Friday, September 5, 2025

The Last Jeskey - Chapter 24

 

The Last Jeskey

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 24

 

(Day 5 – Monday)

 

Pamela McGregor

 

Some women are simply stronger and more determined than others.  That’s how I saw Natalie.  I especially thought that when I stopped at her house to pick her up.  After being shot the day before, I couldn’t believe she still wanted to go with me to meet Freaky.  But she not only wanted to go, she insisted on going.  Which was probably good.  Freaky knew her, she didn’t know me.  And I needed Freaky to trust me implicitly.

The deputy out in front of her house knew me and greeted me nicely as I walked up to the door and knocked.  Until yesterday, I wouldn’t have believed there was any need for a deputy to be there.  Not until Nat had gotten shot right in front of my own office.  That had been a real wakeup for me.  I was about to immerse myself into a situation that could be far more dangerous than anything I had ever done.  And just being near Natalie and the sheriff…and Freaky too…could possibly get me killed.

After Natalie had been shot, Les had begged me to drop this silly idea of wanting to be Freaky’s advocate.  Les would have been much happier if I dropped anything and everything to do with her, but after that meeting and hearing about all the possible sources of money, I was more determined than ever.  And since that meeting, my mind had been dredging up more and more possible sources of money for Freaky that I might be able to go after, which of course meant my share of all that money as part of my legal fees kept going up.

Les and I weren’t exactly swimming in money.  We defended most of the people that the sheriff’s department arrested, almost all of whom couldn’t pay our fees.  The county paid us a small stipend instead for being their provided lawyers, but the amount they paid us wasn’t very much at all!  Now I was seeing dollar signs that we could lay our hands on, and that income was starting to grow exponentially in my head.

Freaky needed my help, and I needed the income that I could generate from her.  In fact, I had every intention of remaining her lawyer for the rest of her life, billing for whatever I thought remotely appropriate.  As far as I was concerned, Freaky Jeskey was about to become mine and Les’s major source of income for the foreseeable future.  I just had to find all that money and get it assigned to Freaky first.  With that much incentive though, I’d do whatever it takes.

First step, meet the poor girl.  Poor?  She didn’t know how rich she might be, especially if I had any say in it.

In my mind, I pictured a huge safe, filled with money!  The lion’s share of that money would of course belong to Freaky, but if there was millions of dollars in there, then how much would my percentage amount to?  A lot!

Natalie answered the door with her arm in a sling.  The sling did nothing for her appearance, but it served as a big reminder to me that this woman had been shot just yesterday, and she was till determined to go with me today.  Strong!  Determined!  Like me.  Of course, she was also married to the sheriff.  That alone had to take an awful lot of strength.

“Ready?” I asked.

As prearranged, the deputy followed us out of town and for quite a distance more than he was supposed to before he turned and went home, leaving Nat and me on our own, without protection.  The sheriff had decided that once we reached a certain point we should be able to relax and feel free from Gary Jeskey hunting Nat…and I again realized, possibly me.  Nat would call the sheriff’s department on the way home and another deputy would pick us up somewhere along the way.

Why was it that our little slice of Northeastern Tennessee had to be one of the less wealthy sections of the state?  We had hills and trees…actually, lots of hills and trees.  We were a bit more remote than a lot of places too.  But where we lived had to be one of the more beautiful areas of the entire state.  Hillbilly country, my husband often joked.  But the truth was, he was right.  Unfortunately, hillbilly country also meant that the county didn’t have money for niceties like women’s shelters.  As far as I could see, we were lucky to have a few social workers to cover the area instead.  Workers like Natalie.  And in an area such as ours, it seemed those social workers had a more important job than anywhere else.iHill

The ride to the shelter was pleasant enough, and Nat and I got to know each other a bit better.  Bumping into each other professionally once in a while wasn’t exactly a good way for us to really get to know each other, but long car rides were different.  We talked a lot about our lives and our marriages.  Husbands are always a favorite subject for women when they get together.  But we also spent a lot of time talking about Freaky.  As I said, it was a pleasant trip, but after hearing what I had in that meeting yesterday about Freaky, and then listening to Natalie in the car, I had to wonder what I would find at the end of that car ride.

A boy, who had been mutilated and turned into a girl, and then put through the most barbaric things possible.  During the drive, Natalie once used the word brainwashed.  Yeah, I could see that completely.  Brainwashed.  Slave.  A mess!  What was I getting myself into?  But the dollar signs stayed on the top of my head, driving me forward.

One other thing that Natalie seemed to think was going to be an important distinction, was that Freaky might have been born a boy, but he wasn’t a boy anymore.  According to Nat, Freaky not only had a completely female body, but she completely identified as being female.  Despite my determination to represent her, I had my doubts.  I was going to have to meet her and see what I thought for myself…like any good lawyer should do.

