My dads dreams were all about his kids.  My father had a son first, Elliot Jr. who was supposed to take over the business.  Well that didn’t work out too well.

So I came along and its an understatement that I’m pretty.  At Oak Hall Elementary in 1st grade I got valentines from ever y boy in my grade.  Most of their mothers wrote the cards.

My father shifted from pushing Felix Jr. into the clothing business,  into making me a  local star on TV.   I had special tutors for singing and dancing.  If there was a talent show in Leesburg my father’s shop dressed me and my father took off work so that I could compete.

I had 40 trophies before I was five for talent and I won almost every beauty contest.  My blond hair was made into every style ever conceived by the time I was 12.

Jack Jones lived most of the time in Anthony Florida, but had a house on the University of Florida campus for stays in town during football season.  The Gainesville house was also used by his various sons and daughters when they went to college.

Eliot, my father, liked to pal around with Jack Jones because he was in media, film and television and father was always pushing my talent.  I would ride with dad to Anthony when I was thirteen and do my Mickey Mouse Dance so that Jones could see me.  Feathers were a style item in Hollywood then and our clothing makers at the shop made dozens of outfits for me, just like various movie stars were wearing.

When I was age 15 and in the 11th grade of high school, I was a: cheerleader, vice president of the junior class.  Well I did the feather dance for a tape in Orlando and dad told me Jack Jones had just returned from England where he left his divorced wife.  His wife got the house in England and cottage in Spain.

I heard Mr. Jones tell about Angel his wife and I saw a pile of her pictures and paintings piled up at the outside of his gate for the garbage service to pick up.  He said she was an alcoholic, couldn’t have babies, and was a ‘trash mouth’.

I guess my father was one of Jack Jones only friends, or at least someone who would listen.  But my father wasn’t there as a friend of Jones, but to promote me, his talented daughter.  Eliot wanted Jones to like me well enough to recommend me for a film or Disney production or something.

What happened was that I was under adult age (age 15) so my father signed a marriage agreement with Jones who was seventy-one.  Jones really didn’t look that old, just old.

It was a wacky weird marriage agreement that my father mostly wrote.  The document was more like a will than a marriage plan.  Jones had children by two of his three marriages.  They were all six college graduates and living off their dad.  His two girls came to see him more than his boys and that was about once a year, Jack didn’t like any of them much and they didn’t care for him.

Jack’s first two wives went D.B.D. that means died before divorce.  It was dangerous to say you would divorce Jack.  I talked to his daughters and they both said, “His problem is jealously.”

Alexandra Jones told me, “He didn’t want me to see boys and didn’t want mother to be near males.”

My father thought he was making a deal that would make me a star when he married me to Jack Jones.  Jack controlled media companies, but I found out quickly he didn’t want me t be an actress or dancer or singer.  He wanted me to quit school and get pregnant.

My father got some big payoff from Jack because he turned his sewing business over to my brother and bought a house on Clearwater Beach.  He and mother came up to visit me, but mostly they came to convince me to have Jones babies.  I had little control over that, I mean he did what he wanted, and there was no birth control.

At age 15 I wanted to finish high school.

“No,” Jack said.

North Marion High School was a few miles from where I lived and 2 minutes away by hellicopter  That answer was a loud, “NO!”

Jack my lawful husband was about 5 times my age Miss 15 marries Mr. 75.    It’s not like I didn’t know Jack before the marriage.  My father was almost the age of Jack’s sons.

My marriage was at his home with my mother and father, my brothers and his two daughters.  There was also my family priest.  The marriage couldn’t be in the church because he divorced his third wife.  We had two ceremonies one civil with a notary public and one religious with the priest.

Our honeymoon was someplace in Mexico where there was a house on a deserted beach.  We landed next to the house and stayed there for a week.  I was told it was Mexico, but what do I know, he could have said it was Bermuda or Spain.  I was dumb 15 and had been as far as beauty contests in middle Georgia before I married Jack.

Elliot my father had gone to the Anthony house to custom fit clothes on Jack, but mostly to listen to him.  I had tagged along to sort of audition for him, if he had time — sing, dance or speak some lines of a play.

My father moved to Clearwater Beach and I became Jack’s listener.

Mostly he told me the stories of his 3 previous wives.  I got their full histories.  Emily and Carol he had children with and both of them died in ‘accidents’.  The wife he liked to talk about most had no children and he hated her most — Angel.  To sum up Angel she was in his mind, ‘The Devil’.  She was really bad because she had taken him to court and took two of his houses and a gob of money.

Jack talked about his once wives much more than he did about his business.  Telling me about his other wives was the way he told me what I should do as his wife.

I knew how to drive, but we had drivers, they were all women.  We had dozens of indoor and out-door servants and they were women, except for a few big men, who were guards, and not really men.  Parts of them had been removed, well even deliveries to our house, for things we ordered on the computer were by women.  That procedure had been long-established before I was Jack’s wife.

