Exhibit (12 page)

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Jess said finally.

“Don't swear, Mom, it's rude”, Denny said sarcastically.

“I work my ass off to look after you, and this is how you repay me, wasting food and throwing stuff around like a baby?”

“You work your ass off to look after Carl you mean”, Denny said.

“Don't you swear at me, little man.”

Denny got up from the table. “I'm going to school”, he said.

“We haven't finished here”, Jess said angrily, but Denny was already on his way out. As he left, he slammed the door so hard, the whole house shook. Jess tipped a cigarette out of her packet, lit it up and took a long drag.

The black eye on Rose's face had healed a little, and the swelling had gone down. She'd tied her hair up into a bun, and it served perfectly as a holder for the pen she used to take orders with.

“I have no idea what's wrong with him”, Jess said.

She caught sight of a stain on Rose's dress, and affectionately tried to rub it off.

“I think it's blueberry pie or something, sweetie, that's been there for months.”

Rose sat down on the back step next to her, and together they watched a stray dog dig at a discarded rubbish bag.

“Two days he's not spoken to me. Not unless he wants to call me a bitch or something. He called me a whore the other day, nearly washed his mouth out with soap.”

“I hear that”, Rose said. “My little one, Amy, only just learned to speak and she's already cussing. Get's it from him I expect. She aint learning it from me. What will you do?”

“I don't know, but something is eating him up. Something happened the other night when I was working, but I aint sure what it is. Denny and Carl are just as tight lipped as each other. Maybe it's just that he aint too fond of Carl.”

“Yeah well who is?” Rose said.

“He isn't all bad, at least he wasn't all that bad. Shit Rose, I don't know anymore. He's drinking, fighting, and he sure as hell isn't working.”

“Sounds familiar.”

Rose took the last drag out of her cigarette and threw it into the dirt. She hauled herself up and dusted her hands down.

“Come on girl”, she said, helping Jess to her feet. “It'll come out in the wash. If anything did happen, Denny'll tell you soon enough.”

They went back inside and Jess took her mind of it for the rest of the afternoon. She didn't think about her son or Carl even, but what she did think about was Jack. She'd not seen him for a couple of days, and she missed him. She wondered if Jack would be her knight in shining armor, the answer to her problems, or whether he was just another loser drunk, looking for a hook up.

Denny wasn't there at the school gates like normal. Jess couldn't tell until she was right up at the entrance, because Denny sometimes sat with his back to the road, leaned up against one of the pillars, but as soon as she got there and definitely couldn't see him, she began to panic.

The school had finished half an hour ago, but the lights were still on inside. She went straight in, hoping that Denny had changed his normal routine, but knew immediately that he wasn't going to be there. There were two teachers still there, neither one of them that had Denny in their class. They knew him of course, as the kid who sat outside, sometimes for hours, waiting for his dead beat mother to show up, but hadn't seen him today. In fact neither of them recalled seeing him at all today. One of them took her into Denny's classroom to check the register, and as she scanned the list to look for his name, Jess had seen it already, as clear as day without a tick next to it.

“Fuck”, she said.

Jess left straight away, overwhelmed by panic. She had no idea where her son would go, if it wasn't to school. She ran home as quickly as she could, and began calling his name; even before she threw the door open.

“Denny?” she shouted. “Denny, are you here?”

Carl was sat on the couch, beer in hand, watching a football game on their crummy TV.

“What the fuck?” he said, as she flew into the house.

Jess looked everywhere, but he wasn't there.

“Fuck, oh fuck”, she said, and started to cry.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Carl said, unsympathetically.

“Denny. Have you seen him? Has he been here?”

Jess was pacing and Carl wasn't answering. The sonofabitch was enjoying it. He took a sup of beer and laughed at her.

“Carl, what the fuck have you done?”

She stood between him and the TV, tears streaming down her face now, completely distraught.

“Get the fuck out of the way”, Carl said, menace tearing his voice to metal shreds.

“What the fuck have you done with him?” Jess screamed.

“I will not tell you again, bitch”, Carl said calmly. “Get the fuck out of the way.”

