The Finchley Flasher Ch. 02

Sometimes feelings are not much to go on. But sometimes feelings are all we have—especially when empirical facts and evidence are lacking. It's not illogical to base our actions upon our emotions—it is part of the human condition, the very essence of our humanity. Jenny had not always thought this way. There was a time when she believed that logic was the only true source of knowledge and wisdom. She still believed it now, but her perspective was tempered with experience and the realization that there is a wisdom that transcends logic—a wisdom born of love and compassion for oneself and others and that we are all, all of us, without exemption, walking along that same path to self-knowledge and learning...forever learning.

Knowing that Edmund's happiness, indeed the very future of their lives together, was at risk because of the terrible medical condition he was forced to suffer, made it imperative that something be done. And acting more on impulse than reason, the distressed girl called her aunt Alice in the hope that she might forget their past grievances and offer to help her and Edmund in their dilemma. But after working up the courage to place the call, Jenny learned from her aunt's butler that she had left the house several days earlier without a word to anyone—not even to her mother. Jenny then called her mother only to learn that she had not heard anything about Alice either. She then tried to reach her aunt on her cell phone but to no avail. She left several messages for Alice but in the days following she received no response. Edmund seemed to be doing fine but there was no telling when another outbreak might occur. He kept a stiff upper lip about it all but Jenny knew that deep inside he was one very troubled man.

It was a full week after Jenny had tried unsuccessfully to contact both her aunt and Dr. Swensen that she decided to take the day off from work to do some research into Edmund's problem. After he left for work, she jumped on the computer and instituted a voracious search for any information that might help put her in touch with others who were experiencing the same problems Edmund was facing. By mid-afternoon she hadn't made much progress and decided to relax and have some lunch, but she barely touched her food. She turned on the television and soon fell fast asleep.

At three o'clock she awoke to the sound of a persistent rapping at the door and rose from her fitful sleep to see who it was. As she looked through the peephole she was greeted with the sight of a very attractive middle-aged woman frowning and cursing in a loud voice, threatening to break the door down if it wasn't opened at once. Jenny realized immediately who it was, but she reacted hesitatingly, cautiously, fearful of what unpleasantness might lurk on the other side.

"I don't believe this," the girl mumbled half in shock, as she peered furtively through the half-opened door. "What in God's name are you doing here, auntie? How the hell did you find me?"

"My dear!" the offended woman explained. "I can see that moving to New York has done absolutely nothing to improve your social etiquette! But to answer your question, I'm here to see you—and yes, Edmund too. And it was your mother who told me where you lived. Now, may I please come in?"

Jenny opened the door a few inches further and rested her disbelieving eyes on the elegantly dressed woman standing in the hallway. Her aunt was attired in a full-length gray mink coat, a matching mink hat resting atop her patrician head. In her black, gloved hands were a dozen roses.

"Jenny, my dear!" Alice laughed heartily. "You haven't completely lost your manners, have you?"

Not wishing to appear rude, but reticent to trust a woman who had found common cause with Ariel, Jenny slowly opened the door and let the woman in.

As soon as Alice made it past the doorjamb she shoved the roses in her niece's hands and gave the stunned girl a big hug.

"Jenny, my darling! Come give auntie a nice big kiss!"

Jenny allowed herself to be engulfed in her aunt's outstretched arms but stood motionless, devoid of any emotion. She let Alice shower her with kisses but remained frozen in place, trying to contemplate the significance of the unexpected visit.

"Why, Jenny!" Alice exclaimed, pulling herself away from the unresponsive girl. "What's wrong, dear? Why do you look at me that way?"

"I don't know you," Jenny replied coldly. "The last time I looked you were toasting your good fortune with the enemy."

Alice shook her head and frowned. "Those days are long over, my dear. I'm back to my old self again. I would never do anything to hurt you. You know that don't you?"

"I like to think so."

"But of course, my dear! I mean, look at me. Have I changed all that much?"

"On the outside, no. But I'm more concerned about what's going on in your head."

Alice laughed gaily. "Oh, Jenny! That you will soon come to know. I promise."