When we arrived, Natalie and her sling walked me into the shelter.  I immediately started looking around for someone with hair hanging down to the floor, but all I saw was an empty hallway.  Nat led me to the first door near the entrance.  It was open so she just knocked a bit and walked in.  I saw an elderly woman sitting behind the desk.

“Hi Jess,” Natalie said to the woman.  “How are you?”

“Natalie!” the woman said, looking surprised.  “What happened to you?”

“The unexpected,” Natalie replied with a smile.

“Did you break it?” Jess asked.

“No.  It’s just…hurt.  It’ll heal.”  She turned to me.  “Jessica, this is Pamela McGregor.  Pam, this is Jessica Kriss.  She runs the shelter.”

I shook Jess’s hand.  “Nice to meet you,” I told her.  Nat and I took a couple of chairs in front of her desk, and we all sat down.

“How’s Freaky?” Nat asked immediately.  Did I imagine it, or had Jess momentarily looked awfully troubled?

“She’s…trying to adjust…I think,” she replied.  Two of our current residents have kind of taken her under their wing and are trying to help her as much as they can, but…”  She shook her head.  “Look,” she said as she leaned forward.  “I’m not going to beat around the bush with this.  Freaky has problems.  Big problems.  It’s like she’s in another world, stuck back in another time.  I have no doubt that her life has been horrendous, but most of the women who come here have led horrendous lives.  But with Freaky…”  She shook her head.  “I keep thinking that she’s been…brainwashed.”

I quicky glanced over at Natalie.  She had used that word too, along with slave.

“That’s what I think too,” Natalie told her.

“Jessica nodded.  “I’ve talked to her, and so has one of my staff members.  And more importantly, we’ve both had a few discussions about Freaky with those two women who have been trying to help her.  After everything I’ve seen in just this short bit of time, the closest I can figure is that Freaky has been firmly pushed into believing all kinds of ridiculous things.  And she doesn’t think any of them are ridiculous at all.  Instead, she thinks everyone else is ridiculous for not believing the things she does.  Her entire view of life is so warped that I don’t know where to begin to even try to counsel her.  I may be all wrong about this, but to me, it’s like she’s been brainwashed into believing everything those uncles of hers wanted her to believe, and they spared no expense in making sure it all stuck.  Geez!  When I heard about some of the punishments they dished out to her for not being a good girl, as she calls it, I couldn’t believe any of it.  But Freaky obviously believes it all actually happened.  If it did, those men need to be thrown into prison for the rest of their lives!  I mean…hanging her upside down for days at a time.  Burying her alive.  It’s all, unbelievable.  Too unbelievable!”

“As it turns out,” Natalie said, “we’re pretty sure it all happened, and worse.  Much worse.”

Jessica shook her grey-haired head.  “I can’t see how it possibly could have, but either way, if it actually happened, I think she needs a good psychiatrist.  And if those things didn’t actually happen and she made it up, then she still needs that psychiatrist.”

“I hate to say it, but it’s possible,” Natalie admitted.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Jessica said.  “I feel for the girl.  I even like her.  She’s actually quite nice.  But I feel so strongly about this that I’ve already looked into it, and I’ve found her a place in a behavioral center not far from here.  She needs the psychologists and psychiatrists that a place like that would have.  Let the psychologists work with her for a bit, then if we’ve got room, maybe we can take her again.  But right now, she needs a different kind of help than we can give her.”

“You’re suggesting a mental hospital?” I realized.

“Yes!  Absolutely.  Let someone qualified get to the bottom of her problems.”

That wasn’t what I wanted to hear at all.  Still…  “Jessica,” I said.  “I’m a lawyer.  I’m in the process of formalizing things to become Freaky’s attorney and advocate.  Are you saying that you’re trying to throw her out of here?  Natalie already told me that her stay here would be temporary.”

“We get funding from the county,” Jessica said.  “She’s not even from anywhere around here.”

“So you’re just throwing her out since we’re here?”

“No.  Not at all.  I’m saying I think she needs a mental hospital somewhere.  She needs professional help that we can’t give her.  I just took the extra step of finding someplace that takes all kinds, including the ones that can’t pay…like her.  And believe me, those places are few and far between.”

“I’m sure they are,” I replied, realizing that fact.  I had momentarily forgotten that Freaky was penniless…for now.

“What do you think?” Natalie asked me.

“About what?” I replied.

“Should we take Freaky to that hospital  right now?  I know she was pretty mixed up.  Make that very mixed up.  And according to what she just told us, it’s worse than I knew.  Maybe she needs a place like that right now.”

I considered it.  “I haven’t even met her yet.  Let me see her, and then we’ll decide.”

 

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