"I am not a joke. I was trying to impose some irony to render it silly." Father McKenzie kept on, wearing optimistic facial expression on his youthful, pale face which was not only rare, but also authentic and sparkling, illuminating his face by exposing the genuine hues of his mood and emotions. 

"It's not hilarious. You shouldn't be even that silly!" Casey snapped at the younger man, glaring at him by huffing offended, pursing his baby pinkish lips. The thought of his former relationship with Judy as a boyfriend and a girlfriend popped up in his mind like a dynamite, causing a ginormous explosion of execration and disgust, ruins abiding inside his already plagued mind. "I am serious this woman disgusted me and our relationship doesn't even exist anymore for a long time." The cop furthered with his dramatic, emotional monologue.

"I know, I am seriously apologizing for the irony. I can't get it how you are willed to not possess any sense of humor, Casey!"

"It wasn't even necessary this sense of humor, because this whore is the main problem here." The middle-aged man retorted as he shifted off his gaze to the path, admiring the nature's natural beauty, oozing from it innate, alluring aesthetics. The darkened bare trees as they were overally bathed in buds, yet starting to blossom as the spring was coming and the winter shall be gone, leaving traces of the final winter days as soon as possible. "Just imagine if you had a relationship especially with a woman who put the blame on you for infecting her." In the meanwhile, Father McKenzie gasped and inhaled calmly, remaining composed yet without being triggered by Casey's raised tone.

"Oh really? She blamed you for infecting her," In the meantime, it caught instantly the member of the clergy's attention, stuttering due to his state of being speechless of what he's hearing with every passing second. "If she had to, then you have caused something to her." Initially, Alexander scarcely believed it and it seemed questionable this topic as they discussed Jude. He sensed something sceptical behind Casey's words, ideqlly recognizing the lack of evidence to prove himself right.

"What do you think I am supposed to have done to her?" The police officer responded with a question, unable to resist its urge to raise his voice, his complexion utterly peppered in sanguine tingle, reflecting his spontaneous, unconditional anger, imprinted on his ezasperated facial expression he gave to the priest. "To cheat on her?" He commenced listing the first rhetorical question though Father McKenzie hushed, paid attention to the authority. "To lie her? To slap her? To hide anything from her?" Casey furthered to list a handful of rhetorical questions as his enraged nature didn't permit him to chill for a single minute. Not only he detested Jude and the Howards with Valerie, moreover he couldn't stand the blond whom he forsaken her many years ago, flowing out of her sombre heart breaks, melancholy and lugubrious suicidal thoughts and attempt, although the failure and leaving her like a bleak area, encircled by its barrens and desolation.

"You have something to do with either of these reasons, Casey! There's always reason why she put the blame on you for infecting her." Alexander uttered sternly, without capturing the other man's glaring stare. "You cannot get away with that."

"How do you think I detest her? She's just a damn whore and freeloader with a sugar daddy by her side to spoil her and her mini Judy."

"Stop diverting from the topic! Just spit it out!" The younger man obdurately insisted.

"Alright! Well, after our friendship, we became a couple for approximately 1-2 years," The cop paused, catching his breath until he proceed with his monologue. "I was going out in clubs in the late nights as she didn't wish to come with me, because it would hurt her enough if she sees me with another gal and getting drunk, and embarrassing. Well, it's true I slept with some other gals and returning back at home in intoxicated condition. One day, we started to discuss our wedding plans and just a day before the wedding as I have already got laid with her," Meanwhile Casey inhaled coldly, then exhaled. "The poor hen came out of the doctor, announcing her she lost the baby, as a result of heavy bleeding and pool of fresh blood pooled around her."

"Hmmm!" Father McKenzie listened attentively and sensing something leery in the policeman's utterance. 

Flashback

1945

"Oh, Casey! I am relieved you are at home." Jude omitted an infectious chuckle as a couple of oozed blood drops came from her core, couldn't endure the heartbreak she experienced with losing the child and she was infected by him. Casey glared at her, narrowing his eyebrows and noting her odd demeanor. "The wedding is approaching and we couldn't be even happier for tomorrow. Ha?" She walked up to the kitchen's counter top, grabbing an empty glass and pouring herself some whiskey, yearning for its sweet taste, lingering on her lips to cure her inner severe depression and savor its sweetness of the medicament which is called Martin's family cure!

