Truth About Life

by InnocentGuilt

 

Chapter 7 The Date

 

Adam had no idea what Jackie liked, or where she preferred to go. He knew that he could ask her, but he, the quintessential macho male, un willing to appear less than "in control of the situation", refused to ask the proverbial awkward questions of where to go and eat. So instead, he just picked the nearest family pizza place near the street, assuming she would be pleased with his masterful choice. But when he parked, Jackie said, "Look, I know cops don't make that much money, but this isn't the exactly type of place I had in mind for our first date."

"Why do dates, always have to be prepared; and carried out as special events that force a man to spend a lot of time and money, just to court the woman?" Adam asked.

"Because, it is what a girl expects, and wants. A girl pictures the place where the first date, the first kiss, the first time even, will happen, of how it will be, and how it will feel. The first date IS the basics, the starting point, if you want to call it that, that will determine if the relationship will actually go somewhere." Jackie explained. Her pretty features were a mask of disappointment and frustration.

"Jackie, If a date, is to be predetermined, then how can the date, be something magical? The images you have in your mind are a preconception of something that will never happen. Dammit, a date should be about living for the moment, not a pre-planned fancy dress affair." Adam explained, as Jackie moved closer to him, seemingly uncaring that she was showing firm thigh flesh all the way to the rim of her soft pink panties. She twisted her finger around the bangs of her hair.

"If it is for the ‘live for moment’ experience that makes the date special, then tell me, why go have food at all? Adam, we can stay right here in the car," Jackie said; and moved even closer towards Adam, dropping a hand to his thigh meaningfully close to his bulge.

"Because I'm starving," Adam complained sharply, as he quickly jerked open the driver’s door, allowing the cold air to slip into the car and awaken her from her fantasy and return her to the moment, as well as make her aware of where they were parked. Still, if the truth were to be told, Adam was more than just a little tempted to take her up on her bold offer.

The two got out of the car; and while frustrations surged through both, entered the restaurant. A man in his 50's, who had a mustache which looked fake, came to greet them. "Welcome to Alfredo's Pizza Parlor. My name is Benvenuto. How many are in your party?" The man inquired.

"Just the two of us, Benvenuto." Adam reacted.

"If you will follow me this way, I'll help you to your seats."

The Maitre’d led them to the table. Water was placed on the table, along with napkins and silverware. He then placed a menu in front of Adam.

"I don't think we will be needing it." Adams said, before the waiter could hand a menu to the woman "Just bring us a large cheese pizza, and two bowls of pasta."

"Very good. It will be out as soon as we can make it." The server said and then left with a small break-at-the-waist bow.

"Why didn't you allow me to look at the menu?" Jackie asked. It was obvious she was aggravated and didn’t appreciate men ordering for her.

Adam took a sip of the water, and then said, "Because it is customary for the man to order the meal. Can you trust me with that?"

"Trust is something earned, not just given out. I've known you for only a short amount of time, and I do not appreciate being treated as an eight-year-old child that has to be ordered for."

"I was taught, it is the proper thing for the man to order for the woman."

"Whatever would be the reason for that?"

"Because women never know what they want and take forever reading the menu, and usually wind up laying it down and saying, ‘order something for me, will you, dear’, anyway."

"That sort of macho attitude does not sit well with me, Adam. You didn’t learn that attitude from your mother, I am certain of that."

Adam shrugged and said, "Girl, it is a man’s world," then chuckled rudely and went on, "and you gave it up. So you had just better get used to it!"

The girl was obviously aggravated by his statement, even though it was, she felt, only partially factual.

"Ghad! What is it that is drawing us together? What do I feel about you that I cannot see? What do you see in me? Surely not hearth and home and family!", she implored.

"No?", Adam responded, "Then answer me this. What do you see over there?" pointing out a near by family. They had a son and daughter, and both were obviously bored, and noisily misbehaving, by throwing food and sniping at each other. The mother had an angry look on her face, and dark circles under her eyes, she looked as if she had been up a very long time, trying to take care of both kids and husband. The father had an embarrassed look about him, plainly displayed his shame, of how his kids were acting.

"Really tacky decorations." Jackie said.

"I don't mean around the place, in the booth against the wall all by itself." Adam retorted.

Jackie, looking closely, saw a waitress who was approaching the father with a bill for the meal. Quietly, she watched the tableau unfold, trying to see what Adam, wanted her to notice. After paying the tab, the man quickly picked up his son, and moved off in the direction of the bathroom. The mother picked up her daughter and did the same. Jackie's mind didn't understand the point of what Adam was showing her. "I don't know what you want me to see. It's just a family with kids."

