by Jesse West
They were married the summer of 1984 and since neither of them had much of a family; they kept it simple and wed in city hall. They enjoyed living life but didn’t really want to stop being a bit reckless with their habits. Emily was too young to really understand adult stuff, but she knew it wasn’t good.
When Jeanette found out she was pregnant, they both realized they had to put everything on hold. They were at least responsible enough to do that much and you would think it would have stayed that way. Jeanette’s mother was still in her life to some extent though she didn’t do much but have Emily visit from time to time. She was a babysitting service for them, but she never complained. She was happy to have a granddaughter. That’s where Emily was the day Jeanette was rushed to the hospital.
In the waiting room, Michael continued to pace back and forth. The sweat from his curly black hair dripping down his face which was filled with restlessness as he continuously paced in the waiting room, anxious to hear news of his wife and the baby. He took off his glasses more than once to clean off the sweat and fog build up from breathing heavy. You could see it in his face that he doesn’t know what to feel. It had been about three hours till the doctor finally stepped out of the delivery room and he stopped moving. He was frozen in place, the breath had left his body, and it was almost as if he was paralyzed. He moved slowly towards her as she took off her mask and smiled, to which ran waterfalls of relief through him.
“Is my wife ok?” He asked.
“She’s fine, everything went perfect. Would you like to see your baby Mr. Bogan?” She asked him with a gentle smile.
“Absolutely.” She led him into the room where he saw his wife, tears in her eyes, holding their new born baby.
“It’s a boy.” She said.
He approached them slowly as it still began to settle in his mind that he was really a father. He hugged them both as the nurses continued cleaning the room around them. Before they took the baby to clean him up, the doctor began explaining to them what they were going to do so not to worry them. All Michael could feel was a sense liberation that it was over and they were both ok.
“Have you thought of a name?” one of the nurses asked curiously.
Michael looked into the eyes of his baby boy and then at his wife. She laid there, tears and sweat dripping down her face, her long brown hair sticking to her head. He kept pushing it to the side so he could see her face. She knew what he wanted the name to be if it was a boy and she had already agreed with him. She gave him a smile and nodded to show that he could tell them. He looked up at the nurse and with an immense smile he said “Jack. His name is Jack.”
Just on the Surface
“Everybody shut up!” Jack yelled while holding his gun in the air, showing that he meant business. He had just finished tying everyone up or cuffing them where he saw fit. He then proceeded to pace in the dining room staring at all of them as they sat around the room. They were all restrained in place except for the kids. He let the kids sit in a corner, unrestrained, because he didn’t see them as a threat and he wasn’t there to hurt them. He walked over and knelt in front of them.
“Everything is going to be ok, guys.” He told them in an attempt to ease their fear and let it be known that he is not going to hurt them. “This won’t take long.” He went to brush back Sabrina’s hair but Vicky pulled her back away from him
“Don’t you touch her!” she yelled at him.
“Jackie, Whadda ya doin’ man?” Jimmy looked at him and asked in disbelief.
“What I have to do.” He got up and walked away, accepting that they didn’t like him right now.
“Just look over to make sure they’re ok.” He thought to himself, knowing what little bit of a kind heart he has right now deserves to be aimed towards them, especially Sabrina.
He walked over to the dining room table and did a quick scan over the room. His Mother and Bobby were cuffed together to a radiator on one side of the room. Separate sides of the radiator using different sets of hand cuffs and with only one hand cuffed each. Closest to Bobby was the hallway that led to the front door and the staircase to go upstairs. Gene, Pauline, and Sue were all tied up leaning against a wall parallel to the living room entrance. Their hands and arms behind their backs, Gene’s reached over and wrapped around his chest, he didn’t deem it necessary to tie the women that way. The kids were sitting at the table in the corner, pushed up against the wall, next to the entrance of the living room. Sal had both hands cuffed wrapped around a pole against the wall across from the hallway entrance. The pole was an old heating vent that didn’t work, but it was still sturdy enough to hold him there. He was sitting on the floor with his legs crossed, shaking his head, angry that he was cuffed. Scanning the room made sure he was aware of everything. He walked over and leaned on the other end of the table facing them.
“What is it? Huh? Ay, what is it that you need to do? What is it that you have to do that you think this is ok?” proclaimed Pauline, shouting in anger that she too was tied up “What is wrong with you that you think this is how you handle your problems? You must be sick in the head. I knew there was something not right about you. Mhm, I knew it. Something wasn’t right. You, your mother, your whole family is just off. Not right in the head. I said it a dozen times. Look at you. Standing there with your gun thinking you’re a big shot. OH, wait till the real cops show up. You’re gonna get it then you fucking prick!” she stared right at Jack as she ranted on, trying to upset him.
Jack stood there with his arms crossed, listening to her the whole time, just staring back with a big smirk on his face. His plaid shirt was untucked from his jeans though it was slightly pinched by the gun he had sticking out; making sure it was visible and easily accessible. He stepped forward from the table grabbing a chair and dragging it in front of Sue. He pulled it up and sat down facing her, still staring at Pauline. He pulled out the gun and held it for a second, continuing his staring contest with Pauline, waiting to see if she would break. He lifted the gun up and put it to Sue’s temple. Sue closed her eyes and cringed in fear as she began to hyperventilate expecting the worst.
