Daddy Dearest part two
A story by Beardguy57.
Jack slept for hours. He woke up to the smell of bacon.
He carefully picked Taz up off of him, patted him, and went to the bathroom, then got dressed and walked downstairs to the kitchen.
" Goodmorning, Jack. How did you sleep? "
" Morning, Mom. " Jack looked at the bacon. He was very hungry after not having eaten any dinner the night before.
He hungrily watched the strips fry in the pan. His mother was cooking eggs and toast, too.
" I slept great. I was exhausted. "
" I know you were. You've been through so much. I'm very sorry about Trudy. I know how much you loved her."
" Yes..thank you. " Jack winced as he said this. It had only been 4 months since the accident. He was still in mourning.
Soon, the food was on the table. Jack ate rather quickly as his mother went on about the nieghbors, and their doings.
He stood up, thanked his mother for the meal, and went out to the van, and unpacked everything, then took the van to the nearest company to return it. He took a cab home, as his mother had trouble driving.
In the following months, Jack had resumed his job at home of selling his artwork online. He threw himself into his work. He had to, or lonelieness and a deep, consuming sorrow would set in.
One afternoon, he just sat at his desk for a while and thought about his family.....
Jack and his mother got along pretty well. She was a kind woman who had her own sewing business for many years, until arthritis had afflicted her hands badly, then she had retired. She'd had to work after her husband left her.
Jack had an older sister. Her name was Donna. She was 5 years older than he. Donna was a heavyset woman. She had an equally heavy husband, and four children who were just like Donna, and all were obnoxious.Jack and his sister did not get along. Jack had always been close with his mother, and Donna was their father's little girl. She married late in life, and both she and her husband had to work two jobs to support the children, and because Jack's father was not very generous at helping his children, even though he was quite a wealthy man.
To their father, who had left their mother over 30 years ago, Donna could do no wrong, and he had never hit her or yelled at her, where as, Jack had been his father's whipping boy. If the man came home in a bad mood, which was nearly all the time, he took it out on Jack. He abused Jack verbally and physically.
Jack had feared his father as a child, and still did at age 40. His father had a violent temper. He'd beat Jack for such things as dropping a pea accidentally on the floor during a meal, spilling milk at the dinner table, and when Jack was 17, he dropped a two dollar light bulb, so his father beat him, and smashed Jack's car with a sledge hammer.
Jack had a talent for drawing from an early age. He drew his favorite superheroes when he was a child, then got into drawing portraits, landscapes, etc, as he grew older. His father, who had no creative talents, mocked Jacks' artistic abilities, and called it " Drawing little men. "
That was what his father called his artwork. Little men.
Jack's father was a big , heavy set man, six foot two with grey thinning hair, and angry, intense green eyes. He rarely smiled, unless he was watching a Tv show where people would get hurt or die in explosions or a hail of bullets. then he'd sit and laugh. He remarried less than six months after the divorce to a woman he'd been sleeping with almost the entire marriage to Jack's mother..a shrew of a woman who'd been young and beautiful, but who had put on a hundred pounds as she got older.
Jack's father had treated his mother badly, too. He never hit Jack's mother, but did put her down verbally quite badly to her face. Though Jack's mother, whose name was Carol, had been a good mother and faithful wife, her husband, whose name was Hector, had been a poor father, and often slept with other woman. He cheated on his second wife, too.
Jack went to college briefly, but dropped out. He then moved in with his mother. He'd had to live with his father after the divorce, until he'd left home, because Jack's father wanted to hurt the mother by taking her children away from her. After he left college, Jack began creating and selling his own artwork. He was good at it, and thus managed to support himself that way.
Jack thought about all this, then returned his concentration to his day to day existance.
The seasons passed quickly now. Jack did try dating but nothing ever came of it. None of the woman he met were as beautiful as Trudy, nor were they as intelligent or as clever with words as she had been.
Taz grew older. He remained a true friend to Jack. His mother loved Taz, too. Taz slept with Jack, and responded mostly to him, but he would also get in Jack's Mother's lap, and purr as she petted him.
Sometimes, Taz would get out of the house, and Jack would have to chase him down. Taz thought his was great sport! He was fast, but eventually, Jack was always able to coax Taz back to him. Taz loved Jack, and Jack loved Taz.
" This is a VERY special cat. " Jack's mother told him one night while they were both on the couch watching " Gone With The Wind " on the tv. Taz was sleeping peacefully in Jack's mother's lap.
" I know," he said, and smiled at the sight of the two of them together.