Jenny studied the older women's face. There was still that mischievous twinkle in the piercing blue eyes and the same stubborn sense of purpose in the perfectly formed lips that pursed together tightly whenever Alice had something to justify.

"Is it really you then? Have you really come to your senses?"

"Why of course it's me, dear! Who else do you think it would be?"

Without waiting for Alice to say anything further, Jenny accosted the woman head on, wrapping her trembling arms around her beloved aunt's neck, showering her with kisses.

"Oh, my!" the startled woman said aloud, as she basked in the comforting warmth of her niece's passionate affections.

"I...I can't believe it," Jenny said, blurting the words out impulsively as she felt Alice return her caresses. "

"I assure you it's me in the flesh my dear," Alice replied in her lilting voice. "And look who I've brought with me!"

At first, Jenny drew back in alarm, expecting the sinister face of Ariel to come peering through the door. But standing directly behind her fawning aunt was none other than the famous Dr. Swensen herself—her radiant beauty filling the room like a beacon.

"Hello, Jenny," the doctor said warmly. "It's good to see you again."

"It's good...good to see you too, doctor," Jenny mumbled, quite unable to fathom how these two women, one of whom she had tried so desperately to avoid, and one whom she desperately needed to see, were now standing before her in the flesh and at her disposal.

"I know. I know," Alice said, finally releasing Jenny from her grip. "You have a ton of questions. And I will answer them all but only if you invite us in for tea. It won't do standing out here in the corridor conducting private business."

All three women laughed at her jibe and Jenny invited her aunt and the doctor into the apartment.

After the two women had removed their coats, Jenny invited them to sit down and make themselves comfortable. Only a few hours ago her persistent but futile search had driven her to utter despair. But now everything seemed so different. If it were true that her aunt had not truly been compromised, then there would be hope for Edmund.

"I can't believe this," Jenny said excitedly to both of them as they sat across from her. "I really can't. It's as if my prayers have been answered. Do you know that I've spent the past week trying to contact both of you? I never thought..."

"You never thought you'd see me," her aunt interrupted, "let alone the both of us, here talking with you now. Am I right?"

"Yes, auntie. I just don't know what to say..."

And with that Jenny broke down and cried unabashedly before the two kindly women.

"Oh, my dear, my dear," her aunt said, taking her niece's shaking hand in hers. "Don't start that or you'll get me to crying as well."

"I can't help it," Jenny replied, the tears cascading down her cheeks. "You have no idea how difficult it has been for Edmund and me with the constant threat of Ariel hanging over our heads—not to mention the problems he's having with the fertility drug."

"What problems?" Dr. Swensen asked with a concerned look. "Is he all right?"

"Yes, for the present. But he had an attack about a month ago—in a restaurant no less. It was awful. You have to do something Dr. Swensen. You have to help him."

"Now there, Jenny. All this crying and fuss won't do," her aunt said hugging her tightly. "Come, let us put a kettle on to boil and discuss this rationally after we've all had something to eat."

In her aunt's eyes Jenny saw the warm and genuine look she had always known to exist within her before it had become corrupted under the influence of the mendacious creature known as Ariel Bishop. Jenny's intuition told her that that ponderous influence had abated somehow and that her aunt was once more free of the terrible hold the evil Bishop woman had once had upon her.

Jenny led Alice into the kitchen where she helped Jenny prepare some tea and assorted pastries for their impromptu tête-à-tête. With Dr. Swensen out of earshot, Jenny felt free to question her aunt as to how and why the two women had come to visit her in New York.

"It's a long story, Jenny," Alice began. "Best left for later after we've had a chance to have something to eat. I'm quite famished."

Seeing that her aunt did not wish to be interrogated on an empty stomach, Jenny let the inquiry wait. She knew Alice would be forthcoming and did not want to appear rude or inhospitable, especially since, for Edmund's sake, she would have to assume the role of supplicant to her and the good doctor.

Once all three women had a chance to eat and enjoy some hot tea, Jenny felt it was time to find out what had brought these two women to her doorstep. "Okay, auntie," she began with a touch of impatience, "I'm waiting."

