The Last Jeskey - Chapter 47

 

The Last Jeskey

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 47

 

(Day 12 – Monday)

 

Freaky

 

I was starting to get used to leaving the farm…as long as I knew I could come back.  Once again I was in the back seat of Ben’s big green truck.  The deputy outside had shown Lisa how to program some kind of thing in the car that would show us how to get to a bookstore so I could buy myself some more books to read and work with.  I wasn’t sure how that was going to work, but I did want more story books, even though I knew that Lisa was only going to use them to teach me more about reading and writing.

Lisa was also holding onto that money stuff for me too.  That was good.  Money was men’s business.  I didn’t say that to her though because it seemed like every time I mentioned men’s business and women’s business she got mad.  Unless it was for the things that she and Shantel had declared were what women’s business was supposed to be.  It seemed like those were the things that I always got mad over.

“I’m glad that Natalie is going to be alright,” Shantel said as Lisa drove the truck.

“Me too!” Lisa agreed.  “It’s such a shame.  And she had been shot in the arm by Gary once before.  This time Gary came a lot closer to actually killing her.”

“Do you think Gary shot her because I showed the sheriff where his hiding place was?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Lisa said.  “I guess it’s possible.”

“I remember,” I said, “that the guys used to talk about something called revenge once in a while when they were mad at someone.  I think I know what revenge is.  I think it’s like when someone does something to you that you don’t like, and you want to do something bad to them in return.”

“Something like that,” Lisa agreed.

“Vengeance is mine, sayeth the lord!” Shantel announced.  I didn’t know what she was talking about…as usual.

“Revenge is men’s business, and I’m glad!” I said.

“You’re glad?” Shantel asked.

“Yes,” I said.  “Because I just don’t understand it enough.”

“I think revenge needs to be for women, not men at all!” Shantel declared.  “There’s more than a few people who have made my life a living hell that I’d like to get a bit of revenge on.”

“Didn’t you just say that vengeance belongs to the lord?” Lisa said.  “That’s pretty much the same thing.”

“True,” Shantel agreed.  “But that don’t mean I don’t want to get some for myself!”

“And I agree with you.  “I’d love to get some against my husband for the things he did to me, but….”

“Yeah, I know.  You’re still conflicted.  You still love him.”

“How would you get revenge?” I asked.  “They’re men.”

“That, Honey Pie, is the whole damn problem.  They’re men, and they’re a whole lot stronger and meaner than we are.  But that don’t mean I wouldn’t like to shoot every one of them as dead as can be.”

“How about you Lisa?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Lisa replied.  “Sometimes I wish I could just shoot my husband.  But…”

“Love is a bitch!” Shantel finished.

I saw Lisa nod.  “Something like that.”

“For my money,” Shantel said.  “Shoot the bastard!  He hurt you bad, over and over again.  If’n he hurts you, then you deserve to hurt him right back!”  She turned around and looked at me.  “That, Honey Pie, is revenge.”

Why is it that all the stores have so much stuff in them?  The grocery store had more food than I could ever imagine, the clothes store had more clothes than I ever dreamed of, and now this bookstore was packed all over the place with books.  How could anybody ever read that many books?

While Shatel looked around, Lisa led me over to the children’s book section.  While I pulled some out and looked at the pictures, Lisa was looking at other books not far away.  When she came back to me she had two books in her hand.  “Did you find any that you’re interested in?” she asked me.

I pulled out a few.  “These have real nice pictures,” I told her.

She took one of the books and turned it over and pointed at some words on the bottom.  “This book costs six dollars and ninety-five cents.  I know we haven’t gotten to reading and writing numbers yet, but can you tell me if you have enough money to buy it?”

“I don’t have any money.  You have it.”

“But that money is your money, and you need to learn to keep track of it.”

Shantel walked up then.  “I think we need to get her a purse.  Let her carry her own damn money.”

Lisa nodded.  “That may be a good idea.”  She pointed at the words on the book again.  “Do you remember how much money you had?”

“Five,” I told her.

“Yes, but that’s five twenty-dollar bills.  That means you have a hundred dollars to spend.  This book only costs six dollars and ninety-five cents.  So is that more than the hundred dollars you have?”

How can everything be so frustrating.  “I don’t know!” I told her.

She nodded.  “Okay.  We’ll get there.  Soon!  Let’s find you some good books we can work with.”

Lisa helped me buy three more story books to read and according to her, I was also buying the two books that she had.  What I didn’t know until we got home was that both of those books were all about teaching me to read and write.  Not fun!  I’d rather just let her read the stories to me.

That night, we were sitting in the house listening to Shantel play her guitar and sing for us.  It was one of the nicest things I could ever think to do.  I know Lisa was enjoying it just as much as I was.  Over top of her singing, we suddenly heard a muffled bang.  Not too loud.  Not even enough to make Shantel stop singing.  It was just enough that we noticed it.

A few minutes later though, the door suddenly burst open, and Gary rushed in with a gun in his hand.  He pointed the gun at Shantel first and Shantel screamed.  Gary moved the gun over toward Lisa.  I could see how scared she was.  “You two stay put and don’t move!” Gary said in the most threatening voice I had ever heard.

Then he turned the gun toward me.  “And you!” he said.

All I could think of was all the rules I had broken, including showing everyone where their hiding places were.  I just knew he was going to kill me then and there.

“This is my farm now, not yours!” he said.  “And nothing here is yours to give away.  All of it is mine!  For what you’ve done, I’m going to take you and roast you like a pig again, but this time I’m going to do it until you’re really dead!  And then…I’m going to eat you!”

The guys had scared me many times in my life, and there had been a lot of times when they had pointed a gun, not just at me, but they had pressed it against my face.  But this time I was more afraid than I had ever been.  I just knew that he was about to really do that to me.

But then there was a horrendous crash, and I saw Gary fall to the floor along with pieces of wood all over the place.  Shantel had come up behind him and hit him on the head with her guitar, breaking it into nothing but pieces.

“Come on Honey Pie,” Shantel said.  “Help me find something to tie this bastard up with.”

“Is that Gary?” Lisa asked, still obviously frightened.

“That’s him,” I said, staring down at his unconscious body.  I reached down and took the gun that was still in his hand.  I watched as Shantel used one of the strings from her guitar to tie his hands behind his back, and then she tied his ankles with another one.  Gary was just coming awake again when Shantel said, “We might better get that deputy to call the sheriff now.”

“I’m gonna kill you!” Gary shouted as he started struggling as hard as he could.  He rolled all over the place trying to get free, but he couldn’t.  “I’m going to show you the most important part of men’s business that there is.  Revenge!”

I looked down at him and said, “Shantel and Lisa explained to me that you’re wrong.  Revenge isn’t men’s business at all.  Revenge is women’s business.  And as you’ve told me all my life, I’m a woman.”  With that, I pointed the gun at his head and pulled the trigger.