From: "Gary Drennan" <gary.drennan@lmco.com>
Newsgroups: talk.bizarre
Subject: FTSD ShortStory:   Jesse
Date: Tue, 1 Dec 1998 07:28:44 -0500
Organization: Lockheed Martin Corporation
Lines: 63
Message-ID: <740naj$9f4@svlss.lmms.lmco.com>
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                                        Jesse

     Two women sit and talk on the veranda while looking down on the
courtyard.  Under a Tamarisk tree plays a young boy.  He is intent in his
task and holds his toy up to the sun and examines it minutely.
     The older woman continues, “But he plays so well alone.  Why doesn’t he
play with other children?”
     “Children!  We can’t even let him play with the animals.  See how the
old bitch watches him?”    An old black dog lay by her food bowl.  “We let
him play with her puppies until I caught him.  He would hold their little
muzzles closed then try to revive them.  If it worked he’d try again.”   She
continued rocking.
     “And so what does he play with now?”
     “Well, we got him a Lego set; it keeps his interest longer than
anything else.  Besides, the pieces come apart if he uses anything he makes
on us.  Usually he just makes crosses.”
     “My God, Melissa!  I had no idea it had gotten this bad.  How do you
cope?”
     “It is by the grace of God that I even have my sanity, Tia.  Roberto
and I fear having another child.  It even keeps us from being intimate as
often as we’d like.”
     “Have you considered making Jesse a ward of the state?  You’re still a
young woman, Missy, you must try again for a normal child.”
     “The church counsels us to be patient and to pray.  Young Father
Damione once spoke to us about putting him down.  He thought he could get it
approved.  Roberto was against it.  Says we just missed having a genius.”
     Tia looked down and saw the boy staring up at them.  “Can he hear us,
Melissa?” she asked and grabbed her hands in fear.   Jesse went back to
admiring his cross.
     “No Tia.  He just does that at times.  I’m not sure he understands
speech at all.  He knows feelings and I think he reads a person’s eyes.
Here, I’ll show you.”
     “Jesse!  Jesse come here.”   She didn’t call loudly yet the boy turned
and looked at her.  With a simple hand motion she got the point across and
the boy came running.  The old dog bristled and growled as he passed.
    “You remember your Great Aunt Maria?”  Jesse didn’t respond, he just
stared at his mother.  “Go feed Tobie, Jesse.”  He turned and ran back into
the courtyard.  “See?  He really can’t communicate verbally but still he
understands.”
    Jesse went to the feed bin and carefully measured a can of dry dogfood.
Holding it out in front of him he approached the dog’s bowl.  Tobie stood
and backed away from the child, growling lowly as she did.  The boy bent
over and poured the can’s contents into the dog’s bowl.  He sat the can down
and walked a couple steps toward the growling dog.  He held his hand up and
made a pinching motion.     That’s when Tobie leaped.
    She went for the throat.  Jesse never had a chance to flinch; she was on
him that quick.  As soon as she touched ground she squared her stance and
shook him like a rag doll.
    Both women were already up and running to Jesse.  His mother grabbed a
broom brought it down hard on the dog’s haunches.  Tobie yelped, dropped
Jesse and ran out the gate.
    Melissa rolled Jesse over and wiped the dirt from his face.  He locked
eyes with her and she felt his dying thought.
    She brushed back a tear, held his limp body close and whispered, “No
mijo, I didn’t wish for this.”


…---...
garyd
(lost his .sig in a poker game)