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, Dad
dy!” 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, Daddy? You can’t handle it so you’re just going to cut and run out on us like you did all those years ago?”