The Last Jeskey - Chapter 42

 

The Last Jeskey

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 42

 

(Day 10 – Saturday)

 

Pamela

 

Stella and Jim Harper met me at my office.  The surprise however was that they weren’t alone.  They had their other daughter with them, Katherine.  Freaky’s mother’s sister.  We all managed to crowd ourselves into my car and I drove them out to the Jeskey place.

“It’s beautiful out here,” Stella remarked, long before we got there.

“That it is,” I agreed.  People often remarked that about our little slice of heaven.  Very few people moved in though because once people found out how poor the area was, they wanted no part of it.  That was fine with all the residents.  We didn’t want outsiders mucking up our land.

When we finally reached the farm, I noticed Natalie’s car was there, along with the inevitable deputy’s car as well.

“Why the police car?” Mr. Harper wondered.

“Security,” I told him.

“For what?” Mrs. Harper asked.

“Natalie,” I said.  “The sheriff’s wife.  She was shot a few days ago.  It wasn’t too bad.  The bullet just hit part of her arm.”  I was lucky I didn’t have to explain the security concerns any further.

By the time I stopped the car, I saw Natalie coming out through the front door.  I led the family up onto the front porch and introduced them all to her.

“Pamela here says you were shot,” Mr. Harper said.  “It looks like you’re just fine now.”

“Yes,” Natalie admitted.  “The bullet hit my arm and went right through.  I was stuck with my arm in a sling for a few days, but I gave up on it as soon as I could.  I’ve been wearing long-sleeves despite the weather ever since.”

I saw Mr. Harper nod his head at that.

“Come on in,” Natalie said to them.  “I know you want to meet Freaky.”

As we went inside, I noticed that Shantel was standing way back in the kitchen,  Lisa and Freaky though were standing not far from the door.  Lisa was holding Freaky’s hand.  I couldn’t help but notice the new dresses they both were wearing.  Freaky looked nicer than usual.  A lot nicer.  She also looked scared.  Lisa dropped Freaky’s hand and moved back a step, leaving Freaky to face them alone, but not too alone.

“Mr. and Mrs. Harper.  Katherine,” Natalie said.  “I’d like you to meet Freaky.”

Nat had made the introductions, but nobody was saying anything.

“You’re beautiful,” Mrs. Harper finally said.  “I hadn’t expected that.”

“Mom,” Katherine said, “She looks kind of like Hailey.”

“Yes,” Stella Harper replied.  “I can see that.  I didn’t expect that either.”

“Are you sure that’s Brian?” Jim Harper whispered to me.

“DNA tests confirmed it,” I whispered back.  He let out what sounded like a rather disappointed grunt.

“They say,” Freaky started, “that you’re my family.”

“Yes,” Mrs. Harper replied.  “And now, looking at you, I have no doubt about that at all.  You look…too much like your mother.”

“I don’t remember my mother.  Or my father,” Freaky told them.  “The only family I remember is Uncle Bo and the guys.  They’re all gone now though, except Uncle Gary.  I don’t know where he is.”

Stella turned to me.  “Uncle Gary?”

“Her cousin actually,” I explained.  “One of Bo’s four sons.”

“Where is he?”

“Most likely, out causing trouble somewhere,” I told her.

I watched as Stella turned back toward Freaky again.  “Can I hug you?” Stella asked.

I watched as Freaky smiled.  “I like hugs.  Until Bo died, I never had one before.  But they feel so…nice.”

“Never…” Kathy started to say as if she couldn’t believe it, then stopped as Stella took a step forward and wrapped her arms around Freaky.  Freaky just stood there as if she didn’t know what to do, then I saw her arms go around her grandmother and hug her back.  The two stayed like that for a few moments before Stella took a step back, but she kept her arms on Freaky’s arms.  “I know you don’t know us at all,” she said, looking into Freaky’s face.  “But my name is Stella Harper, and I’m your grandmother.”

I saw Freaky look quickly over at Lisa.  “Your mother’s mother,” Lisa said softly.

“I wish I could remember my mother,” Freaky said to Stella.

“I wish you could too,” Stella replied.  She turned to her husband who moved closer now.  “This is Jim, my husband.  Your grandfather.”

I noticed that Jim didn’t even try to touch Freaky, and all Freaky did was to nod at him.

After a moment, Stella turned toward Katherine.  “And this is your aunt, Katherine.”

