Friday fiction: Jenny thinks it through

The other segments of this story are over in the sidebar, if you haven't read them yet, or need a refresher.

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So me and Jimmy are making a plan to get to Mexico. My job is to find out where the TV studio is, and make enough money to pay for gas and food, and plan the time and Jimmy’s job is to find somebody to stay with when we get down there. He says he knows a lot of people living in Mexico right now. Sometimes it seems like a good idea not to ask Jimmy too many questions.

I got to pick up a bunch of extra shifts this week, due to my friend Beth winning a hundred and fifty bucks in the lotto and then taking the week off. That’s good money, but now I am pretty wore out. I picked up some chicken and fries for me and little Hank, and I thought maybe tonight I’d watch one of Mama’s soaps all the way through and see if maybe it says on there somewhere where they’re making them.

I tell you, I thought things was messed up here in our little Texas town. It don’t even compare to the mess over there in Mexico. I mean, from what I can tell, one guy was in love with the cleaning lady, and she had to be 40 years older than him… and this one lady had a baby, but then while she was sleeping in a big beautiful bed all with silk and lace and stuff, this other lady come in there and was looking inside the crib all evil, and then she had some kinda flashback of her running down the beach after this guy, but he didn’t hear her or something and then she was back, looking at the baby and muttering something. No good, that one. I don’t speak Spanish, but I can tell a rotten apple.

I was just kinda getting into the show when this scary music starts up, and that guy I remember from before- the one who was mad at Mama, comes storming down the hall of the hospital, just mad as all get-out and all the nurses with their cleavage are all scared and talking fast Spanish trying to follow him and then he throws open the door and there is Mama, laying all beautiful and still in a hospital bed, with a oxygen thingy in her nose. For a minute I forgot it was a soap and I was a little worried that Mama was dying or in a coma or something in real life, but then I remembered. So this guy, Rico, he falls down on his knees and he’s holding her hand and telling her to come back or something, and she’s just laying there and then he looks around all crazy and runs out. And then it shows Mama laying there all still and one tear running down her cheek. I didn’t even realize I was crying until the show was over.

And that’s when it hit me. Amnesia. Mama probably has amnesia, and she don’t even remember us. It all makes sense now.