Voices were calling after her, trying to coax her back to the crowd. She
ignored them. Stroking the soft fur of her kitten, Jade Mackenna walked down the
trail out to the road.
	"Jade!" Helen called. 
	"Leave her alone,"Alex warned, holding her back,"When she wants us,
she'll ask."
	She wiped a tear from her cheek. The kitten in her arms began to squirm.
Drown the little beast! A voice in her head commanded. Jade held the kitten
closer, she could never kill her pet, she was far too precious.
	"If only Mom were here,"she whispered,"Why didn't she come with me?"
Jade's tears had dried, there were none left to cry. Of course, there wasn't anyone
around to wipe them away, either. Jade sat down upon a park bench and took a
news paper clipping from her pocket.
	
Weston's Weekly Tidbits
Barbara Claiborne, Columnist
This week we have sad news. After a whirlwind teenage
courtship and a fairy tale marriage, Katherine
Santez-Mackenna, local decorator, lost her husband of
nineteen years, Sean "Mack" Mackenna and her
thirteen-year-old son, Donovan Mackenna, in a fatal car
accident last week. The collision that claimed their lives
has been reported as "mysterious" and "criminal". This
reporter is wondering what could be so criminal about a
collision on an icy road on a dark night? What could be
so mysterious about one car running a red light and
speeding around the blind turn known locally as the
Widow Maker. The Widow Maker? How appropriate,
and inappropriate. As Kate's best friend, I would only
like to say that we're all sorry and no matter what is said
by others, it was all your fault. You allowed them to go
out on a frigid January night. You let them leave in a car
with an extensive history of unreliability. It was you that
killed them. Not the person driving the car that ran the
light. Not the slow EMT's. Not Mack for being a bad
driver. It was you Kate, you are you're stupidity. You've
always done the wrong thing and now it has cost Mack
and Donovan their lives. I hope you're satisfied. And, if
my editor actually decides to publish this slanderous
article, I know that it will be my last on this staff. So, in
conclusion, Go to Hell Katherine. This is Barbara
Claiborne, signing off, possibly forever.


