The Gemini: Emancipation

3 - Nine Four

March 1994

"Hi."

There was a pause on the other end of the telephone line. Brown eyes watching the clock witnessed a minute pass before Tommy's groggy voice finally responded with question.

"Jody?"

Frowning, her fingers tightened on the receiver, her subconscious at work.

"Don't say my name." She warned. "Where are you?"

She realized it was a dumb question after she asked it. She dialed this number. They're all in the same hotel. Her brain is too exhausted to think straight.

He spoke in a volume a bit lower now, "In my room. Michael's sleep." He added the next bit after another short lull, "If you're looking for him, the last time I saw-"

"I'm not." Jody interrupted.

"...Oh."

This time she took her own nearly minute long delay before speaking the following request.

"Talk to me. I've got nothing else to do."

September 1996

Jody wiped her tears. The salt water drops made her annoyance grow. She's tired of crying. At times she concluded that she didn't know what her tears were being shed for. Everything always felt so murky. Sun up, sun down, that space in between. There was hardly any let up. And the tears? They always snuck their way in there.

Jody's broken, she's sure of it. No one knew enough to fix it. The only person that did isn't here anymore.

March 1994

"How much longer do I have to talk to you?"

"That's rude. It's only been thirty minutes."

The clock-radio caught her sights again. Forty-two minutes actually.

"Thirty minutes is long when you're sleepy. Y'know, if it isn't one Nelson bothering me, it's another."

A smile crept upon her mouth, "But I sound prettier."

A soft laugh in his lazy words, "Yes, you definitely do."

Jody stifled a yawn. Her lids getting heavier by the second it seemed. But she didn't want to partake in the rest that her body so craved. It's 4:16 am, but that doesn't matter. She's waiting.

"What are you doing?" Tommy asked.

"Yawning and-"

"No. I mean what – why did you call me?"

She didn't have a ready made answer to that, so she kept quiet. He continued on.

"I know you said to talk, but where's your uh...him?"

Another question Jody didn't know the answer to. A piece of her mind felt to know the whereabouts of her husband, and she wanted that section of assumption to be very wrong.

She had the option to fabricate, tell some lie to make everything alright. She's tired of that though. She's burnt out on the illusion of perfection.

Finally Jody replied, "I don't know."

"It's none of my business but is everything alright? Are you okay?"

An hour ago she faced two choices. Pay the minibar a visit or phone a friend. Her overworked mind needed a relaxer, but she didn't want to open the door to old habits, so she grabbed the telephone. Her fingers dialed a known set of numbers before her common sense got the chance to gather. She was a minor surprised when Tommy's voice sounded.