by Jesse West
The majority of what he went through the years prior, the fighting, watching Bobby beat his mother, all of it was Bobby’s way of putting a sense of control into his relationship with Jeanette and she fed into it. Every bit of it has changed her. After coming to that conclusion, Jack knew that this was the major reason for most of what’s happened in his life thus far. He stared out the window for a couple hours just thinking.
“What else in my life is just manipulation?”
“How many decisions have been made simple because Bobby said it had to be done?”
“Is it ever going to be the same again?”
But the one question that bothered him the most.
“Why, Mom? Why?”
Not As Expected
Bobby lied on the floor, a bloody mess. One of his eyes were fully swollen so he couldn’t see out of it and his face was covered in blood. Some of it was from his nose but most of it was from his mouth and overall skin. He turned over to one side and clenched his bleeding hand. He stared at it with his one, relatively good eye and began crying. His hand shaking in pain. He spit out some teeth that were loose in his mouth. The blows from the gun could’ve killed him if Jack kept going but he didn’t.
At this point, Jack was standing above his body. He took off the button up he had on and used it to wipe the blood from his hands and face. He put the gun back in his pants which was clearly noticeable now. He looked into the other room to check on the others. An overall scan of the surroundings was needed since he hadn’t been focused for a few minutes. Sue was sitting upright, looking like a hot mess, and staring at Jack. He was certain she was watching the whole time but when she saw Jack look back at her, she immediately looked away. Sal stared at him the whole time, shaking his head in disproval. Pauline was staring at Bobby as he was lying on the floor, anguish in her face at what she just witnessed. Gene was breathing heavily, barely a word coming out of his mouth after what Jack did to him. If Jack had done to Gene what he did to Bobby, Gene would’ve been dead before the second blow. Then Jack noticed his mother. She was sitting upright, staring at the floor. After her outburst on Jack when he was hitting Bobby, she hadn’t muttered a word.
Jack tossed the shirt into a corner, he reached down and grabbed Bobby by the back of his shirt then began dragging him back into the dining room. Bobby was limb, no energy, no fight left in him at all, he just laid there and let himself be dragged back into cuffs. Pretty much a dead, lifeless body. Beaten and defeated, there was nothing else he could do about it. Trails of blood followed them as he dragged him back to where he was cuffed. He cuffed Bobby’s good hand back to where it was and looked at his other hand. He realized that Bobby wasn’t going to be a threat anymore so he stood up and walked into the kitchen that was in the back of the apartment down the hallway from the front door. He took a towel from the stove and ran it under hot water.
He stood there and let it soak for a second while he drifted off into his own mind. He took deep inhales and long exhales. He was trying to calm himself down from what just happened. His breaths were a form of acceptance.
“I did it” he thought to himself “I’ve had my revenge and yet….I don’t feel better.” He wasn’t confused by this but he knew it wasn’t going to be this simple. “I have to keep going.” No doubt entered his mind about what he was doing. He was going to continue until he knew he would feel better about his life.
He walked back into the dining room and looked over at the kids. Jimmy was sitting with his hands folded, his elbows on his knees, and he was leaning forward. He was just staring at the floor because he didn’t know what to do. All he considered was getting the gun at one point and once that failed, he doubted anything else he could do would ever help the situation. Vicky was holding Sabrina in her arms, tightly, and Sabrina looked as if she was almost going to fall asleep from crying so much but the gun shot shocked her awake. Her head merely rested on Vicky’s chest and her eyes were widened as if she had just seen a ghost.
Jack couldn’t let guilt enter his mind right now. He felt bad for the kids but he could not stop. Jimmy was old enough that he will grow out of this and he concluded to himself that Sabrina will never love him the same way ever again after tonight. These were his assumptions but what continued to bewilder him was Vicky.
The entire time after she got to hug her mother, after Jack revealed what kind of people her grandparents were, Vicky showed a sense of acceptance in her eyes. She didn’t shake her head at Jack, she never gave him a dirty look, and she never spoke out against anything he was doing once she understood what was happening. She felt for Jack. She understood him and she understood why he was doing all of this. She calmed down because she realized she wasn’t in danger. She realized what Jack was after and she wasn’t going to get in his way. If anything, she was going to help him.
When Jack noticed the kids, he never thought about this, he was only concerned with how unaffected she looked. He didn’t let it distract him. He knelt down in front of Bobby and wrapped his hand in the cloth. Bobby flinched.
“Easy, Easy.” He told him as he tightened the knot he put in the rag to make sure there was pressure. “You need it to be tight. The pressure will slow down or even stop the bleeding…for now.” He told Bobby.
Being a cop, you pick up on a few things that may help in any situation. Especially how Jack was, always training and researching. Testing himself and pushing to learn new things. It was his way of keeping his mind occupied and his attempt at forgetting. If he retained enough extra information, not only will he be a better cop but he might just be able to shadow over these thoughts and memories that tormented him for so long. Unfortunately, it never worked for him.
He stood up and brushed his hair back as he paced for a second then sat back down in his chair. He couldn’t help from staring at Bobby, looking at what he did. He felt all around accomplished.
