She Is Risen (She Is Risen: The Gun Control Case Studies) (17 page)

            Julia is blossoming with excitement as she opens
the bi-fold card, enjoying the glossy paper between her fingers. 

            “Dear, Julia,” She reads aloud as tears roll out
of her delicate eyes, dripping like innocent rain on her black sweatshirt.
“Sammy and I have missed you a great deal over these past twenty years.  I am
sorry that I ever left you, my love.  It was my mistake to put you in such a
cold, dark place for so long… I don’t know if you’ll ever forgive me?  Sammy
has been talking about you and we’d really love to spend the Holidays with you
again; to be together as a family.”

Julia stops reading and wipes the
tears from her eyes with the sleeves of her sweatshirt, unable to see through
the deluge exploding out of her tear ducts.  Her hands are shaking as she holds
the card, a miracle of love fashioned on glossy white paper, near her chest.

“It was a mistake for me to marry
Evelyn,” Julia continues reading despite the immense amount of tears, “she was
not the right woman to raise our family.  I hope you will forgive my betrayal,
and want you to know that Sammy and I are coming home.  We are coming home to
you, my love.  Sincerely, -John.”

Julia releases a cavalcade of
frustration from her eyes, feeling vindicated for the first time in two
decades.  She enjoys these loving words from her husband; having wanted them
for so long like a life-saving fire in the middle of the arctic night. 

“I forgive you, John!” She nearly
shouts with jubilation.  “I forgive you, just come home to me with my Sammy!”

Julia begins to laugh, holding the
card up like a piece of her soul; a tribute of glory after years spent waiting
for love to reenter her life.  She buries her face into the shag carpet,
feeling her strength return as she smells the familiar odors of a home once
filled with love.  Her whole body begins to shake with excitement, and she doesn’t
feel the steak knife when it cuts into the side of her left knee.  The elation
is so powerful, she fails to notices that blood is streaming in steady drops
onto the brown, shag carpet.  After a long, spiritual session of rejuvenation,
Julia gets to her feet, carrying the card up the stares like a bold soldier
returning home from war.

At the top of the stairs she
smiles, noticing a television cart with an old tube TV and a DVD player on the
rack space below.  A yellow note on the black TV cart reads ‘a message from
John’ scribbled in unfamiliar handwriting.  Julia powers up the television and
DVD player, waiting for the familiar red and green lights to appear, and then
she presses the play button, watching the screen with anticipation.

She gazes forward with confusion as
an older man appears on the screen sitting at a fancy wooden desk.  His bald
head bears a ring of gray hair, and his appearance is distinguished in a
charcoal suit with a red tie, complimented by a white button-down shirt.  The
man smiles at her sickeningly sweet with his wide face, a pair of blue eyes
gleaming from the pixels of the old television screen, haunting and familiar. 
His hands are clasped together on the desk as he begins to speak in a gentle,
yet condescending tone.

            “Hello, Julia, I’m Doctor Wellsly, your
therapist,” the heavy man announces with a fake smile, “this video is here to
help you with a technique called repetitive assimilation.  I know you’re
probably watching this thinking that John is going to be home soon…  You
probably thought this video was some type of romantic message from him.  Let me
explain what is happening in your mind, and what has been happening for years… 
Julia, first, you are a very sweet lady, and you deserve so much warmth and
compassion in your life, so please know that- with the things I am about to
tell you.  Julia… a long time ago, when you were twenty-five-years-old, your
sister had you diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic so that she could marry John
and leave town with your son…  Evelyn arranged for your treatment because she
wanted John for herself.” 

The doctor scratches his bald head
with his left index finger, displaying a demeanor of shame as he speaks. 
“Unfortunately… your sister was successful in taking the family away.  Since
that time, we have found out that your sister is the one with the schizophrenic
disorder, but we were unable to warn John.  Julia, you were blamed for her
actions, and committed to a mental institution for some time… this caused some
problems between you and John… and it led to him leaving with Evelyn…”

Julia stares at the television; her
brown eyes appearing black in this lighting as the raw contempt becomes clear
within them.  She looks down at the carpet beneath her pink shoes as she
listens to the rest of the message, unaware that the doctor’s lip movements are
not always consistent with the message being played.  Julia clenches her hands
into tight fists as the story continues, exacerbating an intense rage toward
her sister. 

