Jenna

KC's Story

I’ve fallen from a tree, the ground came at me fast and hard. First, I was in the tree, sitting on a branch and then I was falling. SMACK! I’m lying on my side, and my shoulder hurts. Now, I roll onto my back and look at my shoulder but it looks, somehow, different from the other one.

Farther away there are voices, KC and John are standing over me, looking down on me.

“Go get the king!” John yelps.

I feel like I want to sleep, so I close my eyes tight. If I sleep maybe my shoulder wont hurt me anymore. When I open my eyes I see the red swirl of the Kings robe, trimmed in plush white fur.

He leans over me and then he is on top of me. Now, his hand is touching my shoulder and squeezing. Everyone is talking, Bill is there too.

“I think her shoulder might be out of its socket” I hear KC’s voice, it sounds far away.

“She was climbing in the tree and she fell!" John exclaims

“Calm down. We’ll just pop it… right back…” King is talking now. King will fix it.

Kings hand is still on my shoulder, he is pushing it down into the dirt. It hurts a lot. Then he is pulling it, then pushing it to the side. I squeeze my eyes closed tight.

It doesn’t’ hurt, I can barely feel it, I think. But it does hurt, it hurts a lot and I think I might cry.

Everything is quiet, so quiet I hear a baby bird chirp high up in the tree which is maybe why i went up there in the first place. I hear a loud pop, it echoes through the trees. I open my eyes, and see a smile under the kings great white beard. The bottom of his robe is laying in the dirt, and the white fur trim there is black with dirt.

“There, all better” he says “You gonna be alright now kid"

KC pulls me up using my other arm. My arm still hurts a little.

“Can you move it?” KC asks

I try and discover yes, I can move it but it is still sore.

“It hurts KC" i say, tears welling up in my eyes.

“We should make a sling” John suggests

“A sling?” I say

“Yea like at the doctors,” John says “Here, hold your arm like this” He puts my arm so its across my body like a sideways letter V. “We’ll wrap a sheet under your arm here and then behind your head so it holds your arm straight.It‘ll make your arm heal right.”

The king and Bill are already trampling through the forest and now I can only see bits of kings red robe through the trees.

Back at the castle, I’m looking at the poster KC made. POOL PARTIES it says in big red letters. Its full of colors. Pictures of palm trees and flowers and a giant wave. It makes me feel happy when I look at it. FUN AND GAMES! TOYS! SWIMMING! GREAT FOR BIRTHDAYS! PRICE 6000.00 DOLLARS! KC has a new poster she is making. It is a faerie, she is looking off the paper at you. There are bubbles floating all around her, her wings have a few holes in them like her life has been hard. But she is still pretty, I think so anyway. Everyone is sitting around round table

Round table Is full of stuff, Empty Needles, tin foil bits, burnt spoons and ashtrays. The king says we are knights. We have fun around round table. KC draws in the corner where the long table is set up, with her paper and colored pencils. Sometimes when we are tired we sleep, right In the chairs, sitting up. Sometimes with eyes open.

Right now, Johns eyes are closing and then opening. Shrinking and they growing. I wonder if he forgot about my sling. I hold my arm across my body like he showed me and pretend its in a sling. KC is looking for a lighter on round table, but every one she finds is dead. She is getting mad I think.

Bill talking to King. We always talk a lot when we sit around round table. We laugh a lot and Talk a lot, but Mostly though I just listen. KC likes to talk a lot about the injustice of society, closing their doors on her for being sick. Bill likes to talk about things he had when he was younger like a motorcycle or a pet cheetah . John talks about a race of reptiles that rule the world, they look like people but they aren’t really. Sometimes I wonder if John is one of the reptile people.

Everyone says Lots of names of people and places I don’t know. Some times they ask KC questions and she gets mad. KC never talks about anything that happened before. Sometimes I want to ask KC a question. But I don’t say anything because I don’t think KC wants me too. King puts on a record. Its a Beatles record. King says the Beatles are the greatest band ever. In-between the music, the record makes scratching noises. King sings along with the songs. He knows every word.

That day, there’s a loud sound, but king doesn’t notice because he is singing loudly with the record. Then everything is being smashed and loud cracks sound, and somehow I know it's Gunfire.

“Get out of here!” John is screaming, as he pushes me from behind. Round table flies up through the air. Never move round table, King had once said. Someone was going to be in trouble for that, I thought.

“Take the stuff!” king yelled “Don’t leave it!” King is pointing to a bag of brown powder on the table.

