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A Life Worth Living - Unfinished

By Ashleigh HolmesPublished 3 years ago 26 min read
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Photo by Laurenz Kleinheider on Unsplash

Flicking a blonde curl out of her eyes, Joelynne Stevens glanced at her computer as she waited for an important email to come through. Seeing it hadn’t come yet she pushed her chair away and stood up and stretched her long arms above her head to relieve her aching muscles. As she put her hands back down beside her white knit jumper and slim fitting denim jeans that she had chosen to wear that day, she sighed and yawned as she spoke,

“Why me and why today, I was told to cancel all plans I had to do something extremely important. Yeah sitting around waiting for an email is really, really important” she said sarcastically as she glanced around her office as if magically wishing she was somewhere more exciting. Her mind started to wander as she thought of the places she could have been at, Hawaii, Jamaica, and Fiji or on a luxury cruise boat that costs the earth just to travel aboard. Oh that would be the life she thought to herself, I wonder if I would be allowed to take a break and go on a cruise she wondered to herself, just then the phone rang,

“Hello” she asked speaking softly as if she was whispering top secret instructions

“Yeah hey Jo, umm sorry bout the wait, you know had plans and stuff….” a male voice slurred into the phone,

“Jerry, let me guess, you were out with your girlfriend all night and you both got abducted by aliens?” Joelynne laughed jokingly

“Nearly, we had dinner plans with her parents, sort of ran over time, and I wasn’t near a computer to send you the details” Jerry replied sounding as if he hadn’t slept or was drunk or both.

“What details?” Joelynne asked curiously

“About the next job, it’s all lined up, I will send you the details now ok?” she heard him say as she heard the click of a keyboard in the background.

“Yeah sure ok, is it a big job or what?” she asked

“Read the email, it’ll tell you ok bye” came the reply then silence as if Jerry had hurriedly slammed down the phone.

“Ok” Joelynne replied to a silent phone than pressing end.

“Wow a job, yippee” she said sarcastically to her laptop as it sat there right on her white wood desk, and sat down on her comfortable, black leather computer chair.

“Now all I got to do is sit and wait for this very important email, then go see Jerry” she said to herself wondering what the job would entail.

At just nineteen years of age, Joelynne Stevens had a very exciting life, and was doing things that most teenagers her age could only dream of. You see, Joelynne or Jo as she preferred to be called, had a job working with the most professional but secret government agency in the country. Jerry, her boss and co-ordinator had hired her when she was just sixteen and had been in so much trouble at her local high school that every police officer at the nearby police station knew her and her gang and would always try to step in where possible. Thinking that Joelynne could use some help getting herself on the straight and narrow, Jerry hired her to do odd jobs such as filing, and making coffee and tea, that kind of thing for the station. Jerry at that time was the station manager and local awareness speaker for all the high schools in the area. Joelynne’s job in all of this was to hold his stuff while he went on stage to speak or other minor jobs around his office.

At first Joelynne, declined the job offer by saying,

“I would rather die or go to jail then work for you” then spat in his face, before running away with friends. After that incident, Jerry was a frequent door knocker at Jo’s house and her mum would often send her down to the police station so that she could apologise in person.

In the end, Joelynne was given a choice, that she could either stay at school or work for Jerry, thinking it over for a couple of days and having heard stern words from her mother she chose to work, due to the fact that she disliked school and was always getting detentions. So that was that, Joelynne became Jerry’s gopher as he jokingly called her.

From her first day onwards she was given small insignificant jobs such as sweeping or emptying waste bins, for this she disliked Jerry even more then before, as she wanted more exciting stuff to do. Jerry, who was happy that his plan was working, decided to give Jo some more jobs to do on top of what she was previously doing.

So for the next six months, as well as the sweeping and emptying bins, she was also in charge of making tea and coffee for the entire station and the filing, which contained all the confidential information. By this time, Jo had caught on that the more she did, the more responsibilities she was given and eventually Jerry learned to trust Jo with anything.