	"Maiko,"Jade addressed the cat,"First Daddy and Donovan die, and now
Mom is being blamed by her best friend. I don't pretend to understand why,
because Barb was always a wench, but she's never been so cruel. As if she hasn't
been through enough with her husband and son dying, now, to have her best friend
since long before I was born, turn on her. I don't know how she can stand it."
	The bus arrived and Jade stepped on. It was eerily deserted, she couldn't
tell why, other than the fact that it was two o'clock on Saturday afternoon and
people had other things to do than experience the wonder of public mass transit.
	Jade remembered how fondly her mother had spoken of Barbara in the
past. It had actually been Barbara's fault that Kate had met Mack. Barbara had
gotten mad at Kate and Keith Claiborne, Barbara's boyfriend at the time, her
eventual husband, and dumped them both suddenly. It took almost a year before
Barbara, with her current boyfriend, Sean Mackenna, in tow, apologized to Kate
and Keith. She introduced Mack to Kate and within a year both were happily
married couples. 
	An after school special if I ever heard one, Jade thought. She glanced up
at the driver. Extraordinarily ugly, but very young, maybe twenty, probably less.
She sighed, she oughtn't be on the prowl, she still had Bryan. Bryan Brooks, he
was her long time boyfriend.  But Jade didn't kid herself. She didn't love him, she'd
given up on love years ago, and she was only eighteen. Somehow, she came to the
realization that loves like her parents' didn't come along in America anymore. Jade
had concluded that her marriage wouldn't be a happy, love-filled suburban
television show, it would be a high-power, urban convenience marriage with a rich
guy who happened to be generous with his credit card limits.
	"Almost there Miss Mackenna,"the driver said. Jade looked up, they had
turned onto her street and were approaching her house. The bus drivers never
came up this far, they dropped off at the sign, two blocks back. She almost asked
him why he was taking her home when she realized that the bus hadn't stopped
anywhere else along the way.
	He pulled up at her house and smiled back at her.
	"Nice to see you Miss Mackenna, my condolences about your brother and
Mack." She nodded, stepping down.
	"Yeah, well, they didn't deserve the end they came to."
	He pulled away and Jade stared down her street. Dad grew up in Forester
Villa, on Hunter Boulevard, the same street that he had been living when he died.
Mom had never quite grown accustomed to the ritzy, tree-lined streets in this
neighborhood, catered to the special needs of the wealthy Weston dwellers. Kate
grew up in the poorest section of Haimes, a tiny town in Eastern Washington. 
	Jade walked up the steps and opened the door, expecting to she her mother
weeping on the couch with a photo album in her lap and bottle of liquor in her
hand. Surprisingly, Kate was nowhere to be seen.
	The kitten leapt from Jade's arms and scurried across the room and under
the arm chair, her favorite hiding place. The room was a mess, no one bothered to
pick up unless Mack asked them to. 
	"Mom?" she called, beginning the climb to the second floor where the used
bedrooms were. The floor above was filled with a large rec-room and several guest
rooms. The entire house had been decorated and redecorated by Kate, but financed
originally by Mack's parents. His father, Troy Mackenna, had been a heart-throb of
the silver screen in his time and was a world renowned actor. Mack's mother,
Shannon "Keely O'Malley" Mackenna, was a best-selling romance author.
	"Mom?"she asked again, opening the door to her mother's room. 
	"What?"came the annoyed response from under the covers.
	"It was awful. You should have been there with me." Kate shook her head,
she couldn't have handled it.
	"Maria is coming tomorrow. She wants to be with me in our 'time of
sorrow'. I don't give a crap whether or not she comes, but if she does, you're
entertaining her."
	Jade had never heard her mother speak so angrily about the only friend she
possessed outside Barbara and Keith. Maria Santez was her cousin, exactly ten
years younger than Kate, who'd lived her entire life in the squalor of Haimes and
only wished she had an out, as Kate had found in attending WSU.
	"Fine."
	"Goodnight."
	"It's two thirty!"
	"Goodnight."
	Jade slammed the door. It hadn't even been a week since the accident and
already the close relationship that had once existed between Kate and Jade was
dead. Like Dad and Donovan.
	Kate poked her head out of the covers the moment Jade left, her eye
make-up was dribbling down her face and the bottle of Vodka she'd been working
on for several hours was bubbling in her veins. 
	She was sick of crying, but what else was there to do? Get drunk out of her
mind?  Kate giggled, she was already half way there. The love of her life and her
beautiful son, just like, gone, dead, buried. Mack, brilliant lawyer, lost two cases
since he joined a local firm, none since he'd opened his own. Sean, only thirteen,
but he had possessed an arm that could hurl a fastball to rival Randy Johnson.
	A Jacuzzi bubble bath, maybe that'll wash away my depression, Kate
thought, knowing it wouldn't, but also knowing that the bubbles would relax her so
that she might actually get some sleep. 
	The stream wafting up from the swirling water was a breath of fresh air and
the soft floral fragrance only enhanced the inviting feeling she got. The bubbles
tickled her breasts as she sat down but within moments the heat and the movement
of the water put her to sleep.

	 Jade was asleep in the living room when something woke her. She sat up
and listened hard. Splashing, she thought, Mom must be in the shower.  Jade lay
back down and drifted to sleep.
	
	A horrible smell. The scent of human flesh burning. The fire was hot, it
kept them from freezing, but it didn't keep them warm. One of the members
strode to the cell and stared pensively at the miserable people huddling inside.
The person pulled out a small caliber gun and took careful aim. One of the
prisoners fell dead to the ground, a bullet in the head, the others sighed with
relief. Riddled with disease, starved and frozen, these people still had a glimmer
of hope, and none of the wanted to be shot. the person with the gun laughed
loudly and pulled the body to the fire. Another told him to throw it on the fire.
The people in the cell cringed as the stench consumed the room again. The leader
stood. No one knew for sure which sex it was, and its voice gave no clue.
	"Listen to me! I grow weary of this game. We finish it now!"
	The others grunted their approval and took out their weapons. The
prisoners whimpered in pray, begging the leader to reconsider, as the first shots
rang out. Then they began to scream.

