The Last Jeskey - Chapter 35

 

The Last Jeskey

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 35

 

(Day 7 – Wednesday  to  Day 8 – Thursday)

 

Freaky

 

I was home again.  Finally.  And it felt like such a relief.  And more than that, Shantel and Lisa were here with me.  I was so happy!  It all felt really strange when Natalie, Pamela, and the cop left.  Lisa, Shantel, and me were alone in the house.  It struck me that I had never been alone in this house with other women before.  It was…nice.

“What can I do for you?” I asked them.  “Do you need anything?”  I was used to taking care of the guys.  What else would I do?

“I’m fine, Honey Pie,” Shantel told me.  “There’s no TV or anything, so I guess we just…relax for a bit.  Then I guess, bed.”  She chuckled.  “Nobody tellin’ us when to go to bed here, and when to get up again.”

“We can sleep in tomorrow,” Lisa noted.

“Right!” Shantel agreed as she plopped herself down in a chair.

Lisa took the couch, and we all sat and looked at each other in silence for a moment, then Shantel began to sing.  I loved it, and so did Lisa.  But Shantel didn’t sing long before she suddenly stopped.

“You ain’t got a guitar here, do you?” Shantel asked me.

“A…what’s a…”

“Guitar Honey Pie, and I can see that you don’t, so don’t worry about it.  If’n you don’t mind, I can sing just fine without it.”

“Mind?” I asked.

“Go for it,” Lisa told her as she stretched out on the couch.  “Sing me to sleep.”

“Oh Honey,” Shantel said.  “Close those pretty eyes of yours.  Have I got a song for you.”

She sang for a long time, and we listened.  Why would anyone rather watch one of those TV things instead of listening to this?  I just didn’t get it.  Like I didn’t get most things outside of this house.  But here, it all made sense.

Until it was bedtime.

“Freaky,” Lisa said.  “Don’t sleep on the floor.  You don’t need to do that anymore.”

“But I’m a good girl!” I insisted.  “Girls sleep on the floor!”

“No they don’t!  Now there’s two beds in some of those rooms.  If you want, you can sleep with me.”

“No!  This is where I usually sleep.  Here, by the backdoor.”

“But it’s on the floor.  And there are bedrooms and beds available that were made to be slept in.  Just…try it.  For me?”

“No!” I insisted.  “I’m a good girl, and I’m going to stay a good girl.  This is where I belong, here in this house.  And I sleep here on the floor.”

Lisa gave up.  “Okay,” she said.  “We’ll be in one of those bedrooms together.  See you in the morning.”

I felt better.  This was where I belonged.  This was what I understood.  It felt…comforting.

I think I slept better than any night since they took me away from here.

As always, I was up bright and early.  The only problem was, I didn’t have any of the guys there to take care of…unless maybe Gary came home.  I silently made my way through the house.  I didn’t see Gary in the living room.  I checked all three bedrooms.  No Gary, but Shantel and Lisa were sleeping in Ben and Steve’s beds in one of the rooms together.

I went back to the kitchen where I belonged.  There wasn’t much food left in the house.  Bo, or one of the guys was going to have to go shopping for some soon.  Except, the only guy left to do any shopping was Gary, and I didn’t know when he was going to come back.  But I had heard Natalie and some of the others talking about shopping last night.  So maybe they would bring some food for us.

In the meantime, I tried to figure out what I was going to give them for breakfast when they woke up.  No eggs or anything like that.  As far as I could see, they were down to cereal and that was all.  And more than likely, there wasn’t going to be enough for me.  But that was the way things were supposed to be.

My eye caught the dog food bowl still on the floor.  What was supposed to be was that I was supposed to still be eating nothing but dog food until they told me I could stop.  With a sigh, I pulled out the bag of dry dog food and poured some of it into my bowl.  I soon found myself on my hands and knees, lowering my face into that bowl.  The dry dog food pellets lasted nearly forever.  So did their taste in my mouth.  I remembered that hamburger that they had bought me at that weird place last night.  I couldn’t believe how good it had tasted.  How did they do that?  The hamburgers I made for the guys never tasted like that.  Inevitably though, I bent my head down again into the bowl and took another mouthful.  Breakfast.  I was home.

It was a long time before Shantel and Lisa got up, which gave me plenty of time to clean the kitchen again and visit my pee hole out behind the shed.  I was a good girl, and I was going to stay a good girl, no matter what anyone else said.

I saw Lisa come out first, but she headed straight into the bathroom.  I didn’t expect her to go anywhere else.  It seemed like none of the women I had met since I had left here even knew what a proper pee hole was.  They probably wouldn’t even know how to use it.