            “So the reason why you keep forgetting these
things, Julia, is that you have a hard time making new memories since your
suicide attempt.”  Wellsly remits with a prerecorded affection.  “In your mind,
you and John made love the night before, and you are waiting for him to come
home and cook dinner, but your sister stopped by… and told you about the affair
because John was too much of a coward.  This triggered your suicide attempt,
and it’s created a loop of thoughts and emotions that has been running through
your mind ever since.  Please call me at 555-333-2444 so that we can talk about
this.  I am always here to help you!  Again, my number is 555-333-2444.  I am
Doctor Wellsly; a friend who has been helping you for years.  Please give me a
call, sweet lady, or go to the emergency room if you are in severe need…  I’m
so sorry, Julia, please call me so that I can help 555-333-2444.”

The video ends in a black screen
with the phone number displayed in white text.  Julia glares at the screen for
a moment, and then stomps into her bedroom toward the nightstand, reaching for
the phone with purpose and dignity.

The OBDAT – Chicago

            “Who is going to answer that call?”  Maxwell
asks in confusion, looking at Lorabell with concern.  “Don’t you need a male
voice to pretend that he is the doctor?”

            “I have a male voice.” Lorabell answers with a
smirk, winking playfully at Henri and Maxwell before returning her gaze to the
LCD displays.

            “Hello, this is John,” a male voice answers
after a few rings, “is this doctor Wellsly?”

            “This is Julia… John, it’s so great to hear your
voice!” Julia smiles wide brushing her hair back in a bit of self-conscious
embarrassment. 

            “Julia, why are you calling from doctor
Wellsly’s number?”  John asks in voice filled with awkward guilt and remorse. 
“Can you put doctor Wellsly on the line, sweetie?”

            “I know the truth now, John,” She begins with an
excited voice,  “Evelyn had me committed so that she could take you and Sammy
away from me.  That bitch stole my life away and told horrible lies about me!”

            “Doctor Wellsly, are you there?” John asks,
pretending not to hear a word Julia has said.  “Doctor Wellsly, you are
supposed to keep these episodes under control; that’s what Evelyn and I pay you
for…”

            “John, Evelyn is not well.  She’s dangerous to
you and Sammy.  Doctor Wellsly told me everything… I got your gift basket, and
your card. I am SO EXCITED to see you and Sammy again!”

            “Julia, what the fuck are you talking about?”
John asks in a cold, hard tone for the first time.  “You tried to commit
suicide while our son was in the house.  You chased after our neighbor naked,
with a kitchen knife.  Evelyn and I have been paying for your care for years…”

            “That’s not true!” Julia pleads into the
telephone receiver. “Evelyn made all of this happen… The doctor told me… I want
to see my Sammy…”

            “Well he doesn’t want to see you,” John responds
with more anger, “Sam has a family of his own now, and he doesn’t need his
crazy mother scaring his children.  Doctor Wellsly, are you there?  What the
fuck!?”

            “John, please don’t do this to me!  I’ve been
waiting a long time for you.  I read the beautiful card you sent…  It made me
feel so good!”

            “What are you talking about, Julia?  Take your medicine
or call 911.  Just don’t ever call here again!  I don’t want you in my life,
and Sam doesn’t want you in his. It’s OVER!”  John finishes this last statement
by hanging up the phone, turning twenty years of longing and pain to dead
silence.