Alice put down her cup of tea on the table in front of her and leaned back into the sofa sighing heavily. She rested her clear, penetrating eyes upon Jenny and then upon Dr. Swensen, and then back upon her niece.

"I assume that you are aware of this flashing business going on in greater London?"

"My mother has told me a little about it," Jenny replied.

"Very little I would think, knowing my sister."

"What's your point, auntie?"

"The man who assumed Edmund's mantle was simply not up to the task. Ariel routed him out sooner than you could say 'Harry Houdini'. The pretender to the throne was caught by Ariel and her associates only a few months into his flashing spree—good for Ariel and the townspeople but bad for the Flasher and his legacy, especially since it was subsequently discovered that the pretender did not act alone but in concert with several others of his perverse persuasion. I believe between Ariel and the police that they captured six or seven men. Is that what it was, Christiana?"

"It was more like nine the last I heard," Dr. Swensen replied, looking steadfastly at Jenny.

Alice frowned. "Nine. Can you believe that? It took nine men—fools, I should say—to inadequately perform the task so adeptly performed previously by one man: Edmund, the true Finchley Flasher."

"I haven't heard a thing about it," Jenny said.

"And why would you?" Alice retorted. "The media in this damn country is simply a propaganda machine for the ignoramuses who believe such nonsense. Any news of any worth is simply filtered and homogenized for mass consumption. These yanks don't know what the devil is going on in their own backyards, let alone the world! In any case, the Finchley police found that there was a whole nest of these so-called 'flashers' who were part of a greater organization called the 'Flash & Splash' club. I trust I do not have to explain the euphemism."

Jenny shook her head numbly. "There's an organization by that same name operating here in New York. And no. You don't have to explain."

"I didn't think so," Alice resumed. "Speaking as one who has been on the receiving end of the Flasher's sexual pranks, I can say that it was a most unpleasant experience. But to think that we now have an American version of this perversity is just...oh dear!"

Alice reached forward and took her teacup in hand and sipped the beverage slowly. She cleared her throat and continued.

"A most unpleasant experience indeed! Can you image those stupid policemen thinking that they had another Edmund on their hands when it was, in fact, nine men acting together in concert with the singular purpose of accosting and sexually molesting unsuspecting female citizens! Do you think they were smart enough to figure it out? Certainly not! True to form, they believed that they were on a manhunt for one person—as if a masterful chameleon like Edmund Kent is born every day! It was Ariel who soon realized that there had to be more than one person involved. I won't go into any details of how she came upon this discovery but let's just say that it was yours truly who provided her with the information—information gleaned from the same tactical methods that you had provided to her in bringing about the downfall of your boyfriend."

Alice's words triggered a flood of unwelcome emotional associations that Jenny had never been able to fully suppress. And now they sprung up before her like some chimerical Hydra whose reanimating heads, once severed, would continue to morph into new and more grotesque forms, incapable of being defeated. The tremendous feeling of guilt she felt in aiding and abetting a woman who turned out to be her lover's arch nemesis could not be assuaged by simply admitting to herself that she had acted out of some vague moral concern for her afflicted townspeople. Although at the time the Flasher was an unknown quantity to her, she had nonetheless wanted to make him pay for his transgressions. She had wanted to make him suffer—and suffer he did.

"Ironic, isn't it?" Dr. Swensen said, carefully studying Jenny's pensive expression. "The very logic you employed to bring Edmund down became the tool of your enemy. And armed with that knowledge Ariel has ruthlessly oppressed and tyrannized these sociopaths. Men, like Edmund, who are not intrinsically evil, but who are—or were, as in his case—psychologically impaired."

Jenny looked the doctor straight in the eyes, her voice faltering. "Are you telling me that Ariel had these men under her control?"

"Oh, it went far beyond that!" Alice said emphatically as she leaned forward in Jenny's direction. "She had the poor bastards done up just like Edmund—and far worse. The police were paid to look the other way believing that since she was so adept at getting rid of one flasher, she would do the same with those other men. The poor creatures paid dearly, I know. I was there and I saw what happened. I didn't stay around long but what I saw made me sick."

Jenny's face immediately turned dark. "Oh, no. Please don't tell me this. You didn't have a hand in..."

