The Jade Emperor

by Suzanne Jenkins

  “You had sex with Steve? That in itself is shocking. Why are you even with him?”

  Like Karen had smacked her, Kelly gasped, but didn’t respond right away. Fighting with her twin felt overwhelmingly final, like each word she said could never be taken back, couldn’t be forgiven, and certainly not forgotten.

  “Karen, we’re married. I wanted another baby so Reggie wasn’t alone. Married couples plan their families like this all the time.”

  “Married couples who love each other,” Karen snapped. “And Steve went along with it, evidently.”

  “One hundred percent,” Kelly said.

  Waiting on the phone for Karen to reply, Kelly couldn’t have prepared for what her twin said next.

  “I think you’re with Titan to get even with Steve,” she said.

  “Doing what? All we did was shop together!”

  “You’ve been running together every day. You don’t run with anyone,” she said. “I detected the sexual chemistry between you, and it was sickening.”

  Kelly was speechless. “I can’t help what you detected,” she said. “If you’re looking for something devious, you’re sure to find it. And as far as getting revenge on Steve, hurting him is the last thing on my mind. I don’t want to hurt my kids, so I won’t hurt Steve. Even if I was capable of it, he doesn’t care enough about me to be hurt.”

  “I disagree, Kelly. If Steve finds out you’re in a relationship with Titan, I can’t even imagine what he’ll do.”

  “He’d be jealous because I’m friends with Titan and he’s not, and that’s the only reason. Maxine already told me Steve was jealous that Titan talked to me.”

  Heart pounding, Kelly had had enough. “I’m hanging up. I have enough on my plate right now without taking flack from the only person I thought I could count on one hundred percent. Stay away tomorrow. I don’t need your negativity at our family council.”

  And with that, Kelly hung up on her sister. Feeling crazed, she quickly ran to her bedroom to take her jeans off and put on running pants. Throwing her phone on the bed, she’d leave it behind, needing the solitude that being unavailable would provide. The past few days running with Titan had been fun, but aerobically it was a waste of time. She’d make up for it, leaving the house and, without warming up, took off like a zephyr.

  For more than an hour, she sprinted through town to the park, her mind a blank, so unaware of anything that when jumped from behind, she didn’t even feel it.

  Chapter 21

  Pain in her mouth, someone crying, hands dabbing her lips with something icy, a murmured conversation making no sense in the background.

  “Oh, Kelly Boyd,” a voice tearfully repeated over again, “please wake up.”

  She tried opening her eyes, the scent of lemon and cinnamon powerful, and she saw Lee standing over her with a washcloth, trying to wash her face.

  “That hurts,” she moaned.

  “I stop. I just hold ice on your mouth.”

  Closing her eyes again, the sound of a cardiac monitor in the background revealed she was in the hospital.

  “If she’s waking up, the police want to talk to her,” a disembodied voice said.

  “She not awake yet,” Lee barked, in tigress mode.

  Kelly heard Karen’s voice and relaxed, she wasn’t completely at Lee’s mercy if Karen was there.

  “Karen,” she said.

  “I’m here,” Karen said, crying, taking Kelly’s hand. “I’m so sorry.”

  “What happened?” Kelly asked, trying to open her eyes, the effort taking every bit of strength she had.

  “Let me know when you can talk to the police,” a strange voice said, a nurse - Kelly surmised, because she was doing something with her IV and it hurt.

  “Ouch. What happened to me?” she repeated. “I was running in the park and now Lee is washing my face.”

  “You vain like me,” Lee said. “I try to make you beautiful again.”

  Kelly struggled to open her eyes to see Lee to her left, standing on a stool to reach Kelly’s face, a wadded-up washcloth in her hand. Tears streamed down her face. Steve was standing behind her, looking grim and angry.

  Clustered around her, all six children, Titan, Karen on her right, and a nurse.

  “Do you feel like you can talk to a cop?” Karen said. “You might remember something.”

  “Was I attacked?”

  “It appears so,” she said. “Someone found you off the path.”

