SECRETS

Chapter 10: Jimmy Is Mad.

Poor Jimmy, what has come over you? Not so long your boss warned you offf from Jackie; now you are here thinking about the same girl. 

Had the warnings you received not loud enough to let you forget about girls? Are you not the same human who crossed a finger across their neck and, pointing to the sky, swore to stop yourself from accepting easy connections with girls? Poor Jimmy, shake your head very well. Is it you? Is it you that now fantasize about girls?

All this and that caressed Jimmy's weak, vulnerable mind as he turned this side and then that in his thorny bed as if any piercing creatures took shape of their work about his bonny sides. He rolled about and, gazing at the ceiling, thought any time soon the answers to his problems will print themselves on there; or some terrible hand would surface from who knows where and scribe for him the words to use for his next attempt. He all in all thought of uncertainties and before he knew it, his alarm struck four o'clock in the morning.

You deserve this Jimmy; he pinched himself and, closing his eyes, breathed a small prayer of forgiveness to his evil part. Now hopeful to take his night's nap, he pulled up his blanket and — another alarm struck. 

Time is evil, he thought. He didn't sleep that night. Not for a single minute!

Thinking about how Jackie must have had a really thrilling night with enough sleep, Jimmy's head spun a mile a second as he contemplated on the load of work that awaited.

•••

‘Did you do everything as I told you?’ asked a strange voice on the phone.

‘Very well mother’ responded the listener rather whispering.

‘I will send others soon, very soon to be genuine. Remember what I told you. It should be done as fast as possible’ continued the stranger breathlessly from the other side of the line.

‘He is here.. end the call’ said the listener as she quickly hid the phone under the pillow.

Jimmy, bottle of beer in the left hand, entered and without a word rammed into Jackie like a hungry adolescent. He pulled her so close that the two creatures could smell each other's breath.

‘Your eyes are pretty gorgeous, Jackie. I see my babies in there’ whispered Jimmy munching his lower lip with so much lust that someone would clearly think Jackie was pieces of meat and Jimmy the starved dog.

‘You are not bad yourself’ said Jackie breaking the eye contact. She knew eyes will surely betray her.

‘I can't wait to know you better’ said Jimmy instantly blinking hard, pulled apart — lost balance — and fell on the floor — heavily.

‘It has worked’ whispered Jackie looking around as if any terrible creature was possibly eavesdropping.

•••

Before Jack illegally married Jenny, he had abandoned his matrimonial wife and was possibly running away from her. Jack and Justine were a married couple and the only result of their unhappy marriage was Jackie. When alcoholic Jack developed trust issues and a few misunderstandings, he fell out of this relationship and not so long met Jenny.

Now, this was known to Jackie after her mother unwound entirely the thread of the sad ordeal.

‘He is brown with a medium height and says his father is Ja..’

‘Your father?’ interrupted Justine overwhelmed.

‘People can have similar names’ replied Jackie. ‘Wait mother, said Jackie thoughtfully, his mother is Jenny I have remembered’

There was a monster moment of silence. The sun was whitish and boiling outside but Justine developed fever. She trembled like a frightened chicken and developed goose pimples on her arms as Jackie watched with perfect horror and amazement.

‘My dear child..’ said Justine with difficulty after a short pause. ‘I had thought..she continued..of a perfect way to take my revenge that will equally match to the heartache that I felt after your drunken father left us to suffer. I told you this when you were fifteen, do you not remember child? It's a yes I made Jack impotent through “my doctor” and I am so sure the child he got shortly with that evil woman is not his. However, that's not the case here’ Justine spoke breathlessly, pausing at intervals to notice the effect of her speech on the child.

‘What do you mean mother?’ asked Jackie blinking hard.

‘I am going to tell you. I want this evil child to suffer the reputation of his mother. I want them to cry the way I cried. Tit for tat, they say, is a fair game.

Justine said these with evil well patched on her face. She was so determined to end the child's life in no second. She wanted to act so fast as much as her minds would tell her.

•

So it happened. Jimmy woke up the next morning shouting and talking to himself; the boy was possessed!

“Come here my girl.. woman.. well, wife! Come, Jackie and give me one last hug. One last kiss, you know, haha!

Jack, poor Dad, I know you very well. My father, are you not evil man? Come and strike me dead now, I beg come. Pardon..yes.. mother. Enjoy yourself. Your Jimmy is very okay” 

Here, Jimmy twisted his entire body like a cobra and within minutes, he tore the clothes off his body and was off naked — on the road — in town — to the market place — throwing stones and running after passing vehicles.