	Jade hit the floor hard. The screams of the prisoners echoed in her mind,
and the gruesome sights haunted her.
	The clock on the VCR told her it was seven in the morning. She'd had a
long nap. She crawled up the stairs and peeked in to her mother's room. Empty.
Jade shrugged, she's probably crying alone at the graves. Probably been there all
night.
	Jade left for her room, she needed a shower in the worst way. She
undressed slowly, feeling groggy. Turning on the water, she stood in before the
full-length mirror, gazing critically at herself. She wasn't ugly, in fact, she thought
herself to be rather good looking. Her eyes were a clear green and her skin a
creamy white. Sure, her nose was kind of small and her eyes may have been set
slightly too far apart, but that wasn't enough to put her in the category of
Quasimodo or Ru Paul. She had long, pale, curly brown hair which she wore to
her butt. And she'd gotten compliments on her butt too. Bryan told her that even
though her chest was small, so was the rest of her, so it worked. She agreed, she
only five four, but she worked out often with her father. She used to, anyway. Jade
played many sports and was all-state in cross-country.  Donovan had been teaching
her Karate just before he died.
	She blinked, sensing something. Jade sniffed the air, it didn't smell as
peculiar as she felt. She opened the curtains, and stepped in. The water was
beyond cold, there was no hot water left.
	Angrily, she threw a towel around her and stormed into her mother's room
to check the tub. Kate had a bad habit of accidentally allowing the hot water to
drizzle into the tub even after she'd gotten out.
	As she entered the room she caught sight of long black hair hanging over
the side of the tub.
	"Mom, you did it ag-" Jade dropped to her knees beside the bathtub.  The
water in the Jacuzzi was dark, almost red. No. It wasn't just red, it was blood. Her
mother's blood.
	"Mother!"Jade cried, plunging her arm into the water. She pulled up one of
her mother's arms. Katherine's wrists had been slit.

