Roxie sitting in another car.  I banged on the window, but she didn’t seem to notice me.  She just sat where she was with her head down.  I saw them putting Dave and Gary into another car together, then the cops seemed to all come out of the house and head for their cars.  The cop that had put me in that car came back and got in behind the wheel.  Another one got in the other side.  He looked back towards me.  “You okay back there?”

You don’t talk to cops.  Ever!

And then the car was moving…with me in it!  I panicked again.  I was leaving home.  They were taking me away from the farm.  I wasn’t allowed to leave the farm.  I wasn’t allowed to have anyone see me that the guys didn’t say was okay, especially cops.  I wasn’t allowed to talk to anybody, not even when they were friends of the guys.  And I especially wasn’t allowed to talk to cops!

I had never been off the farm before.  I had never ridden in a car before.  I had no idea where we were going, but I couldn’t help myself.  I looked all around at everything I could see.  It was all so strange.  Strange and weird.  Eventually the road wasn’t dirt anymore and there were places, and buildings, and other roads, and cars, and people, and…all kinds of things I never imagined seeing.  Who were all those people?  It was all too much.  I wanted to go home more than ever, but no matter how much I pushed against the door of the car, I couldn’t open it.

“Settle down!” one of the cops told me from the front seat.

Panicked, all I could do was sit there and stare at things I had no concept of, and keep pushing against the door that refused to open for me.  Eventually it all became too much, and I had to close my eyes.  It was a little while before I even realized I was crying.

I felt the car come to a stop.  I opened my eyes and saw a building.  Like all the buildings I had seen since they had put me into the car, this one was weird too.  The cops got out of the front of the car and one of them opened the door for me.  He grabbed my arm and pulled me out.  Before, I had only wanted to get out of the car.  Now I only wanted to stay in it…away from this cop.  Practically hurting my arm, he dragged me through some weird kind of door with glass in it.  Uncle Gary and Uncle Dave followed right behind me along with two more cops.

Talk about a weird place.  I didn’t see a living room, or even a kitchen.  Not even a bedroom.  What the hell kind of place was this?  The cop pulled me a long way into the building and right up to some weird chairs pushed up against the wall.  “Sit!” he commanded and pushed me down into one of the seats.  Uncle Gary and Uncle Dave sat down next to me.

“Wait here,” one of the cops said to Uncle Dave.”  Then all the cops walked away, leaving us alone.

I looked up at Uncle Dave sitting next to me.  “Should I run?” I whispered.

He looked at me.  “Don’t bother trying,” he told me softly.  “You won’t get anywhere.”

I wouldn’t?  Why not?

“Just stay here,” Uncle Dave told me.  “Eventually they’ll probably take us all home.”

That much sounded good to me.  Very good!

Then he added.  “You don’t talk to cops.  Ever!  About anything!  And trust me, I’ll kill you myself if you do.”

“I know,” I whispered back.  “I haven’t said anything to any of them yet.”

He nodded and looked away from me.

We sat there for a long time.  Long enough that I was worried about getting dinner ready for the guys on time.  Not to mention, I had wash hanging on the line.  What if it rained?  The guys would be furious at me, and I didn’t need that.

Sometime later, one of those cops came over to us.  “Dave.  You’re up first,” he said before he had even stopped.  Then he seemed to stand there looking us over, but his eyes landed on me and seemed to stay there for a long time.  “I have never, in my life, seen a girl as dirty as you!” he said.

I was shocked.  Dirty?  It rained just a few nights ago, and I had washed then.  Just a few nights ago!  What was he talking about, calling me dirty.  But I was a girl.  I knew better than to talk back.  Especially since he was a cop.  Don’t talk to cops!

Uncle Dave stood up.  “Come on,” the cop said, and Dave followed him away from the chairs, then through a door where they disappeared.

I wanted to ask Uncle Gary where they went or what they were doing, but I dared not.  I had a feeling that this was all men’s business, and girls should never get mixed up with what men did.  So I sat there and waited…forever!

The door they had gone through opened and the two of them came out.  “Gary,” the cop called while Uncle Dave headed back towards me.  “Your turn.  Let’s get this over with.”

Uncle Gary got up and headed toward the cop.  Was he really going to talk to a cop?  Uncle Bo would be furious with him.  Uncle Bo would probably kill him.  But then I remembered that Uncle Bo was dead.  But if Gary talked to a cop, somebody would probably kill him.  Uncle Dave sat down next to me.  Had he talked to the cop too?  Or did he not say anything?  I was guessing he probably didn’t say anything at all.  And most likely Uncle Gary wouldn’t say anything either.  That thought made me feel better.

Men’s business.  I was glad I knew nothing about it.  It was so confusing.  I just wanted to go home and get the clothes off the line and get dinner started.  That was my business.  And I didn’t want to get in trouble for not getting it done.

After a while, the door opened again, and Uncle Gary and the cop came out.  Uncle Gary headed back towards us.

“Okay little lady,” the cop called.  “Your turn.”

I looked up at Uncle Dave.  “No choice,” he whispered.  “Go.  But…”  He looked at me sternly and I knew what he didn’t have to say.

Don’t talk to cops!