Suddenly, he noticed the lights flickering from outside. Unmistakably siren lights, followed by the ‘whoop’ of the horn. It parked in front of the house and Jack stood up in a panic. He walked over to the window through the living room and closed the blinds only up to where he was standing. He turned away in a frenzy.
“Fuck!” He shouted in a whisper as he took out the gun and paced in the living room.
Out in the car, the 2 cops radioed in that they had arrived to the scene where the call came in regarding the gun shot. They seemed annoyed to be there since it was Thanksgiving and they’d rather be home with their families.
“I didn’t expect this so soon.” Jack thought to himself as he paced. “This may or may not be a good thing. I need to think of a…” His thinking was broken by Sue screaming from the other room.
“POLICE! HELP!” she as well as the others took notice that the cop car was there and was attempting to take advantage of it. Jack shot back into the dining room pointing his gun at Sue.
“SHUT UP!” he shouted. She continued to yell, till Jack pointed the gun at the kids. Sue’s stopped shouting. She knew at this point Jack had no problem letting the gun go off and she didn’t want it to be at the kids.
Once she was silent, Jack realized he could use one of them to hold the cops back. Jack then came to the conclusion if he knew the officers personally, it may work in his benefit. He might not need one of the kids at all. But to be safe, he was going to take one of them with him to the window. He thought Jimmy would be the best option but it wouldn’t look like Jack was serious. One of the girls would be better. He didn’t want to hurt Sabrina anymore, so he decided to take Vicky.
“Vick,” he reached his hand out to her while still pointing the gun “I need you to come with me into the living room.”
“Absolutely not!” Sue shouted from her seated position on the floor.
“Don’t worry Vicky.” He said to try and console her.
“No, Jackie. Please don’t take her away.” Sabrina said while holding onto Vicky tighter than she had been before, not willing to let her go.
“It�
�ll be ok, Sisi. I just need her to help me.” He tried to calm her down without realizing that she wasn’t going to listen to what he had to say.
“It’s ok, Sina,” Vicky said in a calming voice, “Cousin Jackie needs my help.” She pulled Sabrina back and gave her a kiss on her forehead. “I’ll be right in the other room.” She stared at Sabrina and saw that she was convincing her. “It’s going to be ok.” Sabrina believed Vicky and Jack than realized that Vicky was the only one that truly meant it when she said she wanted to help him. Sabrina jumped into the seat next to Jimmy and he put his arms around her. She sat in the chair holding her knees up on the seat and pulling them into her chest, burying her face in them to where you could barely see her eyes.
Jack felt horrible about what he was doing to her but he couldn’t slow down. He looked over at Sue while pointing the gun.
“You need to be quiet or she gets one wherever I happen to be pointing.” And he traced the gun up and down her body as if to signify that he would shoot Vicky anywhere from her leg to her head if Sue said a single word. Sue kept silent and nodded in acknowledgment.
He took Vicky into the living room and looked out the window. He saw that the officers were both out of the car and walking towards the house. He was thankful that he recognized them. It was Haynes and Acosta, 2 cops that his partner and him would split shifts with down at the 62nd precinct where he was stationed. A sign of relieve came over him as he explained this to Vicky.
“Good. I know these guys. Stay here, hidden behind the curtain. I’m going to try and talk them into leaving. I may not need you at all.” He told her with confidence.
“Ok, Jackie. I’ll just be right here then.” She replied in compliance. “But how are you going to talk to them?” she asked.
Jack thought for a moment but then he remembered that he brought his radio with him. He knew he couldn’t keep things silent forever, he was just hoping for longer. Everything was happening faster than he anticipated that he let little details slip his mind.
“Stay here.” He said to her as he ran back to his coat and took the radio out. He came back and showed her. “This is how I talk to them.”
Haynes and Acosta got to the door and rang the bell. Jack put the radio on and talked into it.
“Why do they have you 2 schmucks running the night shift, not expecting much on Thanksgiving I guess huh?” he spoke into the radio and it startled them as Haynes noticed Jack standing in the window. He pointed him out to Acosta who was facing the opposite way. He rolled his eyes and took his radio out to respond.
“God dammit, Jackie. What are you doing here?” he said.
His full name was Casey Acosta. He was Spanish-American with a bald head and a goatee. He was born and raised here but his accent comes out every so often. The other officer was Justin Haynes. Full blown Irish but the only way you could tell was his curly red hair. He was raised in Brooklyn and he held that New York accent when he spoke. Unlike Acosta who spoke fluent Spanish, Haynes never bothered with learning or understanding Gaelic.
“My family lives here. I’m here for the holidays.” He replied over the radio. He saw that Haynes was already walking back to the car while he spoke to Acosta.
“Why are you talking to me on the radio? Come to door.” He proclaimed to Jack.
“Yeah, ya see,” Jack thought as fast as he could, “The stairs in the hallway are being redone so ya gotta go around back but you’re already here talking to me so tell me what’s going on?”
Acosta rolled his eyes again, he wasn’t annoyed at Jack just annoyed that he had to be working in general.
“We got a report of a gunshot heard from this address from one of the neighbors.”