Jess lost it then, she launched herself at him, her fists flailing. She caught him on the chest, and felt her fist come down on a soft part of his face, before she was upended, and the whole world went black, melting away in a bubble of blood and pain.

When she saw his face, at first she thought she was dreaming.

“Mom, wake up”, he was saying. “You're bleeding.”

Jess groaned. She tried to turn towards the voice, but couldn't. There was dry blood caked into spittle, collected at the edge of her mouth, and the rest of her face was a mess of different colors that resembled an artist's palette.

She coughed, touched her face and pushed the wetness around swollen skin, before she opened her eyes briefly, until the still swimming room was too much to bear and she had to squeeze them tightly shut again. A sharp pain at the back of her neck was making her skull feel like it had been removed completely from her body.

“Mom”, Denny said again, urgently.

She tilted her chin into the faintest of nods, just so he knew she had heard him. She checked her teeth with her tongue, relieved to find them all intact and then attempted to speak.

“What happened?” she said, the words coming out like scratches on an old record. Denny leaned in so he could hear her better, but Jess didn't repeat herself. Instead, she pulled him close to her and hugged him as tightly as she could.

Several minutes later, when enough strength had returned to Jess's body, she hauled herself up, with Denny's help, and propped herself up against the arm of the sofa, her face a mess of blood and spit, and her right eye beginning to close over.

“I saw him, Mom”, Denny said. “He told me not to tell you.”

“I'm sorry”, Jess said, and began to cry. “I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.”

“Can we leave now, Mom, can we go?”

Jess pulled Denny into her, hugging him tightly.

“This is our home Denny, where are we going to go?”

“Anywhere”, Denny said. “Away from him, anywhere.”

“I'll make him leave”, Jess said, knowing she never would. “Would that make it better? If he left?”

Denny nodded. He'd seen his Mom beat up before, even scared a few times, but nothing like this. Carl had taken it to another level. Jess was still trembling, and it wasn't because of the cold.

“Where did you go today?” Jess asked him.

“Walking”, Denny said, as though it were the most normal thing in the world. “Down to the river, and around town a bit. I played with a dog and threw stones into the water. I got twelve skips. Then I came back when I was hungry.”

“Why didn't you go to school?” she said. “I was worried when you weren't there.”

“I don't know, I was angry I suppose, with him, for what he did, at you for letting him do it. I'm sorry, Mom.”

“Promise me you won't run away again!, Jess said. !I can't lose you.”

“I promise”, Denny said, but his voice lacked conviction.

“We've got to stick together”, Jess said. “Whatveer happens.”

She was feeling sleepy, and the words came out covered by a yawn so much that Denny didn't hear them all. He hugged his mom just that little bit tighter anyway, just in case.

J
ess covered up the bruise as best as she could, but she couldn't do much with the swelling. Her jaw hurt like hell, and her right eye was near enough closed by the time she got to work. Lou took one look at her and shook his head.

“Don't send me home”, Jess said.

“I aint going to send you home, girl”, he said, turning her head carefully from side to side, “but Jesus Christ, have you seen it?”

“I've had worse”, Jess said, as though she were talking about the soup at an expensive restaurant.

“You keep letting him beat up on you like that, there won't be anything left at all.”

“It'll go down”, Jess said, pulling away from him to take off her coat.

“You look like shit.”

“Yeah well, at least I'll match the rest of the place now.”

“Well you aint lost your sense of humor have you?” Lou said. “You know you can go on home if you want to, I'll pay you just the same.”

“You gonna pay me my tips as well?”

Lou sighed. He got up from where he was sat and went over to Jess.

“If they ask, it wasn't me”, he said, and let her get on with her shift.

The bar was dead for most of the night. Jess saw a few regular faces, and half a dozen more that were either on their way to something or back from it. None of the regulars paid her any mind, as though turning up to work with a swollen cheek was like wearing a red jersey instead of a green one. She preferred it that way anyway. Somebody's problems were there own, and it wasn't nobody else's place to interfere.

It was right before close, as she was getting ready to pack the bar down, when she heard a familiar voice.

“I'll have the rest of that whiskey now.”