I think my father was allowed in because he was bringing me.  Jack never made me a star, because he didn’t want me a star.  There were pictures of all his previous wives around the house and they all were very pretty — he was not willing to share any of us.

When I was first married I had a team of room servants who had belonged to Angel (the wife that divorced him).  They treated me like a princess and let me do nothing for myself.  They were all older than me and had not been picked for beauty, grace or smarts.  Their average age was 25, and most had no memory of being anything but a slave in one job or another.  Their age was another mystery to them.

Rosnan was the head slave in my group of rooms.  She had served all the various wives, but I think was told to forget all the details of her life then.  I guess being a bedroom maid is really not having a life of your own anyway.

Jack often went away on trips and I knew Rosnan knew things about the previous wives that she should tell me.  She was a fat slave of maybe 40 years old, and more intelligent than the other slugs.

Certain subjects like, ‘How did Jack’s 1st wives die?’, would cause Rosenan to say, “The master doesn’t want me talking about that.”

Another subject that got about the same answer was, ‘What happened to my diary and address book?’  Right after I got married those two things disappeared from my room.

The answer Rosnan gave was, “I don’t know mistress.”  After I was in my rooms for a while, a short while I realized that she controled the room slaves like human robots.

Jack was on a trip to Chicago and I called my parents in Clearwater Beach, and my brother in downtown Gainesville.  I was lonely.  I knew the numbers of my friends an the cheerleader squad and those calls just wouldn’t go thru  I could call California to order a certain perfume or a gold hair brush, but a simple call from Anthony Florida to Gainesville would not go thru.

So I sent for Chester, this big tattooed neutered man who was an outside guard.  I went to my husband’s formal office downstairs.   That’s where my father and I had met with Jack before I got married.

I had Chester bring in Rosenan, she knew there was a problem the way Chester dragged her in.

“What ever I did mistress please tell me as I can improve.”  she said, bowing in front of his desk.

“Tell me where my diary is or be punished Rosenan,”  I said in my stern tone of voice.

“I can’t mistress”. she said.

“Did my husband tell you that you can’t tell?”

“Yes mistress.” 

“Good, see how easy that was?”

“Yes mistress.”

“Did Jack ever punish you Rosnan?”

“No mistress, but he gives harsh punishments to slaves.”

“What is the worst punishment you know he has given?”

“A cook was beaten to death.”

“I could do worse than that Rosenan.  I could have Chester chain you in a dark closet, whip you and feed you dog food, then whip you till you talk.  That would go on till I had heard everything.

You would do that for me, wouldn’t you Chester?”

“Oh yes mistress, I’ll do anything!”"

“Would you rather start talking now Rosenan or should I have Chester tie you naked on the floor and give you 20 smacks to start?”

“I’ll have to talk mistress.  What should I tell you first?”

So you took my diary and address book out of my room for Jack?”

“Yes mistress, that and some letters you had from friends.”

“And Jack told you not to tell me you took those things?”

“Yes mistress.”

“What else did he tell you not to tell me?”

“He said not to talk about Emily and Carol.”

“His first two wives.” I said.

“Yes mistress — he said if I talked he would have my tongue cut out.”

“What do you think Rosenan that he wouldn’t want you to tell me.  The reason for that heavy threat?”

“The rumor is that he killed both of them for threatening to leave, and being unfaithful to him.”

“Did they both die here in Anthony?”

“In the house.”

“What did the doctor say was the cause of death?”

“From what I’ve seen mistress, the master Jack owns the doctors who come here.”

“How did Jack kill his first two wives?”

“The rumor is mistress, from those who claimed to be close to where it happened was that in both cases there was a lot of screaming and then it stopped.  Those slaves who heard it, say the women were strangled.”

“The government never looked into it?”

The master Jack meets with the Governor of Florida and the senators to explain to them what he wants done.  They don’t seem to ever tell him anything they want him to do.”

Once Rosenan had broken her ordered silence about the former wives of Jack I understood pretty much Jack’s problem.

He was focused on one exclusive female.  He kept her locked up and I was about perfect for what he wanted , a stupid 15-year-old girl.

His other wives had been married at about age 20, and the one that got away was, Rosnan thought 27 at marriage.   Angel had demanded to travel.

You can’t just murder women everywhere and Angel (the wife who divorced Jack)  must have learned enough to get away and stay away from Alachua County Florida.

At the time Rosenan told me enough to prove to me that Jack killed two of his wives, I had lived with Jack about 2 years and 60% of his conversations with me were about getting pregnant.

I did not want to have a baby after finding out about his killing two of his wives.  In modern Florida and in most of the civilized world things were not like they had been with Henry the Eighth of England.  Then the Church, over a thousand years before, had allowed only one wife at a time.

