The Last Jeskey - Chapter 9

 

The Last Jeskey

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 9

 

(Day 2 – Friday)

 

Freaky

 

In the morning, I laid there with my eyes closed, just smelling my hair.  It still smelled so nice, just like when I had gone to sleep.  I couldn’t sleep in that bed.  I wasn’t used to sleeping in beds.  They were too soft.  Especially that one.

I finally opened my eyes and was surprised to find a blanket thrown over me.  I was guessing that Natalie must have done that.  It struck me then that Natalie was a nice woman, and right or wrong, I liked her.  Was that good or bad?  I wasn’t supposed to be talking to anyone other than Bo and the guys, but I had talked and talked and talked last night.  Why couldn’t I have kept my big mouth shut?

The more I thought about it, the more I remembered saying lots of things I probably shouldn’t have.  But, I was just so confused by everything!  It was hard to tell what I should do and what I shouldn’t.  And now I was finding that I liked Natalie, the wife of a cop…who I really shouldn’t have talked to at all!  What was I going to do?

Not really knowing where I was or what I should do, I sat up against the wall, keeping that blanket over me.  I was supposed to be home just then, in my own house, making breakfast for the guys.  I remembered then that Bo, Steve, and Ben were dead.  But Dave and Gary would still need breakfast.  And I hadn’t been home to make them dinner last night.  Did they eat?  They were really going to kill me for not being there to cook for them.  I’d be eating dog food from the floor for a year!

Despite that, I still just wanted to go home.  I wanted to go back to the life I knew.  I didn’t know about anything that I had seen since I left there.  Life outside the farm was way too complicated for me.  Nothing made sense!

I looked up as the door quietly opened and Natalie stuck her head in.

“You’re awake,” she said.  “Good morning.”

I swallowed.  What would she want of me now?  “Good morning,” I replied

“I’m getting ready to make some breakfast,” she told me.  “Want to help?”

Breakfast.  I was supposed to be making breakfast for Gary and Dave just then.  “Sure,” I agreed.  I pulled myself up from the floor and dropped the blanket on the bed.

“Why don’t we put this robe on you again, so you won’t be cold,” she suggested.

A minute later, I was snuggly warm in that nice robe.  I appreciated it, and once again I considered her to be a nice woman.  Maybe I shouldn’t, I didn’t know, but I liked her.

I followed her out to the kitchen.  The kitchen that confused me so much because I didn’t know what anything in it was.  Well, not exactly.  As I studied everything in the room, it mostly seemed to orient itself in my head.  I knew what the sink was, and the refrigerator, and the stove.  So yeah, maybe I wasn’t totally lost in there.

“Eggs?  Bacon?” Natalie suggested as she opened the refrigerator door.

What I saw inside that refrigerator was unlike anything my refrigerator had ever looked like.  Not only was it packed with things, but it was so bright!  You could see everything.  Natalie pulled a carton of eggs out and a package of bacon.  Something about the refrigerator confused me though, and not just its size.  “You only have one?” I asked.

“One?” Natalie asked.  “One what?”

“Refrigerator.”

She seemed surprised.  “How many do you have?”

“Two of course,” I told her.

“Wow,” she said.  “That must be nice.  Do you buy that much food for everyone?”

“I don’t buy anything,” I told her.  “I’ve never left the farm before.  The guys buy everything.”

“So they buy lots of food?”

“Not really.  It’s just that…”

“What she asked.”

“Where’s your beer fridge?”

“Beer fridge?”

“Yeah.  We’ve got one just for beer.”

Natalie looked at me.  “Somehow, that doesn’t surprise me.  I’m guessing the guys where you live drink lots of beer.”

“What else would they drink?”

“Oh, I don’t know.  Coffee, tea, iced tea, water, soda, anything.”

“No,” I told her.  “None of that.  Just beer…oh and some other things that come in big bottles.  I don’t know what they are exactly.  They say whiskey a lot, but I know there’s other stuff too.”

“What do they drink with dinner?” Natalie asked.