Jack was sat at the bar smoking when she turned around. She stepped forward, unashamed of what the darkness was hiding for her in the position she was currently stood in.

“We're about to close”, Jess said.

“What happened to you?” Jack said as he saw her face. “That mongrel been beating on you?”

“It was a misunderstanding”, Jess said calmly.

“That's what a misunderstanding looks like?”

He tapped ash into the ashtray and rounded the cherry of the cigarette against the edge before taking another puff.

“I have to get home to my boy”, Jess said, keen to change the subject.

“I'll pay for the whiskey and I'll pay for your time to serve it for me”, Jack said, sliding a fifty dollar bill across the table to her.

“You already paid for the whiskey”, Jess said.

“Then I guess you owe me some change”, Jack said and smiled.

“I don't have all night”, Jess said, taking the bill, folding it expertly in one hand and sliding it into the back pocket of her cut off jean pants.

She took the bottle of whiskey and a glass down from the shelf and put them on the counter in front of Jack.

“You going to let an old man drink alone?”

“What are you doing here?” Jess said.

“Trying to make friends”, Jack said and smiled again. He was charismatic, and Jess felt drawn to him. She didn't know if she liked him, but she felt she could trust him at least. Trust him more than Carl. She took a glass for herself and pulled the stool closer so she could sit opposite him. Jack poured her a shot and she knocked it back. He filled her glass again, and this time she sipped.

“Why are you really here?” 

Jack took another cigarette from the pack, and lit it with the dying stub of his other one. He offered the pack to Jess, but Jess shook her head.

“I'm working”, Jack said. “I'm looking for someone.”

Jess filled Jack's glass. “You're looking for someone. What are you a bounty hunter?”

“Sort of.”

“Who are you looking for?”

Jess had finished her drink and Jack filled her glass again. The bar was almost empty. Lou had long gone and left her to close up. She felt safe with Jack. She felt the warmth of the alcohol filling her belly and smoothing away the shit-tonne of problems she had accumulated in her life. She felt like flirting. She looked at Jack and felt like fucking him. She didn't think about Carl, wherever the fuck he might be, and the only thing pulling her away from losing herself in Jack completely was Denny.

“I'm looking for someone who shouldn't be here. Someone who's been fucking and killing his way through several counties.”

“You're looking at the wrong person”, Jess said comically. “I've fucked, but as far as I know, I haven't killed. Not yet at least.”

She was drunk when they left together. The old bottle emptied, and a new one opened, put aside for another day. Jess was going to walk, even after they'd kissed, Jess pressed up against the cold brick of the outside wall, but Jack insisted. He'd drunk enough to put an elephant on its ass, but he'd been doing it so long the only thing that affected his driving was water. If he wasn't drunk they'd be in more danger of spinning off the road.

They kissed again outside the car, when Jack slid his hand from the nape of Jess's neck, all the way down her back and squeezed her ass, and they kissed again inside the car, just before they began to undress.

Jack was as hard as a rock, and Jess wriggled his insistent cock out of his trousers, and into her mouth. He felt warm and she could already taste the saltiness of his pre-cum. She rolled his foreskin up over his glans and pushed her tongue inside the skin, darting it back and forth across the sensitive connective tissue in the way the dancing girls from Lucky Lou's had shown her their punters liked. She was bent over, and Jack had his hand down her back, pushed inside her jean pants, encouraging her to move further over so he could reach her pussy.

Jess pulled off him momentarily to help him out, and Jack took the opportunity to slide down his pants. Jess pulled off her top and released her pert little tits, before undoing her jean pants and pulling those down to her ankles, along with her moistened panties. Her pussy was almost completely shaven, and Jack didn't waste time in putting his hand to it. She went back to sucking him, licking all the way from his balls to his cock hole, while he pushed his thumb up into her pussy and used his finger to explore her ass.

Jess hadn't fucked for a while, and the ease with which she was doing it now, excited her. She didn't know Jack, but she wanted him. She wanted his cock inside both of her holes and his cum filling her up. She wanted him to bend her over and fuck her hard and make her come screaming.