“MOM!” yelled Vicky as she pulled Sabrina in closer to her so she couldn’t see. Jack ignored this and continued staring at Pauline.
“You. Don’t. Scare. Me.” Pauline said with a strong sense of willpower. She wasn’t going to let Jack win anything.
He admired her fearlessness, but he wanted to test her. He knew exactly what was going to work.
“I know.” he took the gun off Sue’s head, “I don’t need you to be scared of me.” She began to breathe normally then she looked at her mother who showed no concern for her. “I just need to make sure I have your attention.” He continued as he stood up and dragged the chair back across the floor.
“Attention. For what?!” Gene said with an attitude.
“Oh don’t jump the gun now, Gene,” he replied then proceeded to point at him, “you will get your time.” Gene didn’t seem to feel threatened by this but Jack didn’t care.
“Now, Pauline,” he continued. She was staring at him the entire time, not budging. He put the gun down on the table and sat back in the chair. Jimmy noticed he wasn’t watching the gun and kept his eyes on it, “You didn’t seem bothered by that did you? Me, putting a gun to your daughters head?” She started breathing heavy but didn’t break her stare. Jack took a quick glance at Sue, who had nothing to say as she stared at the floor. “Am I right?” he asked her.
Pauline had nothing to say.
“Ok.” he said in response to her unbending will and stood up from his chair. He walked over to his jacket and pulled out a small, metal stick. It looked about six or seven inches long and not very intimidating. He then walked over and stood in front of her, kneeling down with the stick in his hand. “You really want to know what this is all about?” she didn’t answer him, just continued to stare him down as if her resilient determination would break him. He shook his head and stood up again.
“This is about
you,” he pointed at her with the stick, “And you,” he then pointed it at Gene, “And especially the two of you.” Then he pointed it at Bobby and his mother.
“You better not point that thing at me again.” Bobby said, trying to sound tough though he was partially cuffed to a radiator. Jack took the stick and flicked it opened to reveal that it was a baton. It extended out to almost two feet long and all metal. Vicky and Sabrina jumped at the sound of it clinging in place but Jimmy smirked a bit; he couldn’t hide that he thought that was cool.
Jack then pointed it right back at Bobby, “I’m not my mother,” he told him intensely, “You are in no position to talk to me like you are a threat to me.” Bobby stood quiet and stared for a moment till he just looked away.
“Hmm,” He lifted the baton and tapped it on his shoulder, “I wonder.”
He turned and sped walked over to where Sal was cuffed, lifted the baton up as if to whip it across his face. Sal flinched to prepare for the impact.
“NO!” shouted Pauline.
“YOU LEAVE MY SON ALONE!” Gene shouted along with her.
The kids drew back not knowing what was about to happen. They were inches away from their uncle and they were about to watch something horrible happen to him.
As fast as he was moving, Jack stopped in motion as he was expecting to, seeing his experiment had worked. He knew they would attempt to stop him. He smirked as he turned around and lowered the baton, looking over at the Gene and Pauline. He glanced down at Sue as well but she wasn’t looking.
“Funny,” he began, “Both of you were very adamant about stopping me from swinging this right across your sons face. In retrospect, it would’ve probably knocked out a few teeth, would’ve left a nasty bruise, and he might’ve had a concussion. All of which heals and is relatively manageable.” He walked over to sit as he continued to speak, “Most people go through worse when they get hit with a baseball by accident, and that’s coming at you a lot faster than I could swing this thing.” He turned the baton around and put the tip of it on the edge of the table “What seems harder to heal, to me,” he pushed down on the handle of the baton to close it, it made a banging noise on the table as he finished his sentence, “Is that I put a gun to your daughters head and neither of you muttered a word.”
With that, he finally broke Pauline’s stare. She and Gene looked over at Sue as she began to realize this as well.
“Oh don’t act surprised, Sue. We both knew that they love the boys more than you.” She looked at him as he spoke.
“Don’t listen to him, Sue. You’re my baby and you know that.” Pauline said trying to console her.
“Yeah. He’s a fuckin nut-case that don’t know what he’s talkin’ about.” Gene added on but they looked over at her and they saw that part of her knew Jack was right. She looked down into her lap.
“Suzie?” Pauline called for her but she wouldn’t lift her eyes.
“Sue.” Jack said, her attention lifted up. “Now is the time to speak.”
“You shut your mouth you bastard!” Gene said in anger “How dare you come in here and question the love we have for our daughter!”
“But that’s what this is all about.” He stood up with his arms in the air as if showing off a new painting. With a bit of a laugh and chuckle in his voice, he went on “This is all about you. And her. All of you. This whole fucked up family.”
“You are not part of this family!” Gene said with such force that it snapped Jack out of his smiling rant. He just grinned at him.
“Exactly! I never was, and you all made sure that I was aware of that when I was growing up.” Jack said in a firm voice.