John is still behind me, and we were moving fast down the hall way, Until we get to the room with the windows. My shoulder hurts so I put my arm across my body in its sling. John holds one finger to his mouth. Be quiet he means. We were crouched behind a turned over sofa. Terrarium . More cracks and smashes and more voices but they were not Bill or KC or The King.
The door of terrarium smashes open.

“Check over there” strange voice says

More crashing.

Then a large Shotgun is pointed at John's face .

“Get up” the Shotgun says.

We all go back to room, with Shotgun behind us. Bill is laying in the middle of the floor. The floor is red, lots of blood is pooled all around him.

I think, What a strange place for a nap.

KC is talking to two other men.


“You know….. he ” one man said to her. I can’t hear everything.

“I didn’t know…..” she says. She is lying, she is using her lying voice.

“KC………you really” Strange man says

They talk more but I can’t hear them. Shotgun is still behind John and I.

“Were leaving” the stranger talking to KC says. He is dressed all in black and he has on the biggest boots I have ever seen.

“What bout these two? Shotgun says from behind us.

“Were are leaving the girls.” the man with KC says

Shotgun pulls the trigger and Johns almost headless body falls to the floor, like I fell from the tree. My ears hurt now. Johns body lands face down but rolls over a bit. All of his face is gone now except for a little bit of his chin. The men leave the room, and KC stays completely still, until she hears a roaring engine come to life . She walks over to the table where her poster board is and rips the picture she drew of the Faerie off. It looks like one of those cartoon ones but is has much more detail. It’s not colored yet. She starts tearing it into a thousand pieces.

I am looking at her strangely.

“I wasn’t finished” she says

“Take everything you have…were leaving” she says

I walk over to the long table that held her poster boards.

“This tub is mine” I say. Its about a foot high , clear plastic. There is one lonely blue crayon inside it.

“Should I take it?” I ask KC

I’m ready to pick up the tub with my good arm, and I suddenly remember my hurt arm and put into its sling.

“No” She says

“Leave the tub”


Part 2

We are walking now, KC wears big shoes, men’s size twelve. They are kings. I wonder where king is but I don’t ask. My feet are bare but they are tough as leather. Rocks and sticks can’t hurt them, but when we get to the road my feet are bleeding. They leave bloody marks on the pavement.

“You can sit down now” KC tells me

She is still standing by the hard grey ground. She un zips her coat and throws it into the ditch. She is wearing a small t-shirt covered in cherries. All of the cherries look the same. Two of them together and a leaf. KC is quiet. She is looking out into the road. There is nothing there. She sits and then stands and walks a bit.

“There, do you hear it? She says’

I don’t hear anything

But I see something shiny coming down the road.

KC holds her thumb out like I’ve seen her do before and turns her body to the side so her silhouette is like a lumpy snake.
Then the truck is beside us.

Chug, chug, chug, the air starts to smell like gasoline. A man is rolling down the side window

KC climbs up on the side of the truck and puts her head inside the empty space the window had been . Chug Chug Chug Sputter. Chug chug chug sputter. The truck says. Its grey and red. But the red is peeling a lot.

KC motions for me to come. I crawl into the back seat, its covered in red velvet like kings robe but it is ripped and stained everywhere. KC sits in the front next to the man. Truck moves and we are off. KC is sitting in the front next to the man and me the back.

I put my arm in sling. The outside of the truck looks like it is staying still even through we are moving. Lots of fields of gold and brown. And dead. Dead. DEAD. John is dead. Bill is dead. The king is dead. No, I remember, now Bill was just sleeping. What a funny place for a nap.

I don’t want to thing about it anymore so I don’t. Then the mans beady eyes are in the little mirror and I know he is looking at me.

“Why is she holding her arm like that?” he says to KC

His voice sounds strange like maybe slow. I can see is the back of his head, it is shiny in the middle but has hair on the sides. The kings head looked like that too, but he had magic hair, that he put on in the morning.

“She fell out of a tree this morning.” she says “Her shoulder was dislocated.”

His eyes are looking In the mirror again.

“It’s damn creepy, her just holdin it like that”

I know he was talking about me so I let my arm out of its sling for a little while, but then I put It back in sling, so it will heal right.

Lots of time goes by. Too much. I have to pee

We pass a sign that says 217m Salt Springs .

“I might not want to go all the way to Salt Springs” man says to KC after the sign “I’ll have to stop to get gas, you know……I should just leave you here on the road. What do you think of that?” he says

“You don’t have to go all the way to Salt Springs” KC says

“Your damn right I don’t have to!” .

It gets really quiet and then, The man and KC are speaking quietly, then KC slides over closer to the man.

At a truck stop the man pulls in and gets gas. KC sits silently, her back as straight as an arrow. I try to do the same.