I saw Freaky’s lack of understanding just before she looked over at Lisa again.  “An aunt is just like an uncle,” Lisa explained.  “But uncles are men, and aunts are women.  I’m guessing that she’s your mother’s sister?”

“That’s right,” Stella said.

“Mom,” Kathy said.  “Can I have a turn?”

“Oh!  Sorry,” Stella said as she let go of Freaky’s arms and moved away.

Katherine moved in and stood in front of Freaky.  “Call me Kathy, or Aunt Kathy, I don’t care which.  I’m just glad to meet you.  More so because you remind me so much of my little sister, who I still miss so much.”  With that, she hugged Freaky, and Freaky hugged her back.

“Coffee?” Lisa said softly as the two women let go of each other.  “Would you rather sit at the table, or in the living room?”

“The living room I think,” Stella decided.  No surprise, she seemed to be the one in charge here.

Stella held Freaky’s hand as she led her to the couch where the two of them sat next to each other.  As they were sitting, Lisa asked who wanted cream or sugar in their coffee, then disappeared back to the kitchen area.  Natalie and I stood, but out of the way and declined any coffee.

Stella sat half facing Freaky and held her hand.  “Pam has told me a lot about you,” she said.  “The more she told us, the less I believed.  Yet here you are, right in front of me.  I can’t even begin to imagine the life you’ve lived.”

“Uncle Bo and the guys took care of me,” Freaky replied.  “They gave me food to eat and a house to live in.”

“But everything else…” Stella said.  “It had to be horrible!”  She looked over at me.  “If it was true!”

“If what was true?” Freaky asked.

“The torture?”

I saw Freaky look around for Lisa, but she was at the kitchen counter.  “What’s torture?” she asked.

“So it’s not true!” Stella said pointedly.

“What?” Freaky asked.

“Being roasted over a fire.  Being…”

“Oh that,” Freaky said.  “They only did that to me once.  And they were all real drunk at the time.”

Stella looked shocked.  “You mean…they really did do that to you?  Burned you over a fire?”

“Just that once.  And like I said they were drunk.”

“And how about being buried up to your neck?”

Freaky shrugged.  “That’s what they usually did to me when I was bad.  But I try real hard to always be a good girl.  Especially after I got punished.  I don’t want to be a bad girl…ever!”

“They punish you like that whenever you’re a bad girl?”

I noticed that Freaky looked confused.  “Of course,” she said.  “How else would I learn?”

“I think I’m gonna be sick,” Kathy mumbled.

“They didn’t do that to me the last time they punished me though,” Freaky said.  “They hung me upside down from a tree for a few days instead.  I think they were worried since there were so many bears around at the time.”

“Bears!” Jim exclaimed.

“Sure,” Freaky told him.  “We live next to the woods.  There’s bears and lions and tigers out there.  I could get eaten if I went into the woods.  The guys though always carried guns with them so they could protect themselves.”

“Tigers?  Here?” Jim asked.

“I’m guessing they were just trying to frighten her,” I told him.  “But we do have a lot of bears up here.”  I saw him shake his head.

Shantel came in and approached Jim.  She held out a glass wrapped in a paper towel.  “You said black,” Shantel said quietly to him.  “We don’t have no cups or anything like that, just these whisky glasses, so watch, it’s real hot.”

“No cups?” Stella asked.  “Not even any mugs?”

“Not yet, we’re working on it,” Shantel replied as she moved over and held out a paper towel wrapped glass to her.  “Cream and sugar both?” she asked.

“Yes,” Stella replied as she carefully took the offered coffee…glass.

I noticed Lisa bringing coffee to Katherine as well.

“You’ve got to be Shantel,” Stella said once she had her coffee in her hands.

“That’s me,” Shantel replied.  “Nice to meet you.”

“From what I’ve heard, you’re a pretty good singer.”

“I love to sing,” Shantel told her.

Stella looked over toward Lisa.  “And you’ve got to be Lisa then,” she said.  Lisa nodded.  “Our…perfect hostess.”

I was amused to see Lisa blush.  “I try,” she said.

“Thank you,” Stella told her.

“You’re welcome,” Lisa replied.

“And the three of you met at a…women’s shelter?”

“We all got our demons we’re runnin’ from,” Shantel told her.  “Freaky here too.  She just don’t realize yet how bad her demons are.  She’s learning though.  Slowly, but she’s learnin’.”

Stella nodded.  “I can only imagine.  Her…” she said, as if she was having trouble with the word, “mother and father were murdered.  We thought…she…was murdered too.  But it seems she wasn’t.  I’ll never know what possessed Clive to try and move that safe out of his father’s house.  They’d all be alive if he hadn’t.”