Casey has been at home since 5 o'clock in the afternoon from work and has seated on the kitchen table, awaiting for his future wife to return from doctor. He didn't take his eyes off from Judy, observing each action of her.

"At least, you are lucky I haven't smacked another slap across your face!" Casey maliciously menaced through gritted teeth, hissing his snakish tongue.

"What, sweetie? Is everything alright?" She turned to him as her hand was occupied with a glass of whiskey, sipping the alcoholic beverage. "You should be happy we are marrying tomorrow and I will be officially Judy Martin Goodman."

"Don't be ridiculous!" He laughed right at her face as a vile snigger escaped his damp lips. "Just sit the fuck down!"  The young man commanded as she did it immediately without any pleas and pretentions, still grasping the scotch glass, filled with whiskey, reaching her senstive nostrils, filling it with fragrance of her Achilles' Heel. Greedily licking her lips as she paid attention to his speech, without interrupting him and proving to him her indisputable disrespect towards him. "Look into my eyes instead to glue them to this scotch glass!" Casey carried on with his command as she drifted her apprehensive hazel eyes up to his as their eyes met, capturing one another's stares. "Now tell me what the doctor said." 

She swallowed a solid lump in her throat, sensing ounce, burdening her brittle heart that hammered in her chest, sipping her whiskey to soothe her nerves. Inhale escaped her nostrils. "The doctor said I have lost the baby, as a result of an atrocious disease and lost big amount of blood, I have," Glacial, crystal tears almost verged to tumble down, in fact, her eyelids were flooded with dew, pooling them and to bawl her eyes, essentially because of the heartbreak she felt once the doctora informed her and she consulted them. Furthermore, the young woman couldn't suppress the pain anymore. It felt like razors, jabbing in her chest gradually aa thick, dark blood spurt, diffusing from her chest. "Been told I am ceased to bare a child!"

Sudden silence arched in the small, howsoever, sufficiently spacious kitchen. All of a sudden, the young man's face scowled as it radiated his indescribable wrath and disgust. The blonde's face blushed gradually as she went ahead with her monologue as the intensity escalated momentarily. The more insecure Judy got, the more Casey acquired power. 

"We were intimate a month ago and you concluded me by not only murdering our child that used to grow inside me," Her other hand timidly reached for his larger one, placing it on his by pursuing for his eyes that glanced down at the tile flooring as they reached up for hers again. "But also you cheated on me and you infected me with syphilis." She cleared her throat, abiding strong to not cry enough in front of him or otherwise his infuriating insanity peaked as his adrenaline unlocks his impulsivity to attack her. "I am forgiving you!" In this moment, blood gushing down from her core, flooding the tiled flooring under the table with pool of blood,  still grasping his mammoth hand as her other one gulped greedily in a single sip the rest of the whiskey that was left in her scotch glass. "We can work it out and," As she was about to carry on with her sentence, Casey snapped at her in curt, horrid manner.

"You fucking lying bitch!" He roughly pushed away her elvish, creamy hand from him, yelling at her, glaring at her as he slammed a fist on the kitchen table. In the meantime, Jude's heart raced as she got from the chair, glimpsing down at the pool of blood which she made. "How dare ya to put the blame on me for infecting you as you were actually the murderer of our child? Ha?" He got from the kitchen table promptly by gripping the emptied scotch glass as Judy attempted to flee the kitchen by scuttling as much as she could and the stamina she possessed can survive. He opted to throw it right at her as she dodged it with her swift, versatile steps, heading up to the front door by turning the key until another click to signal whenever it's unlocked. The glass shattered, spilling thousands of miniature glass pieces on the living room's carpeted floor. 

"You murdered it by infecting me with this disgusting sickness! And see for yourself this pool of blood under the table. That's a proof of the life that used to grow inside me and thanks to you it's destroyed." She raised her voice after turning the key for final time and tried to flee through the front door of the one house where they lived together, he was out of the kitchen and tugged at her silken long golden old Hollywood hair, shrieking in pain as his other colossal hand clamped her mouth to repress her screeches in pain as her utterance was rather mumbling once the palm of his hand sealed her mouth. He dragged her towards him as he slapped her face as she grabbed her slapped cheek, her fingers caressing beneath the scorching imprinted traces in rosy tint on her white like milky skin.