Man comes back and he has three sandwiches covered in plastic wrap. He tosses one to me. Tuna on wheat $2.99. It takes a long time to unwrap it with only using one hand.

By the time I start eating it we are moving again. Salt springs 56m.

I put my arm in sling.

The truck pulls over. I see KC move over to the man. His hand touches her shirt with the cherries on it. One hand is on the back of his seat, his hand is large and under his nails are black. He is pulling up KC’s shirt over her head. I can see KC’s bra in the mirror it was white once but now it is kind of a yellow color.

KC’s head disappears, bent over in mans lap. I hear a zipper un zip. I watch him in the mirror as he closes his eyes and tilts his head back against the seat. Then his eyes open and he sees me in the mirror.

“God Damn it! She is creeping me out with that arm shit!” He yells.

Man opens his door, then the rear door. His zipper is down and his thing is poking out, looking at me like a fat little worm with one eye. “Get out!” he says to me so I get out.

I wait by the back tire, and pick at a piece of peeling red paint. All the time counting one Mississippi, two Mississippi. Then one minute. Two minutes. The truck rocks a little bit. I see the hairy back of man through the window moving a bit, back and forth. Three minutes. Until seven minutes have passed and the truck window squeaks down.

“Get in” the mans voice says, so I do .

We are moving again.

When we get to the sign that says entering Salt springs KC wants to drive right through it. Right down a old dirt road into the middle of nowhere. We drive through thick trees on a bumpy road until man starts complaining.

“Right here” KC says

There’s only trees, everywhere.

“You got to be damn kidding me” man says looking around at all the trees.

KC and I get out and start walking up the road

“Don’t look back” KC says to me

The sound of truck leaving is loud at first and then fades away until nothing . Then KC turns around and we start walking back the other way.

“Why are we going back?”

“I didn’t want him to know where we were really going. In case he ever comes looking for us. We have to go back a little ways. It shouldn’t take too long” KC says.

“Are you all right?” I ask her

KC stops and looks at me very seriously, I can tell she is thinking hard.

“Yeah , I’m fine” she sighs “I could barely feel it, even where he put it, it was so small, ”

“That’s good” I say

“Yeah” she says “But still, I hope he got my AIDS”

We are walking again. KC says her stomach hurts. She is puking her guts out, and starting to sweat alot. The tuna she says, I know its not the tuna. She misses round table, she misses the pipes and needles. I hope we are getting where ever we are going soon because I’m worried about her.

We are almost there she says when there is a pile of branches laying on the ground. We step over them and start down a different road. Still there is just a lot of trees. I am starting to doubt KC knows where we are going. Then I see a house up ahead. A few trucks are parked out front. Next to big square metal box that I some how I know to be generator.

Arm is in sling.

KC stops and looks at me up and down.

“I’m going to tell you a secret, … I have magic powers of healing” KC put her hand on my shoulder and closes her eyes, I can see her breathing deeply. In and out. “Your shoulder is healed now”

Silence. I say nothing

It does feel better, but my shoulder is still in it’s sling

“Do you believe me? KC asks

"yes" I say letting my arm down out of sling.


KC is at the front door of house now. A man with a beard so long, it reaches past his chest, answers the door. I am waiting where KC told me too. The man looks at me funny. I think about putting my arm in sling again, but I hold it down, like KC told me too. Then they disappear behind the door and I wait for a long time. I don’t know how long though because I forgot to count. The bearded man comes out.

“Hey you” he calls “Come in”

I start walking toward the door. Bearded man lets me go in before him. It reminds me of Kings castle because it is such a mess. Stuff piled everywhere, broken stuff. Garbage. Old mattresses and microwaves. KC is talking to a skinny man. He has no shirt on, and nearly his whole body is covered in blue tattoos.

KC motions to me she is making lots of hand gestures. Then shaking her head no. Then nodding. I see, behind the man, a room like the one we had at the Kings. Lots of glass bottles, jugs with poison symbols and a few old bathtubs.

Man waves his hand at the breaded one and he leads me into the room with the bathtubs to speak to skinny man.

“Where did you come from” he asks me

"From the Kings castle” I say

“Did you like it there?” he says

“Yes, we had a lot of fun, except for yesterday when I fell out of a tree.” I say thinking about my hurt shoulder

He looks back at KC.

Then back to me.

“Do you want to stay here?” he asks me

“Yes” I say “Its just like castle.”

KC works in the bathtub room, she tells me to get out because the fumes is bad for me so I play out in the woods, looking for little animals. I see a squirrel and a duck. I find a pond. There are little frogs and I pick them up. They jump in my hand trying to escape. At nights I sleep on a mattress in the room with the old ovens and microwaves.

