Seasons

by Bonnie Hopkins

  Just then, a tall, thin man with a cap on his head appeared at the door. “Ya’ll need to get outta here! Them women crazy!” He took off at a run around the corner of the house.

  Jaci stood as though in shock, while Jason, who’s mind had started clearing, looked at his wife with mixed emotions.

  “Jaci! Come on, let’s go!” C.J. said, urging her toward the door. “Are you still up to lunch? If so, we need to hurry. Don’t you have a meeting this afternoon? We’ll probably have to settle for some fast food at this point. But we need to get out of here fast!”

  Jaci moved slowly and answered as if she had to force the words. “No, Cij. I don’t think so. Just drop me back off at the office.” At C.J.’s urgent pull, she broke out of her daze and walked around Jason toward the door, refusing to look at him as she passed.

  Jason caught her arm. “Baby, we need to talk. Let me drive you back. C.J. can drop Ron off.”

  Jaci pulled away from him. “Not right now.” Her eyes were a turbulent gray. “I . . . uh . . . I need to come to grips with the fact that my husband knows so little about me that he thought I would cheat on him.”

  “Let’s go, Jace! Something’s not right here. We need to go now!” C.J. said again, pulling her through the door. C.J. knew her cousin well enough to know she was very close to tears. But they didn’t have time to stand around right now.

  “I’m out of here!” Bob said. He started toward the door, then turned around and spoke to Jason. “Look, man. I apologize if it seems like I’ve been coming on to your wife. I guess I have, but I come on to all women. Jaci knows me and has ignored me for years. If I ever had a chance with her, it disappeared when you came on the scene. You have a good woman here. I hope you know that.”

  Bob wished Wynola was somewhere close so he could kick her from one end of town to the other, and shivered when he thought about what could have happened. That lady had some retribution coming. She had callously set a trap for all of them that held the potential for somebody getting hurt. Most likely him! Yeah. She had something coming. He just had to figure out what it would be. He and Wynola Dickson had a history that her husband probably didn’t know anything about. Until now.

  Ron grabbed Jason’s arm. “Man, you heard that dude. We need to get out of here. Quick!” They all walked swiftly from the house and started toward their cars just as two women jumped out of a car parked across the street and ran toward them.

  Linda and Wynola, both with wild looks on their faces, yelled, “Ya’ll ain’t going nowhere!” Linda dug in a large bag she was carrying.

  J.P. pulled out the gun and pointed it at them. “I will blow ya’ll away,” he said in a cold, hard voice. “You better turn around and get back in that car!” The women stopped, but didn’t turn around. He pointed the gun and fired into the ground near where they stood. “I said get back in the car. I’m so mad right now, I’ll empty this gun into you, reload, and do it again.”

  Linda and Wynola turned and ran back to the car, fearful expressions now dominating their faces.

  Jaci and C.J. hurried to their car and got in. C.J. didn’t lose any time starting the car and driving away. “I can’t believe what just happened!” C.J. said. “Those women are crazy!”

  Jaci’s shaky voice filled the car after they had gone a few blocks. “He thought I was cheating on him.” Tears ran down her face. “My husband actually thought I was screwing around with another man. How could he even think that I would do something like that? It scares me to think what might have happened if you and Ron hadn’t been there. He had a gun! He was ready to do something stupid. Oh God! Cij, what am I going to do? I don’t know when or if I’ll ever be able to talk to him.”

  “Well, I’m glad he had it,” C.J. said. “There’s no telling what those women had in that bag. And I don’t think they would have hesitated to use it. I feel like we just left the O.K. Corral. My knees are still shaking. As far as Jason is concerned, just take some time to think about it. You don’t know what he’d been told.”

  Jason

  As soon as they got in the truck, Ron said, “Brother, I don’t have to tell you. You just blew it with your wife. Jaci is pissed! And I don’t blame her. I told you from the beginning that Jaci wouldn’t do something like that. If you had been thinking clearly, you would have figured out that Linda and them had something to do with this. As a matter of fact, I should have thought of it myself.” After a moment he said, “To be honest, I probably would have reacted the same way if it had been my wife.”

