Sequence 7 

(The Widow) 

Moïse Berri 

and the resurrection of the Haitian Space Program  

by Jude Jarda 

The conversation between Eudoxie Angélique Legitime and Meredith O'Reilly is incredibly confusing. Every word seems to have been taken from Eugène Ionesco’s Bald Soprano. The twenty-four year old Irish woman speaks a lot like hipsters, liberals and new age artists of downtown Dublin. She also adds a little taste of Gaelic expressions every time she sobs. Believing that it might help, Meredith pitches a completely made up French word every now and then or yells out a Creole one in the middle of a sentence. Meredith is basically trying to explain that Ulysses Hercules, the man who promised her a life of abundance and the father of the child she has been carrying for sixteen weeks, is presently incarcerated at the Harwood Heights police station, near Chicago. While he was under the influence of some unknown medication or powerful illicit drug, Ulysses Hercules apparently beat up two police officers. He also insulted and threatened to strangle a female school bus driver and traumatized a dozen children with obscene gestures and inappropriate language. Other charges will probably come up later, because the car he was driving is not his and the loaded gun found in his possession was never registered. Ulysses Hercules asked Meredith to find a way to gather the significant amount of money needed to bail him out of jail. The problem is that the secret bank account they were sharing is completely empty. Ulysses Hercules is unable to get access to his savings account. The PIN codes on all his credit cards have been changed and the bank won’t allow him to do any transaction from his checking account, due to a recent money deposit made from a suspicious Nigerian financial institution. If Meredith does not amass one hundred thousand dollars by four P.M., Ulysses Hercules will be transferred to the Cook County jail, a savage jungle where violence is rampant and rape common. 

Now, Meredith's father is a Catholic fundamentalist and a member of the New Underground Republican Irish Army. Even if he has done time for manslaughter in Ulster, that former platoon commander is a man of principle with very conservative values. Since he became a widower, Keenan Quinn O'Reilly has had only one goal, which is the well-being of his only daughter. Learning that she is currently pregnant and not married is a source of great sorrow for him. Learning who the father is makes things worse. K.Q. O'Reilly read a lot while he was incarcerated. He believes that Ulysses Hercules put a magic spell on Meredith. The books he has been reading to gain more wisdom on the subject clearly recommend the death penalty for such actions. That's what he plans to bring on Ulysses Hercules with a huge amount of suffering and torment. Those threats could be taken lightly if K.Q. O'Reilly was just a poser. On the contrary, O’Reilly was once a living nightmare for the National Police Service of Ireland; leading a gang of criminals that included his godson, Dillon Patrick Carrigan, the present senior spokesman and president of the prisoners at Cook County. 

Eudoxie Angélique Legitime never worked very hard to master the English language, even if she has been living in Florida for fifty years and over. She actually never learned much about America as a whole either. The last serious periodical she read focused on the Watergate scandal; the last daily newspaper, on then, Senator Obama; the last tabloid she quickly went through gave a detailed description of Lindsay Lohan's troubles with the law. Granny Legitime nevertheless finds the proper words to explain to Meredith O'Reilly that she doesn't understand most of her gobbledygook. She also tells her that she doesn't really care about what people do or say anymore. Not out of selfishness, but simply because she is way too old and too close to her death to spend any of her precious time left on earth on trivialities. Out of pity for Meredith, who burst into tears, Grandma Legitime gives her the phone number of her deceased husband, thinking it's the one of her financial advisor and long time friend of the family, Mr. Gustave Amaury Quick. 

Granny Legitime's gardener insists on knowing what this call was all about. Before explaining what she thought she understood from the incoherent tirade of her son’s crazy secretary, Eudoxie Angélique lights up another therapeutic smoke. It seems that Meredith O'Reilly, and not Awale, wants to sue Ulysses Hercules because he drugged and date-raped her. He then fled to the Highlands on board a school bus with her six-week-old baby. She demands money compensation or swears to send a murderous Catholic priest after Ulysses Hercules to whack him. 

“If we were in July,” reflects Eudoxie Angélique, “I would definitely find time to panic and participate in my son's nonsensical life. But we are now right into hurricane season. I don't want to find myself in the same mess as these folks in New Jersey. Therefore, doing the inventory of our anti-storm equipment and food reserves would be very productive. Trying to play referee into a quarrel between two vaccinated adults is clearly counterproductive and a loss of energy.”  

©Jajjazz ©Jude Antoine Jarda