Chapter 4

Sultry: Another country heard from; 4

"Who am I married to?" Sultry was confused.

The Powers that Be said, "We don't know."

"What am I married to?"

"We don't know."

"Where is he from?"

"We don't know."

"Where is he now?"

"That's what we want you to find out?"

"You don't know?"

"There are clues."

"What?"

"Jack, the one you are married to is immensely intelligent. The Jack the Army knows graduated from a Correspondence College. He passed ... barely. The Jack who fathered your triplets? What do you think?"

"We want you to watch something ... this is your life before Jack."

They showed it to her in her mind.

Sultry's life played itself out in fast forward. When anything noteworthy happened, it slowed down. There were parts she didn't remember ... parts she wished she didn't remember ... it was awful ... it was sad ... it got worse when she was 12 and the neighbor ... Oh My God ... he wasn't a boy. It was his father ... John ... she had blocked it ... she wasn't a voluntary participant in the nightmare of her life after 12. The bastard had SOLD her to his friends and enjoyed slapping her around while she was penetrated in three holes ... she HATED it ... She fucked everything ... dogs, horses, donkeys and it was all on film in living color.

The worst part? She was SLOW. There wasn't any other word that fit.

She was on the lower left side of the bell curve.

She couldn't write ... she could print but cursive stumped her. Spelling was a disaster and she couldn't remember what she printed from one day to the next ... so she couldn't read it.

It took all of November to learn to spell November. Then the bastards tore the sheet off the calendar and it was a whole new month. December. She remembered December ... Xmas was in December.

The month that took the longest to learn to spell was shortest month ... February ... Febuairy was how she spelled it because that was how everybody spoke it. The states? Florida ... they pronounced Floriderr. How about Kansas and Arkansas ... Kansas and Arkansaw But if it's Arkansaw shouldn't it be Kansaw? The teachers all said Cans-ass. But they didn't say Ar-Cans-ass.

One of her teachers said people from Cans-ass called Arkansaw ... Our-Cans-ass

None of it made any sense.

School was awful. Everyone was SURE she was selling it ... they didn't know it was John selling her. She had no friends ... not even a fuck buddy.

The only math she knew was the numbers from B1 to O75 because she played bingo as often as she could ... but let a number be missing from her cards ... like N37. N37 was part of a BINGO on her cards twice in four years. If she had it when the number was called ... she never had a bingo using it. If it wasn't on her cards she forgot what it looked like. If she didn't play at least once a week, she had to learn All the numbers again.

Then she met Jack.

He was her refuge ... he treated her like a human. The car, the bank account, flying lessons ... THE WATCH! He paid her to keep house ... and then he helped clean it. He gave her money to shop and then helped put it away.

He cuddled her on the couch.

My God ... he washed her hair! She cried when he washed her hair ... he was so gentle ... it was wonderful.

The first time she had sex with Jack ... something in her had changed. Her language had changed ... she was smarter ... not a lot ... the change was gradual ... seven years ... the babies. Why had she read all those books?

When the children had been tested ... Five years old ... they had ACED the CLEP, the ACT...

Every test the Proctors had thrown at the kids, they had thrown at her and she passed it all ... and her brain kept working ... what ever HER Jack had done to her was still working.

Who was Jack?

What is Jack?

And what was driving her to find him?