Jenny Be Good

Jenny Be Good Howard Clark Chapter one The train could be heard in the deep distance, giving the warning cry of its approach; a haunting horn that announces to the world that it is lonely. It is on time at all costs, but no one in the house had ever bothered to time it. A mouse, with long, delicate whiskers, takes a chance and exposes himself on the field stone fireplace mantle. With a twitching nose, he searches the air for danger. The warm fire is a better focus, however, and he moves closer to the yellow light. He is well aware of the imperilments of the fireplace. Many a lecture he received from his parents, just as they were lectured by their parents, and so on. The mantle is generally a safe place to be, plenty of cover is provided from the dusty statuettes, pictures, and knickknacks. During Christmas, however, is where the greatest amount of cover is provided, from wreaths, trim, garlands, candles, and angels. Detection is practically impossible, and there is always food to be found under the kitchen table; a mouse’s paradise. It isn’t hard to explain why many generations of mice have survived in this very house. Suddenly, the mouse catches sight of some hurried motion of a newspaper, coming from the center of the room. Chapter two Karl was sitting in his easy chair reading the Sunday paper. He didn’t pay much attention to the passing train, he probably didn’t even hear it, for he has been used to it for some time. He is always particularly interested in the comics page, but not this time, he was busily looking in the job ad section browsing for a teaching position. He rustled the pages once more in hopes that his job would abruptly appear. A knock was heard at the front door; Karl folded his paper and bolted up to answer the call. “Hello, Uncle Karl! How are you?” asked his niece, excitedly. “Daphne! What a pleasant surprise! I’m doing fine, please, come in!” Karl motioned for her to enter. Daphne looked so much like Karl’s sister that sometimes one cannot tell them apart. Karl remembered well that during his youth many callers came asking for his sister, he often wished she wasn’t so beautiful, but now regrets such thoughts after falling in love with Daphne’s charm. Karl hesitated to realize that Daphne was a result of a romantic whim, for his sister never did marry. After Daphne sat down, she said,”Um, uncle? Here is the rose book you let me borrow last month. I meant to return it earlier, but I have been so busy in school that I hadn’t had a chance to bring it by.” Karl said, “I forgot, you’re going to college now! Great! The same junior college I went to. I really enjoyed it, what are your classes like?” “Well, I hate chemistry; I don’t even know why I took it. I love the sex class however, I’m learning all sorts of things, and did you know that about five to seven percent of the population is always potentially homosexual?” “No, I wasn’t aware of that,” mused Karl. “It’s true! Calculus is pretty hard, but I’ll pass it with a C, no problem. Then, of course, I’m taking ballet and sculpture, you got to take those fun classes, you know?” Karl answered, “Of course!” Daphne then said, “Oh, before I forget, I found this letter hidden between the pages in the rose book.” Karl lit up with interest, “What letter?” letter. “This one, it sounds romantic, who is she?” asked Daphne, as she handed Karl the “I haven’t seen this letter in about five years. It wasn’t romantic at all, it was rather heartbreaking, to tell the truth. Her name is Judith Duncan, an instructor of mine during my junior college years. She taught precalculus.” Karl read the letter: 12 December 1993 Dear Karl, I am sorry I was rude to you on the phone. For some instructors, it is fine to call them at home, but I prefer to not be called at home by students, you caught me at a bad time. I am sending back all your literary efforts, I am impressed with the volume of work you have already compiled and I wish you luck for your future efforts. I am sad to tell you that I do not think I can be of any more assistance to you critiquing your work. I have exhausted all my ideas. I am also sorry to say, I do not wish to become a member of your Savant Society. After thinking it over, I feel it is too structured and formal for me. I thank you for inviting me anyway. 