  “I guess I can talk,” she said. “Lee, can you wipe my eyes? I can’t see.”

  “They put ointment in your eyes to protect them,” Ken said, moving forward.

  “Well, get it out,” she begged.

  Gently, Lee wiped her eyelids with tissues until Kelly said she could see.

  “What time is it?” she asked.

  “Friday afternoon,” Titan said. “You didn’t have your phone or any ID, but the nurses recognized you and called Steve as soon as you were brought in.”

  “Who found me?” she asked, what she was being told not registering, and the nurse repeated what Karen had said, which was as much as they knew. “This is just great,” Kelly answered, despondent. “I’ll talk to the police.”

  The nurse went back out of the room and returned with Detective Marty Sanders. He moved up to the side of the bed, and Kelly tried to focus on his face. Handsome and middle-aged, Marty Sanders looked concerned, but tired. Surprisingly, he took Kelly’s hand in both of his.

  “I’m so sorry you had this experience,” he said. “That park is usually the safest one around. Do you remember what happened?”

  “I really don’t remember anything,” she said. “I was running along and I felt a pain in my head.” With the hand he wasn’t holding, she reached up to feel the back of her head. “Oh God, I guess I did. I have an egg back here.”

  The detective asked her a series of questions, but nothing jogged her memory.

  “Did I only get beat up?” she said, frightened that she might have been raped.

  “Luckily, the attack was interrupted by another runner,” Detective Sanders replied, looking into her eyes. “He didn’t see faces, because when he approached, the assailant took off into the brush. You didn’t have a phone or wallet, so we assumed you were robbed.”

  “I left everything at home,” she said, lying back against the pillow. Closing her eyes, she was so tired. “When can I go?”

  “How do you feel?” the nurse asked.

  “I’m pissed! I want to go home,” she said, unable to control her anger any longer.

  “You’re stable, so I don’t see any reason you have to stay. I’ll ask the doctor for discharge orders.”

  “If you remember anything, no matter how inconsequential it might seem to you, call me,” Detective Sanders said, handing her a business card.

  “I wish I could remember something, anything,” she said, frustrated.

  “You get upset now,” Lee said, shooting daggers at the detective.

  Kelly put her head back on the pillow.

  “I’ll be in touch,” the detective said, letting go of her hand.

  After the nurse and detective left, the family stayed in the room, her children upset, petting her and asking her what they could do.

  “Someone, please go home and make sure Beaver is okay. Do I have clothes to wear? Because I’m leaving. I’m not hanging around here waiting for some resident to finish his dinner.”

  It was so rare to see Kelly aggressive, no one challenged her. Lee rummaged through her belongings in a bag from the ER.

  “Your top and jacket are soaked with blood,” Lee said.

  “Scalp wounds bleed like a pig,” Ken said.

  “Steve, boys, leave so she can get dressed,” Karen said, trying to help Kelly scoot to the side of the bed.

  Lee put out her arm for Kelly to grab. Everyone left the room but Karen and Lee, both helping her dress in bloody clothes. “I can’t believe this,” Kelly said. “Now I have to worry about leaving the hou
se alone?”

  “No, but maybe stay out of the park,” Karen said.

  “Titan upset,” Lee said. “He said he usually run with you now, but he go too slow, so you go without him.”

  “This is true,” Kelly said, and the three women laughed. “But it’s not his fault.”

  “I’m sorry about everything I said,” Karen said, choking up.

  Lee looked at Karen, curious.

  “Augie left his wife,” Kelly explained to Lee, no longer caring about their opinions. The truth was the truth.

  “He might change his mind,” Lee said. “He miss his kids or feel guilty. Something.”

  “I can only hope,” Kelly said.

  “We don’t judge each other anymore,” Lee said. “It don’t help.”

  “Oh lord, it really doesn’t,” Kelly said. “By the way, how’s Anne doing, cradle robber?”

  Karen snickered, embarrassed. “She’s okay. She’ll be upset when she hears about this.”

  “Anne’s a cop,” Kelly told Lee.

