I eyed him seductively. “Your home or my home?”
He kissed my forehead. “Choose.”
“Well, since you treated me to a bubble bath last time, reciprocity is in order. Want to christen my tub?”
“Absolutely.”
That’s exactly what we did.
It was time. I was determined not to let Jonquinette and her parents leave my office until I exposed the truth. I had grown to care about Jonquinette, as I did all my patients. But there was something fragile about her that I felt the need to shield. It was actually ironic. I was beginning to identify with the reasoning behind Jude’s actions. Jonquinette was the kind of spirit that people would naturally be drawn toward to shelter.
They all arrived at the same time, instead of separately like the previous session.
“Come on in and have a seat,” I said as they walked in single file. I went to the outer office and told my receptionist to put the phones on night and go ahead and leave for the day. There was no point in her staying since I had no more patients scheduled and I was not going to take any calls.
When I came back in, they were all seated: Jonquinette on the chaise and her parents on the couch.
I sat in the armchair and placed a tape recorder in the middle of the coffee table. I hit Record.
“Is this really necessary?” Meredith Pierce asked sarcastically.
“Who’s going to end up hearing that?”
“No one will hear it, unless I have your permission. This is simply for me to take notes with and possibly to play back for Jonquinette.” I glanced at Jonquinette and added, “Just in case she misses something.”
Jonquinette nodded. “I understand what you mean. You plan to call Jude out, don’t you?”
I didn’t hesitate to answer. “Yes, I do.”
Henry started panicking. “Say what? You’re going to summon that wench? This is crazy!”
“Please, Daddy!” Jonquinette exclaimed. “You promised you would help me.”
“And I will, but I’m not so sure about this,” he replied. He eased back on the couch and seemed to calm down some. “All right, if this is the way it has to be, then let’s get it over with.”
I decided to let them know right away that, “There’s a possibility that Jude won’t come out at all. She revealed herself to Mason once that we know of and to me once, but that’s about it. She was obviously around when Flower was visiting but she pretended to be Jonquinette and not herself.”
Henry shook his head. “I still can’t get over that. Something tragic could have happened.”
Jonquinette glared at him and looked irritated. “Well, I hope that never happens again.”
Meredith spoke up. “It won’t happen again, Precious. Your daddy and I have already discussed that at length.”
“Why don’t we all just relax,” I suggested. I turned to Jonquinette. “Jude, I know that you can hear me. You’re always around.”
Meredith sighed loudly. I looked at her and put my index finger to my lips. “Please, remain perfectly quiet for now. We don’t want to irritate her.”
“Who gives a shit if we irritate her?” Henry lashed out suddenly. “This entire situation is that wench’s fault.”
Jonquinette jumped up off the chaise, walked over to the couch and slapped Henry across the face. “I’ve had just about enough of you calling me a wench, you motherfucking bastard!”
Both Henry and Meredith were shocked. Henry rubbed his face and looked like he wanted to say something but didn’t. Instead he glanced at me like he was searching for answers and I nodded for him to remain quiet.
I stood up. “Jude, it’s nice to see you again.”
“Save the bullshit, you bitch! I told you before that I wasn’t going anyplace so all this therapy shit is a waste of time. The Queen Bitch and her flunky can’t make me go away either.”
Meredith asked with disdain, “Who are you calling a queen bitch?”
“You, bitch, you!” Jude screamed. “All of Jon’s life, all you’ve ever cared about is yourself. Look at you now. Jon asked the two of you to help her and what do you do, start fucking again and talking about marriage as if that will solve something. Well, fuck all of you!”
“Jude, try to calm down,” I said, walking closer to her and putting my hand on her shoulder. “Let’s just sit back down and talk about this calmly.”
“No, hell no! Hell fucking no!” Jude started pacing the floor. “I decided to come out for one reason and one reason only, to inform all of you that you can’t win. You’ll never win!”
“Why are you doing this?” Meredith asked, on the brink of tears. “Why are you doing this to my baby?”
“Your baby?” Jude put her hands on her hips. “Jon never mattered to you, not really. All you cared about was putting up a pretense. You wanted everyone to think that you had the perfect marriage and the perfect little daughter, even though you didn’t. You only care about material things, just like your two fucking sisters.”
Meredith started crying harder. “I can’t take this. I love Jonquinette. I always have. You’re sick.”
“I’m not sick, you bitch!” Jude sat down in the middle of the coffee table with her legs spread open facing them. She lifted her skirt and started fingering herself. “Does this make you sick, bitch? I decided to be a whore just like you. The only difference is your golddigging ass has been fucking men for what they can give you all these years and I fuck them for the hell of it.”
Henry stood up and headed for the door. “I won’t sit here and watch this a second longer.”
Jude said, “What’s wrong,
Henry turned around and glared at Jude. “This is all your fucking fault, wench! You set me up! I never even met that prostitute.”
Jude started laughing. “Okay, fine. Since you’ve all figured it out already, I confess. I did it and I’m damn proud of it, too. You tried to get help for Jon, which meant trying to get rid of me, and I had to do something to stop you.”
“Is that why you stabbed me?” He got all the way up in Jude’s face. “It was you who stabbed me, wasn’t it?”
An expression of fear came across Jude’s face. It was brief but I saw it. I’m not sure if Meredith and Henry even picked up on it.
Meredith stopped crying and looked from one of them to the other. “Stabbed? Henry, what are you talking about?”
Jude took two steps back from him. “Yeah, what do you mean by that?”
“Don’t get cute with me, you cunt!” Henry started unbuttoning his shirt. “You know exactly what I’m talking about.” He took his shirt off and pointed to a tiny scar over his shoulder blade. “I’m talking about this.”
Meredith stood up, came over to him, and touched it. “That’s where you accidentally cut yourself with a pocket knife. I remember when you came home with it bandaged up.”
Henry smirked. “That was the story I made up to cover up for who I thought was Jonquinette. Now I know it wasn’t her at all.”
“What are you talking about, Henry?” Meredith prodded.
“I didn’t want the police to file charges against her. I knew that after all the incidents in her past that they’d allowed to slip through, one more might cause them to lock her up in juvenile detention.”
Jude hissed at him. “You’re a lying bastard! I never stabbed you!”
“You showed up at my office one day, stormed in like a hurricane, and started talking crazy. Just like you are now, as a matter of fact. I told you that it was time to get you some help. Your solution was to pick up a letter opener off my desk and stab me in the shoulder with it. I bet you were aiming for my heart but I moved out the way just in time.”
We had definitely reached a crossroads. I remained silent and allowed the situation to play itself out.
Jude grabbed my shoulders and started screaming. “I didn’t do that, Marcella! I didn’t!”