“Mom!” Kathy said, sounding surprised.  “You don’t know?”

“No.  Do you?”

“Sure.  Hailey told me.”

“What?”

“Clive was going to sell his father’s farm.  He was having too much trouble trying to manage both farms by himself since they were so far apart.  His farm was bigger, so he was selling his father’s.  He just wanted to get everything out of his father’s house before he put it all on the market.”

“Oh geez!” Jim exclaimed.  “That makes perfect sense.  Not to mention, how much money he would have gotten for that place.”

“Hailey always wanted to travel to Europe,” Kathy told him.  “They would have had the money to do it then.”

“They had the money already!” Stella said.  “Your sister married rich.  Clive was a millionaire like his father when she met him.  And heaven only knows how much he inherited when his father died.  I know it was more than just that farm.  He was rich to begin with, and his father’s death only made him richer.  He didn’t need the money.”

I couldn’t help myself.  I stepped forward.  “What happened to all that money?”

“I don’t know,” Stella confessed.  “But Clive had a small insurance policy that he had taken out on himself.  One on Hailey too.”  She looked over at her husband.  “How much was Clive’s?”

“A hundred thousand,” Jim told her.  “The one he had for Hailey was only for fifty.”

Stella shook her head.  “With all his money, you’d think he could have afforded more.”

“Maybe,” I said, “because of all his money, he didn’t feel like he needed more.”

She shrugged.  “Maybe.”

“What happened to it?” I asked.

“The money from Clive’s policy was earmarked for Hailey of course, but with her gone, it went to Brian.  Haily’s was just the opposite.  It went to Clive, and then to Brian.”

“And what happened to it all?”

“Brian is dead!” Jim said firmly.  “We wound up with both.”

I nodded, noting the way he had made that statement.  “How about all of Clive’s other money?” I asked.

Jim shrugged.  “Who knows.  I never heard.”  He looked over at his wife.

“Me either,” Stella admitted.  She looked to Kathy.  “Did you ever hear anything?”

“No,” Kathy said.  “I can tell you though that nobody ever offered any of it to us.”

“Us either,” Jim agreed.

Did I note a bit of contention there?  I wasn’t forgetting that they had wound up with a hundred and fifty thousand dollars that I would figure legally belonged to Freaky.  I was going to have to check on the legal issues there though.

“Freaky,” Stella said.  “Are you going to pick a new name for yourself?”  I got the impression that Stella was quicky trying to change the subject.

“Another name?” Freaky said.  “Why?”

“Well, Freaky is so…unusual.”

“It is?” Freaky said.  “I don’t know.  I guess, Freaky is just my name.  Although actually, I guess it’s just Freak.  But since Roxie started calling me Freaky instead, I kind of liked it.”

“But you don’t have any other name?”

“No.  Why would I?”

“You don’t remember having any other name?” she asked.

“No.  Just Freak.  That’s what they always called me.  That’s my name.  I just like Freaky better now.”

“Do you remember that your name was once Brian?” Jim asked rather pointedly.

“No,” Freaky replied.  “If I had another name, I would have remembered.  They always just called me Freak.”

I saw Stella patting Freaky’s hand reassuringly.  “Maybe we can discuss some nicer names for you another time.”

Freaky just shrugged.  “Freaky is good.  I like it.”

“We’ll see dear,” Stella replied.

Kathy suddenly stood up.  “Mom, would you mind if I take Freaky for a little walk around.  I’d like to see this place.  It’s old.  Maybe there’s more to it than just this room.”

Sella didn’t look happy, but her daughter had asked.  “Maybe it would be nice if Freaky showed all of us around.  I think I’d like to see it too.  And Pam said it was a farm.”  She stood up.  “Do you raise any crops here, or animals?”

Everyone got to their feet.  Freaky didn’t look like she knew how to answer the question.  “They didn’t raise anything,” I told her.  “They just bought this old farm and lived here.”

“We get chickens sometimes,” Freaky said as she started leading the way toward the back of the house.  “And pigs too.  I like the chickens, especially when they’re real little.  They’re so soft and nice to hold.  They’re fun when they get bigger too.  The pigs are nice when they’re real little too, but I don’t like them when they get big.”

She stopped by the table and pointed.  “That’s Dave and Gary’s room over there,” she said.  She pointed to another door.  “That one is Ben and Steve’s room.  Lisa and Shantel are sleeping in there now.  She pointed again.  “And that one is Bo’s room.”

