Chapter 9
The Whispers
aka Mr. and Mrs. Steven Hyde Return to Point Place
January 4, 1947
Jackie was alone and not alone because her husband was at work. It was a Saturday night and she was still
expected to "keep house" and do the things expected of a wife. Steven hasn't slept with her since the night of
December 23rd. The phone call from Red Forman on Christmas Eve changed everything. He didn't talk to her, he
only issued her commands such as the buttons that needed mending on the shirt he wanted to wear at his first
day back at work in Point Place since they had left for St. Louis. Then he figured she had nothing better to do
than to repair four of his shirts. He probably ripped the buttons off out of spite. The whole situation was awful.
Their neighbors who pretended not to be looking were on their porches and were pointing and whispering
everyone believing, no one disbelieving that she had an affair with Mailman McConnell.
It was as if Steven wanted her to be humiliated as he wanted her to walk to the grocers by herself,
no one was concerned if "the brown person" should be out and about the city streets. The Potters left food in
the refrigerator during "Steven's trying time."
Why?
Jackie was right here. She was able to cook. Kitty wasn't on the porch when she walked by her house,
but she could see her frame in her parlor window spying and no doubt ready to run to
her telephone declaring that she saw "the town pariah" walking down the streets of Point Place. She almost
forgot to put on her little white gloves, but she didn't want to be hung from a tree if she didn't look like the
dutiful wife.
They didn't even need sugar and flour; she could hear the giggling and whispering as she walked
down the baking aisle for the damn sugar and flour. The only one who didn't seem to be giggling and whispering
as she showed her face in the town was Laurie Forman; her face suggested a pity, which was better than being
laughed at.
She was going to be out of Point Place during Harvest Season anyway, so bless her for feeling pity. Michael
was selling lollipops inside the store by the big gum ball machine when she was done buying items that were
not needed, because Steven felt like proving a point.
Jackie felt like she was being kicked in the stomach with no end in sight.
"Hi, Jackie," Michael tipped his hat, "Have a lollipop."
He gave her an orange sucker.
"Thank you."
Someone was actually nice to her and it was the man, her former boyfriend, who her
husband didn't want her to talk to. Oh, THEY were ALL going to point and whisper and
call THE MAYOR from their telephones to warn him of the faux salaciousness of it all.
He bent down to whisper in her ear, yes, they were ALL going to TALK ABOUT HER.
"I know you didn't have any affair."
Jackie felt like she could start crying as Mrs. Wilson, the wife of Dr. Wilson, shook her
head as a teenage boy wearing a white smock and netted rectangular-pointed cap wheeled
her cart to her car for her to help her pack the groceries into the trunk.
"Thank you, Michael," She need to reach for a handkerchief and dot the corners of her eyes,
least her make-up smear, "Where's Fez?"
"Sleepin'. He's not feelin' well. You should leave, Jackie. See you later." Michael Kelso
didn't want his beautiful, could've been chiseled in marble face to meet the angry fist of
Mayor and all-around important town citizen Steven Hyde.
"Bye, Michael, and thank you."
She couldn't stop saying thank you; Michael was the only person who believed that she
was innocent. It kind of made her day.
Jackie was surprised that Steven kept up his silence as he read his newspaper, while she
sewed the buttons on his dark green work shirt.
You mean no one told you I talked to Michael at Loudon's store?
He whispered in my ear, I'm sure it looked guilty…..
"Get me a cup of coffee."
Not would I? Even though it was a never a choice, he was always polite about it, not
anymore.
When Jackie was in the safety of the kitchen she softly sighed, she put her hands on the
sides of the sink and there was Eric looking through the window. There was something
about his face that made her increasingly uncomfortable. He waved to her. She ignored
Eric and went to focus on what she was ordered to do and that was to pour her husband a
cup of coffee.
Someone was talking to her husband in the living room and she heard the door to his den
close and he was never to be disturbed when he was in there. She poured the coffee back into the pot and
figured she better start dinner, she was damned if she was going to reheat the Potter's beef stew. It was the
principle of it all.
She knew it was about her.
15 minutes later
Jackie put a piece of aluminum foil over her favorite yellow bowl, she figured she could make a decent meatloaf,
but she could feel her husband's presence in the kitchen.
"Did you want your coffee, Steven? I didn't want to disturb you when I heard the door to your den close."
"How considerate of you."
"Steven, what am I supposed to do ignore the people who talk to me? It's not very polite."
"I'm glad I have friends in the community who look up and are concerned about ME. Laurie told Eric that you
were conversin' with Michael."
"That's a crime now?"
So that's why Eric waved to her from the window, he had to tell his best friend Steven about the spectacle that
Laurie saw at the grocers.
"It is when he is your former boyfriend!"
"I'm NOT going to have an affair with Michael, just like I did NOT have an affair with Mailman McConnell. Why
won't you believe me?"
"It's been a mild winter*. I'd like to know how your hair clips wound up on his property."
It was a very good thing that Eric dropped his Roosevelt Dime or he never would found Jackie's hair clips behind
the lifeless floral bush.
"I don't know. I really don't know."
She tried her best to not cry.
"Here's what I know. Mr. and Mrs. Forman invited ME to dinner, so I don't have to be in the same room as you.
You're goin' to finish my shirts and I don't want to hear another peep out of you today."
Jackie felt like she was kicked in the stomach. Why didn't the man she loved the most in this world not believe
her? She let the tears fall out of her eyes and decided she better finish the meatloaf she could make sandwiches
for Steven's lunch tomorrow. He'd never want good food go to waste.
Jackie looked up; she slightly jumped when she saw Eric in the window waving at her again.
Forman Residence #1
Kitty had to hide her delight when in Mayor Steven Hyde's presence. She made a lemon
roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, with her homemade gravy, candied carrots, and for dessert was her crumb
cake, the one that Jackie scoffed at awhile back. It was only herself, Red, and Steven.
"Thank you for your hospitality." Steven said to the both of them.
"There's no need." Red said
"We're happy to help you during your tryin' time. When you gentlemen go in the parlor. I'll get your dessert
ready. I know you like my crumb cake, Steven, I used extra butter."
He smiled.
Mrs. Forman was everything a woman should be.
Hyde Residence
The phone rang for the sixth time and each time, someone would hang up. Jackie knew she had to answer it
because if it was Steven and she didn't pick up, he would never forgive her.
Supper was awful. She ate a small bowl of canned chicken noodle soup and forced half a cup of
coffee down and that was when she didn't have to get up and answer the phone.
"Hello? Who is this?"
She could hear a crinkling noise so as the bottom of the receiver was covered to disguise their voice.
"Does someone have something to say to me?"
The muffled voice said what she partly expected to hear, "you are a whore….."
"W-who is this?"
They hung up. Jackie put her fingers through her hair. She wished she could tell Steven, so he could make it
right, but if she told him he'd probably just agree with the assessment.
There was nothing left to do, but wash the dishes and finish the mending of her husband's
shirts in an uncomfortable empty house.
Author's Note: I don't know what the weather was in January of 1947, but for the sake of plot, there was
no measurable snow.