From then on, Joelynne sometimes sat in on interrogations, and interviews as well as handling the receptionist desk and answering phones. Until one day, when her and Jerry drove down to the local bakery, Jerry had cleared his throat and said,

“Jo you are such a big help to me, but I have decided to leave the police service and start up a new business”

“So what does that mean for me, do I go back to being a regular teenager?” Jo had replied softly looking down at her hands,

“Goodness no, I want you to work with me, at the new business that is, I want you to be my assistant” Jerry had smiled looking at the face that he had gotten to know and trust,

“But it’s entirely up to you ok?” he continued then stopped as if waiting for her to say something,

Taking a deep breath, Joelynne smiled as she asked,

“What kind of business are you talking about?”

“That I cannot say at this point in time, its extremely top secret and confidential, but I hope I will have you in on it, so will you?”

“Ok, I will because I feel that I can trust you, and it’s not like I will be killing anyone right” she laughed at the possibility

“Great” Jerry had said

After that very conversation occurred, she and Jerry left for the big wide city and this new adventure. Once they had arrived at their top secret location, Joelynne was surprised to find a black helicopter, waiting for them with a guy standing by all dressed in black including sunglasses.

“Where are we going Jerry?” she asked with a confused look in her eyes.

“This is going to be your new life Jo, I will tell you on the way ok?” he replied solemnly not even looking at her.

“Ok” was all Joelynne replied, as she was too nervous about what was about to happen.

A couple minutes later, as they were flying over a skyscraper, she noticed that they were hovering near the top,

“Jo take this” she heard Jerry say to her through her head phones handing her a rifle,

“What do I do with it?” she asked scared out of her mind

“See that guy?” he said as he pointed to a guy sunbaking in a blue Hawaiian shirt on the very top of the building,

“Yes why?” she asked her hands shaking

“I want you to shoot him, right now” he said calmly as if he was just asking her to make him a cup of tea.

“Why?” Joelynne said trembling

“This is your job, if you don’t, I will have to kill you” he said looking her straight in the eyes, which meant that he meant business.

“Ok, I don’t know how to shoot a gun” she replied looking at what seemed to be a massive rifle in her trembling hands.

Jerry leaned over and showed Jo how to hold the gun and pointed it towards the guy,

“Now just pull the trigger, Jo just do it, its so easy, then we can go ok?” he said as he pushed her finger to the trigger,

“I can’t” as she moved her finger, it brushed against it and all of a sudden there was a huge bang that seemed to deafen Joelynne’s ears.

That was almost a year ago, Joelynne thought as she was quickly snapped back in to reality,

“Come on where is this email” she groaned as she thumped the desk so hard, that the computer screen shuddered. Just then her screen came alive, alerting her of a new message, opening it up she noticed that it was the one from Jerry that she had been waiting for, which she printed out to take with her.

Picking up her phone, she dialled Jerry’s mobile number, but instead of hearing his voice, she got his voicemail message bank instead. She knew better then to leave a confidential message on voice mails so she abruptly ended the call and sat back down in her comfortable computer chair and placed the recently printed email in her hands.

Quickly scanning the document, she picked out the important parts of it, which turned out to be the whole lot. The email read,

From: Jerry Hopper

To: Joelynne Stevens

Subject: Confidential Assessment Results

Hey Jo,

Sorry bout late email, here are the details. Meet at 10am @ Holsbrook for briefing, load Bag with necessary tools, you know the ones I am talking bout. Cya at 10.

Jerry

“That’s it, he said there would be more info than that in there” Jo fumed as she stood up waving the document in the air,

“Oh well better get going” she remarked looking at her watch its nine thirty,

“Don’t want to be late” she continued as she rose from her chair, and reached under her desk for her bag.

“Oh where is it, I thought, actually I know I put it under here?” she replied when all she could feel was space. Kneeling down to take a closer look, she looked everywhere,

“Where is my bag?” she thought to herself,

“Where else could it be?” she said to no one in particular. Standing back up she looked around the little room in which she resided and noticed a bulge under her blanket on her bed,

“Ah hah now I remember, silly me” she laughed as she walked over to her bed and pulled the blanket off her bag. She picked it up, not bothering to remake her bed and walked quickly to her desk, making sure that there was still enough charge left on her laptop to document the latest job, before turning it off and popping it, as well as about ten floppy disks, so she save her work to it, so she had copies, in case it happened to fall into the wrong hands.