Jack had always felt guilty about Trudy's death since it happened, because she was doing something for him. She had gone to buy him a cake on his birthday. He'd told her it would be ok if she just made a cake for him. All the nessecary ingredients were already in the fridge. She was dead set on buying a store bought cake for him. Jack had a bad feeling about her going out that day, and he felt he could have done a lot better to persuade her not to go. She became annoyed with Jack, kissed him, smiled, and got into her car and went to the market. A pick up truck at an intersection had run a red light and hit her head on at 60 miles per hour. He felt she would still be alive if he hadn't been hesitant about confrontation, and had insisted that she not go. The guilt gnawed at his conscience like wolves eating a fresh kill.
Jack had stayed in touch with his friend Mike, who was the one who had introduced Jack and Trudy. He was the only real friend Jack had after Trudy died. One day, he had a heart attack and died, leaving behind a wife and two children. Jack missed him very much. Mike was a big burly man, with a neatly trimmed moustache and a rather jovial disposition.
The years passed. Jacks' mother was now in a wheel chair, and needed a LOT of help from Jack just to do her every day chores. Jack did not mind helping her, even though it was tiring having to do everything around the house. She was his mother and he loved her.
Eventually, Jack's mother grew weaker, but he did not put her into a nursing home. He knew she'd rather die than go into one. At age 85, she caught pnuemonia, had to be hospitalized, and died shortly after.
Jack cried a lot the first few days. He phoned his sister, knowing full well she would call their father and tell him straight away.
He told her, and the first thing she said was, " What's in the will for me? "
" Donna, your mother just died and that's ALL you can say about her? " , Jack asked her angrily, barely able to keep from shouting at her.
'' Yes, stupid, now tell me....or I'll call dad..and let him ask you. "
Jack shuddered at the mention of his father. They both knew he owned several guns. " For protection. ", He'd always told them. Jack knew he was in trouble, even though their was a will this time, he knew his father would want him out of the house so that his sister could sell it and get the money to support her family.
" You do what you have to do, and I'll do what I have to do. " he calmly told her, forming a plan in his head. If his father DID come to Jack's house and tried making him leave, maybe his father would hit him, and leave marks on him. Then he might be able to have his father thrown in jail. It was risky business. He knew " Daddy Dearest " always took a handgun where ever he went.
" What does that mean? ", his sister demanded, in her usual condescending tone.
He hung up on Donna. That gave him some satisfaction.
His mother had told him not to let Donna and his father walk all over him. Over the years, at age 58 now, he had finally learned to be more assertive.
Donna came to the funeral with her husband and two children. She almost never visited her mother after she had gotten married at age 18 and moved out, but was now playing the part of the dutiful daughter in mourning.
She had the same cold, emotionless look in her eyes she'd always had. Her eyes reminded Jack of a shark.
She approached Jack, and asked him again, " What is in the will for me? ", she asked in an annoyed voice.
" You'll find out next week, we aren't going to talk about that now. ", he coldly informed her.
" Okay. " She smiled and did not speak to him the rest of the funeral, which was at the town funeral home. Their were a lot of pink carnations and pink roses there in the funeral parlor. Jack knew they were his mother's favorites, and did not mind spending the extra money on them.
Jack spoke of how his mother had worked hard for many years, had been a loving mother and a good wife to a man who could have cared less, and who had treated her like shit the entire 17 years they'd been married. After their divorce, Hector gave his ex wife only a tiny amount of child support, and merely laughed at her whenever she asked for more.
She encouraged Jack to do his artwork, praised him,and would have sent him to art school had she had the money. Jack's father merely laughed when, after his high school graduation, he asked his father to send him to art school.
Jack's father had merely smiled and said, " Not with my money, Baby! You can go to college or trade school, or get a job, but no art school for you. "
Jack's mother had persevered through a lot in her life, and still managed to retain her good disposition and caring ways.
During Jack's speech, his sister, Donna, just sat there and stared at him, her face an emotionless mask that did not betray the comtempt she held for her brother. She got up and said only a few words about her mother, only that she had worked hard to be able to reward her children upon her demise. Donna allowed herself a small smile when she was done, and glared at Jack.
After the funeral, Jack went home alone. He did not invite Donna to the house. He did not like her before his mother died, and he liked her even less now.
He found the front door unlocked, and knew something was very wrong immediately . He smelled the bad odor of a cheap cigar.
He saw his father, sitting on the couch with his feet up on the coffee table.
'' Hello, son. " He said sarcastically, smiling at Jack, wearing a very smug expression on his aged face.
To be continued.