Chapter Two

	Maria Santez knocked on the door of her cousin's house. Kate had been
her best friend all of her life and she wasn't about to let Kate and Jade go through
this alone. Besides, it was an easy way to get out of Haimes.
	The door open and a strange man peered out.
	"Who are you?"
	"Who are you?"
	"I'm Officer O'Bracky, who're you?"
	"Maria Santez."
	"Are you related to the deceased?"
	Maria shrugged off her backpack,"Mack was my cousin-in-law."
	He rolled his eyes,"You don't know yet, do you?"
	"What?"
	"Come in."
	Maria picked up her bags and followed Officer O'Bracky into the kitchen.
	"Maria!" Jade cried, jumping her seat and into Maria's arms. They hugged.
	"Sit down!"O'Bracky ordered, using a gun to motion to the chairs.
	Jade clutched Maria's hand. She was trembling.
	"What is this?"
	"Sit down...please."
	Maria reached for the phone,"I'm calling my aunt."
	O'Bracky didn't think that was a very good idea. He waved his pistol at
Maria and fingered the trigger,"I said sit down!"
	Putting her hands in the air, Maria took a seat next to Jade.
	"What is this O'Bracky?"
	"Shut up!"
	"Please, Officer-"Jade stopped short as he turned his aim to her. The look
in his eye chilled Maria to the bone. She was afraid he might actually shoot one, or
both, of them. She didn't know how handle a situation like this, nothing ever
happened in Haimes.
	Jade and Maria sat in complete silence as Officer O'Bracky held them under
the strict surveillance of his pistol. He glanced nervously at the phone and wiped
the ever present film of sweat from his brow. O'Bracky was about twenty-five with
dull blond hair and empty blue eyes. He was average height, on the thin side, and
he had a nervous disposition. Maria noticed how his leg twitched and whenever he
look at the phone he scratched his left eyebrow.
	How stupid am I? She asked herself, I should have noticed that there were
no cop cars around. And no other cops! There's not even another car in the drive
way.
	O'Bracky almost shot Maria as the phone startled him
	"Hello? Yeah, I got that part." The person on the other end seemed to be
impatient. "Uh huh, okay, yeah. Full when I return? Not one? Sure, send 'em.
Whatever. I want out of this, soon." O'Bracky listened for several minutes and then
hung up with a happy scowl on his face.
	"Who was that?"
	"My associates. They'll be here soon, wanting a full report. You'll give it to
them, right?"
	Sighing, Maria stood,"Hey, whatever, guy. But I have to pee. Excuse me,
okay?" He tried to convince her to sit down, but he seemed more interested in
keeping Jade under his watchful eye that Maria. Isn't that always the way?
	Maria made her way to the bathroom in Kate's bedroom. She picked up the
phone and dialed 911. As she waited for a response she caught a glimpse of long,
raven colored hair hanging over the edge of the Jacuzzi. She knew it was Kate, but
Kate wasn't listening. She probably had her earphones on. Maria wondered if she'd
slept though the whole thing. She stretched the phone cord as far as it would go
and prodded Kate with her foot.
	"There's a deranged guy here, acting like he's a cop, but he's not. He's got a
gun pointed at Jade and-" She noticed the flooded carpet and the bloody water.
She dropped the phone,"Oh God! She's dead." Maria reached for her best friend.
She was already cold, not even the hot water that continued to dribble from the
faucet could postpone that occurrence.
	Maria rushed down the stairs.
	"Sit!"
	"She's dead?" Maria asked Jade. Petrified of the gun O'Bracky was waving
at her, Jade barely nodded. In moments sirens were audible and O'Bracky
panicked.
	"Damn it!" He ran out the back door, jumped the fence, and was in a
waiting van before the real officers reached the front porch.
	"Are you the gal who called?"
	"Yes! The guy bolted when he heard the sirens, he went out the back and
got in a van, a blue Ford Astro."
	"Thanks,"he seemed to stop and think for a moment,"I'm Gibson. You both
all right?"
	"No, Kate's dead! She's in the tub, upstairs."
	"How did that happen?"
	"I don't know, I just got here."
	Jade stepped in,"I found her like that earlier, and then I called the police
and O'Bracky showed up. He was really nice until Maria knocked on the door, that
spooked him. Then he pulled a gun on us."
	"Whoa, slow down. What was that name again?"
	"O'Bracky?"
	"O'Bracky, eh? I know him. We've had problems with him before. His
sister used to be a dispatcher.  You're lucky Maria showed up just when she did,
with in an hour you'd be raped and killed."
	"What?"
	"Yeah. We can never prove that its him, but we know."
	"Just catch the asshole!"
	"Sure. Love to."
	Maria was sitting on the couch in the living room with Jade in a chair to her
lift and Gibson in front of her when his comrades carried Kate down. She was
attractively clothed in a fashionable body bag.
	"Oh God."
	Gibson felt sorry for Jade Mackenna, God knew she'd been though enough
in the past week, but business was business.
	"My guys say she committed suicide. Plain and simple."
	"No."
	"A murderer slit her wrists?"
	"Well."
	"Exactly. Look, I'm sorry this happened. Officer Sykes will be taking your
statements. I have to go."
	"Thank you."
	"Goodbye,"he said, striding out the door.
	Officer Sykes was gruff, but he expressed his sympathy for Maria by asking
to dinner later in the week. She politely declined.
	"I've got to call Lola."
	Jade was sarcastic,"If it makes you feel good, do it."
	"Yeah."

