novelxo Chapter 1: Jackie
Chapter 1: Jackie
Jacques Laurent Benoit was born to a Creole mother and Black father in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The year was 1968 and poor young Jacques was damned from the beginning. His mother, Florence, or better known to her siblings and family as Flo, was sixteen years old when she had him and to be honest, she never wanted Jacques to begin with. To Flo, Jacques was simply a mistake she made, somewhere along the lines of her being an irresponsible, promiscuous young woman. It started when she hit puberty and began to be noticed by all the young men in Tremé. Flo would constantly get complimented on her busty bosom and “grown woman hips”. This was young Flo’s life until she fully grew into her womanhood or… what she thought was her womanhood. At age 15, she began exploring her sexuality.
Sometimes she would sleep with guys her age and sometimes she would sleep with men older than her but Flo didn’t care about any of that. She just wanted to be beautiful, like all the boys and men would always tell her. She wanted to have every boy and man drooling over her. And that’s exactly what happened when she conceived young Jacques. Flo wasn’t even sure who Jacque’s father was, which was one of the reasons why she didn’t want to keep him. It was her mother, Irene, who decided that for her. Irene was a strict woman and with her having seven other children to look after, she had a right to be strict.
“I’m the head bitch in charge in this house and don’t none of you ever forget it!”, is what she was always known for saying, especially when one of her children would get out of line and forget their place.
When Flo relayed the news to her mother that she was pregnant, the first question Irene asked her was, “Who’s the baby’s father?”
Florence couldn’t give her an answer because she didn’t know who the baby’s father was. So, she remained quiet and stared at the floor, with her head hanging down. Irene, who was a cigarette smoker, ashed her cigarette and stared long and hard at Flo.
“You know, you’re just like me when I was your age. Young, dumb and full of cum. But you’ll learn your lesson later on. That’s for damn sure.” Irene turned around and continued to work on her sewing machine.
Finally, Flo spoke up and softly said, “I’m gonna get an abortion.”
Irene’s head instantly popped up and she stopped her sewing machine. She turned around, stood up and walked over to Florence. She drew her right hand back and slapped Florence hard in her face.
“The hell you are. You are keeping that baby. That’ll teach your ass to keep your legs closed.”
Irene turned around and marched back over to sit down at her sewing machine. Flo continued to stand behind her, staring directly at the floor. Tears began to fall from her face. She quickly wiped them away as Irene took out a fresh cigarette and lit it. She puffed quickly and continued to talk.
“You think I don’t know about all the shit you been in ’round here? Your sisters and your brothers tell me everything, whether you want to believe it or not. I also hear word around town. And I’ll tell ya one thing…” Irene paused and took a drag of her cigarette. She blew the smoke out and said, “It doesn’t feel good having a whore for a daughter.”
Irene stopped her sewing machine once more, turned around and made direct eye contact with Flo. She pointed at her with the hand she held her cigarette in and said, “You are keeping that baby. And that’s it.”
Seven months later, Florence gave birth to Jacques and since she didn’t know who his father was, she gave him her maiden name. It took Florence a while to get adjusted to becoming a new mother. It took even longer for her to get used to all the stares and the constant gossip behind her back in her neighborhood. But that didn’t matter to her, though. She slowly but surely began to love her son and accept the fact that she was a young mother. Little did she know, unfortunate circumstances would soon arise.
When Jacques was five, his grandmother Irene passed away from a heart attack and left Florence and her siblings to fend for themselves. Florence, who was only twenty-one at the time, was devastated. All of her other siblings were old enough and well off to take care of themselves but poor Florence took the loss of her mother the hardest. As months passed by, Florence never got any better. The depression began to take a toll on her and when Jacques was six, he came home from school to find his mother dead from an overdose. At first, Jacques thought his mother was asleep and didn’t hear him come in. But after he touched her cold body and saw the almost empty pill bottle on her nightstand, he immediately ran to their landline to call 911. After his mother passed away, Jacques began his journey of becoming homeless. Of course, he had uncles and aunts but he was never able to stay with them for a long time due to them not having enough room because of their children. This also caused Jacques to act out and become rebellious.
By the time Jacques was eighteen, he had decided to call himself “Jackie” because he had grown tired of people mispronouncing his name or kids simply just being immature and making fun of his name. Jackie was also a fighter that was known around town as being “the one you don’t want to mess with”. In addition, Jackie had a history of being a juvenile and had done some time in jail. He would steal cars as a young boy and return them to the local chop shop to receive money for the stolen car parts. He would also steal from the local convenience stores so he could eat. When he wasn’t in jail, he would always have a girlfriend to rely on, as far as having somewhere to live. It wasn’t until the following year, when Jackie turned nineteen that he had found himself in some serious trouble.
Jackie, along with three other men he had befriended over time, decided to rob the house of an elderly couple. One of the three men was his best friend that he grew up with named Smitty. Smitty had been on stakeout for about a week or so, watching the elderly couple. He eventually peeped out the obvious: they were old, they had money and they didn’t really care to not show it off. The night that they decided to rob that poor elderly couple would be something that would stay with Jackie for the rest of his life. As the four of them began to enter the home, they were interrupted by the elderly couple’s dog, a five-year-old pitbull that they affectionately called White Boy. White Boy was just as mean and vicious as he looked and Smitty was the first to get bitten by him. This instantly woke the elderly couple up, with the wife being the one who stayed in the bedroom, making a call to 911.
When the police arrived, they slapped cuffs on Jackie, Smitty and the two other guys and drove them to jail. Jackie spent about eight months in the county jail before being sentenced to five years for his crimes. For five long years, Jackie endured the harsh conditions of being incarcerated and he didn’t enjoy anything about it at all. Most people who become imprisoned, let it make them or break them. Some come out rehabilitated and ready to get back adjusted into the real world. Then, there are others who succumb to life in prison or either get released just to come right on back because they were irresponsible or just never cared. Not Jackie. Jackie swore to himself that that would be the last time he’d ever see the inside of a prison cell. During the time Jackie spent inside, he made a list of a couple of goals he wanted to achieve. He wanted to get released, find a job wherever they would hire felons and work his way into becoming adapted into the real world.
In 1994, one of Jackie’s goals came to light; he was finally released from prison after completing four and a half years of his five year sentence. Jackie left prison, with the clothes on his back and walked on foot from West Baton Rouge Parish jail to Tremé-Lafitte, a city located in one of the French Quarters of New Orleans.