It wasn’t a big wedding but my dad was happier than I’ve seen in years. I remember how he placed the ring on Jill’s finger and they both smiled at each other. I wanted to be happy for my dad, I’m sure he was lonely after mom left but Jill always seemed different to me. Before the wedding my dad and I had the talk while playing basketball. He shot the ball for a three, “She is not ever going to be your mom. No one can replace her, but she’s just there to help.” I wanted to say something back then but I just didn’t have the words. Now when the minister asked, “Speak now or forever hold your peace.” I was ragging inside. I kept the words inside. I wished now I did speak up.
At first Jill was alright. She was trying to play nice. She was librarian and she helped me with a report for school and organized a science project for me. My dad watched from afar and later said, “See kid it’s going to be okay.” At school my friends only liked to talk about gaming. But Alice,, my girlfriend would try to find out about what’s going on. “Jake, maybe she just wants to connect, you should let her. What’s the worse that could happen?” Alice said.
“Maybe you are right. That’s why I’d give my liver to you.” That was our little code so I never had to say the four-letter L word.
“I’d give you my liver too.”
The first incident happened a couple days later. I was playing a video game with my friends. I had my headset on, in my gaming chair about to win a 5 on 5 game. Just then my game was not responding. “Man, I’m glitching.” I look over to Jill with the unplugged router in her hand.
“You missed an assignment I just talked to your teacher.”
“What the hell you just don’t mess with my internet like that!”
She walked over to me looked me directly in the eye and said, “I’m your step mother, don’t fuck with me.” I didn’t know what to say but I was pissed.
When dad got home I met him at the car before he could get inside. But he had already talked to Jill. “Jake your failing your classes and you need to study more. Jill will help you with your classes. Don’t you think a little time away from video games would be better for you?”
“Dad, I’m not failing grades.”
“Get outside and get fresh air. God knows how stuffy it is in your room.”
I thought she got to him, I already lost my dad. At school my friends made fun of me for being AFK when they were about to win. Alice seemed to understand but didn’t have a lot of advice.
“Look on the bright side. If you get good grades we can go to the same college.”
“Alice I’m not failing my classes, besides she’s only a librarian not a genius.”
“Look come to my birthday party this Saturday and this will be all over. You can show your dad that your grades are okay and things will go back to normal.”
“See that’s why I have no problem donating my liver if I had to.”
However, I wasn’t going to Alice’s party. When I got home, Jill was waiting for me. “What type of filth do you talk about?” I just realized that she went through by DM’s in my social media accounts. My dad always respected my privacy, I never even thought about hiding stuff. Besides, I didn’t talk about or doing anything different from what my other friends were doing. I watched in horror as she confiscated all my devices.
“This computer is your homework computer. There are no more games on here until you can improve your grades.”
“I’m not flunking, you stupid bitch.”
“Speaking of which you are not going to that party with that girl. You can start doing a list of chores. Just wait until your father gets home.”
“Yeah, my first chore will be helping dad file divorce paperwork.”
“I knew you would be a little shit and try sabotage my marriage already. I try to help you with your classes and this what I get?”
Dad came home, “Jake let’s go to the basket ball court.” At the park we played horse. My dad always wanted me to play sports especially basketball. But I wasn’t interested. I had the height and I could handle the ball okay. I just couldn’t make the team, so why bother. My dad made another three. He always went for his special spot on the floor. He mastered it and it was difficult for me to match that shot. He got the rebound and then asked me directly while handing me the ball.
“Are you having sex with that girl?”
I really wasn’t expecting that question right now. Besides a year ago Dad would probably high fived me and just say, “No fat chicks”, pointing his fingers in a joking way. But this was different. Jill was feeding him information to make me look bad.
“Dad I want to go to my girlfriend’s party. I’m starting to feel like home is a jail. Seriously, don’t you see that all the problems started when Jill came in?”
“Jake, maybe I thought things were going on well between us, but maybe there are things you are hiding. I know it was hard after mom left. I was hoping Jill could give us a woman’s touch and no matter what I’m still your dad. But there is only so much I can do.”
“Dad, she going through all my stuff. I have nothing to do at home. I’m really miserable.”
“Jake you didn’t answer my question about the girl.”
“No, I’m not Dad. You would like her she’s pretty organized too.”
“Look no party until your grades are better. But let’s talk more. It’s never easy with mixed families but lets try to work things out. Maybe you’ll see that Jill is not so bad.”
Back at school I had to apologize to Alice. “It’s really not my fault I am at total lockdown except at school.”
“Jake if you keep this up you will have to find someone else to donate you a liver.”
“I’m not going to parties so my liver is pretty good right now. But seriously, I can’t play video games, I can’t go online. I can only do homework and chores and nothing else. Look at my bag pack, look inside.”
