(aka Bike) Part 1959 by Angharad Copyright © 2013 Angharad
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“Mummy, Daddy people, this is Jerry,” announced Jacquie. We each reached out and shook Jerry’s hand and gave our first names.
“I’ve heard loads about you,” said Jerry in an educated accent which suggested a private education–what was she doing with Jacquie?
“Sadly we know virtually nothing about you, so do come through to the lounge and tell us all about yourself,” I said, taking Jerry’s arm and sounding like I was eighty nine, not twenty nine.
“I’ll tell you about me if you’ll tell me something,” Jerry said quietly as we walked towards the sitting room.
“Of course,” I replied.
“Why are you trying to stop our civil partnership?”
“Let’s go down to my study,” I said and asked Si to look after Jacquie while Jerry and I discussed something.
Once we’d seated ourselves and I’d closed the door, a sign to keep out to the others, she looked at me quite intensely.
“Find what you’re looking for?” I asked her as she scrutinised me.
“That was one very good plastic surgeon,” she said almost in a complimentary tone.
“I’m sorry?”
“Whoever did your facial feminisation surgery.”
“I haven’t had any plastic surgery.”
“Oh come off it, Cathy, you look too natural as a female to be transsexual.”
“What business is it of yours anyway?”
“I’d just like to know who did your face and breast surgery.”
“I haven’t had any feminisation surgery.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“That’s your problem.”
“I suppose you’re going to deny you’re transsexual, too?”
“I’m not going to admit or deny being anything except being concerned why you want to have a civil partnership with Jacquie.”
“That’s right, change the subject if it gets too hot for you.”
“I don’t know who you think you are...”
“Cathy, I know who and what I am, I’m not the one in denial of reality here–I’m not the one who used to be a boy.”
“I think you’d better leave.”
“Oh switch tactics again, Cathy. Getting that losing feeling are we?”
“Please leave.” I got up and opened the door and held it open.
Jerry continued to sit and watched me with mild amusement. “You don’t like to lose control, do you?”
I shut the door again, “I don’t know what your game is, Jerry, if that is your name, but I don’t think you’re a suitable person for a vulnerable woman like Jacquie to be with for five minutes, let alone a lifetime.”
“Who says, I have a game? Aren’t you applying your own standards here?”
I felt so confused and angry–what did she want and who was she? For once I felt some distance out of my depth, she refused to say anything about herself just kept probing me, using what she’d obviously gleaned from the stuff on the internet. How could I deal with her if she just kept blocking me by asking personal questions or trying to imply I was avoiding them?
I imagined she was covered by a layer of blue light and through it I’d be able to see who she really was.
“Gone quiet have we?” she said sarcastically.
“Has Jacquie told you anything about her past?”
“We were discussing your past, Cathy, remember?”
“Who’s Rebecca?” I asked her. It’s difficult to tell if a black person goes pale but she stopped talking for a moment.
“I don’t know any, Rebeccas.”
“Not now you don’t, but you did, didn’t you?”
“What d’you mean?”
“You knew a girl called Rebecca and she died–didn’t she?”
“Meaning what?”
“Have you still got it?”
“Got what?”
“The object that killed her.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about?”
“I think you do, in fact I know you do. Yes, Rebecca Wilson, aged twenty four died from internal injuries while trying to self abort.”
“So, you’ve done your homework, too. My conscience is clear.”
“Only because you scrubbed it. Your brother was the father wasn’t he?”
For the first time I could sense she was beginning to back pedal. “I don’t know where you got your information, but it was wrong, Harry didn’t touch her.”
“But he did, Jerry, several times, and being a good catholic girl she didn’t use contraception, she thought the rhythm method would keep her safe–but it didn’t, did it? She fell for a baby and you helped her try to get rid of it–why when there were termination services at several places and from which she’d have returned safely but no, you had to suggest DIY, and she died. Do you now see why I’m not at all happy to see you with Jacquie?”
“Your information is wrong, neither Harry nor I had anything to do with Rebecca’s death.”
“What is that you’re handing her?” I had a vision of a younger Jerry handing some device to Rebecca. “Pretty girl, wasn’t she, but she wasn’t gay and she fell for Harry, your wastrel brother–how many children has he fathered now? Oh yes nine and he pays for none of them, but at least you haven’t tried to help with any terminations recently.”
“D’you know your mother has breast cancer?”
“No. No I didn’t.”
“She has and she needs to get it sorted quickly or she’s going to become terminal. Oh dear, you have the gene, too.”
“What are you talking about? You’re just trying to freak me out aren’t you?”
“I don’t need to freak you out. If I wanted to do that, I’d do a much better job than this. Oh, you didn’t like Mrs Patterson, did you? Did they ever find out who put the weed killer in her tea–good job she didn’t drink it all, wasn’t it?”
“How the hell do you know about that?” Now she was looking pale and sweating. Gone was the poise from earlier on. “What are you, some sort of witch?”
“No, I’m the protector of Jacquie–you see she’s been abused by all and sundry including you, and I won’t let that happen again.”
“What d’you mean, I never abused her.”
“You’re supposed to be one of her teachers, expanding her mind not having her clean up after you.”
“Isn’t that what she did for you?”
“No, she helped around the house and did some baby-sitting but she was paid, and I taught her some basic housekeeping skills.”
“Treated her like a slave, I know all about it, Cathy, she told me.”
I shook my head. “If that’s what she told you, I’m disappointed.”
“Diddums, poor Cathy is disappointed.”
“Yes I am, but she still doesn’t deserve someone like you.”
“Tough, Cathy, there’s nothing you can do about it–she’s made her choice.”
“So even if I told her to expect a lifetime of servitude to you, that you were only doing this to have a cheap housekeeper, you don’t think she’d believe me?”