"Just this, love. That family is proof of life. I mean, those kids don't even know how cruel this world can be. Look, to them, when they get yelled at, or spanked at home, by their mother or father, that, to their way of thinking at this point in their lives, is the worst thing that can ever happen to them. That is a part of the development of their lives; and that’s what many people don't understand. That development of young lives is what I want to share with you. Not merely sensational feelings of having casual sex, but in the way of being there with each other and for each other. I don't want you to be second guessing yourself on what I might be up to with you." Adam said. "Isn’t that what you want, too?"

"I don't know what I want when it comes to children, Adam. You know, I'll never be able to give birth to them. That mother, the one that just walked away with her child, doesn't know how lucky she has it. Do you have any idea how quickly I'd trade places with her, just to experience the discomforts of morning sickness?" Jackie said with tears suddenly running down her cheeks. "A baby’s first kick…"

"Just because you can not give birth to a child, doesn't mean it is the end of the world." Adam said brusquely, while wiping a tear away from Jackie's cheek.

"It is! It is, because I'll never experience a new life growing inside me. The whole meaning of being a child’s mother is experiencing the growth of a child in the womb while making preparation for their future. Even that, is part of their growth process, Adam. We give our girl's dolls to teach nurturing and bringing forth life, and our boy's guns to teach them how to hunt and to destroy one another. It's a part of life that I must miss; and will never get to experience." Jackie said sobbing softly. "I can never give you a child, so why is it so… so important to our relationship to include children."

"Look, we can always adopt a baby. I just want to have that family, that I never had." Adam explained.

"Never had? What about me? An adopted child would be a constant reminder of what I can NEVER have, Adam." Something suddenly clicked in her tortured mind and she asked," You aren't just using me, because of what happen with you and Samantha are you?" Jackie asked.

"Even if I were, would you deny that feeling in your heart, that tells you to keep seeing me?" Adam queried softly, a low growl deep in his throat.

"Well, I just don’t know. A girl can love a man, but when it comes to being used by that man, the feelings are different. I’m not a toy that you can play with till you become bored and then just throw away."

Adam did the only thing that he could do and threw his arms around Jackie. "Look, even if God said it was wrong for me to love you, that wouldn’t stop me from seeing you. In this short time, I’ve grown to know you as a woman. That’s right Jackie, in my eyes I see you as a woman, not a man. You are the one woman that I wish to be with; and want to stay with. Now, just shut up and let me steal a kiss from those succulent lips of yours." The detective embraced the woman, and overwhelmed her in a passionate kiss, causing Jackie to forget all her worries. Within seconds she was willing, wantonly willing, and writhing slowly sitting there in the booth next to her lover-to-be.

"Pardon the intrusion, but your food is ready." Benvenuto said, suddenly interrupting the pair’s passion.

The lovers had not noticed the waiter’s approach nor broke apart till he placed the food before them the table. Adam and Jackie turned bright red, like a couple of school children, caught making out for the first time by their parents.

"Don’t be embarrassed. A couple in love just means the food being served them is even better." said the rotund man, placing his hands on his belly and shaking it. "Since you’ve showed us all something lovely, we are going to bake you a big cake. Now, how does that sound, eh?"

"You really don’t have to do that; and we are not a real couple. We only met just recently." Jackie said, struggling in vain to regain her composure. Passion continued to seethe within her, turning her insides to molten butter.

"You two could have fooled me." Benvenuto chided, walking away towards another table. "No, you two are lovers, eh? It is obvious to everyone."

"Oh! Why does everyone jump to conclusions which are NOT what reality presents them to be?" Jackie asked Adam, and then began digging into her food.

"It’s a matter of illusion, my dear. Nearly everything we see is an illusion of some sort. Even in my line of work we sometimes bend the rules a little to get the job done." Adam replied as he watched her eat, fascinated by the sensual actions.

"Stop looking at me like that." Jackie said, blushing, realizing exactly what Adam was thinking as he watched her devour a breadstick in an unconscious, but thoroughly provocative manner.

"I can not help it. Seems just the sight of you eating makes my blood rush. Why is it that you leave my heart beating faster?" Adam asked. ‘What is it about you that…"

"I don’t know, but it certainly can not be because of my caring for you. I’m awful the way I treat you. The first time I meet you, I end up slapping you, and now this. We really are a odd pair," Jackie said, her breasts bobbing in a most enticing manner when she chuckled lightly.

"The odder the better."

A sudden, sharp, very loud breaking-glass sound came from the front of the restaurant! Just as suddenly everyone was in a panic, trying to run away, to duck the barrage of flying glass. Adam felt a sharp pain in his chest. Then he felt it. A great gout of blood spilled out of his chest and merged into the sauce of the pasta. His eyes went wide and unfocused, but found Jackie. "I love you!" he said, barely an instant before his face hit the bowl of pasta setting in front of him.