“Is that where you sleep?” Stella asked.

“No.  I’m a good girl.  I sleep by the back door.”

“Not anymore!” I heard Shantel say softly.

“Is there a room there too?” Stella asked.

“Of course,” Freaky replied.  “Come on, I’ll show you.”

Freaky led the way toward the back door.  When they got there, she stopped.  “This is where I sleep.”

“Where?” Stella asked.

“Here,” Freaky replied.

“But there’s no bed.”

“No.  I’m a good girl.”

“What does….”

“Don’t ask!” Shantel said from behind the pack.  “She sleeps on the floor.  We’re having a running battle about that point right now.”

“Good girls sleep on the floor!” Freaky insisted.

“Sorry,” Shantel told everyone.  “She’s got a thousand crazy ideas about what good girls do and what they don’t do.”

I noticed that Stella didn’t look very happy.

Freaky led the way outside and we all walked around.  Stella had another fit when Freaky proudly showed them where she washed clothes and how she went about doing it.

“Will these barbaric ideas never cease?” Stella wondered.

We made it around the property without any more difficulty and wound up back at the cars.  I noticed the deputy that was waiting for Natalie was still there.  He glanced at us, then went back to looking out into the field again.  He raised his arm and pointed.  “Look what we have over there.”

We all looked and saw a bear crossing the open field.

“There really are bears up here,” Jim noted.

“Quite a few,” Natalie replied.  “And according to my husband, the sheriff, this area is known for having more than usual.”

“And they live here?  With so many bears around?”

“Mm-hm,” Natalie replied as if it was nothing.  But then bears were a fact of life in this neck of the woods.  The flatlanders wouldn’t be able to understand that.

“We may as well head home,” Jim decided.  “It’s a long drive.”

Stella didn’t look particularly happy about that, but she nodded.  “Yes.  Of course,” she replied.  She went over to Freaky and hugged her again.  “It was great to meet you,” she said.  “I look forward to coming for another visit.”

Kathy moved in and hugged her next.  “I wish we had more time to talk.  Your mother was the most special person in the world to me.  I’d love to tell you about her.”

“I’d love to hear about her,” Freaky told her.  “I don’t remember her at all.  My father either.”

Kathy nodded.  “Maybe we can talk, and it will jog your memory a bit.  And besides, I haven’t told you yet about my kids.  You’ve got cousins.”

“Cousins?” Freaky asked.

“Her children,” Lisa told her.  “I’ll try to explain it all later.”

We all stuffed ourselves back in my car again.  I realized as we did that Jim had never even tried to go near Freaky.  As I drove away from the house, I noticed that the bear had finally reached the other side of the field.  The dirt road we had to follow would come very close to where it was heading.  Maybe we’d see it again.  We didn’t though.

I heard Jim let out a rather nasty swear word.  Then he said, “Clive’s brother really did murder Brian.”

“It looks like he came close dear,” Stella agreed.

“No.  He murdered him!  Completely!” Jim insisted.  “And then he cut Brian up and used the parts to create…that!”

I no longer had any doubts about how Jim saw Freaky.  I just wasn’t too sure yet about the others.

It was a few minutes later when Stella made an observation.  “She washes her clothes in a tub.  Why isn’t there a washer in the house?”

“They don’t have any cups either,” Kathy added.

“What other things don’t they have?”

“Clothes,” I threw out.  Freaky has almost no clothes.  All the ones she had when we found her were confiscated by the sheriff.”

“Why in heaven would they do that?” Stella asked.

“Because every bit of it had bullet holes and blood stains.”

“What?”

“We’re pretty sure the only clothes Freaky has ever had in her life, are clothes that were taken from the women that Bo Jeskey and his boys murdered.”

Stella threw her hands in the air.  “The unbelievable stuff never stops!  Why can’t you get her some clothes?”

“We’re working on it,” I explained.  “That dress she was wearing today is one she just got.  It’s only been a few days since we discovered her.  We’re still trying to get things straight with the money situation.”

“Well work harder on it!” Stella said.  “If need be, I’ll buy her something myself!”

I didn’t hear Jim say anything to that, but glancing over at him sitting next to me showed me that his face didn’t look happy about his wife’s last statement.  All I could think though, was that if they got so much money from those insurance policies that should have legally gone to Freaky…or Brain, then spending a few dollars to help Freaky out seemed like the least they could do.