“No, she loves me–silly fool–she thinks I love her.”
Before I could say anything the door burst open and Jacquie stood there with a strange expression on her face, then she grabbed some scissors from my pen holder–a mug with a dormouse on it–and flew at Jerry. I rushed after her and managed to grab her arm before she really did murder someone this time.
“Let me kill her,” she screamed.
“Get out of my house and never come back,” I said to Jerry while I wrestled with Jacquie.
Without any further word, Jerry stepped quickly out of the door and apparently drove away.
Jacquie eventually stopped fighting me and sat and sobbed in my arms. I waved away the others as they came to see what was happening. “How long were you standing outside the door?”
“Long enough,” she replied, “You had to spoil it for me, didn’t you?”
“Jacquie, I want you to be happy–I knew there was something wrong with her as soon as she came in. She decided to attack me by parading my past in front of me, except it didn’t work and I got inside her defences and discovered what she was really like.”
“You just hate gays, don’t you?”
“I don’t hate anyone–I just want you to be happy. When you find the right person, Simon and I will happily pay for your civil partnership or wedding whichever you want. We love you–even though you don’t believe me at this moment. If she’d been right for you, I’d have willingly come to your celebrations–but she was wrong and I knew it as soon as she came here, and it was why she avoided me. She’s been involved in a young woman’s death, though they’ll never prove it, and she tried to poison a teacher at her expensive school.”
“But I loved her, Mummy,” she burst into tears again.
“Sometimes love isn’t enough,” I said quietly as I held her while she cried.
Comments
Wow!
Greetings
Gerry doesn't seem to have a very pleasant character!
Hope that Jacquie settles down and makes the right decisions.
Brian
Poor Jacqui
but better she finds out she was living with a killer than finding out in Part 2501 that she's dead by her wife's hand.
Bear
Feeling very sad for
Jacquie. She's been through so much now a victim in love too.
Will that ******* do
anything to Jacquie now that Cathy has revealed the beast?
May Your Light Forever Shine
Jerri
She's a real piece of work, isn't she? I'm just worried that if she is one of Jacquie's teachers there might be an attempt at retribution that way. Might need to change schools. And a complaint to the school might be in order, also.
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
I Wonder...
Have we heard the last of Jerry? She's a treacherous bitch, and may just be plotting some kind of retribution for her humililation. Of course, that would be courting disaster, but she doesn't know it, yet.
Red MacDonald
Thank god for clairvoyance.
If jerry went to a private school it's possible she came from West africa or some other corrupt african country where her father was a corrupt politician who pocketed public or even private monies. Perhaps she has inherited the bad genes.
Cathy's demonstration of her clairvoyance skills must have really freaked her for she may have still held old superstitions from her old country. She doesn't seem to be a native born British child for I doubt if she'd have been quite so transphobic.
Of course, all this is pure hypothosis but Jerry certainly doesn't seem to be a home grown specimen. Anyway, good riddance!
Plenty of food for thought in this chapter.
Bevs.
XX
Two...
Two apparently strong ladies... One comes in, thinking she has the upper hand and discovers otherwise. Nothing good will come from "Jerry" I'm thinking. *sighs*
I hope Jacquie heard enough enough, not just "enough"... It'll help her deal with the betrayal of trust. *sighs*
On the other hand... I do wonder whether Jerry will believe much of what Cathy had to say, as some of it might well save someone's life.
Thanks,
Annette
Victims of abuse
And Jaquis was extreme, are often unstable and reactionary. I do hope that she finds a man big enough to give her what she needs, but that is unlikely.
G
Not pleasant to say the least
It is unfortunate that Jacquie's vulnerabilities will always open her to falling for people who would think her an easy mark.
Nasty piece of work to say the least.
As other commentators are suspecting, Gerry is the type who may very well come back to get rid of a loose end for that is what Cathy is at this point as far as Gerry is concerned. Gerry is a sociopath and will do things to other people without qualms.
Kim
Guess Who Didn't Stay for Dinner?
It is about time for another protagonist to appear and bring a little disruption to the Cameron household. If Gerri is the one, I think she should try something minor, Cathy wins, the try something a little harsher, Cathy wins. This could be carried through several chapters, each with a good cliff hanger (where did they go? We haven't had any in quite some time.) And there is still one cliffhanger that is still to be resolved - James. Is he still in South America trying to find Cortez? Did he accomplish his goal, or was Cortez too smart for him?
Whatever happens though, just continue posting The Daily Dormouse as close to daily as you can!
Don't let someone else talk you out of your dreams. How can we have dreams come true, if we have no dreams?
Katrina Gayle "Stormy" Storm
That Was A Narrow Escape !
Poor girl. Unfortunately, there are a few people as nasty as Gerry around. What a useful talent Catherine has, being able to see inside a person like that ! Wish I could do it. I have even tried to do it, but I have often got it wrong. These days I get suspicious, esp. where my children and grandchildren are involved, but luckily they all know I do it for them, so they dont get cross. Leastways, so far not.
This was a new kind of development of Dr Lady C's talents. I was pondering what it would be like, to be able to do such things, but then, considered the risk of making a mistake, and zapping an innocent person, or something like that. "Power corrupts" and all that - I guess that is why us fairly ordinary folks dont have such talents. Maybe it is for the best that all our politicians are halfwits, after all.
Briar
All you can say
is thank goodness for Cathys sixth sense, Because any life with the bullying, patronizing Jerry would have been far too tough for someone as fragile mentally as Jacquie is, You just hope though that Cathys kinds words are enough to keep Jacquie safe, You also hope that Jerry devious manipulating person that she is does not somehow try to exact some sort of revenge on the Cameron family... She certainly seems capable of it.
Kirri