2 I wish you and the Society the best of luck. I will always think of you, Karl, I learned a great deal from you. Thank you for everything. Judith Karl stared at the letter, his mind bubbling memories of a forgotten past. Daphne chewed her fingernails as she watched her uncle. Chapter three By now the mouse has made it way to the floor, but still close to the fireplace. The eucalyptus wood that burned, popped, and snapped; minute sparks darted into the room and burned in the air before finding their way to the floor. The mouse had plenty on his mind. Lately, he has been pondering the philosophical difference between “inside” and “outside.” He was well hidden in the bookshelf and felt safe enough to entertain his thoughts for a while. “Inside” he thought, “is quite strange. Often it maintains the opposite temperature that the outside suffers; if outside is cold, inside is hot, if inside is cold, outside is hot.” He then wondered if there are structural counterparts between “inside” and “outside.” The mouse’s mind winced, “I have noticed, from time to time, as well from the teachings of my parents, tall objects with lots of flat things on the top existing on the outside, humans refer to them as trees, are there any counterparts on the inside?” The mouse looked around the room, and spotted a lamp. “Ah! That must be a counterpart of some sort. It’s tall, with one cylindrical flat thing on top. But, it gives off its own light, trees don’t do that, not as well as the sun. That’s it! The lamp and the sun are counterparts! That’s one down; let’s see if I can find another.” He peered from his bookshelf perch and examined the carpet. “This must be a counterpart to the lawn outside. It’s flat, with a bunch of narrow blades sticking out of it. It’s of a different color, but I suppose that doesn’t matter.” The mouse thought harder, trying to dream up an explanation of the opposites and parallels he was discovering. “It looks to me that mankind is trying to bring outside to the inside, but in a different interpretation. He wants to be in control, not subject to the vagaries of nature. I wonder, what is my counterpart?” The mouse looked frantically for his parallel or opposite. His thoughts were interrupted with the loud talking of the humans. 3 “I was captivated by her beauty, she Chapter four Daphne finally broke the silence, “Please uncle, tell me all about her, I didn’t realize that you made good friends with an instructor!” “Before I begin, would you like some tea?” asked Karl. Daphne said, “I would love some, do you have any herbal tea... umm, yarrow, or something like that?” Karl, on his way to the kitchen, answered, “I have some red clover, will that do?” Daphne responded, “That’ll be fine.” After a few minutes, Karl came back with two cups of steaming tea. He handed Daphne her’s, took a deep breath and started to explain, “I remember every conversation I had with her, as if it were only yesterday. “On the first day of school I was seated in pre-calculus waiting for the pedagogue to come in. A teacher by the name of ‘Harris’ was supposed to instruct the class, but when I got my schedule, it said ‘Duncan.’ I didn’t know what to expect; I certainly got the surprise of a lifetime. The most beautiful woman that I have ever seen walked in. She wore glasses and had dirty blonde hair; she was light-skinned and wore a dress with a sweater. Around her neck was a beaded necklace with an ankh attached to it, the Egyptian symbol for life. gave her introduction lecture, but I didn’t hear a word of it.” Daphne sipped at her tea as she listened to her uncle. Karl continued, “A few weeks later she was talking about outer space for some reason and explained to the class the plot to one of Carl Sagan’s books. The book in question was ‘Contact,’ but she said the name was ‘Cosmos.’ I knew this to be wrong because I am a great fan of Dr. Sagan and have every book he has written. Cosmos was the name of his TV series.” “After class I took the liberty to tell her of the flaw. She appreciated my correction and said she would have to tell the class tomorrow the correct title. I told her that I took a special interest in ‘Contact’ because that is where I learned the concept of ‘pi.’” “We walked down the hall to her office. She asked me in; I said upon entering that I enjoy establishing rapport with my instructors.” Daphne interrupted, “I’m sorry uncle, but I have to go pee, can I use your bathroom?” Karl, where it is.” chuckling at Daphne’s unexpected comment, said, “Sure, you know 4 Daphne quickly left the room to relieve herself, for the tea made its way to the bladder quicker than she expected. Chapter five The mouse took note of the departing human, and continued his train of thought. “I think I have it, humans are my counterparts. They must be. There is nothing else living in this house, other than perhaps flies or mosquitoes, both of which are detestable creatures. I do not like them at all.” The mouse noticed the tea bags on the coffee table, “These humans, they call that platform a coffee table but set tea cups on it instead. Sometimes I must question their logic; it just doesn’t make any sense. Seeped clover leaves certainly would taste good about right now. I hope they put those tea bags in an accessible place.” The mouse switched thoughts, “I think I will take back my counterpart theory, humans are much too irrational for me, perhaps I don’t have a parallel, perhaps I belong in both worlds and parallel myself.” “What if humans are trying to bring the inside to the outside? I don’t see much progress in that direction; though they