Jackal

Family curses are inescapable. 

When Gordon came knockin’ on my door, I knew it was trouble. He wasn’t keen to come to this side of town, only to clean up messes. They didn’t call him Gordon the Greyhound for nothin’.

“Hedgie, it’s Jacky,” he sighed, sinking into my old armchair. “Rachel came to me last night. He’s tryin’ to stiff her. She asked me to shake him down.”

Ah, Rachel. The sweet girl who’d shacked up with Little Jacky quicker than a speeding ticket. She was so full of eagerness to please that she couldn’t resist that boy’s quick smile and charm. This concoction was bound to turn sour. 

“Gordo, come on, you know what all that boy’s been through,” I pleaded. “He’ll straighten up. Let me talk to him. I practically raised him, I can–”

“I know you’ve got a heart for that boy,” Gordon interrupted, “and that’s why I come to you first. But get wise, Hedgie. He’s just like his brother and his daddy and you know it. Now, Rachie’s my niece and I got to do right by her.”

He was right even though it broke my heart. That girl deserved better than the boy I’d raised The reckoning I’d so hoped he could avoid had come full circle. 

See, Jacky didn’t have a chance. His daddy was a good buddy of mine. I knew him as a Jay, but on the street he went by the Jackal, and he was the most charming and ruthless sumbitch this side of the river. He was a dealer, smuggler, and thief, and while he’d proved time and again that he’d screw over his own kin for a penny, for some reason you still wanted to believe in him. And his two boys, Jerome and Jacky, turned out they were just the same.

I nodded and stood. “Go on then. I won’t stop you,” I spat, gesturing to the door.

Gordon stood and shook his head, leaving with a reluctant sigh. “It’s for the good of all of us, Hedgie. Remember that.” 

“Just –” I started, reaching after him. Gordon stopped and faced me. “Just don’t hurt him.”

“Not if I don’t have to,” he replied, then turned and went on his way.

I groaned and shut the door. Those boys were trouble from the moment they opened their eyes to behold this world, one they would each try to conquer. And yet, all of us were inclined to give them second chances, then thirds, then fourths, until... well, until someone decided they’d had enough.

We were the unlikeliest of friends, Jay and I. On the street he’d earned a terrible reputation, but to me, he was just Jay, my best friend, and I was just Hedgie – a mean nickname from childhood that stuck on account of my kinky hair and pointy nose. And to those boys, I was Uncle Hedgie. 

I had my suspicions that Jay's final deal was sour, but he wouldn't hear it. That damn pride always blinded him to the shit he was sniffing. I backed out, but he went on and got himself killed. I felt the weight of that poor judgment all my life, enough to take in his boys. I raised them up as right as I knew how. But it’s damn hard to make a living out here. You’ve gotta do what you have to do to survive. And of course, family curses are inescapable.

Little Jacky wanted to be just like his big brother, who wanted to be just like his daddy. Jerome got caught up in the family business, making deals, making enemies. After Jerome turned up minus a head, Jacky was the only one left. I thought maybe he’d learn to do right, get out of the game while he could.

Things seemed okay with us for a while. Then Rachel came along. She was no match for the Jackal boy charm. He roped her into a scheme he’d been cookin’ up, and she did everything she was told, backbreaking work, all for the promise of a massive payoff.

Finally, when it came time to divvy up the score, Little Jacky surmised that since it was his deal, he should get the bulk, but in his great generosity he made sure to save a fraction for Rachel. Well, she was sweet, but turns out she was no dummy. Her uncle Gordon would make sure she got what he owed her. 

I couldn’t help but feel responsible. I took on Jacky’s sins because, well, at the heart of it all, they were mine. See, Jerome was a weight on my conscience, poisoning every gesture of love I exchanged with his little brother.

Jerome came to me lookin’ for a job. Of course I should’ve known better. Of course I couldn’t trust that little sucker to respect me. But like I said, fourth chances… or was it his fifth? You tend to lose count because keeping track just breaks your heart.

I let him in on the little smuggling operation I’d gotten into, and the hotshot took control of it, barking orders at me and the crew like he knew best. Then the bastard turned on me, hid the loot and tried to cut me out of the deal. 

He was fixin’ to get us all busted – or worse.

I had to save our asses. I thought maybe Jacky had a chance to turn out right with the right influences. I thought the crew and the whole neighborhood deserved better. I thought if Jerome was gone…

So when he laid down under the shelf in the warehouse to rig it up for the van, I climbed up on that forklift and… well…

They found him minus a head with no fingerprints or leads, and I took Jacky in, trying to prove that even bad apples can get ripe again. But like father, like son, like brother. 

After Gordo gave Little Jacky a visit, Rachel got her fair share and Jacky took off. For all I know he may be running around out there, still living up to his family’s legacy. All I can do is hope he got wise and straightened up. Maybe gettin’ away will break the Jackal cycle.

But of course, family curses…