Page 16 of Jake

“This is Carol Winslow. I have a complaint about how I was treated today.” The woman said that the conversation was being recorded. That was the second time this week that she’d heard that. Why on earth did anyone want to have a recording of her? “I had your company move my things to my house. Yet here it is, on my parents’ lawn and not where I wanted it.”

“You said this is Carol Winslow?” Carol said it was. “Mrs. Winslow, Mr. Winslow refused the shipment. The driver said he spoke to Mr. Winslow and he said that the two of you are no longer living together, and that we should take the furniture back to the storage units. And since they were already rented again, there was nowhere for us to go but to the address on the slip. I’m not sure what else you expected us to do when you never answered the calls we placed to you.”

“My cell phone is temporally out of service. That’s something else I’m taking care of.” The woman on the other end said nothing. “Look, I need for you to come here and do something with my things. My dad is having a fit and it’s supposed to rain tonight. I can’t have my things ruined because your company didn’t do what I told them to do. I’ll expect you here within the hour since I’ve been trying to reach you all afternoon.”

“We’re a business with a great many other customers that aren’t as demanding as you. And if you mean deliver furniture to a house that you no longer reside at, that’s not going to happen either.” Carol said that it was her home. “I don’t think so. Nor do I think the person living there thinks so. Mr. Winslow was very clear on the fact that you don’t have any rights to the house.”

“My husband is delusional. He thinks that just because I took everything out of my house that he has the right to divorce me. Well, I’ve told him that he’s not going to do that and we’re working out the details. But until then I want you to take my things to your place; I’m sure that you have room for it somewhere. Even if you have to leave it on the trucks until I call you. Just, I don’t want it to be damaged. Jake has to get his head out of his ass over this, and its taking longer than I thought it would.” The woman said nothing. “Are you listening to me, you stupid woman? I said to come and get my things off the front lawn before my daddy gets madder. You don’t want to see him angry.”

“I’m sure that I don’t. And if you call me stupid again, this conversation is finished.” Carol pulled the phone from her ear and stared at it. No one spoke to her this way, and she wanted to scream at her to have respect. Her husband was a fucking attorney and could own her ass. “Now, this is what is going to happen. I am not going to send my men out there to get your things off the lawn, and even if they were to go out there, we’d not be storing it in any of our containers. In your agreement with this firm, you were told that once you vacated a storage locker that you gave up all rights to it, as you were a day to day rental. And once you had us take the things out we were obligated to put it somewhere. It was out of our hands when Mr. Winslow showed us proof that you no longer have any rights to the house or its property. So in turn, as we have no place to store your things, it’s been returned, in full, to the address you used on the paperwork. I think, now that I’ve spoken to you, that I understand why they took such pleasure in placing your things the way that they did. You aren’t a very pleasant person, are you?”

“Now you listen here, bitch. You get out here now and get my things put away. I don’t want to have to call my husband on you. He’s a great attorney.” The woman said ex-husband, like she enjoyed saying it. “He’s not going to be my ex-husband, damn it. I will say when and if he can leave me. And when he does, it’ll be because he’s dead, not thinking of leaving me without my house.”

“I guess you’re going to have to learn to stop calling yourself Mrs. anything and move on then.” The line went dead, the long tone of it making her want to throw the thing across the room.

Before she could act on that however, it was jerked from her hand and set gently in the cradle. Carol thought that made her twice as angry, that someone could be so calm while she was hot with it. As she stood up to tear into her mother, she told her to shut up.

“I’ve called in a favor and the things will be picked up in an hour.” Carol didn’t even thank her. Her mom wasn’t doing this for her but because of the neighbors, no doubt. “I’ve called Jake’s attorney and let him know that your father is making a large donation to the local charity. It’ll be a nice—”

“What kind of donation? If he has any money to be donating to someone, he should give it to me. I can do a lot of shopping with that sort of cash.” Her mother told her to hush. “I will not hush. What did he donate?”

“The things on the lawn, of course. I was afraid that if it got rained on, no one would want it. As it is now, I’m not sure who in their right mind would. Carol, you’ve got to have the worst taste in style of anyone I’ve ever met.” Carol could only stare at her. She’d called a charity to come for her beautiful things? How could she? “Also, you’ll love this too, Jake has sent someone for his car. He said that since you and he will be divorced soon that he’s not going to make payments on the insurance. I’m assuming you know that he’s cut your phone off.”

“My car? How can he take my car? That’s fucking mine. Mother, why are you doing this to me?” She asked her what she meant. “Jake? You? Daddy? What is wrong with you people? Have you no idea how much…? If one piece of my things are touched by some charity person, I will murder you. I swear to Christ, I’m going to find a gun and kill you with it.”