"No, my dear," Alice interrupted her. "I took no part in their punishment. I assure you."

"Your aunt objected to the whole thing from the beginning," Dr. Swensen said to Jenny. "That's when she broke off with Ariel. I am no longer friends with her either. It is my belief that that she is no longer completely sane."

"What happened to the men?"

"They were punished and then released into police custody," Alice replied. "Neither Christiana nor I know anything more than what we've read in the papers. And for the moment, at least, London is bereft of flashers."

Jenny looked at both women and felt a great wave of anger rising within her. "I can't believe the two of you just walked out of there and left them at the mercy of Ariel and her bloodhounds! Why didn't you help those men? I'm ashamed of you, auntie! And you, Dr. Swensen! You of all people should understand that those guys were just perverts, not rapists or murderers. How could you just leave them in the hands of that fanatical bitch?"

"At the time your aunt and I were under Ariel's influence. And you know how strong that influence can be." Christiana gazed fixedly at the younger woman, as if to impress upon her something that she already knew. "All of us wanted to see those men pay for what they did but Ariel took things to an extreme. It was then that your aunt and I had to call it quits."

"But why did you allow it?" Jenny persisted. "You could have done something."

"Like you did when Edmund was punished?" Alice reminded her. "You enjoyed watching him being abused, as we all did. The only difference in this case is that Ariel went too far. As Christiana has said, the woman is not sane."

"All the more reason why you should have stopped her!" Jenny exclaimed.

For a few moments the three women sat together in silence, as if in their quietude they might find some supernal redemption for the wicked deeds they had previously performed. It was clear that each woman had a guilt-stained conscience. The question was, what edification might result from this realization, if any, and what role would Alice and Dr. Swensen play in helping Edmund conquer his affliction?

"We have all done things we are not proud of," Dr. Swensen said at last. "I have used men as guinea pigs in an experiment that some doctors would call a modern day chamber of horrors. Yet I thought my actions were justified because my ultimate aim was to help people. I learned the hard way that the end does not always justify the means."

"I'm glad you learned your lesson doctor because the man I love has been paying the price of your folly ever since," Jenny said hotly.

Alice shrugged. "Now let us not get too upset over all this. We are all guilty of something or other I'm sure. And recriminations are pointless. The important thing now is that Jenny be brought up to speed as to what is really going on in the world."

"Is this going to be some earth-shattering revelation, auntie?" Jenny said with a hint of scorn in her voice. "Because I'm really not in the mood to hear anything more about Ariel. What I want to know is how to make Edmund well again."

Alice looked at Dr. Swensen and politely threw up her hands. "Tell her the truth, Christiana. Tell her everything."

Jenny looked at the doctor, whose face had suddenly acquired a slight pallor, and waited.

The good doctor took a sip of her tea and let the cup rest in the palm of her hand, seeking its comforting warmth. She looked at Alice before speaking, as if seeking permission to begin her tale. Jenny could see that this was going to be difficult for the beautiful woman, her placid expression belying the reticence obvious in her downcast eyes.

"Edmund was injected with a variant form of EJAX-472," Dr. Swensen began. "That particular batch was stolen from my lab and was never intended for use on human subjects. That's why he has been experiencing repeat episodes of intense ejaculations. I personally destroyed the adulterated supply of the drug but somehow Ariel got her hands on some of it when my lab was broken into and some of the drug found itself on the black market."

"I just want to know if you can help him, that's all," Jenny pleaded. "Can you prevent these repeat episodes from happening ever again?"

"Yes. But he will need to be treated in order to do so."

"What kind of treatment will he require?"

"He will have to be—excuse the colloquialism—'milked' repeatedly for hours in order to get his hormones in balance once again. It's not a very complex process and the treatment can be done here in one of the city's clinics. But I must be there to supervise the treatment."

"When you say 'milked,' what exactly do you mean?"

"We use the phrase often in my clinic. It's sort of an inside joke. But, in reality, Edmund will have to be masturbated for hours, possibly even days, on a consistent basis until the last of the replicate EJAX genes have been expunged from his system."

"Think of it as a super, duper handjob," Alice remarked snidely.

"It's not funny, auntie".