Jimmy (23 page)

     “What are you gonna do with these?” Matt asked at one point, this after they had watched a man being tied up and fucked in the ass and mouth at the same time by two women with fake penises.

     “I don’t know, broadcast them on the TVs at school and tell everyone its Jimmy’s,” Brett said.

     “Yeah, um, I don’t think people will believe you.  If he were actually in the video that would be one thing, but anyone could have thrown these away.  People will think you’re just messing with him and then will wonder why you have the tapes.”

     “Good point.”

     The two went silent, the only sounds being a woman crying out as she was whipped.

     “I wonder if Jimmy’s girlfriend knows about these?” Brett said after a while.

     “What?”

     “If she doesn’t maybe we should inform her about them so she knows what a sick perverted bastard he is.”

     “Again, you have no proof they’re his,” Matt said.

     “Ah, but if she confronts him about it he may not realize that right away, and might accidentally reveal it to be true.  Right?”

     “Right,” Matt said.  “You gonna do it today?”

     “Nah, I think I have a better idea.”

*  *  *

     Many years earlier Megan’s father had dragged the family up into Wisconsin to camp out on Redstone Lake, a place he had traveled to a lot with his family while growing up, a place that he claimed was haunted in an attempt to scare them.  The family had two small tents for the trip, both of them old Boy Scout tents that their father had used as a kid, ones that had been sitting on a shelf in the garage her entire life, an inch of dust sealing them, hundreds of insects calling the folded over portions home.  At first things had been fun, but then at some point during the night the weather changed and a storm came upon them.  Within minutes the wear and tear the tents had experienced became known as water leaked in from just about every part of the sagging roof.  Unfortunately the floors of the tents weren’t as worn out as the tops of the tents because the water that filtered in through the ceiling and walls pooled easily, soaking everything and making it impossible for them to sleep even after Megan and her brother had folded themselves into a small seemingly rainproof corner.  Even worse, the storm made it difficult to find the car, which was nearly a mile a way, and once there they quickly learned that even though they were no longer being rained on, the mugginess inside the car wouldn’t let them dry out or sleep.  They also couldn’t lie down thanks to the decision to take the car rather than the van because of the gas prices.  It had been a horrible night, the worst of Megan’s entire life until yesterday, one which she would now give anything to be experiencing over and over again if it just meant she was free from this god awful place.

    
At least you’re back on your feet.

     For a while Megan didn’t even realize she was allowed to stand, nor did she remember Jimmy even coming in this morning - just bits and pieces of him moving about and talking which all could have easily been memories from the other day.  Instead, once she had woken up, she had felt the pain of her body being held up by the ropes, and the shortness of her own breath as she tried to breath, and assumed she was still hanging.  But then her legs realized they were touching the ground, but not standing upon it, and quickly corrected the situation.

     Pain followed and for the first time Megan realized why Samantha had screamed the other day once she had been able to stand up.  It was the blood returning to her fingers, only now it wasn’t the annoying tingle one got when they slept on a limb all night.  This was pure agony, almost as if the blood were shocking the tissue back to life.

     Not wanting to scream even though Jimmy wasn’t there to hear it, Megan ground her teeth together and waited it out.  Eventually it faded, but until it did Megan wasn’t able to think of anything else, her mind completely focused on what felt like millions of tiny razors flowing through her veins.

     Time came and went.

     Megan had no way of marking its passage.  What seemed like minutes may have been hours, what seemed like hours may have only been minutes. 

     She stared at her friend while thinking this, her body swaying back and forth as it dangled from the ropes, her toes acting like weak anchors on the cold concrete floor. 

     “Samantha?” Megan said.

     Her friend didn’t reply.

     “Samantha!”  Screaming her friends named sapped all her energy, which was startling.  Seeing her friend hanging lifeless was worse, however, so she screamed again, and again, and again, until finally her eyes fluttered open.    

    
Not dead!

     Samantha’s eyes moved around a bit and then closed again, her body making no effort to stand, her head not even turning as her eyes took everything in.

     “Samantha, wake up!”

     Nothing.

     “Samantha!”

     Anger built.

     A part of her wanted to wake Samantha because she felt that while awake it would be harder to slip into death.  Another part, the bigger part, wanted her awake because Megan couldn’t stand to be alone, and with Samantha unconscious she might as well have been alone.

    
Please wake up.
  Her exhaustion was too much to say it out loud this time. 
Please!

     Samantha still didn’t stir, and this time when she pissed herself again, no moan of relief followed.  This more than anything else frightened Megan.  She didn’t want her friend to die.

     Later she wondered if maybe death would be better.  After all, it didn’t seem like her father was going to find them. 

    
If only you had tried to call sooner!

     With that thought Megan spent what had to be hours berating herself for being so stupid, the anger she directed at herself unlike any belittlement she had ever experienced.  It was awful.

*  *  *

     “My mother actually called the school once she heard about Megan Reed,” Tina said at lunch.  “She wants me staying after and waiting to be picked up.”

     “What?” Jimmy asked. 

     The two were eating lunch, only this time they didn’t have the second half of the table to themselves because the school had suspended off campus lunch privileges.  There still was a chair space between them and the others who had reluctantly sat down on their side of the table, and no conversation had breeched it, yet Jimmy still felt incredibly closed in by them and guarded his words, his mind not liking the possibility of others listening in even though what they said wasn’t private and those near him wouldn’t even care.  

     “At first I said
no
but she told the school to put me in detention if I didn’t stay on campus and to cancel my prom ticket.”  Tina shook her head.  “I don’t think they will really cancel my ticket, but I’m not sure if I should risk it, you know.”

