Sittin and Thinkin

“Whoooo.” Jessie sighs as his climax fades. “Feelin better now Momma.”

“Knew you would.” She says happily as she starts lovingly cleaning him up and gathering up the cloth he shot into. She pulls his dress back down and smooths it out. “Now I’ve got bread baking and I need to help with supper. You just stay here and relax mah boy.”

“Thank you Momma.” He kisses her smiling face and slips off of her lap. As she stands and walks to the kitchen he watches her big derriere sway side to side looking as happy as a lark.

With seething anger and revulsion, as much as at myself as him, I glare at the strange man from this strange family. I still could not believe the situation I was in to speak nothing of what I’d just witnessed. When Jessie sees me looking he titters and bats his big brown eyes at me. I grunt with disgust and glare daggers back.

“Want for me to take care o’that for ya mister?” Jessie nods toward my groin.

I feel a warm blush spread over my cheeks. Vehemently I shake my head no.

“Aw, c’mon.” He subtly licks his bottom lip. “I promise you’ll like it.”

I keep shaking my head.

“It’s cause of the others?” He asks in a quieter voice. “I can check on ya tonight when they’re sleepin if ya want.”

Still I shake my head.

“Fine. Be that way then.” He slumps back. “Wished you wouldn’ta cussed so we could talk. I warned ya ’bout cussin.”

“Mrrph! Lrrphn! Fmmrlll!” If he could hear what I was saying now it would have curled his hair.

Jessie giggles. Taking his gunbelt he buckles it and takes it toward the front door where he hangs it on a peg near Fiona’s shotgun. “You seen any action Mister Devlin? Been in any real gunfights?”

I just grumble and turn my head away.

“Aw mister, don’t be like that.”

“Jessie.” Comes Elsie’s whisper from just beyond the door into the kitchen. “You sure you oughta be talkin to him?”

“He’s as harmless as a kitten El.” Jessie says. “If Fiona can’t get outta there he sure won’t.”

“He scares me.” I then see the edge of Elsie’s face just barely peek out around the corner toward me. “But…it ain’t right holding him like this. Denyin him his freedom.”

I liked the sound of this. Settling myself I give the shy girl a pleading look, an appeal for mercy, but she ducks back around the corner.

“You know Auntie’s been lookin for a feller just like him.” Jessie says.

“I know.”

“She not gonna hurt him none, just e’speriment.”

“I know.”

“Elsie.” Helen calls. “Need yer help here.”

“Comin Momma.”

Jessie stares into the kitchen a time then turns to look at me again. He sighs and returns to the sofa, just sitting and watching in the most unnerving way. It gets real quiet in the room with just the sounds of the women preparing food in the next room to break the silence. I continue trying to escape without being too obvious about it but eventually just give up. The bindin chair did it’s job admirably. After awhile Jessie starts to look bored.

“Momma. Can I let him talk yet?”

“Not til supper darlin.”

“Awww.”

“He done the cussin, he gets the punishment. He’s lucky I don’t warsh his mouth out.”

“Fine.” He sighs again. Unlike the daughters it seemed Jessie didn’t have any chores to busy himself with.

All at once Jessie bolts upright and snaps his fingers. “Saddlebags!”

“Mmm?”

“Yer saddlebags. I betcha got some interestin stuff in there.”

“Don’t you be stealin nothing!” Helen says.

“Just borrowin Momma.”

“Okay then.”

Jessie lets out a rebel hoot and dashes for the door.

“If there’s any books…” Elsie calls after him.

“I know, I know.” He says as he slams the door behind him.

“That boy.” Helen laughs. “So much energy. I don’t know where he gets it.”

“That’s my brother, can go all night and all day.” Elsie titters. “I hope he finds a book.”

He would indeed find books, and a lot more besides. Including my identity papers and the letter of reference from the Sheriff’s department of Worcester, Massachusetts. True blue Yankee country. I cringe to think of how that will go over once that tattle tale boy announces it to the rest.

I find myself alone in the living room of this crazy backwoods family as the various members went about their business. While there was no hope of escape it did give me some time to reflect on a few things. For one, I had definitely not been on the trail to Chattanooga. How long I’d been going in the wrong direction through these hills and thick forest was anybody’s guess. I had been **** between the place where they found me and the house, I hadn’t a clue which way they’d taken me or how long I’d been out. The sum of which was that could not even guess where I was with any accuracy. I didn’t even know what State I was in! The one thing I did know for certain is that I had to escape as soon as possible.

I take stock of what I knew, trying to find any edge I might exploit. The Bailey’s were a family of five. Father and mother, eldest child Fiona, middle child and only son Jessie, and the bashful youngest Elsie. All three children we adults, ranging from just under twenty for Elsie to mid-twenties for Fiona. The father looked to be hard man who ruled this family with unquestioned authority, though he definitely had a soft spot for Fiona. The mother was master of the house itself and had a strict though severely warped sense of morality and hospitality, she also coddled her dress wearing Mama’s boy son terribly. Fiona…was danger. A woman of intense emotions and unhinged thinking only held in check by the others of her family. Had she found me on her own I had zero doubt either my body or hers would be out there being eaten by crows right now. Jessie was an odd one, and not for the obvious reason of his cross dressing. He clearly wanted me in a sinful way and he just as clearly didn’t want anybody else in the family to touch me. He genuinely seemed to like me, or was at least curious about me. Elsie was shy to a fault, afraid of outsiders, but also was a reader and had the most proper sense of right and wrong. She had least power of the clan but would likely be the most sympathetic.

Beyond this I knew there was some mysterious “Auntie” who this family seemed to think wanted lost men like me for…experiments? It didn’t appear that she lived here. I would keep an ear out for more about her. I knew where they were keeping my stuff. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, I knew where they kept their guns. I could see it from here.

Settling back and making myself as comfortable as possible I listen to the women work in the next room as I run through one scenario after another of how I might escape this loony bin.