  “Someday, I learn all the characters in the play,” Lee said. “I need to know, for Tet.”

  “Why Tet?” Karen asked.

  “It the New Year, why else?” Lee said, shrugging her shoulders. “We pray for each other.

  “Like you do a New Year’s resolution. Baker used to say every New Year he go on a diet. But he die fat.” Staring Karen up and down as if to say I rest my case, she kept talking.

  “During Tet, I pray for each person so the Kitchen God will tell the Jade Emperor good things about the family. We forget about the troubles of the past, and hope for a better new year. This year, Titan don’t visit no one on Tet because of Jean. Bad luck all year if he visits.”

  “Because she died?” Kelly asked, putting her arm in the bloody jacket Lee held for her.

  “Yes,” Lee said. “I hope no one else die this year. Baker die, so I don’t visit no one last year. Every year someone die.”

  Karen and Kelly made eye contact over Lee’s head. “I hope no one else dies this year, too,” Kelly said, putting her arm around Lee’s shoulders.

  “Come on, you two, I want to get out of here. Can you take me home?” Kelly asked Karen. “We have to talk.”

  “Of course,” she said.

  They walked out to the parking lot, everyone inquiring about her welfare. “Thank you for coming. We’ll still have family council tomorrow afternoon.”

  Concerned for her, but not wanting to say too much in front of the family, Titan caught her eye and winked, mouthing see you later, to which she nodded her head.

  Karen held the door open for her while the others hovered around her. “Please, all of you go home. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  Resigned, they kissed her and moved to their own cars. Waving to her children as Karen pulled out of the parking lot, Kelly was aware of pain in her face and her ribs, her head pounding.

  “Why would anyone jump me? I don’t get it, it feels all wrong.”

  “Why didn’t you say anything to the cop?” Karen asked.

  “Steve was standing right there, the kids were there, I didn’t want to upset anyone.”

  “You’re an attractive woman,” Karen said. “Who knows if the other runner didn’t stop a rape?”

  “I thought of that, too. But it doesn’t seem likely that two men would attack to rape in broad daylight.”

  “You know there were two men?”

  Kelly looked out the window, remembering suddenly.

  “I do. I remember mumbling, voices saying something to each other like hit her harder. At least knock her out.”

  She riffled through her jacket, looking for the card the detective had given her. “I’m going to call him. Let me have your phone.”

  “You’re scaring me,” Karen said. “You’re suggesting someone did this to you on purpose?”

  “That’s what I’m suggesting,” she said, keying the number in.

  By the time the detective got on the line, they were at Kelly’s house. “I remember two distinct voices,” she said to him. “One of the men said hit her harder. I was already down on the ground, but I do remember that. Two men.”

  The detective said something that Karen didn’t hear, the fear building up.

  “I think it was on purpose. Not random,” Kelly said into the phone.

  “What makes you say that?” Marty Sanders asked, taking her concerns seriously.

  “Two men seem like overkill, first of all. If someone was going to rape me, they wouldn’t come in a pair. I think it was done to scare me. Just to beat me up.”

  “Who would have reason to want you to be scared?” the detective asked.

  “I don’t know,” she said. “I’m getting a divorce, but it’s hardly contentious. That was my husband in the hospital room, his girlfriend washing my face.”

  “CSI found a large rock with blood on it. It may be the weapon,” he said, deciding to share information with her that they’d usually keep under wraps until all testing was completed.

  “Someone threw a rock at me?”

  “Could be. And when you were down, you heard those voices. If the runner hadn’t happened by, it could have been much worse.”

  “Someone tried to kill me?” she asked, incredulous.

  “It is possible. The rock has prints on it, so we might have answers soon. If you think of anything else, call me,” he said. “I’ll be in touch as soon as we have something definitive.”

  They said goodbye and Kelly ended the call, stunned.

  “Did I just hear that the police think someone is trying to kill you?” Karen asked.

  “He said it’s possible. They found a rock with blood on it,” she said. “It might have prints, too.”