do have some ugly lawn furniture outside that resembles their inside chairs. Humans don’t make much sense, I suppose they aren’t as smart as us mice, I bet they cannot even approach our great philosophers, such as Playtow, or Smyth. I wish I was a great philosopher, I would show these humans a thing or two.” The mouse decided to watch the people for a while. Chapter six Daphne returned and regained her place on the couch. Karl asked, “Now, where was I?” Daphne answered, “Umm, you were talking about rapport.” “Oh, yes,” Karl said, “rapport. I told her I enjoy establishing rapport with my instructors, so she told me that she was filling in for Mr. Harris until he returns from his sabbatical in Europe. She also commented that she hopes to soon get a full time position at the college. Eventually, I departed her office and headed for my next class.” Daphne asked, “Did she ever tell the class the proper name of the book?” “No, she never did, I really don’t think the class cared. You see, most of the students that I spoke to didn’t like her very much, they said that she had a confusing teaching style and was outright boring. I suppose I felt sorry for her and that is why I 5 continued going to her office, engaging in conversations.” Daphne shifted her position on the couch and asked, “Was she really as bad as the students say?” Karl said, “Well, she was awkward, but all in all, I did learn a lot from her. I would have to admit, when she took the job, she hadn’t been teaching for long and was still searching for a good teaching style. From a scale from one to ten, I would give her a seven.” Daphne commented, “I bet you were biased, because you had the hots for her!” “Jesus Christ, Daphne,” remarked Karl, “I was only trying to establish rapport! I didn’t want a relationship. But anyway, during one of our conversations, as I recall, she mentioned that she took a creative writing class when she was going to college. It didn’t take me long to tell her that I was a writer, too. I told her all about my short stories and the hundreds of poems that I had written. She was amazed at the volume of work that I had already produced. I then asked her if she would like to read some of my stuff, and surprisingly, she said she would love to.” Daphne interrupted, “I really liked your story about the room in the west wing. The ending was really weird. But you never told me you were a poet also! Why didn’t you let me read some of it?” Karl said, “I thought I did let you read my poetry?” “You never have,” yawned Daphne. “Tired? I must really be boring you.” Karl shifted his feet. “No, I just partied too hard last night. It’s the weekend, you know, college students are supposed to go to parties, that’s what college is all about!” said Daphne. Karl, shocked at how active she has been, said, “You’re being careful, aren’t you? I wouldn’t trust those college guys; they only have one thing on their minds, if you know what I mean.” Daphne grinned, “I am learning all about that in sex class. I think I can handle myself, now, quit trying to change the subject and tell me more about Judith.” Karl continued, “I went home that night and picked out some stuff for her to read. I decided to give her my first novella, The Burlap Bag, and its sequel, The Rediscovery. As far as poetry goes, I decided to let her read my Lord Orman Epics. I was rather fond of these works so I felt I would share them with her.” Daphne asked, “What are the Lord Orman Epics all about?” Karl answered, “Well, my pen name is Lord Orman, and occasionally I encounter challenges in my life that I want to record. I find it palling to write nonsense in a diary, so I 6 record my life in epic form, similar to that of Homer’s Iliad or Odyssey. At that time, I had only written five epics with Lord Orman. The world Lord Orman lives in is a mystic realm like that of J. R. R. Tolkien, full of magic and curious creatures. I incorporate these themes into my poetry.” Daphne expressed her thoughts, “Wow! That’s really neat! I would like to read them, I love stuff like that, I have read all of J. R. R. Tolkien’s work, and even some of the material his son wrote. Not only that, but I play Dungeons and Dragons all the time with my girlfriends.” Karl then said, “Well, it isn’t as sophisticated as that, it is simply a poetic way of recording activities in my life.” “How did you ever come about with your pen name?” asked Daphne. “It is the maiden name of my greatgreat grandmother, on my father’s side; she would be your great-great-great grandmother. It is also my middle name. Its literal meaning comes from a Teutonic word meaning ‘red.’ I took it at my pen name because of its alliteration with ‘lord,’ the double ‘or’ sound. At any rate, it sounds good.” “Yes it does,” commented Daphne. Karl continued his story. “I brought the works to school the next day and gave it to her in the office. She thanked me and told me about her experiences with writing. She said that the final in her writing class was to write a short story with all the skills taught to her over the course of the semester. She chose to write a story about two lovers. She said it was somewhat based on her own life, and in some areas of describing love scenes, she blushed. In fact, when she told me that, she turned a little red. She never knew what she got on it because she didn’t pick it up when finals week was over. She got an A in the class, however.” Daphne asked, “How much detail do you think she put in the story? My sex teacher says it does one good to express your sexuality in as many ways as possible, and writing about it is one of the best.” Karl said, “That sex teacher of yours must really be a liberal. What other things does he pollute your mind with?” Daphne, defending her class, said, “He doesn’t pollute! You’re just oldfashioned, you may as well get used to the idea that we are sexual animals, just look at our language; every word that’s considered vulgar is associated with the genitals, either their primary or secondary functions.” Karl asked, “What do you mean by primary and secondary?” Daphne continued, “Primary functions would refer to activities that are biologically important, such as procreation; secondary refers to bodily functions, as in 7 urination. As I said, the most vulgar words either refer to procreation, the genitals, or bodily functions associated with or near the genitals. Our fascination of our sexuality is secretly encoded in our language.” Karl scoffed, “He is polluting your mind.” Daphne grinned and sat back on the couch, deciding it isn’t worth the effort to argue with her uncle. “Well, continue with Judith, I want to hear all the details.” Karl grinned and said, “After I gave her the works to read, I asked her if I could meet with her somewhere to discuss the poetry and novella after she reads them. She said she would be delighted. A month passed and she finally made a date to discuss my work. She told me to come over to her apartment Friday afternoon. She gave me her address and went to her next class. I couldn’t wait to talk to her.” Chapter seven The mouse looked over the room. He was tired of having to follow the walls in order to enter the kitchen. He studied the floor plan to figure out an easier route. He saw a thick rug in the center of the room which had a certain amount of height to it. He felt he could run along its length and not be detected. Using the rug for cover could possibly cut his travel time in half. It would be more efficient than having to run under the couches. The mouse thought, “Last year the humans put traps along my couch route, I damn near caught my death! If I establish a path in the middle of the room, the chances of the humans setting traps under their own feet are much less. I should have thought of this a long time ago! There is only one problem; we mice have a habit of marking our paths with urine so we can follow the path at night. If I mark a path in the middle of the room, the humans will eventually find out, merely because the dark, soiled line will give me away. Not to mention the mouse droppings all over the place. But I must mark it, I cannot move swiftly during the night without an olfactory guide of some sort. Maybe if I make an esthetic pattern, the humans won’t mind. They have had uglier things in this house before. I recall a pile of clothes always laying about in the back room. And on top of that, the clothes stank! If the humans do not mind that, then they won’t mind my urine trail!” Chapter eight “Continue, uncle,” commanded Daphne, “it’s getting interesting!” 8 “I was nervous because I didn’t know what to expect, I thought she would set up a meeting in the library or something, but I was shocked when she invited me to her apartment. She lived near the shopping mall and I didn’t have any problem finding her place. I knocked on the door and she answered. I was shown inside and she offered me some coffee, I think it was mocha or something. Then she proceeded to rip my work apart. She started on the novella first. She said I had too many choppy sentences and I kept putting ‘he said’ before the entire dialog. She claims it isn’t necessary to write ‘he said’ all of the time because the reader can figure out who’s speaking by the way the dialog flows. Okay, I understood that, but I really became irate when she criticized my plot. She said it was too ordinary; predictable, so to speak. I tried to present my line of thought and what my intentions were. She didn’t seem to pay much attention. She didn’t even read the ‘Rediscovery,’ she only scanned it. I was starting to feel that it was a bad idea to let her read my works, but then I decided that I needed the experience and continued to listen to her critique.” “She then went on to the epics. She announced that she didn’t know very much about poetry written in the epic form, but she wanted to give her opinion anyway. She said that my epic