Chapter Three

	"Lola."
	"Jade!" 
	Jade smiled. It was a pathetically forced grin, but losing her mother on the
day after a double funeral for her only brother and her father, kind of dampening
her joy of being reunited with a relative. Feeling Lola's scrutinizing gaze made Jade
squirm. She hated people staring at her.
	The day dragged. Maria and Lola were talking in Spanish in the living
room. Silently she retired to her bedroom.
	The phone rang just as she felt herself drifting to sleep.
	"What?"
	"Jade? Honey, I just heard! Good God, I'm so shocked!"
	"Barbara, I appreciate that. I don't feel like talking."
	"Of course, just checking up on you. Alex wants to speak, may I put him
on?"
	Jade shrugged, not that Barbara could see her,"Sure."
	Alex Claiborne had been Jade's best friend since they lay together in the
hospital nursery, born only hours apart. He was slightly pre-mature, but he'd
grown out of that stage. Alex was a born comedian, able to turn any situation into
a comedy lounge. He was the kind of person that people liked to be around
because he was always genuine and usually wore a huge grin and mischievous
glints in his sparkling eyes. But Alex wasn't only unique due to his personality. He
was one of the strangest looking people Jade had ever seen, and yet he managed
not to be ugly. A strange combination of a redheaded Irish mother and a black
father, Alex was jaundiced, his skin was a yellow hue, and had huge brown eyes.
His hair was a shock of unruly, vivid orange hair in tiny, tight curls. He had to
keep it cut very short to keep it from becoming a  "fro". 
	"Hey babe, want me to come over?"
	"Sure."
	"Are you? Because I can come over later-"
	"Whatever. I'm in a kind of bad mood."
	"Great. I'll bring the kinky sex toys if you find the scented massage oils!"
Jade laughed. She'd never slept with Bryan because he kissed like a fish and she
didn't want to have her first sexual experience with a flounder. But one night Jade
had been in a foul mood, but she seemed to be coming on rather strong to Bryan.
She still didn't know why her bad mood had caused her to be aggressive with him,
but ever since that night Alex, Bryan, and Helen teased her about only liking sex
when she was upset.
	"How about bringing Bryan and Helen?"
	"Cool, a foursome."
	"I figured I'd just watch."
	"I'll see what I can do."
	Jade lay down again and stared at her desk. There was a collage of pictures
where her homework ought to be. She'd left school at the semester because she
had enough credits to graduate and had decided not to spend any more than the
required amount in that evil building. 
	Her favorite picture was a family photo. It was from years back, when
Donovan was a tiny beautiful little boy and Jade was a pretty little girl decked out
in her Easter Sunday best. Unfortunately, everyone else was dressed in summer
clothes. The family had been camping at the time. There was a montage of her
brother, most of his school pictures around his most recent baseball "card". Her
parent's wedding picture was in a large white frame next to one of almost her
entire extended family on her mother's side at a family reunion.
	Jade's room was relatively bare, she didn't like clutter, unless it was from
her collection of CDs and her huge stereo system.
	The door bell rang and with in moments her three best friends were in her
room.
	"How're you doing Jade?" Helen asked, putting her arm around Jade's
shoulders. Jade noticed that she was wearing one of the sweater's Kate had picked
up for Christmas. She didn't remember allowing Helen to borrow it.
	"Great. I mean, my mother's dead, my father's dead, Don's dead, so you
know what that means?"
	Alex spoke up,"You have the whole house to yourself and you plan to
open a brothel?"
	"Exactly." Jade shook her head.
	"Jade, you know we're here for you, right? I mean, even though Helen and
Bryan are screwing behind your back, that doesn't mean they don't love you, just
as much as I do."
	Jade wasn't shocked at Alex's outright betrayal of his best friend. Bryan
flushed and Helen backed away from Jade, scared of a violent reaction.
	"That's okay,"she pretended to be joking,"At least you didn't tell them
about our on-going affair."
	Alex laughed but Bryan's face remained stony.
	"Jade, it's true. Helen and I-"
	"I know. I'm not stupid Bryan. I knew that you'd eventually go out and find
an easy chick who would put out for you what I refused to,"she smiled at
Helen,"No offense."
	"None taken."
	"Helen!"
	"Bryan, she doesn't care. She knew you'd go out with other girls. She's
been waiting for it."
	"Really Jade?"
	She nodded. Bryan took her hand.
	"Helen and you should probably leave,"Alex suggested,"Jade doesn't look
like that was news she needed at this time."
	"You told her!"Bryan cried. Helen took his hand and led him toward the
door.
	"Bye Jade, sorry."
	"Bye Helen, Bry. Talk to you later."
	They left. Alex found his way onto her bed and they sat crossed legged
next to each, watching The Young Ones,  a stupid British comedy. Suddenly Jade
turned off the television.
	"What is it?"
	"She didn't kill herself."
	"But Jade, I know it's got to be hard for you to accept, having lost your
entire family in a week has gotta be hard to deal with, but she slit her wrists, didn't
she? There is not a professional murderer, and not a rookie either, who would slit
someone's wrists to kill them. Not even to look like an accident."
	"She didn't Alex. She wouldn't have killed herself so long as I was alive."
	"How do you know?"
	"She promised."
	Jade began to cry and Alex held her in his arms until she fell asleep. Then
he quietly sneaked away.