Loony Love

(Police siren wailing)

‘I didn’t mean to do this. It just happened. I am sorry, but it was a reflex action towards her cruel behavior.’ She says.

She looks at her, clenches her eyes as the tears roll off her cheeks on the floor. Glancing at the officer, expecting him to show some sympathy towards her, she pleads, but as she bursts into tears, he grimly put handcuffs on her, turning her around and pushing her to walk down the building saying, ‘Miss Bennet, you are under arrest. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say will and can be used against you, in the court of law.’ Jake is very handsome, tall, and brown and is 27 with aqua blue eyes. It appeared as if he had come out of the salon, with a cleanly trimmed beard and nicely done hair, which had the fragrance of the gel. As they walk down, she observes a detective walking past her, going into the apartment. The officer acknowledges that it was the detective investigating her case and follows him to the apartment to share more details, handing the girl to the other officer, who was sitting in the patrol wagon. The other officer was fat and fair. He had a hairy mustache on his upper lip and fewer hairs on the head, leaving the center portion bald. Miss Bennet, a.k.a Rachel, is standing beside him, trying to escape, compelling to get her hands off from the cuffs, and she succeeds because the officer was busy finishing his hotdog. RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN. Turning around, she puts her left leg into a swift motion to run. ‘THUD!’ A sound perceives to the officer’s lug, sitting in the car. He turns back, which makes the hotdog fall on his lap, and the mayo sticks all over his upper lip. It was the other officer who plunged into her while she was about to escape. ‘Where the hell do you think you are going?’ he says, holding her tight, looking into her dark brown eyes. She yells, ‘Let me go!’ He shoves her in the back seat of the car beside the fat officer and says, ‘Pat, if next time she tries to flee, I am going to make you run after her. Do you understand that?’ ‘Yes sir!’ says Pat, the fatty officer. Jake dives into the chauffer's seat and drives to the precinct.

As they arrive at the precinct, Rachel insists Jake let her give a call to a friend, but as it was 9 pm already, he refuses. ‘I WANT A BAIL! I CANNOT SPEND A SINGLE NIGHT IN YOUR DUMPSTER. LET ME FUCKING CALL SOMEBODY.’ Rachel screams. ‘I am sorry I cannot. It is against the rules. And as it is a weekend, you will have to stay here until Monday morning.’ Says Jake. He puts her in the cell near his desk, where the two ladies sitting over the concrete bed gawk at them and whisper something to one another. As Jake leaves to reach out to his desk, Rachel snaps up on the concrete stool, glaring at the other two cell-mates and madly sits on it. Pat rolls up toward Jake and says, ‘You could have let her call, Jake. This wasn’t against the rules. Why are you harassing her? She is still innocent in the eyes of the law until proven guilty.’ ‘I know. I just.. I just.. I don’t know, Pat. I couldn’t permit it. I want her to be here with me, beside me.’ Says Jake. ‘Are you out of your mind? See, this is your problem. You have a thing for these psycho girls. Just get over it, man!’ says Pat thwartly. ‘You just said that she isn’t guilty until proven, so how can she be a psycho?’ counter-statements Jake. Pat rolls eyes at him and asks, ‘Do you need a ride?’ as he leaves for home. ‘No, thank you.’ Refuses Jake and says, ‘I have some work to finish.’ ‘Okay, see you Monday.’ Says Pat, and leaves.

Jake really hopes that he could hit on her and hookup tonight. So he approaches her cell and says ‘HEY YOU! The psycho who killed her friend. Come here.’ Rachel was seated against the two ladies, facing the wall whimpering when Jake cried out at her. She refused to go. He entered inside the cell and forcefully tried to get her outside. Meanwhile, among the two ladies, one grabbed a metal rod beneath the concrete bed, hidden safely for emergencies, and vigorously hit Jake on his crus. He screamed at her, ‘From where the hell did you get that? Keep it aside!’ ‘Asshole, get out of this cell, or I will scream and call somebody!’ She exclaimed. Jake panicked and hastily left the precinct.