  “Titan is here,” Karen said, trying not to sneer.

  “He’s living here, Karen. Get used to it,” Kelly said. “Here he comes to get me. Watch, he’ll try to carry me. Steve would let me crawl to the house.”

  Pushing the door open, she tried to smile at him. “Ouch,” she groaned. “I guess there are no smiles for a while.”

  “I’m carrying you,” he said.

  “No way,” she cried, but he had her up in his arms and walked toward the house with Kelly giving Karen the thumbs-up.

  Karen couldn’t help it, she started to cry, it was all too emotional for her, and she didn’t understand the jealousy she was feeling. The temptation to drive away was strong, but she pulled it together and followed them inside. Feeling jumbled and confused, Kelly was drifting away from her. There didn’t seem to be any way to stop the progression.

  “I had to do an acting number to keep my mother away from here,” Titan said, opening the door and not dropping Kelly. “She was hell-bent on being your private nurse.”

  “Aw, that’s so nice of her,” Kelly said, bordering on sarcasm. “Put me down, please.”

  They helped get her jacket off. “I need to get into the shower and wash this blood off,” she said.

  “Come on. I’ll help you,” Karen said.

  Waiting outside the bathroom door while Kelly showered just in case she got dizzy, Karen was aware of the shift in their relationship. It was more than Titan being there, more than Steve leaving. Kelly came out with a towel wrapped around her head.

  “I’m a mess,” she said. “Help me comb my hair, will you? I’m afraid I’ll pull out the staple in my scalp and start another bloodletting.”

  Afterward, they went back into the living room. Titan had the television on, watching the game.

  “I guess I’m not cleaning house tonight,” she said, resting her head back on the cushion.

  “I bought a bottle of wine especially for the occasion,” Karen said. “I won’t know what to do with myself.”

  “Karen, sit down,” Kelly said. “You’re making me nervous.”

  “You wanted to talk,” Karen said. “I’m not in the best shape emotionally for a discussion that will make a bit of sense.”

  “We need to air our grievances with e
ach other. You’re upset with my family, but I can’t do anything about it. The children are grown. Augie is middle-aged. I don’t want to hear anything negative about my kids from the one person I trust.”

  Titan shut the television off.

  “I’ll be back,” he said, pointing to the staircase. “I have a few calls to make.”

  “So I’m supposed to keep my concerns to myself?” Karen replied, ignoring him.

  “Yes, or tell Augie what’s worrying you. I don’t need to hear it,” Kelly said. “I’m tired, Karen. I need your support, not your criticism.”

  Karen sat on the edge of the couch. “You keep making mistakes,” she whispered.

  “If inviting Titan here was a mistake, I accept that,” Kelly said, her heart rate increasing. “What other mistakes did I make?”

  “You’re seeing him,” Karen said, obviously bristling. “That’s just weird! He’s your husband’s son. It looks like you’re doing it for revenge.”

  “What if I am?” she asked.

  At that moment, Kelly made the decision not to defend herself. If her beloved sister thought this of her, there was likely nothing she could say to change her mind.

  “Karen, what’s your point?”

  A place of comfort she’d always had with Karen shut down. However, Karen was far from finished.

  “You should have thrown Steve out long before this,” she said. “I can probably think of ten times Mom and Dad and I thought, This time she’ll do it. This time she’ll get wise.”

  Brushing a tear away, Kelly couldn’t believe what she’d just heard. Her marriage unmistakably had been a topic of conversation in her family, how stupid she was to keep her marriage vows. The betrayal was heartbreaking.

  “It’s amazing to me that it took a bastard son to get you to finally end it with Steve.”

  Shocked, Kelly glanced at the staircase, hoping Titan didn’t hear that.

  “Earlier this week you agreed that I did everything I could to save my marriage. I didn’t end it, Karen! He did. You know he left me for Lee. He’d probably still be in the basement if I’d had my way. You’ve missed the point completely. I was married to the father of my children. This was our life. It wasn’t your life to live. It wasn’t your business but to love me and support me.”