"Ouchhh-" She expressed her morbid physical pain, gelid tears were already built in her eyes as they started to well in as Judy hardly blinked, incapable to handle the pressure she was lastly. Before having the opportunity to say anything else, Casey outrunned her, unfortunately.

"Pathetic whore! I have never slept with anyone else than you. You did it to yourself!" He yelled in her face in coarse way, without taking his cunning, filled with fierce adrenaline his eyes of her, glaring at his girlfriend's mortified hazel green eyes. 

"I never slept with anyone," Judy was about to keep on with her exclamation though Casey's blood boiled igniting as he smacked other slap across her face, still tugging her hair. "Oucchhh!" She yelped in agony once again, her fingers caressing her cheek as she closed her eyes, tears gushed down her heated cheeks. Her boyfriend growled ferociously. "You are the monster who killed the life that used to live inside me."

Then he removed his hand from her hair, releasing it as the young man pushed her  against the wall as she couldn't help, but collapsing on the floor defeated and looking up at him with pleading eyes on her tear stained face.

"Once a whore, always a whore, Judy!" He headed up to the coat hangers and took his leather one as he started to get dressed to leave.

"Please, do not leave me! We can work it out." The blonde begged, still panting. She was not only mortified by Casey's aggression and calling her bad names, moreover  she was even more scared when he was about to leave their home and her for the rest of her days.

Instead of answering her pleas, he spat on her and concluded:

"Go to hell, you fucking lying whore!"

***

"So it seems it's not her fault at all, because you hurted her by cheating on her and you murdered the life that grew inside her." Father McKenzie casted a sly gaze at the older man, a fake grin curled up in the corner of his lips.

"Total lies! I thought you defended me instead of this town pump."  Casey retorted, clutching firmly his teeth.

"Well, at least, she was loyal to you and she forgave you."

"Loyal?" Hence, the cop mischievously chuckled. "She killed the baby inside her. It's not me." He furthered with sarcastic tone.

"You have probably done something wrong. I can smell it!"

"Well, Alexander, you aren't a saint either too because I can tell you what," The police officer evoked plainly, earning the man of the cloth's vicious glare. "You raped a young woman and you have never seen her ever again!"

"Ha! At least, if I were you, I would never slap Judy." The juvenile priest confessed honestly. "I don't beat women and ladies. That makes you an abominable monster, Casey. That's my point!"

"You are lying to me!" He eventually realized how tremendously stubborn is Father McKenzie and declined to go further in bland, searing argues.

"A monster like you is the reason why she transformed in a whore and she's looking for sugar daddies. Don't you realize what kind of an asshole are you?" Casey was rather surprised how Alexander defended Judy instead of him as he has expected since the first moments together.

"Don't you ever dare," The policeman recited each line slowly, gritting his teeth as he abstained to assault the member of the clergy with physical attack since it's immoral and he has a great chance of losing his job. "To address me like that, Alex!"

"Or what?" A vile grin honed on his lips, gazing ironically at the older man. "What are you going to do?" He said calmly, without being bothered what the authority would reply him.

"Do not...try to scare me!" Casey's apprehension was pretty evident once Father McKenzie's malice bloomed, cooking inside him.

***

"Are you awake yet, honey?" Judy heard hysterical cries, coming from the children's room as for this purpose she got from the bed in the middle of the night and aimed to the room as soon as possible. The middle-aged mother lifted up Agnes by taking her in her protective, loving arms, looking down at her face in the dim lit room, whereas the twins were still asleep, fortunately.

"Yes, Mommy! I can't sleep." The young girl said in defeatist manner, rubbing her drowsy eyes with fists.

"Aww, sweetie! It's alright, my baby girl!" She pecked kiss on her temple to reassure her as the infant sunk in her mother's warmness, feeling safer. Rocking her in her arms. "Did you have nightmare?"

"Yes, I did!" The youngest Howard admitted frankly, her head rested on Jude's chest, her ears jingled once her mother's heart beat sent an electroshock through her wee, frail skeleton. "Can I sleep with you and Daddy?"

"Of course, you can!" The blonde headed up to the door as she fondled her anxious daughter's mane of unkempt golden curls by turning off the lights in the children's room and walking up to her bedroom. "You shouldn't be anxious at all, Agnes! Every child has nightmares." Judy opted to encourage her daughter though the vague failure. Smiles distorted across their lips.