"No." screamed Jackie, loud enough to cause everyone in the room to stop panicking and focus attention on her and a woman near the front with a long sword-like shard of the plate glass jutting obscenely from her left breast bisecting the generous mound.

The moment that the bullet had gone through Adam’s body, Jackie’s understanding of time had stopped. The lights above her flickered and echoes of screams, the sounds of moving feet went around her. She watched, the horror was unfolding as if in slow motion all around her.

The next she was aware of, unable to fathom how or why, she was sobbing watching as the ambulance drove away with Adam’s body. Every part of her had wanted to jump up in there with him, but she had been told that she was a witness on this case and needed to be interviewed for the report on the shooting. She had wanted to go with him, but was prevented when a man by the name of Dan Reavers held her back. He was tall, dark and handsome, with waves of dark brown hair flowing down his neck and cut off in an old fashioned "Prince Valiant" style just above his broad shoulders. "I’m sorry, but we need to know what happened here."

"Do you honestly mean to tell me, you do NOT know what happened? They shot him, dammit! Adam and I were having a dinner and someone shot him. That’s what happened!" Jackie screamed, stamping the ground angrily with her foot.

"I know; but we need to know the details. Did you see anyone aiming a gun at him? Was he worried, or fearful that something might happen?" Dan asked with exaggerated patience.

"We didn’t see who did it, nor did I hear anything. We were eating and then "it" happened. Why the hell would he want to be shot?" Jackie stated. "Who the hell would want to shoot Adam? And for what reason! And just who the hell are you to be holding me here like this, when I have every right to be with Adam?"

"I don’t know, but that is what we need to find out. We believe that it could be related to the case that he was working on." Dan responded. "Did Adam say anything to you about his latest case? Give any indication at all of what he might be going up against?"

"Look I told you what happen, now please, just let me go to him." Jackie wailed.

"Ok, but if anything comes up or you remember something that seemed out of place please give me a ring." Dan said, giving Jackie his card.

Quickly then, the distraught girl made her way outside to the front of the restaurant and a pay phone where she called her father." Daddy, I need your help. Adam’s been shot. The cops held me for questioning. And an ambulance took him away. Oh, I don’t know how I’m going to Saint James hospital. Oh daddy, where are you?" Jackie said. "I really do need you, Daddy."

Just then a reporter came up to Jackie. "Can you tell us what has happen here? Our viewers need to know." The reporter asked.

"Honey you still there?" Roger asked.

"I don’t want to talk to you or anyone. Just get your damn information from the police." Jackie screamed.

"Look sweetheart don’t do anything. Just tell them to back off." Roger screamed into the phone.

"I know but they won’t leave me alone." Jackie said to Roger.

"Just stay there. I’ll call the station and get the details. Don’t worry, little darling papa’s going to be there to make everything better.", Roger promised her before hanging up the phone. Jackie sighed with a relief. Part of her problem had just been solved, but there were other questions needing to be answered.

Followed closely by the reporters, Jackie went back inside the restaurant where she thought she could escape the press and prying eyes. Perhaps the look, she told her self, and she headed for the small room in the back. Once in there, she turned and screamed when she saw two women reporters had simply followed her in. Benvenuto intervened on her behalf and remained with her while she waited for her father.

 

It seemed like days since she had called her father; and she wondered if it was Time’s way of playing dirty tricks on the mind. She knew from a psychology class that time wasn't really going as slow as she thought it was. The mind tended to play tricks on a person allowing them to think that reality is moving faster or slower then it really is. With the concerned Benvenuto at her side, shielding her from the predatory press, she returned to the front vestibule to await her daddy’s arrival.

 

 

Chapter 8

Just then, her father pulled up in the parking lot. With poise and grace, and all the speed she could gracefully muster, Jackie made her way to where her dad was standing, with a bright smile on his face.

"Daddy! How can you be happy at a moment like this? Adam, your partner, was just shot, and I have no idea if he is alive or dead and you stand here smiling!" Jackie screamed.

"Relax, honey! The hospital is the safest place a person can be. Besides, you might even say that he deserved to be there." Roger said. Jackie just gave him a look and walked to the car.

"Deserved? Daddy, have you gone mad? He's your partner. Why on earth are you happy about this?" Jackie asked, settling into the passenger seat as daddy fastened her seatbelt.

"Oh, don't get me wrong. I'm not happy that he got shot. It just means that I might get to work with a attractive looking girl. An FBI agent by the name of Jennifer. Adam refused her, but damn, what I wouldn't give to wrap her up in my arm's."

" Daddy! Ghad, if mother heard you say that… she would... she would..." Jackie stuttered.

