Jondy the Abandoner four: Streaming Freedom Video
Chapter Five: Bedtime Stories
Heeding Zack's warning, Jondy got out of Portland and drove north for about an hour or so before stopping again. Aldrea was spread out on the backseat fast asleep, and Jondy didn't see why they shouldn't just sleep in the car, so she declined her seat and closed her eyes.
"Mom?"
Jondy started, "Oh Kiddo, I thought you were asleep."
"What are we going to do?"
"Well, I suppose we'll find someplace new to live. I'll find a new job, you'll go to a new school. It won't be so bad."
"But, will we ever see Brian again?" Aldrea's eyes were glistening.
"No Aldrea. We'll never see him again. And we can't have anything to do with our old place ever again." Jondy felt the sobs queuing up painfully in her throat. Aldrea's lip trembled.
Jondy pictured Brian coming home to a ransacked apartment with a shocked expression on his face. All signs that she or Aldrea had ever been in his life gone. She could see him burst into tears of confusion and agony.
"I'm scared Mommy. Why do we have to leave? Why do there have to be bad guys? Why can't Brian come with us?"
"I know it's hard Kiddo. That's why I tried so hard for us to stay there. That's why I always get so irritated by Zack-"
"You don't like Zack?"
"Aldrea, I love Zack. But if things were his way we would've moved a long time ago. If things were his way, we would've never gotten to know Brian. If things were Zack's way, we could never have a life. Trust me Aldrea, Zack's right about a lot of things, but he takes things too far. He would never understand that I loved Brian."
"Brian was going to be my daddy, because I never had a daddy," Aldrea said softly. "I loved Brian too. He was kind."
Jondy nodded, tears were streaming down her face. She always tried to be strong in front of Aldrea. Oh for fuck sake, why couldn't she control her goddamn tears? And now Aldrea's tears were falling too. Lovely, what a couple of saps, sitting in a stolen car, crying over some guy.
That thought elicited a sob that felt like it came up from Jondy's bowels. "Mommy," Aldrea whimpered and climbed into the front seat so she could sit in her Jondy's lap. Adjusting herself to sit comfortably, she brushed away some of her mother's tears. "Tell me about your siblings. My aunts and uncles."
"Why do you want to hear about them?" Jondy whispered through her crying.
"I just want to know about them. I know you had a brother and a sister, but Zack acts like there are more sometimes."
"Yes, there are others. There's Zack of course, who's always been a jerk," a bittersweet smile lit Jondy's face, and Aldrea's tears stopped falling. "And then there's Max, who you've got your middle name after."
"Yeah. I know about that. What is she like?"
What is she like? Aldrea didn't know Max was dead. Didn't know how Jondy was responsible… CRACK… And Max was gone… That angelic, but yet so stoic face never to be seen again. Never to laugh in front of Jondy's eyes. Never to be Jondy's best friend in a time when any child would need a best friend to hold onto.
"Well honey," Jondy began, "Max was the best friend I ever had. She was caring and sweet and strong and she was my only little sister, because I was the second youngest. She and I would stay up all night telling stories about pretty much everything."
"Okay, if you could kiss anyone, who would it be?" inquired Max during one of their late night conversations. Moonbeams crossed Jondy's face as she pondered. "I don't know. I think either Zack or Krit."
"You'd kiss Zack?" said Max, almost too loudly. "Gross!"
"And she had my eyes right?" asked Aldrea. Oh god how her eyes resembled Maxie's.
"Yes, gorgeous eyes, just like yours. She had dark brown hair, much darker than yours, and beautiful olive skin. She was… pretty much the perfect person in my eyes, inside and out. If you grow up to be as amazing as Max was, then that would make me just about the best mom in the universe."
"Mom, of course you're the best in the universe!"
"Oh don't kid. You're just trying to make me feel better. Hmm, I just wish that I had a picture of Max to show you. I wish that I had a picture of us together… Aldrea, what all did Zack tell you about your barcode?
"He told me that you and me and him are special, and that's why we have got the barcodes. The barcodes are what means that the bad guys own us, but they can't own me as well, because they didn't get to program mine the way they would want. But the bad guys still want me and all of us because we're special."
"That's all?"
"Yeah," said Aldrea, snuggling in closer. Both of them had stopped crying, and their tears had been drying sticky on their faces, when Aldrea felt one of her mother's tear drops land on her head. "Why?"
"Oh, I was just wondering if he had told you anything about any of the others," Jondy lied. She had really been wondering how much Aldrea knew about Manticore. If she knew about genetic experiments or army drills in the yard, any of that. But apparently Zack had respected her wishes and only told Aldrea the bare minimum.
"Anyway Aldrea," Jondy continued, "the thing about Maxie is that she drown."
Running and running, cold nipping at her heals. Jondy's toes began to bleed on the icy snow that covered the pond. Helicopters. Spotlights. Had to keep running, running past the pain. CRACK! The sound that could never leave her mind. The sound that would haunt her forever, she could've turned back!
