The Thing that Dwells in the Closet
Jacob sighed heavily as he stepped into his dingy hotel room at the Motel 6 out on Highway 10, his less than glamourous home now for a little over a month.
His current lifestyle was a far cry from the one he once enjoyed as the dynamic spokesperson and founder for an investment fund which, allegedly, was going to make a fortune on the new wave of investing in environmentally earth conscious businesses such as solar power and electric cars to name just a couple.
The fund, thanks to some robust investments from friends and friends of friends, had done quite well. Good enough, in fact, to allow Jacob and his wife, Suzanne to live an extravagant lifestyle as the fund was more of a Ponzi scheme than a real investment fund.
After some complaints from less than happy investors, the couple's financial activities caught the attention of the IRS. When the investigation was complete, Jacob was found guilty of both tax evasion and wire fraud. Unfortunately, the thirty eight year old Jacob did not have a clean record.
After graduating from the Oklahoma State with a degree in marketing he took over the management of the three car lots his family owned in Tulsa. Within five years, the three ballooned to eight. Shortly afterwards, he ran into trouble with the IRS for some questionable business/accounting tactics.
He ended up pleading guilty to some lesser charges to avoid any serious jail time, but now, because of his past record, the courts threw the proverbial book at him.
Jacob ended up serving just over three and half years and after getting out was desperate to pick up the pieces of his life with the biggest piece being, not his marriage, Suzanne actually divorced him while he was away, but his relationship with his daughter, Rebecca.
She was only fifteen when he went to prison, and was, and always had been, the one true love of his life. Now fresh out of jail, Jacob was determined to restore his relationship with his lovely "Becca".
After flinging his coat onto the room's sole chair in the corner, Jacob plopped down heavily on the bed. He was tired and wanted a nap. Forty minutes later, his peaceful slumber was interrupted by his phone ringing.
After checking the number, he came instantly awake. It was Becca.
"Yes, honey," he answered pleasantly.
"Daddy, Mom and me sort of have a big favor to ask."
"Sure, what is it, Becca?"
"There is some kind of family crisis back in Dallas. Thomas has to leave tomorrow morning and he wants mom to go with him."
Thomas was her new stepfather. Jacob pretty much hated him. Yeah, pretty much.
"OK," Jacob answered cautiously, hoping it wasn't money, "what do you need from me?"
"Well, I don't wanna go and mom doesn't want to leave me home alone. I mean, I am eighteen, but she still doesn't trust me to stay alone, so I was thinking maybe if you... like volunteered to come spend the weekend here she would be cool and stuff with it."
"Yeah, I can do that... no problem hon," he answered quickly, thrilled she wanted him to come stay with her.
Suzanne was more than happy with the arrangement. She was not getting along with Becca, as of late, and a weekend away from her moody teen age daughter would be more than welcome.
Jacob arrived promptly at eleven a.m. on a warm, early September morning. After the usual formalities of seeing Suzanne and Tom off on their trip, he turned to his daughter. "So I have you all to myself for the weekend. I hope you are not planning on some wild party with a bunch of your friends though. Your mom was quite explicit... no parties."
Rebecca batted her pretty brown eyes at her daddy, before tossing her mane of light brown hair to one side. Rebecca, in the couple years he had been away, blossomed into a raving young beauty. She possessed your typical Midwestern girl next door good looks, along with a streak of wildness accenting those good looks.
"Oh come on Daddy, can't we have just a little bit of a party," she said with a fetching smile as she crossed the kitchen toward him.
"Hmm, let me think about it... No."
"What if the party was like real small, like just me and you... would you consider saying yes then?"
"Just you and me. I am afraid that won't be much of a party... not for you anyway, hon."
"Yeah, well, we will see about that. I wanna have some fun, maybe be a little naughty. Have a couple beers you know. I mean Mom is so fucking strict with me, and I just wanna cut loose a bit... even if it's only me and you at our party."
Fighting the feeling she was up to something, after a moment's hesitation, he gave in, "Yeah, why not... if it's just me and you."
"Great, I will go get ready. I hope you have some money."
"I have a bit of money, but what for?"
"For the mall when you take me shopping. It's going to be a really warm day the according to the forecast so I wanna take advantage of it and get some sun out by the pool while we are sucking down our beer and if I wanna impress my sole guest..." She paused smiling at him; it was a smile that made his heart flutter. "I am going to need a new swimsuit."
"Really and what is wrong with the one you got already."
"Hmm, nothing much, other than Mom bought it for me, and it's exceedingly boring. Anyways give me a few minutes to get ready and then we will be off."
"Oh really, you mean you aren't going to the mall looking like that," he joked.
She probably just rolled out of bed, not twenty minutes ago, considering her hair was a bit messy, and she wore no makeup, and was still dressed in an oversized sleep shirt and pajama pants.
"No of course not," she said, "I gotta make myself into a beautiful young princess if I'm going to talk you into buying me a whole bunch of nice stuff at the mall with whatever bit of money you got."
"Sure, take your time," he told her before adding. "But you know, you don't have to make yourself beautiful... you already are beautiful, Becca."
"Yeah, that's me, Beautiful Becca," she cried while sprinting up the stairs.
Jacob sighed, envying his young daughter's youthful exuberance.
When she came back downstairs, all ready to go, she certainly had transformed herself into "Beautiful Becca". Her darkly tanned skin glowed with a youthful beauty helped by both nature and her painstakingly applied makeup. Her light brown hair, combed out neatly now and falling past her shoulders in a swooping wave of beauty, seemed to almost sparkle under the early afternoon sun.