It Lives in ...The Trees
Genny woke up with a jerk, flashing back in her sleep to the day she had been kidnapped by the biker gang and taken to the museum for some assault and murder. She had had at least three dreams a week since that time, and she found herself jumpy when she heard a motorcycle and when she saw bikers her only compulsion was to get away. She got out of bed and petted Twinkie on the head and held the tiny dog.
Dogs were great, they didn’t care how you looked or how pretty you were or not, they liked you anyhow. Genny saw Jerry walking around the Timm house with someone and they signed papers and she knew the house was sold.
That would mean she had to move, and she did not want to go back to that park where Imma Byche still haunted, glaring at her each time she saw her in public and muttering how perverts would all burn in hell one day.
Genny got out of bed, cleaned up and slid into a slick black dress made of soft material that had sleeves that resembled bat wings. She loved that dress.
She did her makeup and went out the door to her little red Miata, her “house slipper”, so named because it was small, flat and had the cab toward the rear.
Genny thought as she drove toward town. She had enough in her bank account to gas up the motor home and move, and there was nothing likable about Mannington. She was about to decide to go ahead and move when she saw a classy thrift store ahead of her and she pulled in. Indeed, the idea of leaving this little shit town was appealing and she decided it was indeed time as she walked in the store. Glancing over jewelry, Genny saw a young man with a beard and thick washboard hair. He smiled and nodded as she passed and Genny found a Gorgeous knit black dress with black roses on it and she checked the price, thought for a moment and took it down.
She was stunned to find a little velvet neck with a choker on it and the choker was Victorian and matched the dress. All happy, she trotted up to the counter and laid it down. The clerk came over and looked at her and said “We only sell this merchandise to women.”
Genny felt anger burn. “No shit. I’m a woman.”
The clerk stared at her. “A trans gender man is not a woman, he is a man in a dress. You don’t have a cervix or menstrual cramps you aren’t a woman.”
Genny glared. “Do you need me to drop my damned skirt?”
The woman did not change expression. “I need you to go home and act like a man. If you expose anything I’ll call the police.”
Genny backed up, made a slow sign in the air and said gruffly “Somo-rajha-attacha, morbeedah seemah…”
The clerk looked both angry and afraid and shoved the dress angrily. “Just take it, witch, and get out!”
Genny took the dress and choker and paused. “I am a woman. Ugly as the mother who made me, a but a WOMAN!”
She stalked out of the store and as she got on the sidewalk the young man joined her, laughing. “THAT WAS fucked up!”
He laughed as she turned and stuck out his hand. “Jeremy.” He said. She smiled. “Genny, and no I am not a witch I just do that to freak people out when they act like morons.”
Jeremy smiled. “You want some coffee, maybe?”
“Sure, maybe.” She smiled.
Ten minutes later, they sat under a tree that gently swayed in the breeze and Jeremy asked “What do you do?”
Genny replied. “Grunt work, just basic shit. I wrote a few books but none of them sold.”
Jeremy nodded. “I do odd jobs. You gotta see this.” He dug in his pocket and produced the medallion Clyde had thrown. “I was patching a roof in town and found this up there. This thing is one of a handful made before the civil war here in Mannington.”
Genny looked it over. “Wow!”
Jeremy showed her it’s back. “See the maker mark on it, real small? Hand made by Smits and company.”
Genny shrugged. “So?”
Jeremy smiled. “Goths always like this stuff. You’re a romantic Goth. I’m a history buff and I studied Mannington. Back in the early days, about seventeen eighty or so there was a bunch of black people living here and the slave owners treated them really bad. Some died. Well, I don’t know if you ever heard of Onan, the god of revenge, but one of the magi among them made this thing and summoned Onan, who appears as a black fog and avenges the pure hearted.”
Genny looked interested. “Really?”
“Yeah. Onan was a mighty leader of worlds before man came into being and after the great fall he was assigned to bring justice. He never touches the pure of heart but he can animate objects and reanimate dead people to serve him. My grandad was in this old movie about him and played Onan, and he found this medallion and used it in the movie.”
Genny smiled. “Mmmm. A little collectible.”
Jeremy shook his head. “Nope, it’s the real one and it’s made of hand thrown alloy, worth a few thousand dollars.”
With a chuckle, Genny remembered the trees swaying the night she was kidnapped. “He lives in the trees?”
“Yep.” Jeremy replied.
“His essence does, it lives in the trees.”
They talked and finally Jeremy got up, shook Genny’s hand and walked away. Genny thought about what he had said and kept thinking on it all the way back to her motor home where she put on the dress and loved how it fit.
About that time, there was a knock on her door and she found Jerry standing there. “You still on my property?” He kidded. “Yeah.” Genny replied. “So don’t piss me off because I already threw one spell out there and made a dress appear, so I’ll turn you into a ferret.”
Jerry laughed and came in her Motorhome. “Well the house is sold, and between that and some royalties I want to move to Ashford Heights and see about forming a new band.”