KC doesn’t sleep much but when she does she comes and sleeps next to me on the mattress. Sometimes she cries. She cries’ quietly but I still know she is crying when her pillow is wet. I feel sad when KC cries. Like there is something I should remember but I can’t.

There is no running water in the house so we bathe in the pond outside, sometimes the bugs get us and we are itchy for days and days. Man with beards name is Smith. I think that is not his real name but we call him smith anyway. He is always looking at me funny. KC tells him to stay away from me, but she isn’t always there.

He talks to me sometimes when KC isn’t around, he is always looking at my breasts. He says they are fantastic, and sometimes he touches them and tells me not to tell KC, or she will be mad. He says I’m am sexy and it is a shame what happened to me. He says he could love me like KC does if I wanted him too. Then he asks me what I used to be like.

“What I used to be like? I say

“Yeah” he says “KC said you were……. normal before, I can’t even imagine what it would be like to be like you …. To much fucking shit ill do it, scary when you think about it… but you I mean like you are really fucked up…. doesn’t happen everyday that’s fucking for sure!”

“KC said I was like what” I Ask him suddenly feeling very angry but not knowing why. Smith just shakes his head at me.

That night I decide to ask KC.

“What was I used to be like” I say

“What do you mean?” she says

“Before when I was different then I am now?”

“Who told you, you were ever different” she says

“No one did” I lied.

“You were never different, you were always the same me and you” she said

The next day I hear smith and KC talking outside by the generator so i listen.

“I didn’t say nothing” Smith says

He is lying, he did say.

“I told you to stay away from her, don't you think i don't see how you are with her .. it makes me sick... she's not right in the head ” KC says

“I think you should remember where you are” he says to her “I’m tired of listening to you, bitch, your not in charge here, your only here because Pete says, and he’s not even fucking you, you diseased bitch...And you never know she might like it, maybe she just forgot but I will teach her how again” Smith says

“Go ahead” KC says “She has AIDS too”

That night KC never slept and Smith never came to talk to me. The next day when KC left to go to the pond I went with her.

“Do I have Aids KC?” I ask her when we were alone "I heard you tell Smith that i did"

“No, she said, “But I told smith you did so he would leave you alone.”

“Do you have aids” I asked her

“Yes” she said.

“What does that mean?” I ask

“Nothing” she says “Not right now anyway”

Later, Smith and Pete left in the blue truck. Things seemed very strange, usually they all went together. But this time they left KC. They were back only in a few hours. Things were always more fun when it was just me and KC. As the days passed everything seemed to change. Nobody would talk to each other and KC looked worried and tired. She cried more often but also slept more often. They were being cheap she said. “We might have to leave” she said one night.

I didn’t want to leave. I didn’t like walking. I hoped we would have to leave. A few days later things got better and everyone was laughing and joking again. Smith was back telling me stories about his life. Everything was going to be ok.

Then is was Time to remember.


Part 3



“Its fall,” KC said “Remember when we had one at Kings? The leaves change colors sometimes.”

“Yeah, I remember, then comes winter, but no snow it doesn’t snow here” I say

Today a man came, to look at the stuff KC had made. KC told me to go to the pond to play and not to come back until I heard the engine start up. And then wait five full minutes before I even started back.

Black clouds filled up in the sky, and I heard a thunder. I hadn’t been counting but I was sure I had been out long enough so I went back . Maybe two hours had passed. I wasn’t sure. But it started to rain and I was cold. \

I saw two new men getting into a truck outside, so I waited in the trees. But then
I saw one man pointing toward me.

“Who’s that?” he asks. He has a gun in the front of his pants. His hand goes to it.

“Nobody” KC says. The man shuts the truck door, and pulls his gun out.

“My sister, she is a retard” KC says quickly. Smith, waves for me to come over. I walk over sullenly. Who is retard?

“Too many drugs,” Smith says as I approach “fucks you up”

I look at KC but she just stands there quietly. She looks worried but she is trying to hide it.

I walk up to the group outside the house.

“What’s your name,” the man holding the gun says to me. I can't see his eyes, they are covered in sunglasses.

“I don’t know” I say thinking its strange I don’t actually know my own name. I think that is weird suddenly, that I have never noticed it before.

A squirrel runs by then under the blue truck “I like squirrels, they are soft, but hard to catch, but I just know they are soft”

“Go Inside,” KC says, so I go inside. I leave the door open a crack so I can listen.

“She looks like Jenna” the man says

“Never saw Jenna myself” replies.

