NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: Another ficlet that will become part of a larger work. To anyone who's reading, consider yourselves fortunate because you're getting a sneak peek of my larger work. This ficlet begins in medias res, (Latin for "in the midst of things"). Here, it's the Tuesday after Wrestlemania 30, and Jay has received a note from Luke telling him that someone will be at his hotel room to take him home, which is now the Wyatt Compound.
If Violet and Verbina look and sound familiar, they are from Dean Koontz's book The Bad Place (their physical descriptions, anyway!). They aren't creepy in this one, they're sweet, they're friendly, and they're NORMAL (as normal as you can get anyway). Violet's the caretaker for her sister, who has special needs (as you will soon read about).
Meet The Twins
...Perhaps after washing up, he could do some studying while he waited for his ride to arrive. Bray's last lesson about the Seven Diamonds Plus One had been very enlightening, and it left Jay wanting to learn more about it. He fumbled through his suitcase and carry-on in search of the book he'd packed with him. Final Quest, Final Quest, I know I packed it-
His search was interrupted by a loud knock on the door. Jay glanced up, the search for his book abandoned. "Hold on a second," he called out, searching for his pajama pants. He found them under the bed and slipped them on before he threw open the door. "Uh...hi?"
Standing in the doorway was a pair of identical twin girls. One of them wore a red t-shirt and jeans, and the other wore a black t-shirt and jeans. They were rather tall and slender like ballerinas, and both of them were pretty. Their hair was long and blonde, so blonde it was almost white, and their eyes were almond shaped and soft blue, like a pair of faded jeans. Briefly, Jay wondered if the two of them were ring rats, and was about to turn them down politely (he didn't swing that way), until one of them-the one in the black t-shirt—spoke:
"Hi, you must be Jay. Bray told us to come and fetch you." Her voice sounded the same way a candied pear might taste. You had to be born hock-deep in hominy grits to get a drawl like hers.
"Bray?" Jay shook his head and stared bewildered at the twins. The fog of sleep was beginning to lift from Jay's mind, and he remembered the note that Luke had left on the nightstand. "Oh, I remember now."
"Yeah. Bina (she pronounced it Beena) and I, we live on the compound with our momma. The boys have the Smackdown taping tonight, and since you didn't have anything scheduled, Bray asked Bina and me to come fetch you and take you home." The talkative twin held out a hand in greeting. Jay didn't shake the slim hand, but the girl didn't seem to pay attention. "I'm Violet Beth Pollard, but everyone calls me Violet."
"Hi. Who's Bina?"
"My sister," Violet explained, glancing over to her twin, who was looking down at the floor. Gently, she said, "Bina, it's okay. Jay won't hurt you. And Bray said we have to take him home." Bina shook her head. Violet continued. "Don't worry. Bina's kinda shy of talking to people she doesn't know very well."
Bina lifted her head cautiously and studied Jay like he was a cloud formation she'd never seen before.
Jay let a kindly smile spread slowly across his face. "Hi. I'm Luke's..." He was about to say lover, but he stopped himself. Something about the shy blonde girl told Jay that she was different. Not retarded or slow or anything like that. But she wouldn't understand the context of lover in this instance. "I'm Luke's special friend."
A full half-minute of uncomfortable silence passed between the three of them. Finally, Bina let out a scream, and her face broke out into a megawatt smile. Before anyone else could speak, the shy blonde threw herself at Jay and wrapped her arms around him, practically tackling him as she barged through the doorway and into the room. Violet, with a beleaguered look on her pretty face, brought up the rear, closing the door behind her.
"Look, Violet! It's an angel!" Bina squeaked, the joy rolling off her in waves. She looked up at the (unofficially) retired wrestler in wonder. "You're Luke's Angel! Luke talks about you all the time. He calls you his Angel Boy. Oh, by the way, I'm Verbina Jane Pollard, and I'm an Aspie, but everyone calls me Bina, and so should you."
"Uh...okay." Jay wasn't sure how to handle such an introduction. "Aspie?"
"Bina has Asperger's Syndrome," Violet explained. "It's a form of autism. She has some developmental issues and she has trouble socializing. There's a lot of other things that go with it, but those are the two main ones." A pause, and then Violet cautiously approached her sister. "Bina, you gotta let go of Jay. He has to wash up and get dressed and packed. I'll turn on the TV, and you can watch the Weather Channel."
With a whine, Bina reluctantly let go of Luke's special friend and let her sister guide her to one of the beds in the room. "But he looks fine. Just has to put on some shoes. And I don't like Weather Channel. They don't have weather on anymore. Find something else."
Violet got her sister situated in front of the TV. After thumbing through the program guide, they both settled on CNN. Jay watched the girls with amusement and then stepped into the bathroom to wash up. "Make yourselves comfortable," he told the girls before he stepped into the shower and turned the water on. "I shouldn't be too long."
And he was right about that. Jay was out of the shower, dressed, and packed in less than half an hour (he traveled light these days, and he wasn't the type to primp every five minutes), and he and the twins were out of the hotel fifteen minutes after that.