Genny nodded, then felt sad. “Okay, and I gotta find new digs, so when you leavin?” She asked.
Jerry paused. “Listen, I know this is odd to say but, I found a really nice big motor home for sale down the road and I want it. It has a big master bedroom and a smaller one, bathroom, everything.”
“Ok, so you’re offering me your trailer?”
“No, I’d like for you to have the master bedroom if you want to come with me. Unless you want to stay here.”
Genny’s eyebrows raised. “You want me to come along?”
Jerry nodded. “You don’t have to, but I’d like to have you along. You’re a neat, fun person.”
Genny smiled. “And you aren’t afraid of what is up my dress?”
Jerry looked serious. “I’ve never given two shits what you have up your dress, if you’re a bio-fem or trans gender.”
Petting Twinkie on the head, Jerry continued. “This bullshit about trans men hanging out in women’s restrooms raping kids is bullshit. Tran men like to live their lives, not rape kids. We live in our brains, not our damn dicks and coin slots. You’re you, that’s all that matter to me, the gal who bounced into court and got my scheming dirty ex off my back when she came gunning for money.”
With a smile, Genny nodded. “I’d like to have a friend in the world, but isn’t a motor home a bit close for a couple that isn’t married?”
Jerry shrugged. “You don’t take up that much space. Or we can go in tandem.”
Genny looked amused. “How bout you get a small lot and we share it, yers and mine next ta each other?”
Jerry nodded. “I’ll do it.”
Happy, Genny nodded. “When do we leave?”
As the two of them spoke, a ways down the road, a very stern looking police officer was sitting in his office examining dash camera footage of his police staff. Rumors of corruption were plaguing him and he was determined to find out who was doing what. As he sat viewing the footage, he saw two idiotic looking hillbilly sheriff’s officers come into his office so he decided to see what these two brainless Gomers were doing and he came out of his viewing room and went up front. A very steely faced man with a ball cap was glaring at him and one of the boys aid “I’m deputy Derrol and this is my brother Harold. We brought ya this guy fer runnin’ a woman off the road into a ditch bein’ a badass.”
The officer nodded curiously. “I see. Did you see him do it?”
Harold nodded. “We done found her in the ditch, checked her window camera and figgered that travelin’ at the speed he was he’d be within about ten miles, and bein’ a boozer he might be getting’ a case of brew so we went checkin’ it out, and shore enough he was buyin’ a bottle at a convenience store down the road.”
Impressed with their police work, the man took their angry looking criminal in and they supplied him with the video evidence. Not bad for a couple of Gomers.
Harold and Derrol transferred custody and walked out of the police department.
“Hey Derrol, I think we odda set up the new Mannington Vice Squad before we move out of town.”
“How you figger we do that?”
“I’m gone buy ya a set of spikey fuck me heels and a dress and you’re gone put on makeup and start walkin’ the streets and we gone bust us some whores and pimps!”
“I ain’t wearin’ no fuck me heels or dress. I got handsome good young man looks and a man don’t wear that shit.”
“You don’t think you’d be all purty in a dress and some dude would get a boner lookin’ at them legs?”
Derrol turned to Harold as they got to the police car. “Some muther fucker puts his meat hooks on me an he’s gone feel something that won’t be so much fun.”
Harold shook his head as they drove down the road. “Ok, I’ll do it.”
“You serious, Harold?”
“Yep, there’s good money in it…and…I…well I….
“You what, you damn toad?”
“I came out of the closet recently.”
Derrol pulled over and stopped. “You came outta the fuckin’ closet?”
Harold sniffled. “I came out of the closet, man, I’m sorry you had to find out like this.”
Derrol looked at him. “Yer a homer-sexial?”
Harold shook his head. “No, I was lookin’ for Daddy’s ol’ Winchester in the closet, and when I couldn’t find it I came out of the closet.”
Harold smacked Derrol in the head. “You fuckin’ dumb ass!”
Harold turned on the lights and siren and drove down the highway.
“What are you doin’ man, there ain’t no ‘mergency?”
Harold replied “Yeah there is, I gotta piss, BAD!”
Some time later as the two boys looked into going to another city to be deputies, a large motor home was cruising down the road. Inside the living room was Gothic, as were the bathroom and kitchen, and in a small bedroom in the center was Jerry’s baggage, waiting for later when he settled in. The master bedroom had a spider web bed sheet, skull lamp and a closet full of ball gowns and vintage dresses.
In the front seat sat Genny, wearing a her “wings” blouse and a coffin shirred skirt. She smiled and looked at Jerry. “How much do you weigh?”
“Why?” He asked. Genny petted Twinkie’s head. “Because as soon as we get settled in, we have to go get my house slipper and it’s too cold for you to ride with the roof open if you’re too big.”
Jerry smirked and said “According to public opinion, I’m not too big, not too big at all.” He laughed and Genny just stared at him and shook her head.
Behind them, the water under the bridge shimmered and a tall tree swayed gently like a hand, waving good bye…………..????????