“I raised you!” Bobby said grabbing his attention “I am your father! Every Christmas. Every birthday. I invited you into this house. You ate off my families plates. You piece of shit! You wanna say you weren’t treated like family? pfft” Bobby ranted and ended it with a scoff, shaking his head. “You’ve got some fuckin nerve.”
“I have the nerve?” Jack said questioning his words. He walked over and knelt in front of him. “What part in my upbringing did I learn a damn thing from you?”
“I taught you how to be a man.” Bobby declared.
Jack laughed at this.
“A man? You think you did that?” he asked him. “If raising me to be a man was your plan, you failed.” He looked right in his eyes as he said this with confidence.
“You ungrateful bastard!” Bobby replied in anger, thinking that Jack was wrong in what he was saying.
“What was it that I got from you that was being a man? Beating your wife is meant to be ok?” he looked at his mother who hadn’t said a single word at this point, “Coming home drunk every other night and listen to the two of you argue, all the time. Is that what you should expose your kids to? And with that, make sure you break enough shit in the house that the kids are going to question what’s left in the morning? Is that what you taught me? Or was it making sure you get your fix before the bills were paid?” Bobby’s face turned red with these words.
“What?!” Pauline said in shock.
“Oh!” he continued in a shocking voice though you could tell he was being sarcastic “You didn’t know that?” he looked back and forth between them, watching as levels of trust were grumbling like Jenga pieces. “Oh Robert. I didn’t think that was something you wouldn’t tell your mother.” He still sounded sarcastic and that pissed Bobby off. “I mean, I thought you just hid it from me. Or, should I say, attempted to hide it from me. Ya see, you and my mother are a lot stupider than you thought I was. One thing I did get from growing up, that is before you came into the picture, was that I was raised on adult humor. My father and mother were perfectly ok with me watching vulgar television as a kid and, through that, I learned a lot about things that I probably shouldn’t have known about at such a young age.”
As Jack was ranting to Bobby, he didn’t know that behind him, Sal was gesturing to Jimmy who was still staring at the gun on the table. He noticed that Jack had forgotten it was there and he was contemplated making a move for it. Sal was trying to push him to do just that. Without the gun, Jack would have nothing.
‘GO’ Sal was mouthing to Jimmy, ‘PICK IT UP’ he kept mouthing and gesturing towards it hoping to not get Jack’s attention. He was still going off on Bobby as this was going on behind him.
“You think I didn’t question why we always had to move. Why bills weren’t paid. Why we barely had food in the house.” he knew he was hitting home as Bobby’s anger rose. “The only thing I learned from you,” He kept his stare on him as he spoke his final words on the subject, “is what not to do.”
“YOU MOTHERFUCKER!” Bobby started shouting at the top of his lungs “You think this is a fucking joke! You better make sure I don’t get out of these fucking cuffs cause if I do, I’m going to beat you to death where you fucking stand! You ungrateful son of a bitch!”
Jack stood up and walked away, chuckling once again, as he let him scream and shout himself out of breathe. He walked over to the table and took a sip from a cup that was filled with coffee. His face showed a bit of an unpleasant look as he drank it not being sure what was in it or who it belonged to. He put it down and looked over at Pauline who was shaking her head in objection of what she was witnessing.
“What is it, Pauline?” he asked her, “You don’t approve of his behavior?”
“You shut your mouth.” She said firmly as if he was going to listen.
“Now, which part don’t you approve of, the fact that he is on drugs and is probably a little bit stoned at this very moment OR the fact that he lied to you about it?” she continued to shake her head and turn away from him. “I would hope it’s the drug part because you showing disproval over him lying is kind of the pot calling the kettle black if ya ask me.”
“What are you talkin about?” she asked, confused about what Jack was getting to like she didn’t think he actually knew anything; he was just pushing buttons. Her assumptions would soon back fire on h
er.
“Oh. So you’re claiming to be innocent, is that right?” he replied to what sounded to him like a stupid question though he figured she wouldn’t up and admit to anything without a bit of denial or argument.
“See,” he continued, “what you haven’t gotten yet is that I am a man of the law. I am here to set a few things straight about what I know that you think I don’t. I am here to be judge, jury, and executioner, in a less cruel meaning of the term. Based on my ongoing investigation and collection of evidence, you are all on trial right now. This is my court room and none of you are leaving until we have reached a verdict that I am satisfied with.”
He sat back down in his chair with a goofy smirk on his face. He didn’t want them to take him seriously; he wanted them to take the situation seriously. He was about to open the closet door and let the skeletons pour out onto the floor right at their feet and he wasn’t going to hesitate doing so.
“Now where was I? Oh yeah. Pauline! We were talking about how funny it is that you think Bobby’s lying about doing drugs is something that a person in your particular situation is allowed to frown upon.” He said this to her in his partially comical voice as if to sound a little psychotic, then he leaned forward in his chair and his voice filled with restriction as he went on “Now why would I think that’s funny?” he stared right at her and she thought he was looking for her to crack but in actuality, he was hoping she didn’t. Sal chimed in from his seated, cuffed position on the floor; just as Jack expected from him.