Jayden's Revenge: The Tale of an American Family (5 page)

After clubbing Derrick to subdue him, Brenda makes her way back to the kitchen
, bat resting on her shoulder,
and retrieves a small key ring from the hook near the
back
door. There is a small shed with tools that her husband keeps
:
the lawnmower, some hedge clippers, and (most importantly) rope
to tie Derrick up. Even though he is badly beaten, she remembers a man who was unstoppable and strong when they were younger. Brenda would rather not risk him regaining consciousness unsecured.
She flicks the switch for the motion lights
, knowing
Jayden won’t be far behind and
not wanting
to spoil her surprise.
Walking on to the patio and through the yard, Brenda
remind
s
herself to move quickly.

Seeing
the rope she came for
, which she
quick
ly
tucks beneath her arm
, brings back a flood of memories
. The rope is made of blue nylon; Brenda
recalls
buying the rope for a camping trip the four of them had taken two summers ago.

She wishes they could go back to that time, before Jayden started to turn
.
She had been such a sweet girl before the smoking and fighting
,
before
Bren
had caught her and Philip touching one another.
Philip had never been all there;
she knew that and knew what it was from.
Bren
was a stupid kid when he was born and she regrets the meth now. Jayden, on the other hand,
is
just too smart for her own good. She knew her brother was weaker and manipulated and used him.

Derrick would never see her faults. She
is
his favorite. He
has
always resented Philip, though he would never admit it. He
was
still a good father to the boy and love
d
them both dearly;
but
Jayden
wa
s
his star pupil. Jayden used this to curry favor
, saying
that Philip coerce
d
her.

He was a perfect fall guy, a patsy. Philip was in love with his sister. He would do anything to protect her, and she rewarded him for his loyalty
with kissing and over
-
the
-
clothes petting
. This is what Brenda had seen the night her son had been killed. She walked in on the two of them
face to face, mouths entwined
,
his han
d reaching up her green plaid skirt
.

Brenda closed the distance to the bed while screaming; she grabbed him
by the hair and snapped his head
back. She slapped him hard enough
across the face
to make her
fingertips
hot and sore
–
much
as the left side of her swollen face
is
now
–
and leaving deep scratches along his jaw with her perfectly manicured nails.
Jayden kicked her in the ribs and ran into the hallway. Brenda tried to go after her but Philip dove for her legs, tripping her
,
and she fell into the hallway.

The last thing she saw was her daughter swinging down
that
iron rod.
She awoke a day later in the county hospital. She doesn’t know what happened to Philip exactly, but
she
knows that she
wa
s not the one who held the blade to his throat.
She
was
railroaded by her husband and daughter
and tonight she is going to get the answers she
deserves
.

She is s
eeking to
exact revenge
upon her daughter
for that night
, not
so much
caring
what happened to Derrick,
and
a part of her is sorry she needed to bludgeon him so many times,
but he would be in her way if not dealt with
;
it
is
what needed to be done
.

Brenda turns to exit the shed
, but pauses
when she hears
the rattle of a chain link fence.

Jayden arrives
at her home just as the sun
is
finishing it
s descent. Her hands and feet a
re packed meat
, her
knuckles locked around the graphite shaft
of Bob Bingham’s fairway wood
like a rusted bolt
. There
is
almost no feeling whatsoever
,
just pulsing
sensation
–
the
throbbing phantom pain in her toes and the balls of her feet
is
so intense it fe
els
like fire. The shortcut through Potter’s Field
has
brought
her
to the rear fence
of the home.

Philip had cleared away the bush just
behind the too
l shed to make it easier to hop the chain link fence. She and Phil would go twenty yards or so into the woods
surrounding Potter’s
F
ield
to smoke
pot
and
make-out
;
shot-gunning
hits off of a joint into her lungs
for her first high
. She didn’t much enjoy the
make-out sessions
, but it
wa
s
a small price to pay for his unfaltering loyalty. She would often use promises of affection as bribery for getting Philip to steal from Mom, or intimidate other children. She knew he was stupid and that comforted her. He was her stooge. Life
has
become less spectacular without him.