Last but not least she walked to her set of draws beside her bed and opened the very bottom draw with a small key she kept with her at all times, no matter where she was or what she was doing, and underneath a pile of clothes she dug until she found what she was looking for, her favourite little pistol, that Jerry had given her for recent nineteenth birthday.

After she closed the draw, and locked it again, she glanced around to see if there was anything she forgot,

“Let’s see laptop, email, disks, gun, oh yeah my phones” she said as she walked back to her desk to retrieve her everyday mobile phone, and the little secret one that hides in a special compartment in her shoe.

“I think that’s it” she replied taking one more look around, before heading for the door. After securing her door, by locking it, she headed towards the elevator. As her room was on the fifth floor of a five story building, taking the elevator was more sensible then walking down the flights of stairs and being absolutely exhausted once you got to the bottom, not to mention sweaty.

As she pressed the button for the lift, she swung her bag so it went diagonally across her and waited for it to arrive. When the doors opened, she noticed that it was empty and breathed a sigh of relief,

“I hate talking to unknown people, they want to know everything about everybody” she said as the doors closed behind her.

It wasn’t that Joelynne didn’t like talking to people; it was just that they asked where she was off to or what she did and it made her feel uncomfortable. As the elevator zoomed down, she wondered what the time was, as there was still a floor or two to go she quickly opened her bag and swooped her phone out and closed it just as quickly just in case.

“Ten to ten, oh ok I hope no one wants to talk I really must hurry to get there in time” she said glad that she had decided to wear her comfortable sneakers that allowed fast walking possible.

As the elevator stopped with a bump, which meant it had reached the ground floor, Joelynne pushed the doors open and hurriedly made her way out side, trying to walk quickly as the time was ticking away getting closer to ten o’clock. She was glad that Holsbrook Hotel was only six blocks away but, the crowds of people hogging the pathway made it difficult to move very quickly, so she moved to the gutter and made her way, as well as dodging cars and garbage bins and was surprised to find her self in front of the hotel with three minutes to spare,

“Phew I made it, wonder where I am supposed to wait for Jerry, outside or inside?” she thought to herself as she glanced around to see if she could see Jerry anywhere.

“Hey Jo, over here” she heard a familiar voice say, turning around she saw Jerry standing in front of the hotel, motioning for her to follow him. Joelynne made her way to his outstretched hand that guided her through the mass of people and pulled her behind him as he opened the door. Following behind him wasn’t as easy as she thought as the hotel was quite crowded and people were barging in every direction around her. She kept her hand in Jerry’s and kept her eyes focused ahead of where they seemed to be heading, which looked like the stair case behind the bar.

Reaching the stairs, Joelynne felt like she had just run a marathon as she was out of breath from all the pushing and shoving that had earlier been around her. As they got closer to the top, Joelynne wondered to herself,

“Wonder where we are going; hope it’s not too much further, because I seriously need a drink” as she panted and let in huge breaths of air, when she could.

All of a sudden, they stopped climbing and were walking on a wooden floor that creaked with every footstep. Coming to walk beside Jerry, Joelynne leant over and whispered in his ear,

“Where are we going?”

He shook his head, as if he refused to answer and pointed towards an emerging wooden door with the word ‘Private’ engraved into it. Jerry leaned forward and grasped the tarnished, golden door knob and pushed it open.

Joelynne could hear voices coming from inside as she followed Jerry into what seemed to be a dark room with only a few specks of light. Trying to blink so that her eyes could adjust to the darkness, Joelynne could just faintly make out the figures of two men sitting at a table,

“Good morning gentleman, glad we could meet today?” started Jerry

“This is my partner Joelynne Stevens” he continued as he motioned for Jo to have a seat beside him.

“Cut to the chase, Mr Hopper, me and my associate haven’t got all day” boomed one of the men sitting across from them, and gestured to the other guy beside him as he mentioned him.

“Yes certainly Mr Brown, Mr Jones” replied Jerry nodding at each one as he spoke,

“We are very interested in the offer you spoke of just the other day” he continued in the same calm voice he was well known for,

“I see, so what happens now?” boomed Mr Brown again, nearly making Joelynne jump out of her seat.