When the former nun entered in the bedroom by shutting the door, she strolled up to the king-sized bed as Timothy was slumbering profoundly, drowning in his own dreams. His light snores were somewhat soothing and strange for the little girl in the same time.

"Why is Daddy doing this?" Jude was kicking off her slippers. Agnes Jude didn't know the word for snore and she just questioned plainly, meaning it.

The former sister of the church glanced down at her unconscious husband, couldn't oppress a growing, radiant smile on her face. Then she shifted her hazel eyes to her little ray of sunshine.

"Your Daddy is just snoring. It's common amidst the adults." She explained in laconic way. As soon as she laid down to sleep with her daughter, Agnes positioned herself in the middle of the huge bed as she earned kisses on the cheeks and forehead. "You need to rest, Agnes! Good night and have sweet dreams!"

"Good night, Mommy! And have sweet dreams too."

Thereafter they quickly fell asleep, sinking in their slumbering dream world.

***

The next morning

8th of March, 1970

When Jude and Timothy woke up in the wee hours of the morning, they gathered their children to have a breakfast altogether and ate in silence though they exchanged comments from time to time.

What they actually ate for breakfast was fruit salad as they drank hot herbal tea along on the kitchen table. 

"Aren't you excited for visiting your grandparents in a matter of days?" Timothy enquired Ellie, Tristan and Agnes in the same time as a genial smile flourished on his fresh face.

"Yes, of course!" They responded in unison after munching the sliced apples and bananas, humming to themselves a melodious tune, relishing the moment of the family gathering together for breakfast and any time of the day for the meals. 

"With enormous impatience!" Ellie declared optimistically as she giggled afterwards, incapable of suppressing it. The eldest child was beyond impatient to go in England and see her grandparents even the rest of the Howards. 

"It will be exciting." Jude said blissfully as she sipped her hot herbal tea, sensing the natural beverage gushing down through her organs and resurrecting her body, bringing it to life. 

"It couldn't be more since you have never seen my parents and siblings." Timothy commented as he was barely in the middle of finishing his fruit salad.

"Are Granny, Grandpa and your siblings friendly?" Tristan posed the question, his eyes fixed on the fruit salad as he was eating it slowly.

"Of course, they are, honey!" The former monsignor answered cheerfully, reassuring his twin son. "I doubt they are going to be mean to you."

"If they yell, does that mean they are mean?" Agnes asked bashfully.

"No, no, sweetheart!" Judy replied as she left the fork in her plate, turning to Agnes as the little girl was sitting next to her mother. Her mother managed her hand to stroke her disordered waterfall of honey curls, her fingers combing through the saturating tresses which were haloing her angelic, white like vanilla complexion. Jude's hazel eyes met her daughter's ones, locking up her gaze. "When they yell at you, that doesn't mean they are mean or something. When an adult yells at you, they usually try to help you and tell you you are doing it incorrectly. While there are adults who yell impulsively just because their nerves peaked and they are quick-tempered." The youngest daughter nodded her head, enthusiatically listening to her mother as a humble, affectionate smile formed on her thin, baby pinkish lips. "In general, you aren't a bad girl so that to deserve to being blamed for anything. You are a pure angel!"

"Thank you, Mommy! I am your angel." Agnes Jude emphasized with joyous tone the word angel. 

"Not only you are mine angel, but also your father and your sister and brother's angel. Remember that, Agnes! Everybody in this family are special." 

Timothy and the twins couldn't help as their smiles rapidly grew on their shining faces, sensing their hearts melting as much as the youngest Howard. In the meanwhile, Jude leant as she peppered Agnes's temple and cheeks with gentle, loving kisses, still stroking her hair, admiring its natural softness and beauty. 

"Mommy?" Ellie inquired boldly, drawing her mother's attention instantly.

"Yes, sweetie?" The former sister of the church turned to her oldest daughter, facing her as she yet fondled Agnes's head.

"Am I angel with my brother?"

"You are definitely angels! Who couldn't be an angel when you are such little sweethearts?" 

Ellie and Tristan were undeniably flattered by their mother's kind words as Timothy couldn't endure a faint chuckle, escaping his soaked lips.

To be continued...