Jenny (standard:drama, 1253 words)
Author: Fanny11	Added: Oct 14 2009	Views/Reads: 3171/2032	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Jenny is a story about a young woman who has mental problems and her neighbor Ruth listens.

Jenny 

Word count 1,250 

Ruth met Jenny one afternoon when she heard a knock at her door. Upon 
opening the door she saw a thin young woman standing there she seemed 
nervous. Ruth thought the woman must be in her late teens, she would 
find out later Jenny was forty years old. She told Ruth she had come 
to look at the effiency apartment that was located on the side of the 
apartment building at the end a large wrap-around-porch The landlord 
had asked Ruth to show the apartment if anyone wanted to see it. 

Jenny proceeded to tell Ruth that she had a paranoid disorder and never
wanted to leave her apartment. She seemed nice, and was attractive in a 
delicate way, with long, clean, shiny brown hair. After Jenny settled 
into her apartment, Ruth noticed she did leave it, in-fact she left it 
quite a lot. Ruth would see her riding a bike down the street; with a 
small backpack she told Ruth she kept her money in. 

Jenny had a male friend whose name was Jack. He would come by to visit
almost every night. Ruth never knew what Jenny feelings for him were, 
but she would see her talking to other men along the street. Her friend 
would question all the neighbors and asked if anyone had seen Jenny 
with other men. He seemed like a caring young man, but he and Jenny 
would get into some terrible fights and the police would be called 
often. Jenny would come out the next morning and pull up her shirt and 
show Ruth some terrible bruises and she would say, “look at what he did 
to me”. 

Actually the neighbors or Ruth didn't know whom to believe.  Jack told
everyone that Jenny was nuts. He said she would always start the 
fights, by throwing things, screaming and hitting him. He told Ruth 
that Jenny makes up everything, but he said he loved her.  The next 
evening he would come back, and the fighting would start all over. 

Sometimes Ruth wouldn't see Jenny for days and would worry wondering if
she was all right.  Ruth even knocked on her apartment door a couple of 
times, but there was no answer. Eventually after three or four days 
Jenny would come out of her apartment smiling and carrying a mason jar 
with an alcoholic beverage in it. It was vodka or beer whatever she 
could afford at the time. Jack told us that Jenny would start to drink 
early in the morning and usually would drink all day. 

On warm summer days Jenny would lie on a blanket on the grass near the
sidewalk, and sunbathe with her drink close by with the sound of 
sixties music blasting from her apartment.  Sometimes Ruth would see 
Jenny dancing around and fliping her skirt up at passing motorists. 

When her friend Jack would come to see her, Jenny would be pretty well
intoxicated and soon after the fighting would start. Ruth would hear 
them screaming and slamming doors until late at night. 

Jenny was like a child letting people take advantage of her. She showed
Ruth some beautiful needlepoint she was working on. She said she had 
finished a large one, but it was stolen from her. Ruth could see the 
sadness in Jenny's eyes when she talked about it.  Once she spoke of an 
abusive mother and a loving father who died at a young age. 

Jenny told Ruth about a bad car accident she had been in. she pulled her
long hair back and showed Ruth the scars. This accident had damaged her 
brain she said painfully. Jenny said the medication she took helped 
some, but the drinking Ruth thought to herself would counter- act the 
medication. Sometimes when Jenny would be talking to Ruth she would 
start to do sign language, and once told Ruth she heard voices in her 
head. 

One evening when Ruth was out sweeping off the porch she heard someone
cussing very loud like they were fighting with someone. Ruth walked 
slowly around the side of the large wrap-around-porch to see who was 
there. To her surprise there was no one there but Jenny. 

Jenny told Ruth she had been kick out of every bar in the neighborhood,
because she acted so disorderly. She was usually intoxicated when she 
left for the bars. At times she would bring men home for the night and 
they would steal her money and things from her apartment. Jenny would 


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