“Well” he said pulling out an old piece of paper out of his jacket pocket,

“Please write his name on this list, and we will see what we can do ok?” Jerry replied pushing the list with his fingers across the table into Mr Brown’s waiting hand.

Picking up a pen, Mr Brown leaned over and proceeded to write the first and last name on the list, every stroke sounded very loud to Joelynne that it felt like the whole world could hear it.

“There done, let me know when it’s taken care of ok?” he replied pushing the paper back to Jerry, and rising from his chair, making it scrape on the wooden floor as it went,

“Nice meeting you and hope to hear from you soon” he said shaking Jerry’s hand,

“You too Ms Stevens” he continued as he shook Joelynne’s hand as well before walking towards the door. Mr Jones leant and opened it; as he and Mr Brown walked through, their footsteps sounding like the beat of the drum fainting away until you could no longer hear them.

“Jerry, what the hell was that?” Jo demanded as she turned around to face her partner,

“That Jo, is your next job” he smiled as he continued,

“Let’s go down stairs and get a drink ok?”

“Whatever I just want to get out of here” Joelynne replied as she felt a cold shiver run down her spine.

Walking back down the stairs wasn’t as frightening as walking up them earlier, due to the fact that she knew she would be soon getting out of this creepy hotel. Surprised she looked around the hotel as she descended and was amazed to see that it was almost empty.

“Where did everyone go?” she whispered to Jerry without turning around,

“Maybe it was the end of happy hour” he laughed jokingly. When they reached the bottom Jerry pushed ahead and went to the bar to order,

“What you want?” he said to Joelynne as he turned his head to face her,

“Vodka and Orange if you don’t mind?” she answered back

“Ok sure thing” he replied turning his head to face the bartender,

“She will have vodka and orange and I will have a beer” he replied pulling out his wallet and counting out his stack of five dollar notes,

“That will be fifteen seventy five thanks mate” said the bartender as he rang up the order on the cash register. Handing over twenty dollars, and grabbing the drinks from the bar, Jerry winked at the bartender as he turned and said,

“Keep the change” and smiled as he gave Jo her drink.

Finding an empty table wasn’t a problem, so as Jerry sat down, Joelynne said,

“What do you mean my next job I thought we are partners?”

“We are Jo, its just there is multiple sides for this one that need to be negotiated and sorted out before the major stuff gets done, if you know what I mean?” he replied raising his eyebrow before taking a long sip of his frothing beer.

Joelynne didn’t but she decided not to push the topic any further just at the moment.

Sipping her vodka and orange, she closed her eyes to capture the tastes, this was her favourite drink of all time, and it tasted the best of all.

“Mmm, this is going down so good” she laughed

“Yeah I agree” Jerry replied,

“So Jerry, what are we doing for the rest of the day?” asked Jo not actually sure if she wanted to know,

“Umm let’s see, do you have your list?” he asked pulling his out of his pocket,

“Yeah, I do” Joelynne replied putting her foot on the vacant chair next to her and pulling it out of her sock.

Jerry grabbed the list and laid it on the table, and straightened it out. Pulling a blue pen out of his jacket pocket, he carefully wrote on the paper, covering his hand, so no one else could see it. Folding it back up, he said,

“Put this is in your bag and don’t read it until you get back to your place ok?”

“Ok sure thing” Joelynne replied, just as she picked up her nearly empty glass and moved it towards her lips to drink the last mouthful.

Jerry waited until Joelynne she had finished her drink then stood up from the table,

“We better get going; I will send you an email when I get more research done ok?” he said as he started to leave, his empty beer glass sitting on the table.

“Ok so I will hear from you later ok then?” Jo started to ask; Jerry turned and nodded then continued out the hotel doors. Looking at her phone she noticed that it was nearly lunch time, and decided to head home, instead of buying take away.

She walked slowly, back to her set of units, as her feet were sore from having to hurry earlier that morning to meet Jerry. The streets weren’t as crowded as they had been, and Joelynne was glad, because she didn’t have to walk in the lopsided gutter again.