Jack looked around outside to see who was watching. He saw behind him that the couple next door, Joyce and Rolando, were standing outside watching everything. He figured it must’ve been them.
“Is that so?” He said as he turned back to Acosta.
“Yeah, you know anything about that?” Acosta asked him.
“Yeah sorry about that. I have my sidearm with me and it accidently just went off. I gotta take it apart tomorrow and see what happened. Nobody is hurt though. I got my radio so I would’ve called it in if anything went wrong;” he said this with confidence.
“Look, Jackie. You know the protocol but you’re lucky I don’t wanna be here right now so just make sure to be careful next time.” Acosta couldn’t help but take his word. Why would Jack lie to him about that?
Haynes was at the car about to radio in that everything was clear then he realized something, something Jack didn’t think about. Haynes put the radio in the car down and picked up his own radio. Jack thought he was in the clear at this point till Haynes got in the conversation.
“Why are you here, Jackie?” he asked.
“What do you mean, man? You guys been having some holiday drinks on the job,” Jack said sarcastically.
“You’ve mentioned to us, every year, that you hate your family. That you don’t even like to think that you have a family.” Vicky stood next to Jack as Acosta said this over the radio for everyone to hear. Jack just stared out the window at him as he spoke, trying to figure out his next move. “So, why are you here?”
Jack couldn’t think fast enough till Haynes noticed something else.
“Jackie, is that blood on your shirt?”
Jack looked down and noticed there was some blood still on his shirt and neck that he didn’t get off before.
“Alright, Bogan. We’re going to have to come in now.” Jack knew Haynes meant business when he used his last name and then he turned around to join Acosta at the bottom of the steps to come around the side. Jack had to think fast.
“I’m sorry.” He looked at Vicky and pulled her into him. He wrapped his arm around her so they could see the gun he was holding as he spoke into the radio.
“Alright, guys. Listen to me carefully.” He said sternly over the radio, causing both of them to stop in place to look at him in the window. They saw him with the girl and they saw the gun in his hand. Haynes slowly walked back up the step.
“Alright, Jackie. Just put the gun down.” He walked slowly to him with one hand on gun holster, still talking through the radio. “It doesn’t have to go down like this.”
Acosta was walking back to the car to get on the radio.
“Stop right there, Casey.” Acosta stopped in place, knowing he had a little girl and he needed to listen. Haynes stopped where he was on the porch.
“Hand off the pistol, Justin.” Haynes took his hand off the holster and raised it high in the air so Jack could see.
“Jackie, listen to me,” he proclaimed “you don’t know what you’re getting into.”
“I know what I’m doing and I understand the protocol just as much as you two do!” Jack declared to both of them. “All I need is for both of you to get back in your car, drive away like nothing happened, and I’ll explain it later.” Jack didn’t think this would work but he said it with confidence. Haynes and Acosta were both looking at him and the girl he was holding. She had an indifferent look on her face, as if she didn’t know what to expect next.
“Jackie,” Haynes spoke up after a brief moment of silence “you know we can’t leave this alone.”
Jack closed his eyes and tilted his head down. He was hoping for a little more time, but it was too late. They were here and more were coming soon. He opened his eyes and looked right at Haynes.
“Then do what you gotta do, Justin,” he said, “I know the protocol. I know what comes next. But what you don’t know is how many people I have in here.” Haynes looked back at Acosta as they listened to him over the radio. “Now, you go and make the calls, bring down who ever, but not one person comes in here or I will kill everyone in this house with me. Do you understand that?!” Vicky squirmed a bit under his arm when he said this.
“No need for that, Jackie.” Haynes tried to calm him down.
“Do not try and talk me down either! I put myself he
re! I know what I am doing!” He shouted at them over the radio then he got calm and stern. “I am in the middle of something that’s very important to me and I will tell you both right now that I am not leaving this house until I am finished.” He stepped out of the window and closed the curtains.
“Get the captain on the radio” Haynes said as he marched back to the car “tell him we got a hostage situation at 288 Bay 14th.” He leaned up against the car on the opposite side of the door where Acosta was getting on the radio.
“Do we tell him it’s Jackie?” he asked.
Haynes hesitated for a second, thinking about how much of a good guy he thought Jack was. He never expected something like this out of him but he knew he couldn’t let him go through with this, it’ll ruin him.
“We have to.” He replied.
“Dispatch, put me through to the captain.” Acosta said over the radio.
“What are you doing in there, Jackie?” Haynes thought to himself as he stared at the house.
In the house, Jack walked back into the living with Vicky.
“Go back with them and sit down.” He directed her to get back into the corner she was in, frustration in his face and voice.
“I’m sorry it didn’t work, Jackie.” She told him sounding concerned.
“It’s ok. Nothing we can do now.” He replied then he marched out of the dining room leaving them alone.
“What happened?” Jimmy looked over and asked Vicky.
“Nothing.” She said “His plan didn’t work and now more cops are coming.”
Some relief showed on all of their faces.
“Why did you help him?” Jimmy scolded her.
“Because Jimmy…” she hesitated for a second “it’s Jackie.”
“Do you not understand what is happening here right now?!” he shouted at her in a whisper.