Chapter 11-Inner City Blues
Hospital-
The last two seconds were a blur to Bobby. For the life of him he couldn't fathom what had just happened. The last thing he remembered was hearing a loud pop. He was staring at Jack as he lay motionless on the hospital parking lot.
"Bobby," Jerry said quietly.
Bobby looked down which wasn't so far because he just realized he was on the ground onto of Jack. He wanted to check if Jack was ok, but he couldn't collect his thoughts.
"Ouch," Jack said breathlessly.
Bobby remembered now. As Jack slowly pulled the trigger he said, "I won't lose you again," and tackled Jack to the ground.
The gun hadn't gone off. Jack's cell phone fell out of his jacket and it hit the ground, breaking into pieces.
"Is he alright?" Jerry asked as he watched Bobby get up.
"It was his cell phone," Bobby said pointing to the broken cell phone ten feet away from them.
"Thank God," Jerry said.
"Get up," Bobby said angrily at Jack as he held his hand out.
Jack was to upset to even realize what was going on. Bobby pulled him up from the ground and gave him a bear hug.
"Don't you ever," Bobby choked out as he hugged his little brother.
Jack sobbed onto Bobby's leather jacket until Jerry hugged him from behind.
"Sorry," Jack said as he pulled away to face both of them.
"It's ok Jacky," Bobby said pulling Jack in for another hug.
"We should go home," Jerry told them.
Bobby grabbed the gun which ended up under a car and tucked in his back pocket after turning the safety back on. They all got in the car and Bobby drove home.
Mercer House-
"What happened?" Angel asked as his brothers strolled through the door.
"Nicole's in the hospital," Bobby said slamming his keys down on the table by the door.
"Yeah, an ambulance came by the house," Sophie said.
"She gunna be ok?" Angel asked them.
Jack threw his jacket down on the floor and walked up to his room.
"What's wrong with him?" Angel asked Bobby and Jerry.
"You don't wanna know," Bobby replied.
They all followed Jack after a minute to see if he was ok. The door was closed and when Angel tried to open it, it was locked.
Jack sat on his bed with the picture of Nikki and her boyfriend. The day before he had folded it in half so you could only see Nikki, but he ripped up the side with Troy on it and burned it with his lighter.
"Jack open the door," Angel yelled on the other side of the door.
Jack didn't answer the door nor say anything. He grabbed the pack of cigarettes he had given to Nikki on her birthday out of his jeans pocket. He lit one and sat it between his fingers. He wanted to smoke it but for some reason he couldn't, he just stared at it.
"Jack!" Bobby said when he couldn't hear anything on the other side of the door.
"You gotta kick it down," Jerry said to Angel.
"Why? He's probably just upset," Angel said backing back.
"He tried to shot himself," Bobby said low enough so Jack couldn't hear him.
"What!" Angel asked.
"In the hospital parking lot, Bobby was able to stop him," Jerry said giving Angel room to knock down the door.
"Stand back baby," Angel said pushing Sophie off to the side as he kicked down Jack's bedroom door.
Jack sat on his bed flicking his lighter on and off. They all rushed in to make sure he was alright.
"Jack, what the hell were you thinkin man?" Angel asked him sitting on the edge of his bed.
Jack still didn't say anything he continued to play with his lighter.
"We're really worried about you Yak," Sophie said in her thick Spanish scent.
"See Jacky even La Vida Loca, cares about you. She's taking time out of fucking Angel to come in here because she's worried about you," Bobby said as Sophie hurled a picture frame at him that landed next to Jack's guitar.
"Can you guys just leave me alone for a couple of minutes," Jack said clutching the picture of Nikki in his hands.
"Yeah, sure," Jerry said motioning for everyone to get out.
"Thanks," Jack said expressionlessly.
"You take care of yourself man," Jerry said patting Jack on the shoulder.
He closed the door hoping Jack would be alright by himself.
He sat in his room wandering aimlessly for hours. His mind was in a different place right now. He thought of all the things he went through in this life, unspeakable things. He wanted to talk to someone, but just not anyone.
