Didi and the Gunslinger

Chapter 5: Jackus

"Trespassing, little girl?" She holds still too long, held by her shock. He reaches her before she can back away. Ives Jackus's fingers dig into her arm, clutching her like he owns her. "We've had this talk, hey?" He peers down at her through his bloodshot eyes, one wandering off to look in a different direction, the sheen of his oily skin making vomit rise to the back of her throat. Didi's done her best to avoid Jackus, especially lately. There was a time the lean, greasy man in torn jeans and a filthy t-shirt simply yelled at her for crossing over onto his property. But, the way he looks at her, the slow and horrible way he licks his lips with a wet, smacking sound as he gazes her up and down is almost too much.

Didi struggles against his grasp, long-fingered hands holding her elbow in a vice that grinds her bones together. Pip has fallen silent, clinging to her back, the cowardly thing.

"Am not," Didi says, pointing at the line of thick, blue glass her father placed on their borders with Jackus just a few weeks ago. Her boots are crossed it, aren't they? Thank the dumpalls above and the trash below, she's made it over the line. "You're the trespasser."

Jackus grunts and shakes her a little, snuffles up a nice, deep wad of snot, spitting it over his shoulder. The gummy wad glistens in the faint light of a dumpall humming overhead.

"Smart mouth," he mutters, tugging at her. Trying to pull her over the line into his territory again. Didi's fingers dig into the pocket of her jacket, searching for the trigger to the metal coils threaded into her clothing. A precaution against attack, but she never expected to have to use it against Jackus. Her mouth fills with saliva, swallowed convulsively as he stops pulling and smiles.

It's hideous, his smile, full of snaggled teeth where he has any left, bits of blackened edges showing even in the low light. She wishes she wasn't wearing her goggles. This view is far too clear, a spinning analysis of the bacteria and content breakdown flashing on the inside of the lenses. And though the stench of Trash Heaven is a thing she's grown long since accustomed, his breath rivals even the marshy pits to the west that spew their methane vileness into the atmosphere.

"Look at you, Miss Divinity, growing up like you are." His tongue is a thick slug of flesh slopping over his puffy lips. Something is wrong with his skin, bits of flaking dryness coming free from the sides of his nose, the reddened circles under his eyes giving them a burned out appearance. He takes a half step closer, pulling her against him. Her flesh creeps from where they make contact even as her fingers hover over the trigger that will likely shut down his heart and make her a murderer.

So be it.

"Let me go." She's proud of how steady her voice sounds, of Pip who pokes his head over her shoulder. "Release her at once, Jackus. How dare you manhandle Didi this way? Her father will hear of it."

Jackus ignores Pip, the hand tight around Didi's elbow softening enough so his thumb can trace circles on her skin. She's never felt anything so disgusting and the visceral reaction to his touch that races through her body makes her shudder so violently he starts and lets her go.

Didi staggers back, wiping at her mouth as her stomach threatens to make a visit to the surface. Jackus makes a move for her, but she's already turning, running for home. She should walk, she's in her own territory and, were he to try anything she would call self-defense.

"You come on back into my territory when you're ready," Jackus calls after her with a cackling laugh that ends with a wet cough. "I'll show you what it means to grow up, little girl."

She needs to leave it alone. Didi feels the compulsion to ignore her good sense rising from the soles of her boots and up to her knees, spinning in place and reversing course before she can stop herself. Pip snaps in her ear, biting the soft flesh.

"Didi!" His hissing makes her head hurt. "What are you doing?"

She stomps to a halt at the edge of her territory, crossing her arms over her chest. Jackus stares at her, shocked from the gaping look on his face. It's the first time she's realized how young he is, maybe only a decade her senior. But life hasn't been kind to Jackus, that much is written all over him.

"Don't you ever," she snarls in his face, "touch me again."

Jackus steps back before standing his ground, fury flickering in his wandering eye. Good one, too. "We'll see," he says. "You just step over that line, missy. You'll be fair game then, I reckon." He laughs, a bark of a sound. "Or, maybe I won't wait to catch you on my land. Tell your daddy I'll be calling."

Dad would throw Jackus out on his behind. Or so Didi would like to think. More probably, he'd stutter in shock, offer the man a homebrew then find a way to make him leave, hopefully before it came to blows.

Didi has no father illusions whatsoever. But, she's not above using him as a weapon. "Don't bother," she shoots back. "He'd never approve of someone like you."

Jackus's face twists, his body lunging for her. She dances back, finger on her trigger. He has no idea how close he's come to death. It makes her feel powerful.

He clearly doesn't. "Stupid little bletch," he snarls. Pauses and straightens, looks away. "Not worth my time, either of you. Crackpot and his nasty little mite."

It shouldn't hurt, the way the others talk about Dad. But Didi can't help her temper. He's got no one else to defend him these days and she can't stand the stigma.

"Says you." Didi hates the nasty, small look on Jackus's ugly mug. She'll show him. "Don't see you building machines to help the galaxy."

"Didi." Pip's whisper is a warning. She's tired of him using her name like that.

Jackus's feigned interest is a joke, a farce. Didi realizes she's said too much, but it's too late as the squatter smiles.

"Just what is that daddy of yours up to these days?"

Didi knows the rumors, has heard the others talk about her father. Calling him a crackpot out one side of their stupid mouths and a genius out of the other. She didn't miss the way her father's only friend, Putter, drooled over the new invention he was working on, though the old man had no idea what it could do. For that fact, Didi isn't entirely sure either. But any outside interest is bad interest. She knows better. And she let Jackus bait her.

"No business of yours," Didi says, turning her back for good this time. She knows he's watching her, feels his eyes on her as she leaves.

"I'll be calling, Didi," he shouts after her. "You be ready, missy."

Didi circles a large pile of garbage, only then releasing her touch on the trigger. She takes a moment to flash her middle finger in the direction of the squatter, out of his line of sight, while Pip sighs in her ear.

"You just had to turn around."

Didi swats at him, irritation burning through her. She spins on one boot and marches for home through the familiar tracks of garbage. "Shut that beak," she snaps, "or I'll leave you to the corbies next time."

Pip's silence doesn't make her feel any better.

***