“Which brings me to another thing. Your father and I talked it over, and you have until the end of the week to get out of our home. It’s going to be hard enough on us when your father gets his lawyers in on this, but in the long run, we’ve decided that it’s better than having you here all the time. Think of that. Money has taken a second seat to having our daughter around. Anyway, you’re disruptive to the staff, rude to the drivers, and you are driving us nuts with your whining all the time. We’ve decided, happily by the way, that you made your bed and now you have to lie in it. But not in our home.” Her mom moved around the room and tossed things in the trash that she found to her distaste. “You’re such a pig, Carol, and I don’t care for the way you act as if this is yours to treat as you wish.”

“You told the servants not to bother with my room. What did you expect to happen, Mother? That this room would clean itself?” She sat down on the edge of the unmade bed. “Jake took the servants away from me as well. But he never said a word when he had to clean up after me. I don’t know why you think you can. You have staff here; I’m only making them work for their checks.”

“You would say that, Carol. I can say whatever I want because you’re here invading my home.” Her mother had no idea what she was talking about, and Carol was simply too exhausted to explain it to her. “You have to find yourself a place to live. We’ll help you out for the first month with money, but after—”

“Give me the money now and I’ll leave the room so you can make the servants come in here and clean up. That way I can have my hair done, and my nails. They’re chipped, and I feel so horrible about the way I’ve looked lately.” Carol put out her hand, waiting for the cash that she knew her mother had on her person. “Well? I have things to do today. Jake isn’t doing what I want and I have to go see him. I need to look my best.”

“I’m not giving you money, Carol. That ship sailed a long time ago. You’ll have help in the form of us paying the first month’s rent and the deposit. After that, I’m afraid you’ll have to find yourself a job. I doubt very much that Jake will pay you any alimony.” Carol stood up and her mom backed away. “When did you become such a horrible person, Carol? We didn’t raise you to be like this.”

“Jake is not going to divorce me. He’s just not. And I would very much appreciate it if everyone would quit saying that to me. He doesn’t have my permission to do anything that I don’t want. Give me the money, Mother. I kid you not when I tell you that I’ve had about enough of this kicking me around shit.” She moved to her mom, glad to see the fear there. “You’re also going to replace my things that you donated without my permission. I will not have you treating me and my pretty things like they’re nothing.”

“Get out of my house.” Before she could think that she shouldn’t lash out, Carol hit her mom. When she staggered back, almost falling, Carol decided that she wanted to see that, her mom hurt. “Carol, I’m calling the police.”

Leaping at her, Carol knew that she was going to be in trouble for this. Her daddy would have to pay someone to clean up yet another of her messes. As her fists pounded into her mother, all Carol could think about was revenge. And that no one would tell her that Jake was stupid enough to divorce her again.

Falling back from her mom, she sat there. It occurred to her that she’d have to shower again now, and redo her make-up and hair. Her mother had ruined another thing for her. Carol had really liked the outfit she’d put on today. Standing up, she started for the shower and remembered the cash. It took ten minutes of searching her mother to realize that she really hadn’t had any money, and was pissed all over again.

“I won’t hit you this time, but you will learn to not do things to piss me off again.” As she stripped off her ruined things she made her way to the bathroom again. Damn it, she was going to have to scrub herself hard to get the stains off her.

After getting refreshed, she pulled on a skirt that she didn’t care for and blamed her mother for that as well. She’d driven her to this; it was her own fault for being such a horrible bitch. Leaving her room and the door open, hoping someone would go in and clean up her things, Carol made her way out of the house and to the cars in the drive. Hers, of course, was missing.

“Fuckers.” Going to the garage angered her more. There were several cars in the place, most of them cleaner than her room had ever been. But there were no keys, at least none that she could get to. For some reason—and she was going to have to talk to him about that—her daddy had them locked up. She’d have to walk, she supposed, and that wasn’t going to make her day any better. Then she spotted her mother’s car. As much as she hated that thing, her mother had left the keys in it so she took it. “Someone is going to have to get their shit in gear around here. Or I’ll be bashing in a few more heads.”

~~~

Forrest stretched his body out, feeling better than he had in a very long time. He was nervous; being shot would do that to a person, he supposed. But he felt good at this moment. As he and his cat made it around the large wooded area, all he could think about was Jake, and what he might be doing right now. When a twig snapped behind him, he turned quickly, only to find that Jake had followed him.

“You’re really fast as a cat. I guess it would be because of the four feet.” Reaching out to speak to him, not sure that he could, Forrest touched his mind. “I can feel you there. Like a thought or something.”

That’s just what it is. You can speak to me this way as well.Jake nodded. Forrest had a feeling that he wasn’t really paying attention.Tell me what it is. I’d very much like to know.

“You’re going to think I’m nuts. Or at the very least, a bastard.” Forrest laughed. “Okay, I want you to move in here with me on a permanent basis. If the offer still holds, I’d very much like to be your partner in your firm as well. Actually, in all things.”

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