Tuesday, May 26, 2015

THE VOODOO DOLL- A short story.

THE VOODOO DOLL.

     Jennie was a waitress at the FOUR TOPP CLUB where I worked as a waiter. The only way to describe her was to say that she was very pretty. She was tall and slim with reddish hair. I fell for her right away. I did not know any better. I am one of those guys who always fall for the wrong woman. I always have and I think I always will. But I explain that part later.
     The big problem with her as I saw it was that she would not go out with me.
     She always told me it was because she was being loyal to a boyfriend called Ronnie. I never met him. She told me that he was a sailor that was sent to a base on the east coast. She told me she did not want to go out with anyone else.
     She gave me that excuse every time.
     In the back of my mind I must of known she just did not want to go out with me. But you know how it is.              Sometimes you just ignore the obvious.
     At the time truth and real life seem to mean little to me. I wanted everything to be going the way I wanted it to go. But then again who doesn't want everything to go their way?
     Even though she would not go out with me she was always nice to me. So I decided against all odds to keep asking her out. I figured I would wear her down someday and she would go with me. I guess I thought I had forever to wait for that to happen. When you are young you always believe you got plenty of time ahead.
     But she always told me no. She told me that she was always going to be loyal to her boyfriend Ronnie.
     I started telling her that I was spending my free time sticking pins into my Ronnie voodoo doll. She always thought that was funny. Sometimes when his phone calls upset her she would ask me to go stick another pin into it.
     One night when things were very slow at the club the two of us were sitting at a back table in the nearly empty dining room. I asked her out once again. I was not really surprised when she said no once again. Deep down in me I kept hoping she would have a different answer for me.
     Someone once told me that false hope was the worst kind of hope. I wish I knew that then.
     I pulled out a small plastic bag I had in the pocket of my work apron. From that I pulled out a small plastic sailor doll I found at a thrift shop that afternoon. I had bought it for a dollar.
     Here it is. My Ronnie voodoo doll. I told her as I stuck a hat pin into it's chest. I thought Jennie would never stop laughing. She thought it was so funny at the time.
     She is gone now. She never return to the club after she went east to her boyfriend's funeral.
     He died in a drunken barroom fight with a bartender who refused to serve him anymore beer.
     The bartender stabbed Ronnie in the heart with an ice pick. It all happen the night I stuck a pin into that sailor doll. It freaked her out when she was told how he died. She would never talk to me again after that.
     I use to mope around the club as I worked. I missed Jennie. I missed her badly. I stopped my moping after one of the waitresses told me that it was not really worth it.      That all along Jennie was going out with all sort of other guys and once when it was suggested that maybe I could be fixed up with someone Jennie said that it would be pretty hard to fixed me. That she could not think of anyone would want to go out with me.
     It stung me that she said that. I should have known she would say and think such things about me. At least now I could see that happening.
     Not long after that I got myself one of those cheap plastic model dolls at a 99 cent store. The kind that are made to look sort of like the Barbie Doll.
     It reminded me of Jennie.
For a long time I kept it on the night stand by my bed.
And every night I consider sticking a pin in it.

THE END.


Copyright 2015 by Teel.

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