  Jason’s angry haze had cleared and he was busy thinking. He pulled out his cell phone and called the detective working on Linda’s stalking case. He explained what had just happened, including having to fire at the women to get them to back off. “Yeah. I’ll come down right now and file a report. I need to get to my wife, but I want this on record in case something else happens. But I think those women are so scared that they probably won’t try anything else right now.”

  After he hung up, Jason hit the steering wheel with his fist. “Darn it!”

  Ron looked at him and asked, “What are you going to do about Jaci? She’s pretty torn up over this.”

  “I don’t know, Ron. Hopefully she’ll be ready to talk by the time she gets home tonight. Now will you just shut up!”

  Ron held his hands up. “Hey! Don’t take your frustrations out on me. I’m just trying to help your pitiful butt.”

  J.P. took a deep breath. “Yeah. You’re right. I’m sorry.”

  Linda

  Linda and Wynola drove down the street, pulled over and sat in silence for a minute. Then Linda hit the dashboard hard. “I don’t believe this! We just missed another chance to take that little heifer out. It’s no telling when we’ll get another chance. I could kill that chicken-livered Leo! I thought we had the right man for this. I can’t believe he ran in there and warned them.”

  The trio had sat behind tinted windows in a car across the street and watched as their plan unfolded. Their glee faltered when they saw Ron and C.J. arrive with J.P. and Jaci. It was supposed to be just Jaci and Bob in the house. The plan went downhill from there. When they tried to get Leo to storm into the house and shoot everyone there, he jumped from the car. “I ain’t shooting all them people! Ya’ll can’t pay me enough to shoot all them people!” He then ran to the house and yelled something through the door. That’s when Linda and Wynola decided to take matters into their own hands and do it themselves. They didn’t expect J.P. to pull his gun and shoot at them.

  They sat there another hour before deciding it was safe to drive to Wynola’s house.

  Jaci

  Jaci went directly to her car after C.J. dropped her off. She pulled her cell phone from her purse and called Gloria.

  “Hey, Gloria, this is Jaci. I ate something that didn’t agree with me, so I’m going home. Will you lock my office and cover the staff meeting for me, please?”

  Fortunately, Jaci sounded as sick as she felt; although her sickness was more emotional than physical, it was real.

  She drove away from the building with no idea where she was going. She was in no condition to go back to work and was not ready to talk to Jason. She didn’t even consider that Linda and Wynola could still be around looking to hurt her. After driving aimlessly for half an hour, she finally thought of a place to go. She drove to her house, praying that Jason wouldn’t be there, and hurriedly packed a bag. Then she headed toward the Gulf Freeway and Galveston Island. The beach house was the perfect place to get away for a while.

  She called C.J., Randi, and Sister Sadie to tell them where she would be and asked them to tell Jason she was okay, but needed some time alone. For the next few days, she did nothing but walk on the beach and pray.

  Jason

  Jason knew he had blown it. His parents barely spoke to him, and Patrick wanted to take a swing at him. Ironically, Ron was the only one who stood by him. When he got home and discovered Jaci had left, he called around trying to find her. The only thing her family and
friends told him was that she was okay and needed some time to think. He could understand why she felt that way. He spent the next days at home, waiting for Jaci and praying.

  He called Wynola’s husband to tell him what had happened. Josh Dickson seemed to be coming apart at the seams. He told J.P. that Bob Johnson had already informed him about his affair with his wife, and about the latest stunt his wife had pulled. The police had also called looking for his wife and sister-in-law.

  “I don’t need this, man!” Josh screamed into the phone. “I got enough problems of my own. I feel like killing them no-good women myself.”

