Jacob's Mother—Chapter 35
The Worst Mothers Have the Least to Lose
Jacob’s Mother is a serialized novel. Start with Chapter One.
Chapter 35: The Worst Mothers Have the Least to Lose
Jacob couldn’t believe the scene that unfurled before him. Hannah was painting white triskeles over the black paint that she had painstakingly used to cover the original triskeles on the wall. She squeezed some white craft paint into a plastic cup with a picture of Dora the Explorer on the side, and now stood before him, carefully painting the three swirls that chased each other all over the walls of their guest bedroom.
“Like this, Julia?” she asked, turning towards her mother-in-law with a wet paintbrush in her hand and a smear of white paint across her forehead where she had scratched an itch.
“Good enough,” Julia replied from her chair. “Jacob, wheel me closer to the closet so I can see.”
Jacob obeyed, smiling despite his concerns. Here he was, acting as the dutiful son. He was finally going along with his mother’s insane demands. He stood in the closet with Addie beside him, grabbing onto his pants leg. She stared at the back wall as if she was staring into another world, her curly red head tilted to the side. She definitely could see something that he couldn’t. She sat down with crossed legs, and leaned her elbows onto her little legs that were covered in her favorite heart print pajamas. She kept staring intently at the wall.
“I haven’t been able to find it,” Julia confessed. “I’ve opened up that wall several times since that day. I am afraid the necklace is gone.”
Jacob, holding a sledgehammer, told Addie to get out of the way, and then he swung as hard as he could into the wall, creating a large hole. He swung the sledgehammer a few more times, and when the hole was big enough, he stuck his whole head inside and shined a flashlight around the studs in the wall. He hoped the light would reflect off of the metal of the necklace, but there was no reflection, only dust and the studs of the wall.
Addie crawled onto her grandma’s lap, and the two of them stared into the hole. They both had the same far away expression on their faces. Jacob was tempted to snap a picture of them because he had not noticed a family resemblance until this moment. Jacob could not help smiling, although he also felt the ridiculousness of his mother’s requests.
Addie slid off her grandmother’s lap and went into the closet. She knelt down, tapping the floorboards. “It’s here, Daddy. It’s here.”
Of course, thought Jacob. It was all quite reasonable, they had been looking for the necklace in the wall, when in fact it would have fallen through the studs below the floorboards. It made perfect sense. But how did Addie know that?
“How do you know, sweetheart?”
Addie looked at him as if she didn’t understand the question. She tapped the floor again. “It’s here.”
Hannah ran out of the room and returned with a crowbar.
Jacob used it to pop off the baseboard molding, then wedged it between the floorboards and the wall. He hesitated, thinking about the expense of fixing the floor. This was silly. How was a necklace going to help them figure out what was happening with their daughter? But for the first time in his life, he took a leap of faith and just went for it.
The floorboard cracked jaggedly in half, the glue that kept it in place also kept it from coming up in one piece. Wood splintered into his face, barely missing his eyes.
“Addie,” he said. “If you’re ever prying up floorboards looking for treasure, make sure to wear safety glasses. Daddy almost lost his eye.”
Addie nodded solemnly, back up on Julia’s lap, and Jacob pried up another floorboard. It also came up with a loud snap. Now there was just a plywood base to contend with. Jacob made short order of it with the sledge hammer.
He lay down on the floor, face close to the hole, and shined the flashlight into the space under the house. It was filled with cobwebs and dust. Nothing was there. Then his light glanced off something metallic. Jacob reached his arm into the whole, grimacing and thinking about the spiders’ and critters’ ecosystem he was disturbing. All he needed right now was to be bitten by a brown recluse. He smiled to himself as his fingers felt through years of dust and sticky cobwebs for the necklace. It would be just his luck to be bitten by a brown recluse. What would he tell the doctor? That he was looking for a necklace that linked his mother and daughter to an imaginary world? That he was trying to time travel? That the necklace was left by aliens or God? Finally, his finger looped around something, and he pulled it out.
The triskele was covered in dust. He rubbed it on his jeans to clean it and handed it to his mother. She had tears in her eyes. She took it in her shaking hands, letting her finger trace over the swirls.
“For they cannot even die anymore, because they are like angels, and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection”, she said. “That’s the gospel of Luke, Chapter 20, verse 36.”
“Yes, we know Mother, but what does it mean?”
She held the triskele up. “There are good and bad angels.” She patted her granddaughter’s red curls with her gnarled hand. “And they cannot die.”
Jacob could see her eyes welling up with tears. “This necklace will protect Addie from the bad angels. The voices told me. They’ve been telling me my whole life. It is a mother’s job to protect her daughter,” she continued tracing the swirls of the triskele, “and the daughter’s job to protect the next daughter, and the next daughter, and the next.”
Jacob was annoyed, “But you don’t have any daughters. You have a son, me.”
“And I have failed you, but you haven’t failed. Your father will be proud of you. He is a good man. You should find him. He’s an artist, a photographer.”
“You know where he is?” Hannah asked anxiously.
But Jacob backed away. He wasn’t sure he wanted this information. This man had abandoned him, just like everyone else. Why would he reach out to him? He didn’t want to know.
Julia looked at Hannah. “He is a photographer,” she said. “He has a book, Americans Abroad.” She continued patting her granddaughter on the head, and Addie looked sleepy against her large breast. “I have failed you, Jacob. I’m sorry. Now I won’t fail my little Aideen, such a lovely name passed down her mother’s line. Little Aideen, my sweet Addie. She will be safe from him, the bad angel. The necklace is hers. Make sure she wears it. The worst mothers have the least to lose. It’s time for me to become a good angel.”
“Mom, what do you mean?” Jacob asked. “Mom?”
She didn’t respond. Her hand went limp and the triskele slid to floor. Julia’s head lolled to the side, and her eyes stared forward, unblinking.
“Mom!” Jacob shook her shoulder. It was then that he realized that his daughter’s head also lolled to the side, eyes vacant and staring. “Addie! Addie, wake up!”
“Oh my God, Jacob!” Hannah ran over, and pulled her daughter off of Julia’s lifeless body. Addie’s little arm flopped to the side, covered in pink pajama hearts. “What happened? Addie! Addie! Wake up!” The color drained from her face as she she laid her daughter’s body on the bed. Jacob couldn’t help thinking that his daughter looked like a mannequin or a rag doll. She was gone. It was a wax figure of her on the bed.
Hannah was patting the doll’s face. “What did we do? Addie!” She starting screaming a wild animal cry that seemed to come from another world.
Jacob could do nothing but stand there. His wife’s screams became distant as he built the familiar black box around him to hide from what was happening. That wasn’t his daughter on the bed. That wasn’t Addie. It was a doll. It was just a scary life size doll. The thick walls went up, blocking the danger from him. Those weren’t Addie’s pajamas. Those were doll pajamas. This wasn’t real. It was a dream. It had to be a dream. He could see his wife screaming at him to do something, tears streaming down her face, but he couldn’t hear what she was saying, and he couldn’t move.
Continue to Chapter 36.
If you care to tip or make a small donation to the author, Laura Ellis, AKA WiseWomanWickedTongue, it is always appreciated but never necessary. Donate here.
Jacob’s Mother is an original publication by Laura Ellis. This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise—without prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by United States of America copyright law and fair use.