Lisa wasn’t in the bathroom long, and when she came out, she came over to me in the kitchen.  “Good morning Freaky,” she said nicely.  She pulled out a chair at the table and sat down.  As she was sitting, I heard Shantel going into the bathroom.  “Did you sleep okay?” Lisa asked.

I wasn’t sure I understood the question.  Of course I had slept okay.  I dredged up an answer.  “Yes.”

“Good.  I hate seeing you trying to sleep on the floor.”

“I like it.”

“Well, I don’t like seeing you do it,” she told me.  “Got any coffee?”

“Coffee?” I said.  “Natalie had a machine that made coffee.  I tried some when I visited with her, but I couldn't believe how bad it tasted.  Why would you want some of that?”

“So I’m guessing, no coffee,” she said.

“No.  Of course not.”

She suddenly sat up straight and looked surprised.  “You had all those grown men living here, but there’s no coffee?”

“No.  Why would there be?”

“Because men usually drink coffee.  Most women too.  What did they drink then?”

“Beer, of course.”

“What else?  They had to drink something else.”

“No.  Just beer.”

“What about soda?”

“That was that stuff I drank at that weird place last night where I had that hamburger.”

“Yeah.  And you said you’d never had any before.  So I guess no soda then.  Milk?  Tea?  Anything?”

“No.  Just beer.”

She shook her head.  “What do you drink all the time, beer too?”

“No.  Just water.  I’m a girl.  Beer is for the men.”

“Figures,” she said disgustedly.

“Morning everyone,” Shantel called as she walked from the bathroom to the table.  She stopped at the table but didn’t sit down.  “I don’t smell any coffee,” she noted.  “Is there any?”

“Don’t bother asking,” Lisa told her.  “There’s none, and nothing else either.  It seems the only thing Freaky’s uncles drank was beer.  All the time!”

“Oh.  I’ve known a few men who seemed to be that way,” Shantel replied.  “We got anything at all for breakfast, or are we skipping that today.  I know the cupboard is pretty bare.”

“We have cereal,” I told them.

“Perfect!” Shantel said as she went around me to the cabinets.  “Where?”

“I opened a cabinet for her and pulled the box out.  I found bowls and spoons for her and Lisa.”

“You’re not eating?” Lisa asked me.

“I ate already,” I told her.  “I was up early.”

Lisa nodded, then got up and opened the refrigerator.  “No milk either?” she asked.

“Milk?  No.  Bo only gets me milk when there’s something he wants me to cook that needs it.”

“How about for the cereal?” Shantel asked.  “You gotta have milk for that.”

“You do?  They never use it.”

“Then what do they use?” Lisa asked, then quickly shook her head.

“Beer!” Shantel said.  “I guess we’re eating it dry.”

While they spooned dry cereal into their mouths, I sat at the table with them, and we all talked about things we thought we needed to buy.  What surprised me was that Lisa made it very plain to me that they expected me to not only leave the house to go shopping with them, but that I would have to go into the stores to buy whatever we needed too.  I was having a difficult time wrapping my head around that.

When they finished eating, which didn’t take long, Lisa grabbed her bowl and spoon, and Shantel’s bowl and spoon and carried them to the sink.  I was shocked to see her start washing them.

“That’s my job!” I told her.

“I’ve got it,” Lisa said.  “Don’t worry.”

“But…”

“Freaky!” Shantel said.  “Relax.  You don’t have to do all the work anymore.  Theres’s three of us here.”

“But…”

Shantel came over and put her hand on my shoulder.  “Freaky,” she said.  “You’ve got friends now.  Us.  And friends help each other, and they watch out for each other, and they take good care of each other.  You’ve got friends now, that’s us.  Remember that.”

“But I’m not used to…”

“Baby Doll,” she said.  “Get used to it.  Those men you lived with are all gone now, and we’re here instead.  And like it or not, there’s got to be some big changes in your life.  In fact, it’s gonna be some big changes in my life and Lisa’s life too.  But we’ve got each other now, and if we all work together, we’ll get through them.  Got that?”

I didn’t answer.

“Get used to it Honey Pie,” she told me.  “The world seems to change every day.  Now it’s your turn.  Our turn too, I guess.  Get used to it, ‘cause it’s happening.”

“And it’s our job to make sure it happens,” Lisa added.

“Yeah,” Shantel said.  “Our job.  We just ain’t getting’ paid for it.”