            After the love of her life utters these words, Julia
is consumed with the frigid fist of fate plowing into her chest.  She sits on
the mattress of her queen-size bed for a few moments, staring out the window. 
But the psychosis soon kicks in, and with renewed strength displayed on her
face, she gets up and steps over to the closet.  Julia opens the white, wooden
closet doors and the sight of her shotgun inspires a feeling of uncanny power. 
She reaches in and grips it tightly with her left hand, while her right hand
darts high above her head to a shelf where she grabs a box of twelve-gauge
shotgun rounds.

            With these two items in hand, she shuffles back
to the bed, dumping out the box of bullets onto her comforter as she takes a
seat next to them with the shotgun cradled in her lap.  With a despondent
melancholy, she begins loading the shells into the shotgun; feeling her years
of waiting coming to an end as each round is pushed up into the magazine. 

            “You rerouted the doctor’s number to John’s cell
phone?”  Maxwell asks as he continues to watch Julia from his seat in the
OBDAT. 

            “That’s very clever!” Henri beams with proud
eyes, looking sideways at Lorabell like his champion husky, swiveling back and forth
in his chair as if he were an excited twelve-year-old boy.

            “Thank you!” Lorabell replies after witnessing
the glory of her second subject taking up a gun in an effort to relieve their
pain.  “John doesn’t know that Doctor Wellsly went missing on a fishing trip
several years ago.  Julia has been living on state assistant with no
psychiatric care since then.  We’ll have some agents watching her… You didn’t
change very much on the DVD, Maxwell… I thought we were going to go deeper into
the details of her sister’s affair with the husband?”

            “Are you kidding me!?”  Maxwell asks with
outrage.  “It took six hours just to make those edits and burn a new DVD.  My
guy at Langley is good enough to do whatever you want, but this asset in Florida can barely find his dick with both hands.” 

            “Guess that makes two of you…”  Lorabell says as
she rolls her eyes in a snide manner.

            “Bite me!” Maxwell deadpans, raising his middle
finger. “I also had to have an agent sneak back into a house where someone is awake
half the night, walking around like the living dead.”

            “Children please!” Henri begins with a
frustrated gaze turning from side-to-side as he sits between them. “We’ve made
some good progress here; now let’s just continue with the next case while we
keep Miss Welheim under observation.          

NED LAWHORN

            “So you used to date Ned?” Sally asks
uncomfortably, brushing her long red hair back as she begins to fold her
panties on top of a commercial-grade dryer.

            “Yeah, that old hound dog!” Mary says with a naughty,
shy smile, holding up her delicate red thong underwear above a basket of
laundry to Sally’s immediate right.

            Sally glares at the younger woman’s thong,
feeling somewhat threatened by this gorgeous, busty bartender who used to date
her boyfriend.  Her eyes move toward Mary’s tiny waist and a pair of perky
breasts that every man in town has stared at from time to time.  The younger
woman is wearing traditional cowboy boots with tight fitting jeans and a sports
bra that leaves little to the imagination.  Sally gazes at her with disgust;
feeling like a Barbie Doll is standing next to her with a bottom half that is
traditional Texas and a top that screams Satan’s Whorehouse. 

            “I don’t usually date guys twice my age,” Mary
continues with a smirk, and apparent satisfaction in her blue eyes, as if
pounding a stake into a vampire’s heart, “but Ned was just so sweet… He just is
a really nice, comfy lover… Like a good country song between your legs.”

            “Are you shittin’ me, girl?” Sally asks with
jealousy and disbelief, placing both of her hands on the laundry basket in
front of her.  “What is this all about?  Nobody gossips on my boyfriend like
that unless she has an axe to grind!”

            “I’m sorry…” Mary replies slowly, putting her
head down in shame as she begins to cry.  “Did… he… tell you?”

            “Tell me what!?” Sally asks with strained
patience, pursing her lips together as she stares into Mary’s deceitful blue
eyes.

            “I’ve got the… warts.” Mary says with a
whisper.  “Ned was the only man willing to be with me… Like a wife…”

            “Are you telling me that you screwed my
boyfriend with your diseased little coochy, and now I have to worry about
that..?  Did he wear a condom!?”