  J.P. hurriedly said good-bye. He almost regretted calling the man, but Josh needed to know what his wife had done. Little did he know that Josh would carry out his angrily spoken words.

  Linda

  When Linda and Wynola walked into Wynola’s palatial home almost two hours after the incident, they expected it to be empty. They jumped in surprise when Josh walked out of his study to greet them. “Josh! What are you doing home?” Wynola asked nervously.

  “Well, ladies. You all have done it this time, and I am thoroughly sick of you. I came home after being indicted for embezzlement, losing my job, and having all my assets frozen, and now I find some mess like this going on.” He looked at a shocked Wynola and continued his barrage, “I’m in all this trouble trying to keep you in this!” He waved his arm to indicate the large house. “And what do I have to show for it but two crazy women off terrorizing folk for no reason. I just didn’t need that today!” He let out a string of curse words, calling them every vile name he could think of. “All these years of torment, trying to live with you and get along with your snooty family. All for nothing! Well, I called your parents and told them everything and what I was going to do. They’re too old to be trying to take care of ya’ll and it’s time for me and everybody else to get some relief from ya’ll screwing around and causing misery everywhere you go. Ya’ll straight out the pits of hell, and I’m sending you back. I decided that I don’t have any reason to go on living, and that while I’m at it, I might as well rid the world of ya’ll.” He pulled a gun from behind him and started shooting. When he was sure both women were dead, he reloaded the gun and put it to his own head. By the time the police arrived after the alert from Louisiana by Wynola and Linda’s parents, all three were dead.

  Jaci

  Jaci drove her truck into the garage and pushed the remote, letting the door down. “Jason’s home. Oh Lord, am I ready for this?”

  By the time she started into the house, the door flew open and Jason stood there. He looked haggard. He hadn’t shaved in days and his clothes were rumpled, as though he had slept in them. His eyes pleaded for understanding.

  Jaci walked past him into the house and dropped her carry-all bag on the floor. She turned to him and said, “I had to come back. I love you.”

  Before the words were out of her mouth, Jason grabbed her in a tight embrace. “Oh honey. You don’t know the agony I’ve been through wondering if I would ever hear those words from you again. Please forgive me for losing my mind like that. I was consumed with such jealousy that I couldn’t even think straight. Sweetheart, I was ready to commit murder and go to jail. I know I had no reason to go off like that. I just wasn’t thinking clearly. I’ll go to counseling or do whatever you say, but please, don’t leave me again.” He hugged her close once more.

  Jaci pulled away from him and sat down. “All this time, I thought I was the one with trust issues. Little did I know! Jason, what about our love for each other? Our commitment? Our promise to communicate with each other? If we had just talked that day we might have realized something wasn’t right. But you wouldn’t even answer my calls. Yes, I think we need to get some more specialized counseling. Otherwise, if something like this happens again, I don’t know if we’ll survive it. We need to strengthen that weak place in our marriage so Satan won’t be able to get in again. I love you and I believe that God has joined us together and no man has the right to put us asunder. Not you, me, or Linda and Wynola.”

  Jason looked at her searchingly. “Baby, where have you been? Haven’t you heard the news? The same day all that happened, Wynola’s husband was indicted for embezzlement. He was definitely going to jail for a long time. He’d been stealing for years, trying to keep Wynola happy. Anyway, when he learned what Wynola and Linda had done, it was all too much for him. He shot them and then killed himself.”

  Jaci gasped. “Oh God!” She sat in stunned silence for a while, before saying, “I don’t know how I should respond. I didn’t wish them dead, even after what they did. But I can’t feel any sorrow for them right now. They tried to kill me and almost destroyed our marriage. I think they would have kept trying until they succeeded.”

  Jason hugged her close. “Baby, they would have kept trying. It had become an obsession with them. They had to blame someone for their failures in life, and you happened to be the most convenient target. You didn’t cause their deaths, they did that themselves. If they had been rational women and made different choices about how they lived life, things might have turned out differently for them.”