“Don’t you think she looks like Jenna?” the man asks KC “You knew her right?” he is putting his gun away now

“ A little” KC says

“Jenna is long dead,” Smith says. “Her corpse is full of maggots my now.”

The two new men look at each other, then shake hands with Pete. I watch them wipe their hands on their pants as they walk back to their truck.

That night, KC sleeps next to me.

“Who is Jenna”

“No one” KC says

“No, she is someone, I know she is!” I say stubbornly.

“Yes, fine then, she is someone” KC says

“What was she like KC?”

“Amazing”

“Why?”

“No more questions”

Why?”

"Because I’m tired of giving you answers.”

“I never asked any questions!” I say

But KC is done talking to me. So I close my eyes and go to sleep.
Jenna, Jenna, Jenna, Jenna, I think. I dream of Jenna. She did look like me. But her hair was a shorter, pale blond choppy and styled. I look into the mirror but Jenna looks back, she wears leather pants and jacket zipped up high and Heavy black boots. Combat boots. One holds a knife that could cut a mans head clean off. Some how I know she has on four guns one at her back, one on her leg, one in her other boot and one down the front of her pants.

I wake up from sleep and from a dream... a very long dream. KC is asleep next to me. Her breathing, slow and ragged. She hadn’t been taking her medication she was pale and thin and she was using to many drugs.

The mattress was dirty. No, not dirty it was fucking filthy.

It felt like a shock hit my brain as the past year hit me. Winding through he circuits of my brain.
Please Jenna, stop this!!! KC screamed “Jenna! what’s wrong with you!” i remember KC shaking me, pulling me form the burning house.....i couldn't remember anything.... she wanted my help.. but i was gone... Jenna was gone

KC is sleeping. My god, she looks terrible. Her hair is matted and dirty she looks like she hasn't washed in months.

“What are you doing up” a mans voice. I remember now, Smith.

“I Couldn’t sleep” I say quickly

“Bad dreams?” he says, he is as disgusting as the mattress. His beard is dirty and hangs past his sagging belly. I remember his dirty hands, with their yellowed fingers touching my breasts, squeezing my nipples.

“Will you come here and sleep with me?” I say sweetly "I'm scared"

Then he is coming over to the filthy mattress. He lowers his ripe old body onto the mattress.

“There, there, baby it’ll be o.k ” he says reaching out to touch my hair.

There is a broke plate from a microwave on the floor and I pull it under the thin blanket. I feel the edge and it’s sharp, well sharp enough. I reach under the blanket and feel for his crotch. Then I push the broken glass into his crotch and cover his mouth with my free hand. I push the broken glass harder until I can feel a warm gush of blood soaking my hand. KC is awake and looking at me with eyes the size of marbles.

“Where are the guns,” I whisper into his ear. Pressing the bloody plate farther into his crotch. I press it in hard enough to cut him again then let him speak.

“Under the floor, move the last bath tub. ..please don’t” I move the glass away from his manhood and he tries to run but I am too quick and the ram the broken glass into his throat. He gasps for air but blood trickles from his mouth. He holds his hand to his throat to stop the bleeding but it is no use, he has lost too much blood. He dies a full minute and twenty nine seconds later. Not quickly enough.

The other one is sleeping, Pete. But I don’t bother to be quiet, a quick shove and the bathtub slides over revealing the hidden door in the floor. The first gun I grab isn’t loaded I can tell just by its weight. But the second is. Just in time too, because Pete's awake.

“What’s going on in here” Pete says, he’s rubbing sleep from his eyes....."KC? Is that you?" I shoot him, and the bullet goes through his hand and then between his eyes.

“Get the guns. As many as you can, and put them in the red truck”

KC is just looking at me blankly. “GET -THE -FUCKING -GUNS!” I say again, slower this time.

Twenty one minutes and thirty six seconds later we are driving away.

I make a call from the now dead Pete’s cell phone, "I need some things, I'll call in fifty six minutes with coordinates," I say, "Clothes, Guns and a NAME.... or you will fucking DIE” I throw the phone out the window. Go ahead trace it, I think

I can't look at KC. I know she tried, that she kept me alive. But i look at the dirt under my finger nails and i'm angry again. Some one is going to pay for this. PAY.

In town, I pull up at dark motel. KC picks the lock, and while she showers I go to find the laundry room. One machine has clothes in it, but they are men’s and huge, but better then the dirty rags we were wearing so I take them.

I shower, the hot water feels so great on my skin. I don’t know how long it’s been since I showered. I wash my hair until the little bottle of shampoo is gone.

We move the guns into another truck parked outside, jump it and leave.

I drive with the headlights off.

“Jenna” KC says “I knew you’d be back”