The Last Jeskey - Chapter 17

 

The Last Jeskey

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 17

 

(Day 3 – Saturday)

 

Freaky

 

There were actually a lot of people in that shelter place they had sent me to.  More people than I was comfortable being around.  I was surprised to discover that the only people there though were all either women, or women and their…kids.  Actual kids…and a baby.  That fact somehow made me very uncomfortable, although I didn’t know why.

Shantel and Lisa tried to introduce me to a lot of the women there, but by the time they were halfway through them all, I simply couldn’t take any more.  It was too many!  I left them and ran, trying to find a quiet place where I could be by myself.  I wound up standing outside the door that led into that old woman’s room.  She wasn’t there though, which was good.  I just wanted to be left alone.  Why did this place have to have so many people in it?

I finally found the courage to go back to that big room with all the chairs and the kids and the TV thing.  I sat by myself and got fascinated by something.  That something being the baby in the woman’s arms.  I couldn’t stop watching it.  It was so…little.  And helpless.  And…I didn’t know the words for it.  Only that it fascinated me.

As far as I could see, that TV thing was fascinating everyone else.  All it did to me though was to confuse me.  I didn’t understand the pictures on it, and I didn’t understand what those pictures seemed to be saying.  As far as I was concerned, that TV thing was men’s stuff, and they could have it!  Would that woman let me touch her baby?  Or at least take a closer look?

“There you are Baby Doll.”

 I looked up and saw Shantel and Lisa heading for me.

“Feeling better?” Shantel asked.

“Yeah.  I guess,” I told her.  “It’s just…too many people.  Why are there so many here?”

“Hony Pie,” she said, “There’s a lot of us women who’ve been through hell.  Too many of us.  This is just a place we can go to get a bit of help.  And trust me, places like this are few and far between.  I wish there were a lot more.”

“I didn’t need help,” I told her.

“Maybe you just didn’t know you did,” she replied.  “Now…” she said.  “Lisa and me…okay, just me, I was wondering…”

“What?” I asked.

“Ever since I first saw you, I’ve been amazed at all that hair you’ve got.  And Baby Doll, I love playing with hair.  So, would you mind if I played a bit with yours?”

I was confused.  “Play with my hair?  What for?”

“Cause I want to,” she said.  “If I can ever get my life straightened out, I’m hoping to become a hairdresser someday.  And Honey Pie, you have got about the biggest head of hair I’ve ever seen.  So what say?  Can I play?”

I unconsciously hugged the mass of hair in my lap.  “I don’t want my hair cut!” I told her.

“Heaven forbid!” Shantel replied.  “That’s something I would never do…unless of course you wanted me to.  Then I’d give it a go.  So…what say?  Can I play?  I want to get my fingers in that mess so bad!”

As far as I could see, she had been trying to be nice to me since I got there.  “I guess,” I told her.

“Good!  Come on, Baby.  Let’s go find someplace quieter than this.  We can talk easier there too.”

Against my better judgment, I got up and walked with her and Lisa all the way down to one of the rooms full of beds.  Shantel grabbed a chair and pulled it out between the rows of beds and had me sit in it, then she started grabbing all my hair and pulled it back, running her fingers through the top of it.  I don’t know what she was doing, but it felt really nice.  I closed my eyes for a moment and just enjoyed the feeling.  “Mm,” I said.  “That feels good.”

“Just enjoy it Baby Doll,” she said.  “Man, you got some hair here.”

Lisa sat on one of the beds nearby.  “Did you have a family where you came from?” she asked me.  “Do you have any kids?”

“Kids?  Me?” I said.  “Where would I get kids?  I wasn’t supposed to be seen by anyone.  If the guys knew how many people have seen me now they’d probably kill me for sure, and that’s on top of the fact that they’re already going to kill me for what I’ve done.”

Lisa looked surprised.  “You weren’t supposed to be seen?” she said.  “What do you mean?”

“The only time the guys let me be seen by people coming to the house, was when they said it was okay.  Otherwise, I was supposed to stay hidden like a good girl.”

“A good girl?” Shantel asked.

“Yeah.  Of course.  You know.  Girls are supposed to take care of the men, otherwise, they need to stay out of the way and out of sight.  You know that.”

“Honey Pie, I don’t know any such thing!” Shantel exclaimed as I felt her sectioning off part of my hair at the side.

Lisa reached out and lightly grabbed my hand.  “I had a boyfriend,” she told me.  “And I really loved him.  Still do I guess.”

I had no idea what a boyfriend was supposed to be, other than a boy of course.

“I wanted him enough that we finally got married.  I was convinced we were going to be happy together.  But then the beatings started.  And they got worse and worse, and they seemed to come more often.  I wound up in the emergency room a couple of times.  The last time, the police brought me here.  I don’t know what I’m going to do now.  I still love my husband, but if I go back, I know he’s going to beat me.  Maybe hurt me really bad.  I just don’t know what to do.”

“Don’t go back!” Shantel told her.  “I’ve told you that a million times now.  You can do better girl.  A lot better.”

“But…”

“Yeah,” Shantel said.  “You love him.  Hell, get your ass out of the gutter and get over it.”

“And what am I supposed to do?” Lisa said.  “You know I’ve got no way to support myself or take care of myself.  And my parents want nothing to do with me anymore.”