Violet's car was a big, blue twenty year old Buick in need of a wash. After stowing Jay's suitcase and carry-on in the trunk, Violet climbed behind the wheel, and Jay slid into the passenger's seat. Bina curled up in the backseat like a little girl preparing to take a nap, and soon they were on the road.
"Omigod, are the rumors true? Are you really going to retire?" Violet asked, as she wove the big car through mid-morning traffic. "I know you've been getting hurt and all, but I thought you'd have at least one more title run in you before you decided to call it quits."
"I've had a chance to rethink some priorities," Jay said, simply. "I mean, I've been in the business the better part of two decades, so what's left for me? Besides, I need to step away for a while."
"I can only imagine what your retirement speech will sound like. I'll be bawling like a baby when I hear it I'm sure. It's sad that you're leaving, but I hope your friends will give you a nice send-off."
"I can only hope. Vince would rather show me the door without any fanfare and then put out a press release two days later wishing me success in my future endeavors. The rumors about Vince McMahon never liking me...unfortunately, they aren't rumors."
"What?" Bina looked incredulous. "But you're an angel. Why would someone hate an angel?"
"Because there are some people who are mean to others just for the sake of being mean."
"Momma says those are the people who need angels the most," Bina said, matter-of-fact. She glanced out the window and tensed up. Violet had just swung the car into a Walmart parking lot. "Why are we stopping?"
"We haven't eaten yet. There's a McDonald's here and we can pick up breakfast. And we should get some things to snack on for the trip. It's a four-hour drive home."
"I can't go in there!" Bina shook her head, averting her eyes. "Violet, it's loud, I don't wanna go in there!"
"Bina, we have to eat," Violet admonished her twin, gently, as she parked the car. "We won't be in there too long, and you can't stay in the car by yourself. It's already getting hot outside."
"Noooo," Bina moaned, shaking her head. "I don't wanna go. Don't make me go! Don't wanna! Don't wanna! Don't wanna!"
By this time, Bina was trembling violently and clutching her head as she rocked back and forth. She was like a three year-old throwing a tantrum, but Jay knew a little bit about autism. Many people with the condition had issues with sensory overload. A simple trip to the store would be traumatic; the simple hustle and bustle of a store and its shoppers would sound and feel like a stampede of elephants, leaving them so overwhelmed, they'd shut down to protect themselves.
While watching Bina tremble on the verge of a meltdown, Jay suddenly had an idea. "Violet, pop open the trunk," he instructed her, as he climbed out of the car. "I think I have something that'll help your sister."
Jay zipped open the front pocket of his carry-on bag and fumbled through it until he pulled out a hard plastic case. He opened up the case, revealing a pair of earplugs, which he handed off to Violet, who had climbed into the backseat to comfort her sister. "Stick these in Bina's ears," he instructed her before he closed the trunk lid.
It took Violet almost ten minutes to persuade Bina to take her hands off her ears and another five to convince her to put the earplugs in. Jay marveled at how patient Violet was with her sister; he wasn't sure how he'd be able to handle the situation. "I've been her shadow for as long as I can remember," Violet explained, answering the unspoken question as she climbed out of the car. "Some people are born with infinite patience, and some aren't. I'm one of the lucky ones."
Jay nodded in agreement. He could appreciate infinite patience. Luke was blessed with it as well.
The effect of the earplugs on Bina was quite swift. She gazed around in wonder, her eyes impossibly wide; any wider, and she'd look like an anime drawing. "My ears, they don't hurt anymore."
"Why did I not think to pack earplugs?" Violet admonished herself, shaking her head. She paused, and then ventured cautiously, "Bina, are you ready to get out of the car now?"
Bina glanced around nervously. "I'm...I'm not sure I can," she stammered, and for a moment, she, Violet, and Jay stood or sat around in slightly awkward silence, unsure of what to do next.
It was Jay that came up with another solution. He hunkered down in front of Violet's nervous twin and smiled gently at her. "Well..." he suggested. "How about all of us going in together. I'll even hold your hand, okay?"
Bina pondered the suggestion, and then she let a smile spread across her face. Momma always told her that angels were good, and they protected and helped people. And since Jay was Luke's Angel, well who was she to argue? Besides, she liked the idea of an real, live angel holding her hand. "Okay," she chirped like a little girl, holding out her hand so that Jay could help her out of the car. "Violet, can I have an Egg McMuffin? And I want peanut butter cheese crackers for the trip home..."
The three of them finally made their way into the store. Bina practically skipped along as she held Jay's hand to the point where it almost hurt. Jay didn't mind; in fact, he almost welcomed the discomfort. It helped him get his mind off of the fact that he was entering a wide-open space.
It was almost impossible to think that one of the greatest superstars in WWE history was agoraphobic. But then again, being chained to the floor in the middle of a cold, dark garage without any sort of shelter for days on end can do that to a man.
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: Jay's backstory in this one is the series of Luke/Jay one shots by theytalktome on FFDN. His captivity was NOT hearts and flowers, and it left him DAMAGED. Agoraphobia is only ONE of the residual effects he's going to suffer from in my bigger work. Good thing he's got Luke to take care of him:)
REVIEWS = LOVE