"Don't worry honey. The only way mommy has to find out, is if you tell her. Besides, I love your mother. I just look every now and then at other girls breast. A man has to have a passion after all." Roger pronounced, The two drove off; and headed to the hospital.

As they entered the hospital Roger went to the waiting room desk and Jackie took her place in the waiting room sitting area.

"I have the room number, if you are ready," Roger interrupted.

"Did they tell you if he is ok or not?"

"He's in room 412. It doesn't look good." Roger replied.

Jackie's face showed her look of anxiety and fear. She stood up, and went with Roger without noticing anything else around her, registering only pain and shock. When they arrived to the room, she was dismayed to see Adam hooked up to an overwhelming array of pulsating machines. One was monitoring his breathing, while another followed his heartbeat and yet another showed his blood level's. This was enough to send Jackie into even deeper shock. "Oh, my God! Adam!" she gasped, fighting off waves of dizziness.

Feeling her utter helplessness to the very core, she ran up to the bed; and held Adam's hand. "How can the short time we have spent together explain the feelings in my heart? Damn it, Adam you've made me fall in love with you; and now you get shot like this. Come back to me… I need you; and want you, like no other girl has ever wanted you." Jackie cried, pounding a fist from her free hand into the bed.

Turning away, sobbing against her father’s broad chest, she sobbed, "It just isn't fair, daddy. And I can’t help it, Daddy, I just love him so!"

"I know baby, but that is part and parcel of the life of a cop. One minute we are moving along tending to business, the next we are being put into a grave. Adam knew, and he accepted the risk involved, when he became a police officer, Jackie." Roger offered.

"He warned me, but I just wouldn't listen. I wanted to be with him. We even talked about adopting." Jackie sniffled into a Kleenex handed her by her father.

"I didn't know you two had gone that far. And, in that short period of time." Roger exclaimed, with a shocked look on his face.

"We had, and I was happy with it. I want to be with him, and he wants to be with me. I just wish he would wake up, and look at me. I wouldn't even care if he touches my breasts again. We never even had the chance to have sex, Daddy." Jackie said, placing Adam's hand on her breast.

"Well, if this isn't the most perverted thing I have ever seen," suddenly snarled a rude female voice behind her. "A chick with a dick fondling a dead man." Jennifer had entered the room while Jackie was giving her big speech, about how much she loved Adam.

"Look, just because I was a guy before, doesn't mean I can’t express my feelings of love, like the woman I am now."

"You could never express what you felt, when we were together." The woman looked upon Jackie hatefully.

"A man is not supposed to express things," retorted Jackie sharply. "Our society doesn’t allow men to show their feelings. But, you sure as blazes expressed your feelings loudly enough and publicly enough, for the both of us, bitch!"

"That's right, I AM a bitch, but I'm all bitch naturally." Jennifer said pointing down to Jackie's private area. "Not some damned Godless abomination."

Jackie blushed; but kept a cool head; and before she could retort, Roger broke into the cat fight," Girls! Cool it now! I believe there is another reason for this uncanny visit, Jennifer?"

"The reason why I am here is because of her." Jennifer snarled. "Roger, could you please leave? This is a matter between us girls." The woman was pointing with a finger towards the door.

"Okay. I get the picture and hint." Roger walked to the door. "I'll be in the waiting room." The older police office glared at the fed as he left the room.

" Why did my father have to leave?" Jackie asked.

"Because what we have to tell you, is a matter of national security." Adam said, rising up from the bed.

Jackie didn't know if she should scream, be angry, or be happy that her boyfriend was alive.

"But-- Why? How?" Jackie asked, in total and utter confusion, seeking a chair, or something to sit down on. This was just too much to take without solid support.

"Because, we have a killer on the loose and we know who he is. Your father has gone mad. And, my dear, we have reason to believe that you might be the cause for his madness." Adam explained.

Jackie stood there, stunned. She had come to care for and love Adam with all her heart! But now he was telling her that her father was a killer! How could it be; and why her as the reason? Life was just too cruel. "How could I be responsible for my father going mad?" Jackie asked.

"When you discovered your transgender condition, your father couldn't handle it. He felt a silent rage of pain and denial inside him, that brought out the worst in him, when he lost his grasp on reality. Your father has killed and he will kill again. The question is will you believe us?" Adam asked.

"I just don't know what to believe." Jackie responded to Adam. "Where is the proof?"

Adam got up. Went over to Jackie and hugged her tight. "You don't have to believe just me. Just open up and let your heart find the right answer's."

 

 

 

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© 2002 by Innocent Guilt. All Rights Reserved. These documents (including, without limitation, all articles, text, images, logos, compilation design) may printed for personal use only. No portion of these documents may be stored electronically, distributed electronically, or otherwise made available without express written consent of the copyright holder.