“Beer of course, what else?”

“How about breakfast?”

“Beer.  I told you, that’s all they drink when they eat.

“Freak,” she said.  “How about you?  Is beer all you drink?”

“Oh no!  Of course not.  I’m a girl.  I drink water.”

“And I’m guessing that’s it.”

“What else is there?  What were those things you were talking about a minute ago?”

“What things?” she asked.  “You mean like coffee and soda?”

“Yeah.”

“Don’t your guys ever drink coffee?”

“What is it?”

“I’m about to make some right now,” she said.  “You can have some with your breakfast.  In fact, I’m going to insist!”

I don’t know how she did it, but somehow Natalie made me feel at home as she found ways that both of us could cook together.  It amazed me how nice it was.  Once again, it struck me how much I liked her, even though her husband was a cop!  I didn’t know what I was supposed to do about that problem.

Will, her husband, the cop, came out all dressed in his weird clothes again.  He walked over to the machine that was making…coffee…and poured some into a mug.  Then he headed for the table.  This was more like I was used to.  The women cooking for the men.  The only thing that gave me some concern was that Natalie insisted that we should all sit down and eat at the same time he did.  I did it though.  Fortunately, Will didn’t appear to find anything wrong with that at all.  I vowed then and there not to mention it to Gary or Dave.  In fact, I was going to do my best to not mention anything I had gone through so far to them.  And then I remembered my hair.  How was I going to explain that?

I took two sips of that coffee stuff and didn’t touch it again.  No wonder the guys never talked about drinking it.  It was awful!

After we ate, I offered to wash the dishes, but Natalie said she’d take care of them.  I watched in total confusion as instead of washing them in the sink like I would do, she pulled down kind of a door under the counter and started sticking all the dishes and everything else onto racks inside it.  I couldn’t help myself.  “What’s that?” I asked.

“You’ve never seen a dishwasher?” she said.  “You don’t have one?”

“Have one?  What does it do?”

“It washes the dishes.”

“For real?”

“Yeah.  What did you think?”

“I think I don’t know anything about…anything!”  I was so frustrated I turned and hurried straight back to that bedroom I had slept in.

Natalie came into the room only moments later.  “Sorry Freak,” she said.  “I didn’t mean to upset you.  I never thought about you not knowing what a dishwasher is.”

“I don’t know what anything is since I left the farm,” I told her.  “I just want to go home!  I don’t care what the guys do to me.”

“It’s okay,” Natalie told me.  “We’ll talk about getting you home later this morning.  How about we get you dressed first though.”

I considered what I was wearing, her nightgown and a robe.  Nice things.  Pretty things.  Comfortable things.  But she was right.  I had to get dressed, and Dave and Gary would only ask more questions if they saw me in someone else’s clothes.  I still hadn’t figured out how I was going to explain my hair.

Natalie led me back to her bedroom.  I looked for my dress, but I didn’t see it.  I did see my boots though.  I slipped my feet into them.  “Where’s my dress?” I asked.

“Sorry Freak,” she told me.  “But Will said that because of the bullet hole and blood stains on it, that dress is now evidence.”

“It’s what?” I asked.

“Evidence,” she repeated.  Then she sighed.  “Kind of proof of a crime.  Do you understand that?”

“Not really.  It sounds like men’s stuff to me.”

“Yeah,” she agreed.  “It probably would.”

“But what am I going to wear?  I can’t go home in this.  If I’m not wearing my clothes, the guys will ask too many questions.  I’m already worried about what they’re going to say about my hair.”

“Freak, I’m afraid that like it or not, you’re just going to have to borrow something of mine.  But don’t worry, I’m sure I can find you something a lot prettier to wear than that dress that didn’t fit you.  Not to mention, it will be in much better shape.”

I was perturbed over the situation, but what was I going to do about it?  It didn’t sound like they were going to give me my dress back.  “Do I have a choice?” I asked.

“No, I’m afraid,” she replied.  “Hey!” she said excitedly as she opened her closet.  “How about a nice pair of slacks.  Since you live out in the country, they should probably work the best.”