Aldrea turned around, big, brown Maxie eyes looking straight into Jondy's. "She's dead?"
"Yes, she's dead," Jondy's tears flowed freely down her cheeks and off her chin to splot on Aldrea's silky hair. "We were nine, and we were… Playing on the ice over a pond. Max was younger than me, but she was a little bigger, so when she stepped on the thinnest part of the ice, it broke. I yelled for her to come up, but I never saw her again."
"That's very sad Mommy," Aldrea whispered. Her mother was holding back sobs, she could tell, and the tears were completely unstoppable.
"Yeah. It is," Jondy said suddenly, stoic look back on her face. She brushed the dampness from her face. "But anyway, you wanted to know about the others too, yes?" Jondy suggested. She wanted to move onto a less painful subject than Max's death.
"Yes, who are they?"
"Well, there were quite a few of them. There was Tinga, she was one of my favorites. Tinga was my biggest sister, and she liked to take care of us litter ones. She wanted to protect all of us."
"Max, don't leave! They'll catch you and take you away too!" Tinga insisted. But Max wanted to see what they had done with Jack.
"Oh come on and let her go Tinga. All the guards are buffoons anyway. Or baboons, whichever." They all laughed as Max snuck quietly down the hall.
"And there was Krit, who was an all around jokester. Vadi would try to be as funny as he was, but her jokes were never as great. Krit would always make fun of our instructors behind their backs and it was hysterical. If we were still in class I had to try so hard not to laugh."
Krit turned to look at Jondy and mimed what their instructor would be like if he were being tortured. Jondy quickly smiled and quickly looked away as she snorted and heads turned her way. Zack and Brin glared at her, but Eva smiled and looked toward Krit condescendingly with her eyes as blue as blue could be. Except they weren't too big like Jondy thought hers were.
"Eva was the prettiest of all of us, and she was really smart too. She always like to talk to Brin and Syl, because they were really smart too. They could always figure things out between the three of them in no time.
"Zane was super friendly. He could always make anyone of us feel better with one of his big bear hugs. Jack was Zane's favorite, and Jack loved Zane the most too. Jack wasn't as good at most things, and Zane always cheered him up when he was down about it."
Jack lay in his bed moaning. His six year old form had started shaking again, and nobody knew what to make of it. He was the smallest after Jondy, and everyone was scared that he'd shake himself to pieces. Zane crawled across Jack's bed and wrapped the small boy up in his arms, pulling him into sitting positions, and resting Jack's head up against is chest. After several minutes, Jack's shaking started to subside, and Jack started to cry.
"It's okay Jack," said Zane. "You're the strongest of all of us for living through those shakes." A sparkle of hope and happiness glimmered in Jack's eyes.
"Zane was amazing. He could make anyone feel like they belonged. He always made Ben feel less scared when his imagination got away from him and he couldn't sleep.
"Ben had the biggest imagination of anyone I've ever known. He'd tell stories about horrible monsters that lived in the basement, and about the beautiful woman who could save us from them. Personally I think he got carried away with it."
Everyone was going up to the roof again, and Max stayed behind with Jondy. Jace was being trained in long term torture resistance that week, and Max didn't want to leave Jondy alone. Jondy felt that actually she would have preferred that she be alone. Ben's little dentistry school always made her feel uncomfortable.
"Why don't you like to go with Ben?" Max wondered aloud.
"Because it's stupid Max! Our teeth will serve us much better in our mouths than being left on the roof for some imaginary lady!"
"I know she's not real," said Max, obvious hurt in her voice. "But somehow it just makes me feel better. Not about the 'nomlies, but about the scientists, and the instructors and all the adults here. Besides, I only leave my teeth that are loose anyway."
"I just don't like it," said Jondy, her voice dispassionate. "Why don't you just go along with the others if you like it up there so much?"
Max flopped onto her bed and rolled over so she faced Jack's cot, and not Jondy's. Jondy covered her head with her pillow, not wanting Max to know that she was about to cry. Why did she want to go up on the stupid roof? Why couldn't her emotions be guided by logic? Gah, her emotions were so stupid!
Aldrea's eyes were drooping. Jondy swept back Aldrea's hair to see her Kiddo's little face. "How come we never see any of them Mommy?" Aldrea murmured.
"It's not safe. I'd like to see them again though. I'd like that more than anything in the whole world. I regret not spending every minute that I could with them when I was little, and I regret not cherishing the time we had. We thought our lives were horrible back then, but I miss them a lot. A whole lot."
"Maybe someday Zack will say that it's safe. Then you can go see Krit and he can make you laugh, and Zane can give you a hug," said Aldrea. Jondy smiled, it was a lovely thought. If only Zack would be that lenient.
"Maybe someday Kiddo. But right now we need to get some rest. Tomorrow will be a big day for us."
TBC…