Her father
is
a bit of a stooge as well. He would often cave to her demands, but she
can’t
confide in him with the same degree of trust as she had her hapless older brother.
Her one real achievement there was managing
to
trick
him
in
to put
ting
that
wretched
mother of hers away.

I guess that’s something, right
?
–
, s
he
thinks
as she place
s
the
worthless fingers of her left hand around the top bar of the fence.

She tosses
the three-wood she
has
taken from Bob
’s go
lf bag over the fence. It lands
in the mud with
a wet sucking noise
. H
er fingers are frozen into a claw from the grip she has maintained on the club
. She places
her ri
ght hand on the fence and poises
her legs to jump,
but
just
then,
she sees
a shadow nearing the shed
;
the silhouette of her mother leaving the backli
t
kitchen and descending the stairs to the yard. Her heart, already pounding from the run, fe
els
as if it
will
break through her sternum then
fall into the mud next to the
golf club so loudly that
her mother
would hear the wet plop and come yell
“fore”
before driving her heart into the neighbor’s yard… no more Jayden
…
.

Jayden
came
this way for two reasons
:
the shorter distance and the cover of nightfall and trees.
Now the element of surprise
is
gone
.
Meddling
bitch
to the end
–
,
she thought. She
has
to proceed; her body
is
beginning to shudder like
a car with a blown tire
. S
he has to
wait;
it seems to take hours
for Brenda to go inside the shed
. So close to the warmth of her house
,
and yet so far
.
Deciding that j
umping up to vault the fence would be too noisy, she slip
s
her tiny
,
deadened
,
throbbing
feet into the square openings and slowly pushe
s
her weight up the fence.
The cold of the chain links fe
el
as if they
are
tearing off her toes. She
is
fighting every instinct to scream out in agony. Her feet
are
destroyed, she
is
sure she
will
need medical attention.

She lock
s
her arms and
balances
her weight on the top beam of the fence
,
the little barbs digging into her heel as she applie
s
more weight. She pushe
s
from her perch
but
the barb
holds
fast to her sock. The momentum of her
body
sen
ds
her face first into
the mud. Her shoulder responds
with a crunch and her breath
is
knocked out. The sock t
ears
free
from her limp foot
(
still clinging to the barb atop the fence
)
as she rolls
over in agony.

She struggles to her feet and grasps
for the
weapon. Sensing that Brenda has
certainly heard the c
latter of the fence
,
she squeezes
in betw
een the back corner of the shed
–
where they
keep
the firewood
–
and
begins
to climb the cord of wood
,
still struggling for breath.

Brenda, still clutching the slugger
in one hand and rope in the other, jumps
at the sound.
S
he darts her head out to examine, sees nothing, and exits
the shed. Looking toward the
fence,
she s
ees
a sock dangling fr
om the fence line. Brenda turns
t
o run into the house and
loses her footing,
falling face first into the mud
.
Brenda’s hands are full and cannot adequately break her momentum;
instead,
they slide outward into the mud
,
positioning her into the shape of the crucified.
Her
,
already banged up
,
knee screams in pain as she connects with the earth. As she
falls,
she
also
hears
t
he sound of wood falling
,
sees a piece of timber roll
from behind the shed
, and knows
that her daughter
has
almost gotten the drop on her again.

Little
Bitch
!!!
–
, she
almost screams.

Using the bat as a c
ane to steady herself
,
she finds her footing and turns
back toward the front of t
he shed, doubling back.
She
knows
Jayden wants
her to follow. The roof of the shed creak
s
above her. Before she
can
register the sound
,
a Callaway club split
s
her lips and shatter
s
her jaw.

Teeth land next to her
,
scattered in the mud. Blood r
uns
from her mouth
,
but she manage
s
to swallow a great deal first; s
he
is
disoriented. Brenda trie
s
to push herself upright again. What she s
ees
look
s
like chocolate
ice cream
with strawberries and nuts. She
utters
a warbled cry
as she look
s
down
,
seeing her teeth and bits of her gums lying in the mud,
but no words came out. Her jaw
is
useless. What come
s
out
is
more of a haggard mooing
,
sound
–
like
a dairy cow giving birth
–
than
a cry for help. She
can
hear the blood gurgling in her throat as she
struggles to breath
.

“
Fore
!
” she hears Jayden shout from the roof of the shed.