A few minutes later we were heading for the living room to sit down when there was a knock at the door.  I panicked!  I’ve got to hide!” I whispered as I hurried toward the back door.

“Freaky!” Shantel yelled.

“Freaky,” Lisa said right after her.  “What are you doing?”

“I need to…”

“Hide?” Lisa asked.

“Baby Doll,” Shantel said.  “No you don’t.  Not anymore.  That part of your life is over.  Forever!  Now get that out of your system and stay right here with us.”

The knock came again, and Shantel headed to the door.  She opened it and stepped back in surprise.

“Hi,” I heard a woman’s voice say.  “I’m just checking to make sure everyone is okay.”

“We’s fine,” Shantel told her.  “Excuse me if I seem…surprised.  I never hung out much with the police.”

I could see who was at the door now.  “Amanda,” I called as I headed for the door.

“Come on in,” Shantel told Amanda as she held the door open for her.

Amanda came in.  “Morning everyone,” she said.  “I’m deputy….”

“Amanda,” I said.  “The woman cop from that place where all the cops are.”

“Uh…that would be me,” Amanda told her.

“Deputy Amanda then,” Shantel said.

“That works, or just Amanda if you like,” Amanda said.  “No problems last night?”

“Not unless you count the fact that Freaky there refuses to sleep in a bed and prefers the floor,” Lisa told her as she headed over toward the woman cop.  “Other than that, none.  I’m Lisa by the way.”

I watched as Lisa shook Amanda’s hand.  Why did people do that?

“Shantel,” Shantel said as she also shook Amanda’s hand.  “I ain’t used to bein’ around cops.  No offense.”

“I guessed that already,” Amanda told her.

“Have you heard anything about them coming to get us to take us shopping?” Lisa asked.  “We need some groceries pretty bad here.  And I know Natalie and Pamela knew that, even though they were worried about where the money was going to come from.  Natalie said she’d work something out though.”

“Nobody told me anything,” Amanda replied.  “The sheriff just told me to stop out here and check to make sure you were all still doing okay.”

“We’re fine,” Shantel told her.

“I know where some money is,” I told Amanda.  “But…I don’t understand what good it is.”

Everybody looked at me.  “What do you mean, you know where some money is?” Amanda asked.

“I know where some is.  The guys talk about money all the time, but I don’t know why.  It’s just little pieces of paper that don’t do anything, but the guys seem to be real concerned about it for some reason, so they hide it all over the place.”

“Like where?” Amanda asked.

I thought for a minute.  “There’s some right here in the house,” I told her.

“Can I see?” Amanda asked.

I wasn’t sure about that though.  “It’s Bo’s money.  He doesn’t show it to anyone.  He’d be real mad if I showed it to you.”

“Bo is dead,” Amanda said.  “Remember?”

“Yeah, but…what if he comes back?”

“Freaky, dead means he’s never coming back.  He’s dead!  Gone!  Forever.  The only one left is Gary now and hopefully we’ll have him in custody very soon, so you won’t ever have to worry about him either.  Now where’s that money?”

I considered what she said.  I knew I was being silly.  Dead was…dead.  And I knew without a doubt that Bo, Ben, and Steve were all dead.  They had said Dave was dead now too, but I didn’t see that happen.  “I know what dead is,” I said.  “I’m just used to the guys always coming home.  They go for a few days sometimes, then they come back.”

“The money?” Amanda reminded me.

I gave in and led the way toward the back door where I usually slept every night.  There was a closet there where I had kept my bag of all the clothes I had.  The closet contained almost nothing now.  I pulled the few clothes I had left out of the closet and got down on the floor.  I had only seen Bo open it once in my life, that was all, but since I kept my things in the closet I knew where the little pull thing was at the very back.  I got my finger in it and pulled up.  It was heavy, but gradually the entire floor of the closet came up.  Ouch, that thing hurt to pull.

When it got high enough, I started to grab the entire section of floor, but Amanda was there quickly to help me move it.  She set it aside and came back to look at what we had uncovered.  The first thing I saw was guns.  One for each finger of my hand.  But under the guns were a lot of stacks of the money stuff that the guys were always so interested in.

“Holy mother of God!” Shantel said as she stared at what had been under the floor.

“That looks like a lot,” Lisa noted.

“Don’t touch!” Amanda said as she pulled her cellphone out.  I watched as she made a call and then asked for the sheriff.  A minute later, she said, “Sheriff, I’m at the Jeskey place…” … “Yeah, they’re all fine.  But Sheriff, we’ve got money!  And it looks like a lot!”