Then King Henry was forced to kill off the wives who were barren, so that he could take other wives.  Those were barbaric times and now the church would let a man marry any number of  wives.  Jack didn’t even follow church rules, murder was against one of the 10 commandments and the church didn’t believe in divorce.

After my new Rosenan knowledge I tried every way to get out of the home.  I read the local newspapers and found festivals in Belleview Florida and dress stores in Ocala.  There were fish luncheons in Lake City and Woman’s Club and 1st wife club is Gainesville.

Of course Jack didn’t like my socializing and he told me, “Your not on the same social level as the women in that same level as the women in that Gainesille woman’s club.” He meant they didn’t have unlimited moeny like Jack.

That day he had flown in from California and I had gone to the Woman’s Club on Monday.  That day Wednesday I had been driven to the fertility doctor in Gainesville where Dr. Joan Millagan told me for the third time that, “There is nothing wrong with you Shirley.  You should be swelling like a watermellon if you have sex as frequently as you say you do.  I really need for Jack to come see me.”

Dr. Milligan had seen Angel, the divorced wife, during their marriage.  She said, “There was nothing wrong with Angel either.”

Oh Jack didn’t like me telling him that, or that I enjoyed getting out of the house and “Didn’t plan to be a hermit anymore.”

As I talked to Jack after about the 2nd year of marriage there tended to be long periods of silence between what I said, and what he said.  Also we were never alone, even in bed, some servants were always in the room standing holding something for him.

When we ate supper, which we were during the doctor conservation, there were women feeding us our food.  It was as if they were not there until needed.

The silence between thoughts gave me the willies.  I was being fed some carrots (when he said), “I think all this socializing came from that witch Rosenan.  I should have hung her by her thumbs and beat the blood out of her.”

“Why do you say that?” I said with my mouth full.

“Do you think I don’t have listening equipment in my own office when I go on a trip?”

“Rosenan didn’t tell me anything that I didn’t make her tell me.”

He ate three bites of steak and chewed a long time, then said after swallowing, “Emily and Carol both had children for me.  I hate to get into all this unpleasant stuff while eating a meal.”

I didn’t say anymore then, but held my tongue.  I was shocked that he had hidden listening devices, and figured he might also be filming.

So after supper I followed him into our Florida room, it was a bigger area than our whole house where I lived growing up.

Sometime after supper he talked to me, other times we watched the news — we did whatever he liked.  When we were both sitting in stuffed chairs he said, “I know the talk about my first wives was your fault, not the slave Rosenan.  She talked so fast and easy because she thought you could protect her — there is no protection for slaves.

We sat and looked at each other for a while, it was silence that he used to get his way with me.  I was ready for him doing just what he was doing.  I waited.

I don’t know exactly how long but finally he said, “Shirley of all my wives you are by far the best looking.  I don’t mean now, but I mean by far best.  It’s not even close.”

‘Thank you Jack.”  I said, it was one of his business techniques to always praise someone first.

“You’ve seen all the pictures,” he said, and “You can see plainly your legs, hair, face are better than theirs.”

“I married you at age 15 Jack.  The other wives were 20 to 24.  Anyway looks are based on qualities that the viewer likes and current styles.

Also age 15 is so very different from age 24.”

“I know what Rosenan told you about my first two wives –that I killed them.  She even showed you where they were laying dead after their falls.”

“You must have viewing equipment in every part of the house.”

“And listening devices.”  he said and I nodded, ‘yes’

He didn’t talk for a while and then he said, “You know when Flex started coming out here with you, well you were just a baby, a dancing singing cute little baby.  He was taking you to beauty contests for six and seven-year olds.  Those contests aren’t fair and I wanted you to win them.  Do you remember when you were given ‘special awards’, besides winning the contest?”

I nodded that I did and they were often gift certificates for clothing stores or movie theatres.

“Well I arranged for those to be given to you.”

“Thank you.” I said.

“Your father did his research and knew that I could choose which girl becomes a star of the movies or TV and who does not.

When you turned 13 I was having trouble with Angel — my third wife failure.  She did not have children and wouldn’t stay home.  You were still too little to marry, well I kept trying to let you grow.

Angel slipped away from her bodyguards in Leesburg and got an international flight to London.  Nothing like that will even happen again.  How many men do you think watch you when you go to Gainesville Garden Clubbing or to the Ocala Museum?”

“I always see four big neutered men.”

“Fifty are around you.  I still have the two that let Angel escape.  I cut out their tongues, cut off their fingers and chained them on my Palatka farm to  a manual pump to water cows.  They work all the daylight house going in the same circle.  I make sure all your 50 guards go watch them for a day before they come to guard you.”

He paused for a long time before he said, “You will never do your Mickey Mouse Dance in London my dear.”

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The sequel to this story is found (sort of) at http://justice9.wordpress.com

Send any comments to Ray Cates at: rcates2@cox.net   Or fax him at: 1-362-629-1573