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.
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