“Slacks?” I asked.

She pulled out several hangers with clothes on them.  I immediately saw what slacks were.  “They’re pants!  No!  No way!  Girls don’t wear pants.  Pants are for guys only, and I’m a good girl.  No.  No pants!”

“But Freak, that’s not how things really are,” she argued.

But I wasn’t going to give in on the issue.  “No!  No way!” I told her.  “I don’t see how you can even cope wearing those things.”

“A lot better than wearing a dress!” she replied angrily.  “Okay.  No pants.  Geez!  We’ve got to bring you into the twenty-first century.”

I had no idea what she was talking about.  I was just glad she wasn’t going to try and make me wear pants.  I was a good girl.  I had already gone and done way too much that I shouldn’t.  Natalie had said something about me going home later this morning.  It was time to get back to behaving like I was supposed to.  Like I was comfortable with.

She laid out skirts and tops and a few dresses.  Every last one of them was nicer than anything I had ever worn.  “Are you sure I can’t wear my old dress?” I asked.

“Sorry,” she replied.  “Blood stains.  Evidence.”

“So what?” I argued.  “Most of my things have blood on them.”

She seemed startled.  “They do?  Your blood or someone else’s?”

“I don’t know.  Not mine.  I just can’t get it out when I wash them.”

She seemed to just look at me for the longest time before she muttered, “One problem after another.  Geez!”

At least she wasn’t yelling at me.

After trying on a few things, I finally agreed to wear one of her skirts and a top, but not before we argued over me refusing to wear underwear, especially the bra she tried to give me.  “I’ve got one at home,” I told her, “and the one time I tried to wear it, not only was it too difficult to get on, it was so uncomfortable I couldn’t stand it.  I threw it in the bottom of my clothes bag, and I haven’t touched it since.  No underwear.  There’s no sense in it.  Besides, what if one of the guys wants to have sex with me, like you know they will as soon as they see this hair.  Underwear will just be something else that I’ve got to take off.”  Why did she have to keep staring at me so much?

The skirt and top fit me just fine.  In fact, I rather liked them, but I wasn’t going to tell her that.  But the minute I started to put my boots on again, she had another fit.  What was wrong with her?  “There’s no blood on these,” I told her.  “That I know of.”

“They don’t go at all with what you’re wearing.  Don’t you want to wear something nicer?  I’ve got some sneakers here.  Why don’t we see if they’ll fit.”

“Sneakers?” I asked.

“Real comfortable shoes,” she said as she hurried to the closet and pulled a pair of weird looking shoes out.

I quickly shook my head.  “No way!” I told her.

She seemed surprised, not to mention disappointed.  “How about just a pair of flip-flops?” she asked.

I had no idea what flip-flops were.  “I don’t know what they are,” I said.  “These are a lot better for walking around the farm.”

She stared at me for only a second before she asked, “Is it muddy out there?”

“It gets pretty bad whenever it rains.”

“For that, maybe you’ve got a point then.”  She seemed to sigh.  “Okay.  I guess you’re as ready as you’re going to get.  Let’s go.”

I was ready to go…home!

“Are you sure you don’t want to try some of my shoes?” she asked as we walked out of the room.  “Or maybe just a pair of flip-flops?”

“No!  My boots are better.  It’s all just…too much!”

We found her husband, the cop, in the living room watching that T Fee thing.  “Ready,” Natalie told him.

He turned and looked me over.  His face seemed to go from looking very happy to confused.  “The boots are a little…” he started to say.

“Don’t!” Natalie said quickly.  “We’re lucky I got her to wear that much.”

I saw her husband shake his head, then pick up a plastic bag.

“Will,” Natalie said quickly.  She went over and talked to him, but she whispered everything so I couldn’t hear anything she said.

Her husband seemed to look at her like he was shocked or something.  He looked over at me, then back at her before he nodded.  “Thanks,” he said.  “We’ll check.  I’ve got to talk to the D.A. first,” he told her.  “I’ll mention it.”