Chapter Ten
Jamie made it through the rest of her shift without incident. She somehow managed to avoid all contact with Asa. She even made sure to time it just so that when she left the hospital, the bus was pulling up to its stop.
When she got home, she showered and went straight to bed without checking the messages. At least in sleep, she could forget her horrible night at work.
Just as she closed her eyes, someone knocked on her door. She groaned, turned over in bed and snuggled deeper under the covers but the knocking was persistent.
When she realized that her visitor wasn’t going away, she slid out of bed in frustration. With a yawn, she padded to the door and looked out the peephole. It was covered. Kat. She did that sometimes to be funny.
“Kat, I can’t do this with you today. I’m exhausted,” Jamie said as she opened the door. To her surprise, it was the last person she expected. He looked exactly the same with a thick mustache and big bushy brows. He was tall and rough. If it weren’t for the creases in his dark brown skin around his mouth and eyes, no one would have known that this man was nearly sixty.
She took a step back in surprise. He used it to his advantage and pushed past her. Jamie’s mouth fell open but no words came out. What was he doing here, especially after all this time?
“Are you just going to stare at me with your mouth open, girl? You always were stupid.” He shook his head as he walked around her apartment as if he had a right to be there, picking up her stuff, examining it and judging each item.
“What are you doing here?” Jamie asked, finally finding her voice.
“It’s called parole. You didn’t think I’d be in jail forever, did you? With good behavior and overcrowding, I should have been out much sooner but I suppose I have to take what I can get.”
“Obviously. What I mean is, why are you here? In my apartment.”
“You weren’t too hard to find if you ask the right people. I just wanted to check in on you. See the kind of life you’re living. Wondering, if you’re suffering for what you did to my family.”
“What I did to your family? I was your family.”
“You ruined everything. You and that whore of a mother of yours. I was glad when she died. She was the one who spread her legs for a married man. I only took what was offered to me. And then when she told me she was going to give me a son, I figured I could at least get something out of the unfortunate incident. I would have been able to convince Samantha to take you in because she knew how much I wanted a son to carry on my name and legacy. She may not have been happy about it at first, but she would have come around. But you were just thrust on us with no damn warning and broke up our happy home.”
“I didn’t ask for any of that. And you took your resentment out on me. You beat me, starved me, and kept me in the closet for days at a time. I had to sleep in my own waste.”
“It’s what you deserved!”
“No. I was just a child.”
“You were a rodent! One that should have been exterminated. And, I’ve come to finish the job for all the years you’ve robbed me.” Before Jamie could react, he lunged at her.
She turned to run but he grabbed her by the hair and yanked her back, nearly snapping her neck. She threw her elbow back and caught him in the ribs and made another attempt to run. But this time, he hit her in the back of the head, making Jamie crumble to the ground.
He grabbed her by the ankle and pulled her to him. She kicked out, fighting with all her might. There was rage in his eyes just like the other times he’d beaten her and left her body broken and bloodied. She clawed at his face but he back handed her so hard that her teeth rattled. Stars danced before her eyes and out of nowhere, he placed a gun in the middle of her forehead.
“Rot in hell, you spawn of a whore!”
She released a scream from the depths of her soul and kept screaming. Jamie couldn’t stop.
The next thing she knew, she was being shaken awake.
“Jamie! Jamie! Wake up, girl!”
Her eyes popped open and she found herself in bed with a concerned Kat sitting next to her.
Jamie placed her hand against her heart. “Kat?”
“Yes, it’s me. I heard you screaming from across the hall. I had to use the spare key you gave me. You had me worried. That must have been one hell of a dream. Do you want to talk about it?”
It took several moments for Jamie to gain her bearings. It was on the tip of her tongue to tell her friend when there was another knock on her door.”
Are you expecting any visitors?”
She shook her head.
“Stay right here. I’ll go answer the door.”
Jamie wiped away the cold sweat that dotted her forehead. She heard voices at the door but didn’t focus on who it was because she was still shaken.
When Kat returned, however, it was with Asa in tow. She noticed a hardness in his eyes but as he continued to stare, his expression softened. “What’s going on?” he asked softly.
“She had a bad dream. I could hear her screaming from across the hall. It’s a good thing everyone else in this building works in the daytime because it would have scared the heck out of them.”
Asa sat next to Jamie and stroked the side of her face before pulling her into his arms. She found comfort in being held by him. He had a calming presence about him.
“Kat, you said your name was, right?” Asa addressed her neighbor.
“Yes.”
“Would you mind terribly if I asked you to get Jamie a glass of water.”
“Sure. I’ll be right back.”
Jamie didn’t raise her head, she just reveled in the safety of Asa’s arms.
“How often do you get these dreams?”
It had actually been a long time since she’d had a nightmare about her father. However, she’d never had one like this. “Not as often as I used to. I had them every night until I reached 16 when they started to taper off. In my first foster home, my night terrors were so bad, I had to sleep in the attic so I wouldn’t wake everyone up. Now only get them every now and then or when I’m really stressed.”