As I held up the bag pack it was in perfect order. All my notes where in perfect order, no loose papers, its like the model student’s bag pack.
“Jake, I never seen you clean anything that clean.”
“I need your help, there is something seriously wrong with Jill. People just don’t act like this. I can’t go online, even if I did she looks through my history and everything.”
“Look Jake, I’ll help you out but what exactly are you expecting to find? So what if she A type, that’s not a crime.”
“You’re not there. There’s something in her eyes.”
“Speaking of things that shouldn’t be there tell me that you deleted those photos.”
Back home I came back to the house. It was complete dark in the fall. With an early sunset it was dark with no streetlights, it felt like I was walking in a catacomb. I went to my room just to be alone. I thought to myself, I should have joined the basketball team. I would avoided Jill with all the practices and just be left alone. After getting a head start on my homework I hear Jill from downstairs.
“Hey boy, lets go play some video games.”
Her voice was different than usual. Instead of the demanding way she usually spoke, it was more of a falsetto, but with an undeniable sinister undertone. Whatever, crazy lady, I am not doing anything with you I thought.
“I’m studying, I need to get my homework done.”
Just then I heard a loud knocking at my window. I jumped with fear, holding my chest. As I turned toward the window it was Alice.
“You scared the shit out of me.”
“You should be scared.” She showed me a news story on her phone with Jill’s picture on it. Newlywed Now a Widow the headline said. The article went on to describe the mysterious death of her husband. The police described it as a robbery attempt. The thieves only took jewelry.
“But there’s more, look at this article from 3 years ago.” The article said Couple Mourns Death of Son. It went on to talk about how Jill’s then stepson went missing and was later found dead.
There was a knocking at the door. “Jake, I’ve decided to let you play on your computer. I want us to get along. C’mon go play your games.” That voice was so chilling. I heard people having goosebumps but this was the first time I ever experienced it. I but I could see the pores of my arm freeze tight and all my hair on my arm stand at attention.
“ I have to meet you at your house. Get out of here.”
I opened the door and there was Jill. Her head was tilted slightly to the left and in her off hand, she held a router. But she didn’t hold it conventionally. She held it like it was the entrails of some animal she gutted. I didn’t hesitate, I ran passed her. But what I didn’t see was the knife she held behind her back. She threw it at me but missed.
“C’mon boy lets play.” I ran to Alice’s house. The streets were dark now. It was that moment with daylight savings time when street lights are out of sync with the sunset so now there was some more time of darkness before there was any artificial lights.
At Alice’s house I wanted to feel safe. Alice was just as scared as I was. She showed me her phone again. She was getting text messages from Jill under my name. “Hey you slut come back and it’ll be better for you.” She posted this over and over and over.
“She knows where I live. Do we call the cops?”
“No let’s go to the basketball court.” It was always a safe place for us to go. We ran as fast as we could. Alice was shocked from all the texts she was getting. When we got there the lights of the court were on, but the court was deserted. We went to the half court line. Alice looked down at her phone and read the text, “Your coordinates are 33.85, -118.10. I’ll be there soon”
“Jake she’ll be here soon what are we going to do?”
We didn’t see any cars in the parking lot, maybe she didn’t know where we were. Who even bothers with coordinates? It could all be made up. Maybe we were out of her reach. Just then we heard the wrestling of leaves. “Please be a homeless dude, please be a homeless dude.”, I prayed intently. My prayer was unanswered.
I heard something whizzing through the air. As we looked down Jill jumped through the bushes.
“Why do you have to ruin everything?” She thrusted wildly missing both us. We jumped opposite of each other and started to run.
“You can’t be a good student.” She threw another knife at me, scrapping my arm.
“You see this slut. I know what you two were doing . You ruin everything.” As I was nursing my wound she slowly approached. “This is over.”
Alice and I looked at each other in fear. We were tired and couldn’t find away to get away. But then we didn’t need to. Jill fell down with that angry look on her face.
“You’re right. It is over.”
My dad slugged her in the back of the head.
“Jake I’m really sorry I didn’t know how crazy she was. I thought she was stopping you from messing up.”
Alice came up to my dad and showed him the news articles. She asked, “How did you know how to get here?”
“Whenever something is wrong or an emergency we always meet up here. To bad I didn’t meet you under better circumstances. The police are coming we have alot of time to catch up”
My dad and I still play basketball and talk, but we added one more person, Alice. She has a decent jump shot but she is great company. We’re headed off for college and things are looking up and up. Dad is seeing someone. He brought it up I asked, “No fat chicks, right?” But no matter how good things are now, every once in a while, I get a DM. I know its from her because it always says, “No more video games.”