"Bobby can I borrow your car?" Jack asked as he wandered into the dinning room where everyone was sitting, even Camille and the girls.
"Sure buddy. You going to the hospital?" Bobby asked making sure he didn't push Jack's buttons again.
"Yeah," he said as he made his way out the front door.
Detroit Hospital-
It was around 1:20 p.m when Jack reached the hospital. He left the house at twelve, but he decided to drive around a bit before going to the hospital. The doctor said he could stay with her for a while. Before Jack entered the room, the nurse explained that she had to be put on a ventilator to help her breath.
He walked over to Nikki, but looked around the room before acknowledging her. The room was too familiar. It wasn't the same room she had last time but everything was the same except is was very dark. He took a chair and pulled it up close to her bed. He felt silly talking to her because it was obvious she couldn't hear him. But for some reason he knew she could hear him.
"Hey," he started off.
He took long pauses and deep breaths. The door was closed and no one in the world could hear him but he was deathly nervous about talking about this.
"I've never shared this with anyone," he said as he grabbed one of her hands.
All he heard was beeping and swishing sounds as Nikki's ventilators breathed for her.
"I know you know I was adopted by my foster mother Evelyn. What you don't know is why she kept me," he said swallowing hard trying to continue.
"When I was little, my mom, my birth mother," it was hard for him to talk about it.
He never talked about this with anyone, not even Evelyn. He was pretty sure she knew the cliff notes version of the story, but not the torture behind it.
"I was adopted by my mom when I was nine. Before that I had it pretty bad," he said as he sat her hand back down on the bed and wiped his face.
"I remember," he said giving a nervous chuckle, "My mom use to bring her 'job' home. I would sit behind the front door of our apartment while she brought them in the back to her bedroom. I didn't mind the men much. Most of them didn't even know I was there. My mom told me to stay hidden, which I did very well until I got a little bit older and a little bit more noticeable,"
A nurse walked in the room and Jack buried his face in the covers on Nikki's bed.
"Are you ok?" the nurse asked.
Jack pretended not to hear and waited for her to go away.
"It's ok, she's a fighter," the nurse said placing a hand on his lowered shoulders and then she left the room.
Jack sat in the position he was before the nurse walked in. He grabbed Nikki's hand again and stroked it with the back of his. He continued to tell her his story.
"Well, like I was saying," he cleared his throat, "My mom would bring guys over to the house. I never knew my real father, and I thought I found one in one of her customers. I was about five. He would leave me presents behind the door when they were done messing around. He'd bring me food and play checkers with me when my mom wasn't home. His name was Hank," Jack said as he got up and walked over to the window.
"One day, Hank stopped coming over. My mom told me that he stopped coming over because he didn't like me anymore. A few weeks later I heard he was killed on the job. He was a police officer, with three kids and a loving wife. After that my mom would bring home more regulars. One of them got her hooked on heroine and cocaine. She would shoot up almost everyday just to get through the day. That's when she started hitting me. I'm pretty sure I was six. I don't really know because after Hank died my mom stopped celebrating my birthday," he said as he watched Nikki's body rise and deflate with every pump of the ventilator.
"Anyway, that's when she started beating me. Burning me with cigarettes and hitting me so hard I would be knocked out for hours. After the beatings, she, she," Jack couldn't speak anymore, his throat and mouth were dry and he never said this out loud before.
He walked back over to her and sat down. He laid his head down on the bed and muffled the rest.
"She would flirt with me, calling me her little Jack. She made me sleep in her bed every night because most of her men stopped coming around. I was her substitute," Jack said as Bobby, Jerry, and Angel walked in the room moments later.
Jack brought his head up fast and stopped the tears rolling down his face. He hoped they weren't listening on the other side of the door.
"Hey, how ya doin?" Jerry asked Jack as he looked around at all of the monitors and other hospital equipment Nikki was hooked on.
Bobby looked around to. It was the same when Jack was in the hospital. He was hooked up to all kinds of monitors and nurses were in and out checking on him.
"It's dark in here," Angel said looking up at the lights which weren't on.
"What you say Angel? I can't see you," Bobby said trying to shed some light on the situation.
They all gave a forced chuckle.