“Are you stressed?” he asked softly.
Jamie was saved from answering when Kat returned to the room. Kat handed Jamie the glass which she took gratefully. She took a few sips which really helped her throat that had gone dry from screaming.
“Well, since you’re here, Asa, I’m going to go back to my apartment. If you need anything, Jamie, give me a call.”
“Thanks Kat.” Jamie smiled.
“She’s nice. It’s good you have someone to look out for you. But, I’m here now to take over.” There was something about the way he delivered that statement that gave her pause.
Jamie took another sip of her water because she was at a loss for words.
“So, what were you going to say before your friend came back into the room? What are you stressed about, Jamie?”
“Just work.”
“That’s strike two.”
“Strike two? What are you talking about Asa?”
“Strike two for lying. The first was to run off after I told you to stay put and you compounded that by leaving the hospital without telling me.”
“I didn’t realize I had to report my comings and goings to you.”
Asa placed his finger over her lips. “You’re working on strike three, if you keep it up. We’ll get back to what’s stressing you out so much but, in the meantime, tell me about your dream.” He took the glass from her hand and put it on her night stand.
It worried her a little that Asa had such a forceful personality. Jamie felt that if she wasn’t careful, he could easily consume her. But for now, she felt it was best to take the path of least resistance while she tried to figure out this thing between the two of them. She licked her lips before speaking. “I dreamed that my father came to visit me. It was weird because most of the dreams I’ve had of him revolve around actual things that have happened to me. I mean they were different variations of it, but it was always something out of my memories.”
“And this one wasn’t?”
Jamie shook her head. “It felt so real. In my dream, I came home from work and went to bed. I had barely closed my eyes when a knock on my door woke me up. I looked out of the peephole but it was covered. I thought it was Kat because she does that sometimes. But, it was my father. I was surprised he was out of prison because they’d given him 15 years. He told me that I ruined his life and then he tried to kill me. He wanted to finish what he couldn’t all those years ago.”
“When you were under his care, did he give you the impression that he wanted to kill you?”
“What other conclusion can I draw? They wouldn’t feed me for days and if I snuck food then I’d get beaten. When I first went to live with my father, my stepmother was distant and cold but I thought maybe she’d come to care for me. After all, she showed me how to properly clean the house and cook a few meals until I got the hang of it. What I didn’t know was that she was teaching me to take over the household duties. I was basically a slave in that house when I was allowed out of the closet. Whenever I would annoy someone in the house, which seemed to be each time I breathed, I wasn’t fed as a punishment. I’d go days without eating. And the really cruel part, was that I’d cook these meals for them, knowing I wouldn’t get to try them myself. Well, once I was so hungry and I made these fried pork chops. They smelled so good. My stomach hurt so bad from having not eaten in a while. There was more than enough for everyone, so I didn’t think they’d miss it if I took a piece of one. So, while no one was looking, I cut off a piece of one of the pork chops that I’d cooked. It was the best tasting thing I’d ever eaten. I’m not saying I’m a great cook or anything, but when you’re starving as I was, I think I could have eaten dirt and it would have tasted divine.”
“Anyway, one of my sisters saw and told my father that I was sneaking food. My father grabbed me by the hair and screamed at me for stealing and called me an ingrate for not appreciating that he’d provided a roof over my head. He dragged me to the bathroom, stuck his finger down my throat and made me throw up. He said I hadn’t earned that food. He beat me with his fist and didn’t stop until I passed out.”
“When I woke up, I was on the kitchen floor. He must have dragged me there while I was still unconscious. I had to sit there while they ate dinner. They made these loud smacking noises and spoke of how delicious the food was while I sat there listening and dying a little on the inside. I knew if I tried to walk away or even say anything, I’d get another beating. I still can’t even look at a pork chop to this day without having flashbacks. So yeah, I do believe he wanted to kill me. He wanted me to waste away to nothing, maybe he wanted me to kill myself. There were times when I’ve wanted to but I was too much of a coward.”
Asa cupped her face in his hands and gave her a light kiss on the lips. “Don’t say that. You’re a survivor. Just like me. You didn’t kill yourself because you’re a coward. You did it to show those monsters that they couldn’t win.”
“You keep saying how much alike we are, but how can that be? You already said you came from a long line of doctors so you can’t possibly know what my struggle was like. You have a privileged background.”
“So, you think because my story didn’t deem media attention, I didn’t have things hard?”
“Your story? Were you locked in a closet for days on end not sure when you’d see the sunlight again? Or, were you made to hide whenever company came over because your family wanted to pretend like you didn’t exist? I literally had no contact with the outside world, until one day I was so hungry I snuck out of the house to rummage through the neighbor’s garbage. You’ve never had to live that life.”
“You’re right. I never had to life as you did. But my life wasn’t perfect. In fact, it was a living hell. You see, where as your father wouldn’t let you see the light of day. My father wanted me to be seen. And so, I was. But the really fucked up part about it, was that no one really saw me at all.”