     Jimmy nodded.  “I think staying would be good just to be safe.  It would really suck if you couldn’t go.”

     “It would,” Tina agreed.  “But I bet they would let me in if I came even if my ticket was canceled.  I mean, how would they really know?”

     “They might, but still, why risk it?  And it’s just one afternoon.”

     “She wants me staying after tomorrow too.”

     “But seniors get to go home at lunch time tomorrow.”

     “She doesn’t care.  She doesn’t want me staying at the house all by myself.  I think a part of it is because she knows I went through it and found the prom ticket after she took it from me.  It’s like a punishment.”

     “Has she said anything about that?”

     “No.  It’s really weird.  The whole thing gives me a bad feeling.”

     The two went quiet after that, though the lunch room was anything but.  The extra students were making it incredibly loud, so loud, that Jimmy and Tina had to shout to each other, though the two didn’t even realize it.

     “Is the library even open till five thirty?” Jimmy asked after a while.

     “I assumed it would be,” Tina said.  “Why wouldn’t it?”

     “Budget cuts.  The state has missed most of its payments this year so the school has been cutting several things, the library staff being one of them.”

     Tina was about to ask where he had learned this, but then remembered that Jimmy had an economy class, and figured the teacher had told them all about it. 

     “I think it now closes as four fifteen or something like that,” Jimmy added.

     “Great, what am I gonna do after that?”

     “I don’t know.  Your mother should just let you go home.  Nothing’s going to happen to you.”

     “That’s what I said.  I told her I walked home with you and Alan, but she doesn’t care.  It’s crazy.”

     “Maybe I should come meet her so she’ll be comfortable with me,” Jimmy said.  “Adults always seem to like me for some reason.”

     “My mother’s different,” Tina said.  “You could be the greatest guy in the world and I still don’t think she would like you.”

     “Wait, I’m not the greatest guy in the world?”

     Tina laughed.

*  *  *

     Brett couldn’t help but think about the videos he had found while sitting in the waiting area of the Dean’s Office, and the fact that Jimmy got off on them.  He had always known Jimmy was fucked up, but never knew exactly what it was that was wrong with him.  Now he did.  Even better, the school would know soon as well because during the school prom he was going to show everyone what a pervert Jimmy was.  It was going to be great.

     The inner door to the Dean’s Office opened and Mr. Williamson stepped out for a moment, looked around, saw Brett and said, “Mr. Murphy, if you would be so kind as to step inside.”

     Thoughts of Jimmy disappeared as Brett left his seat and followed Mr. Williamson into his office, the words
they won’t do anything to us
echoing through his head.  He had spoken them while sitting in Matt’s basement after the school had called Matt’s house, the Caller Id alerting them to the source of the call.  Matt, of course, had freaked out and wanted to go right back to school, but Brett told him to quit being such a chicken shit and stay.  In the end they had gone back, mostly because Matt decided to go with or without him, and Brett couldn’t stay there by himself.  He also didn’t want to go home because his brother would give him shit, so he headed back, the four hours of class time that remained looming before him like a mountain he didn’t even want to start climbing.  Thankfully the dean had decided to see him which cut out a huge chunk of his science class - during a lab no less which was even better.  The detention afterward wouldn’t be that bad either.  He had nothing else to really do.  

*  *  *

     “Not today,” Jimmy said.  “Her mother is making her stay after because she’s scared she’ll be kidnapped like Samantha King and Megan Reed.”

     “While walking with us?” Alan asked.  “What, does she think we’re the kidnappers or something?”

     Jimmy let out a weak laugh at that.  “Maybe, who knows?  I guess I can understand her concern.  The thing is Tina doesn’t think her mother is really concerned for her safety and is just using this as a way of imposing her will on her, you know, because she doesn’t really like Tina or how defiant Tina is to her.”

     “God, it makes you realize how lucky we are that Mom and Dad get along and never got a divorce,” Alan said. 

     “Yeah.”

     “I mean, look how screwed up that situation is.”

     “I think it’s not just her parents having been divorced, though,” Jimmy said.  “There’s more to it.  She hasn’t really told me much, but I get the feeling her mother isn’t really all that stable.  I guess she just left the family right after Tina was born too to live with her own mother, which is just weird.”

     “Still, we’re pretty lucky.”

     “Yeah.”  He paused.  “Hey!  Where’s my Coke?” 

     “What?”

     “You said you’d buy me a Coke today since you drank most of mine yesterday.  Where is it?”

     “Sorry, I forgot,” Alan said.  “You want to go back?” 

     “No,” Jimmy said.  They were already halfway across the parking lot, one which looked as if it had been rained on at some point during the day, not that it had cleared out the horrible humidity that had descended upon the town.  “That’s okay.”

     “I’ll grab you one tomorrow, I promise.”

     “Ha, I get to go home early tomorrow because I’m a senior.”

     “Shit.  Monday then.”

     “Deal.”  A second later Jimmy added, “But if you forget Samantha and Megan won’t be the only teens disappearing from around here.”

     “Ooooo, look how scared I am,” Alan taunted.  “I’m shaking.”

     The two stepped from the parking lot onto the sidewalk.  Up ahead was the garbage can Jimmy had dumped the tapes into this morning.  Given the rain they were probably ruined, not that he would have grabbed them anyway, especially while walking with Alan. 

     A sense of loss and disappointment still filtered through him while nearing the can, one which forced him to glance inside while walking by.