Rachel stood there, traumatized. The other lady uttered a few words, but Rachel had a breakdown as she was overwhelmed with all that was happening, so she was unable to hear a single term she said.

(Rachel faints and her cell-mate spatters drops of water over her face)

As Rachel comes into her senses, she drinks almost twenty-four ounces of water and later cries out loudly for a while. Her cell-mate gives her some dry fruits which she had hidden in her lower pocket, to help her regain strength. Rachel thanks her and gulps down all of them in minutes. ‘I am Emily.’ Says the other lady. She is blonde and fair and has a visible scar on her left hand. The other lady is a black-head who’s asleep facing the wall. ‘I am Rachel.’ She says. ‘Thank you for saving me from that jerk. I am usually not this dumb, who does nothing but stays still in situations like this. I had a rough, long day. Today was a tra … tragedy’, she wails. She gathers strength to render the information further, ‘I killed my best friend. It was an accident. It really was.’ Emily is in shock, somehow trying to convene some words to speak, ‘You don’t seem like a murderer to me. I can easily identify a criminal when I see one. I lived in Midtown in my early days, and then shifted to Brooklyn before I came here, so I have witnessed a fair amount of crime.’ Rachel asks, ‘How did you end up here?’ ‘I married a guy from my college, who was very handsome looking, but later when I wasn’t getting sexually satisfied, I realized I was into women. My husband was biphobic so he couldn’t handle it and started hitting me on a daily basis. I couldn’t take it anymore, so I struck a pan on his head, and he is in a coma since then, and I here.’ Emily says and sighs. ‘Oh my god, I am sorry. How long has it been?’ asks Rachel. ‘It will be 11 months tomorrow.’ States Emily, and asks Rachel, ‘What happened to you?’ Rachel sighs, and her eyes get teary while she speaks, ‘Her name was Jenny. She was beautiful as a moon, and her smile enlightened all the people around her. She was a kind person and a beautiful soul. I loved her truly. I had feelings for her since I was 15 when she shared a dirty joke with me. It was the month of May, and I was extremely contented by that. I went home and started writing a diary, where all I wrote was about her, and how I felt for her at that moment 7 years ago. I used to write in that diary until today. We were best friends. Everyone was jealous of us…’ Emily interrupts her and asks again, ‘Then what went wrong?’ Rachel continues, ‘I was at her apartment as she texted me, “I want to share something with you.” I got excited and thought she wanted to take our relationship on the next level. We were sitting on her bed, and I was waiting for her to make a move. I knew she was shy, so I tried kissing her, but she refused. I insisted, but she screamed at me, “I am not like you. Are you out of your mind?” I was shocked, unable to speak for a few seconds. I asked her, “What do you mean by that?” She yelled, “I MEAN A LESBIAN.” I asked her, “Then what was that dirty joke you told me 7 years ago?” She clarified, “What the hell are you talking about? We are best friends, and best friends share such stuff. I don’t even remember it. It is your fault that you took it otherwise.” “I took it otherwise? What were all those I love yous and the silly talks we had?” I asked her again, hoping she will say that she loves me the same way I love her “Silly, that is what friends do. Oh, God! You are a psycho. I asked you to come here because James proposed to me, and I wanted you to be the first one to know.” She told me. “WHAT! I THOUGHT YOU WERE ASHAMED TO LET PEOPLE THINK WE ARE A THING, AND SO YOU WENT OUT WITH HIM.” I shrieked shockingly. “ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND? You were the third wheel among us, and not him. I LOVE JAMES, AND I WANT TO SPEND THE REST OF MY LIFE WITH HIM. You are a psycho, leave. Just leave and never come back. I don’t want any trouble in my relationship because of your lunatic behavior….” She kept on blabbering about how I can make her life a hell, and I should leave her. While my heart was shattered into pieces, and all I could think was of how I loved this girl for 7 frigging years, JUST BECAUSE I THOUGHT THAT JOKE MEANT SOMETHING, and she doesn't give a shit about it. Rather, she’s going on and on about her love for some guy. So there it was, where I felt my world was falling apart, and all of a sudden, I outraged, grabbed the lamp from the side table, and threw it with all of my vexations towards her. As the lamp was reaching her, I realized how wrong I had done, but it was too late. She died on the spot. Today I lost my best friend, the love of my life, and the only person who understood me in this whole world. I guess I am a murderer after all.’ Emily speaks up, ‘Rachel, it all happened in the heat of the moment. You are not a murderer. All you did was love her, and she blamed you for that. That’s harsh and cruel. You deserve much better.’ Rachel says, ‘It was just her anger talking then. I know that if she were alive, she would have forgiven me.’ Emily freaks out, ‘Oh, god! You still love her. You blindly love that dead person. Why forgive? You didn’t do anything wrong, Rachel.’ Rachel didn’t speak a word then and laid on the floor. Emily lingered over there for a while, but then slept beside the black-headed lady.