titled ‘The Temptation’ was sexist. It seemed to make women appear evil because they were beautiful. I tried to explain to her my idea of ‘poetic license,’ but it seemed to me that she didn’t understand the concept. She continued to say that I didn’t make my point clear and needed to explain to the reader what is going on.” “At this point in the conversation, I wasn’t paying any attention to what she was saying; I only focused on her pink lips and soft chin. I relaxed myself and continued to admire her carnal features. She stopped talking and looked into my eyes. It was very bewitching. I leaned over to kiss her and our lips met.” “Oh my God,” Daphne said suddenly, “you’re just the romantic type, aren’t you!?” Karl flushed, but tried to defend his position, “I just got caught up in the moment. I suppose it was lust or something, but, unfortunately, I took advantage of the situation. I don’t exactly remember what happened but I do remember that we tore each other’s clothes off. She had a sensational body. I just couldn’t get enough of it. Passion took over.” “After about thirty minutes of love making, she stopped and said she felt guilty and thought it would be better if I were to leave. I was just getting the hang of it and she put a stop to the whole thing, I suppose it was a Catholic thing. I don’t even know if I 9 satisfied her, or if I actually had sex. It was all a blur and happened so fast. I think it was painful for her and that’s why she wanted to stop.” Daphne felt a little embarrassed because she never had a family member describe a sex scene to her. She commented, “What did you do then?” “Well,” began Karl, “I left. I put on my clothes and left her apartment. The odd thing was that she didn’t come to the last week of school. A substitute gave the final. I called her up the following week; she answered, but said she was busy and hung up on me. The following week I got the letter. That was the last I heard from her. She spent nearly five dollars mailing my stuff to me.” “Oh, about that letter,” Daphne began, “What the hell is the Savant Society?” Karl laughed as her choice of words, “It was a failure, I tired to create an intellectual society so scholarly people could exchange ideas. I was hoping many different people from different walks of life would get together and start a renaissance or something. I had one meeting a month for about a year, a total of eight members joined and none of them were ever there at one time. I put an end to it. It was a shame; I had a constitution and supportive essays written up. I really put a lot of work into it.” now.” Daphne said, “That’s too bad, it sounded like fun.” Karl then said, “Why did you suddenly change the subject? I was just getting mushy about Judith and you had to bring up another failure, you really know how to make a man feel good.” Daphne said apologetically, “I didn’t want you to feel bad, so I wanted to bring something else up. I’m sorry. You can talk about Judith some more if you want.” “No, that’s alright, I’m no longer in the mood. I’m sorta depressed right about A long silence dominated and Daphne and Karl simply looked towards the ground. A knock at the door broke the stillness. Karl got up and answered the door with Daphne following: there stood Judith. “Oh my God,” remarked Karl. “Hello, Karl, I’m relieved I found the right house,” Judith said jokingly, but nervously at the same. “Umm, yeah, this is the right place, please come in.” Judith, as she entered, she embraced Karl, and said, “It is so nice to see you again, I called everyone in the phone book with your last name, that’s how I found your niece, she told me where you lived. It seemed like we talked for hours.” 10 “You knew about this all the time?!” Karl said, looking over to Daphne. Daphne just smiled. Judith said, “Oh yes, there is another surprise, I want you to meet Jenny, my daughter.” Karl looked down at the little girl and said, “She’s darling, how old is she?” “She’ll be five years tomorrow.” The little girl looked up curiously at her father. Daphne whispered into her uncle’s ear, “I guess you had sex after all!” Chapter nine The mouse took advantage of the opportunity and darted across the sitting room, testing out his new trail, marking it all along its length. He managed to make it to the wash room and located the mouse hole in the sheet rock. Within the wall he found his nest. He was glad to see that his wife was awake. “Abdul?” his wife called. “Yes? Sari, my love,” answered Abdul. “What do you think you are doing? I just gave birth to the young ones while you were away! You’re just like a mouse; leave the suffering to the women. Alone, on top of that!” Abdul said with joy, “You had the kids? How wonderful! Let me see them!” Eight naked mice were nursing on their proud mother. “They are darling, what are their sexes?” asked Abdul. Sari answered, “Three girls and the rest boys.” “Oh, how wonderful! I am a father!” exclaimed Abdul. 11