  Jaci

  Two months later, Patrick, sick with a bad case of the flu, called Jaci at work. “Mom, I’m sick,” he told her, sounding like he was at the point of death. “Can I come home for a few days? This crud really has me. I’m almost too weak to go to the bathroom.”

  Jaci didn’t hesitate before answering. “Honey, you don’t have to ask to come home. Why hadn’t you called us and let us know you were sick? Can you get somebody to drop you off or do you want me or your dad to come get you?”

  Patrick, in the middle of a long bout of coughing, took a while to answer. “I guess so,” he finally said.

  “You guess so, what?” Jaci asked, not understanding him.

  “Yeah. I guess you better come get me,” he answered weakly.

  Jaci called Jason immediately to see if he could pick up Patrick. She had to go to the grocery store and pick up a few items, and then home to get things ready. Jason had an important meeting and was unable to get away. So, Jaci made a rushed trip to the grocery store, then home, before driving over to the campus to pick up Patrick. The boy was really sick! He crawled onto the backseat of her truck and fell asleep on the way home. Thankfully, Jason made it home by the time they arrived and was able to help her get Patrick in the house, and into bed.

  When they were back downstairs, Jaci told him, “Baby, I’m worried. That child is very sick. Maybe we should try to get him in to see a doctor. This thing could turn into pneumonia.”

  “Let’s give it a day or two. Maybe if we can get some good food into him, he’ll start improving.”

  Jaci looked doubtful. “Okay. Let’s hope so.” She went into the kitchen and started a big pot of chicken soup.

  Patrick was scarcely over the flu when Jason came down with it. If Jaci thought Patrick had been a bad patient, Jason quickly proved her wrong. Nothing satisfied him! If she brought him juice, he wanted tea. If she brought soup, he wanted bacon and eggs. If she fixed both, he wanted nothing. If he wasn’t too hot, he was too cold. The bed was too lumpy or the pillows too soft. He drove her crazy!

  After a full week with Patrick, and the third day with Jason, Jaci had had enough and decided to return to work, assuring Jason that his mother would look in on him. He objected. He didn’t want his mother, he wanted her. She hadn’t left Patrick, so why was she leaving him?

  Jaci almost ran out of the house. She was ready to slap the living daylights out of him!

  It was inevitable that Jaci would be the next to succumb to the virus. Jason, along with Patrick, tirelessly catered to her, putting up with her whining and bad temper. Strong woman that she was, she insisted on being back on her feet and at work after a few days.

  But a month later, she was still feeling tired and lethargic. She assumed it was the results of not getting completely over the flu before getting back to work. She determinedly went about her b
usiness, vowing to rest more.

  A couple of weeks later, as Jaci led a song in the church choir in Sunday morning service, she became suddenly so hot she could barely stand it, and her stomach felt like it was full of fluttering butterflies. She barely made it through the song before darkness consumed her, and she felt herself falling. She was lying on a couch in the lounge when she came to. A crowd of people gathered around her, Jason sat beside her looking frightened, and a woman whom Jaci knew was a nurse checked her pulse.

  “She’s coming around,” Jaci heard the nurse say. “I think she just fainted. She probably started back into her routine too soon and never really got over that flu. Make sure she gets some rest, but just to be on the safe side, you might need to go ahead and get her in to see the doctor.”

  Over Jaci’s objections, Jason managed to harass her doctor into seeing her the next day. Jaci endured the usual battery of tests and was sent to the doctor’s office. Jason was already sitting in the office when she got there. “I hope you’re happy,” she grumbled. “This has just been a waste of time.”

  Before he could answer, the doctor entered and took a seat behind the desk. She opened the file, read a while, and finally looked up, smiling. “Well, what color do you guys like? Pink or blue?” They both stared at her blankly, not understanding the question. The doctor laughed, thinking, I can see I’m going to have some fun with these two. “I said, what color do you like? You get two choices: pink or blue.”