Everyone was asleep, but Rachel. All she could think of was Jenny. It was morning soon, and everyone was awake. Breakfast was given, which had cereal, milk, teabags and coffee whitener, bread, and jam with a sachet of sugar. Rachel ate all of that but didn’t take a shower, as she was hesitant to do it in front of everyone. The black-headed woman told, ‘At first you won’t, but as you will start to reek, there won’t be any other choice left.’ And both the cell-mates giggled. Rachel also wanted to smile, but couldn’t. She wanted all the pain to disappear. She asks, ‘Does it get any better?’ Emily answers, ‘No, but you learn to live with it.’ ‘I want to take it all back. I don’t want yesterday in my life.’ Says Rachel, and sighs. Emily looks at her for a while, observes her while Rachel is changing into a prison uniform. She watches her undress herself and begins to get a carnal desire for Rachel. She is trying to elude it, but it’s not in her hands anymore. She is experiencing sensual feelings and as Rachel looks at her, she realizes that it was the same look she had for Jenny when she desired her. She avoids it and stays where she was. Everyone was quiet. Rachel could hear the sound of traffic and birds chirping. It tranquilized her as she fell asleep. It was almost dinner time where Rachel calls an officer and asks him to let her give a call. He allows her. She calls at her parents’ house and says, ‘Hello?’ From the other line someone says, ‘Who is it?’ Rachel gives a happy sigh and speaks, ‘Mother, it is me. The police have arrested me. Please come here and pick me. I am scared.’ She whimpers. Her mother says, ‘Did you do it? Did you kill Jenny? It is all in the news.’ Rachel speaks, ‘It was an accident.’ Her mother says, ‘Your father and I are not going to support a murderer. We don’t know you anymore.’ And the line disconnects. Emily gives Rachel a pitying look as she enters the cell and says, ‘I know how parents can be. They will never understand what we have been through.’ Rachel knows that Emily is wrong, but somehow her words comfort her. She reaches out to her, and hugs her tight and sobs. They both feel a spark in there. Rachel immediately leaves her and goes back to where she was seated. Jake enters the precinct and informs harshly, ‘Your hearing will be tomorrow.’ Rachel gasps and says, ‘But I need a lawyer.’ ‘The government will provide you one.’ Says Jake and leaves. Emily gives a smile and says, ‘No one knows anything except you. If you want your freedom, you must lie.’ Rachel nods and waits for the hearing.

The next morning when Rachel is being taken to the court, Emily wishes her luck and says, ‘You will be proven innocent. I am sure.’ And gives a smile as Rachel leaves. It is evening now, and Rachel hasn’t come back. Emily gets concerned when she sees an officer bringing the black-headed woman saying, ‘You are free now.’ Emily asks, ‘How? You were to be in prison for five more years.’ She gives an evil smile and says, ‘I got immunity by witnessing against Rachel.’ Emily chokes while speaking, ‘But.. but how? Oh my god! You were awake that night, listening to us. I had no idea you were set up against us. I thought we were friends.’ The lady replies, ‘Yesterday evening, I demanded immunity to Jake, and as he was pissed at Rachel, I got one. I couldn’t stay here anymore. And Rachel deserved to die.’ ‘WHAT?’ cries Emily. ‘Yeah, she got a death penalty.’ The black-headed lady says casually, gives a smug smile, and leaves.