“Yeah,” Shantel said softly.  “I know.  It’s a problem.”  I felt her pulling up on my hair.  “It sounds like this one here’s got her problems with family too.  Just like I do, just like all of us here.  I guess, that’s what we’re all here to figure out.  How do we move on from where we’ve been.”

“Freaky,” Lisa said.  “The people you lived with.  You said they tried to keep you hidden.  Did they ever…hurt you?”

I was surprised by that.  “All the time,” I told her.  “Any time I did anything at all that wasn’t like a good girl, they punished me.”

“H…how did they punish you?” she asked.

“Lots and lots of ways,” I told her.  “They were always inventing new ways to do things to me, and it seemed like all of them either hurt, or I was lucky to be alive when they were over.  Lots of times Bo or one of the others would tell me they had no reason not to kill me, and if it wasn’t for them, I’d already be dead.  And it’s true.  If it wasn’t for them, I would have died a long time ago.”

“Are you saying they tried to kill you?” Lisa asked.

“It seemed like it,” I told her.  “They always said I was lucky to still be alive.”

“How did they try to kill you?  With a knife or a gun?”

“Oh, no,” I said.  “They take me into the woods instead.  I hate the woods.  It’s dangerous there.”

“They just took you into the woods and left you?  Why couldn’t you just find your way back?”

“Because they keep finding new ways to punish me.”

“Like what?” Lisa asked again.

“Like…the last time, they took me to a big tree and hung me upside down by my ankles.  Then they whipped me real bad, then they left me hanging there like that for a few days.”

“Days?” Lisa exclaimed.

“Yeah.  Sure.  They always leave me for a few days.”

“Upside down?”

“That was just the last time.  The time before that, actually most of the time, they dug a hole in the woods and put me in it so that just my head was showing, then they stomped all over the dirt so it was packed down really tight.  I couldn’t move anything.”

“And how long did they leave you like that?” Shantel asked, no longer doing anything with my hair.

“A few days, like always.”

“Damn!” Shantel muttered before she went back to what she was doing with my hair.

“Are all your punishments like that?” Lisa asked.

“Mostly,” I told her.  “Of course, every time I get punished I also wind up eating nothing but dog food for a real long time.  I hate that, but I know I deserve it.  I try to be a good girl, but it seems like I keep doing things they don’t like.  Right now, I’m supposed to be eating nothing but dog food for the foreseeable future, and I don’t know how Gary and Dave are going to punish me when they get back.”

Shantel dropped my hair and walked around in front of me.  She pointed her finger at me.  “Girl, don’t ever say you want to go back to that place again.  You belong here.  Just like all of us.  Maybe more than all of us.  You need this place.”

“No I don’t.  I just want to go home!”

“Hell.  Get that out of your head.  No you don’t want to go back there.”

“Yes I do,” I told her.

Lisa grabbed my hand again.  “That’s my problem too.  No matter how bad it was, I still love him.  I want to go back.”

“And you’re both nuts!” Shantel said as she went back to fussing with my hair.  What was she doing with it anyway?

I sat there and let Shantel do whatever she was doing.  She seemed to be working further and further away from my head.  “I’ve never been able to talk to other women before,” I said.  “Other than the guys, I’ve never been allowed to talk to anyone before.”

“Never?” Lisa asked.

“Never,” I told her.  “I always wanted to, especially another woman, but there’s not that many women who came to the house, and most of the time the guys made me hide when they were around.  I saw a few of them though.  I even brought them beer once in a while.  I was just never allowed to talk to them.  And mostly, they still wanted me out of sight.”

“There you are!” someone said.  I turned and saw that old woman walking into the room.  She took a look at what Shantel was doing to my hair.  “Nice,” she told her.  “Shantel, you’re going to make a real good hairdresser someday.”

“That’s my goal,” Shantel told her.

“Keep at it.  I’ve got a couple of old hairbands in my desk if you need them to hold that when you’re done.”

“Thanks Miss Kriss,” Shantel replied happily.  “That’ll help.”

“How you doin’ Lisa?” she asked.

“Fine Miss Kriss,” Lisa told her.  “We’re just sitting here talking.”

“Good.  It’s good for you,” Miss Kriss replied.  Then she turned to me.  “Freaky,” she said, “I got a call from your friend Natalie a little while ago, and I’m afraid I’ve got some good news for you, and some bad.”

I wasn’t sure what that was supposed to mean, so I said nothing.

“Natalie told me it’s not for sure yet, but they’re pretty sure they figured out what your last name is.”

“My last name?  What for?”

“Cause it’s something you should have.”

“For what?” I asked.

“For…whatever.  But it seems your last name is Jeskey.”

“Like the guys,” I realized.

“But there was some bad news too.”

“What’s that?” I asked.

“It seems that someone called David managed to crash his pickup truck, and he died in the accident.  I’m sorry, but he’s gone.”

“Uncle David is dead?”

She nodded.  “So it seems.  I’m sorry.”

I realized something.  “That just leaves Gary.”

“So you’ve still got some family,” she said.

“Yeah but…Uncle Gary likes to hurt people.  Including me.  And he already told me before he left that he was going to kill me.”

“Miss Kriss,” Lisa said.  “When she says he’s going to kill her, she means…kill her!  As in dead.”