Feeling the cold air of the air condition as she walked into the reception area of the unit building, Joelynne sighed with relief,

“Thank goodness, if I had to stay out there one minute longer I thought I would’ve melted” she said as she slowly walked over to the elevator which had just opened to let people on.

Leaning against the back of the elevator was a tall guy with blonde hair, but Joelynne didn’t really notice him as she thought of how nice an ice, cold fruit salad would taste, sliding down her sore throat.

“Ah excuse me, you can press the up button now” a voice interrupted her day dream,

“I beg your pardon?” Joelynne said turning around, not sure what he had said,

“The button to go up, you can press it now” he said again as he pointed to the panel of buttons and smiled.

“Oh yeah sorry” she quickly said as she pressed the button and turned back around again, rolling her eyes.

“I’m John” he said, holding out his outstretched hand for her to shake.

“I don’t mean to be rude, but I don’t really feel like talking, sorry” Joelynne replied.

There was silence the rest of the way up, as Joelynne kept looking at the time, wishing he would get out of the elevator already. Stopping at her floor finally, Jo let out a silent sigh of relief, as she escaped through the opened doors and down the hallway to her door. Fumbling for her keys, Joelynne looked back behind her towards the elevators and noticed that the guy, who must have been looking at her, quickly snap his head back around and walk off.

“People around here are so weird” she replied turning her attention back to her door, trying to find the correct key before she met someone else she didn’t want to talk to.

As she stepped into her room, she noticed that it was extremely hot and muggy, before noticing that she hadn’t opened the window up to let her room air.

“God this place stinks” she said as she clamped her fingers over her nose as she raced as fast as she could to open her windows.

“I really need a drink” she replied as she flopped down on her still unmade bed, rolling over for her drink bottle from her bag that she had hastily through on the floor, when she had gone to open the windows.

Taking a sip, Joelynne didn’t care that it was hot or that there wasn’t much left, it was something to stop her from dehydrating.

“So let’s see, what to do” she asked herself, just then her mobile rang, she leant over to pick it up before it rang for a second time,

“Hello, Jo speaking”

“Hey, Jo umm it’s Jerry” the caller said,

“Hey Jerry, is something wrong?” Jo asked as they had only just talked about half and hour ago.

“Yeah something has come up, got a special thing for you only, I will send ya email ok. Bye” he replied followed by a loud click of the phone being put down.

“Ok that was weird” she said as she turned her phone off,

“Wonder what that was all about, oh well it will be in the email” she said to no one in particular as she got up and walked over to her desk, and pulled her laptop out of its carry bag.

Almost as soon as she turned it on there was a flashing envelope, saying she had a message,

“Boy that was quick” she replied surprised

From: Jerry Hopper

To: Joelynne Stevens

Subject: Confidential Assessment Results

Jo,

This is important I sent a voice message on ya mobile explaining what I want u to do. It’s crucial you start today to finish on time.

Jerry Hopper

As soon as she finished reading it she grabbed her mobile and held it to her ear,

“Hey Jo, it’s me. Look on your list for number fifty-one, and go to our personal site, the one that you and I use and type in search engine “Assignment Fifty-One” it will tell ya want to do ok. Be careful darl. Don’t trust anyone.”

Taking her list out of her laptop bag, she scanned down the list,

“Forty-nine, fifty ah there it is fifty-one, a Mr J.L Manly” she read, saying the client’s name.

Turning back to her computer, she typed in Assignment Fifty-One and curiously wondered what her latest job would be.

Up came a security site, asking her for her top secret, username and password, so that they knew that not just anyone could get the information.

Scanning the results she pressed the print button and the copy was out within seconds, and she quickly shut her laptop off.

Assignment Fifty-One

Mr John Lionel Manly

Big City Banker

Blonde Hair

Approx 188cm.

Slim build

Lives on 49-52 South Street

Millionaire but careful

Likes: blonde women, flashy cars, expensive restaurants

Fave Places: Golden Tusk Café, Ton Lin Cha Chinese Restaurant and the Blue Opal Night Club/Bar

Job:

Make this guy fall for you; he has made many enemies, not many friends, and act like the perfect girlfriend.

Phone 0427 343 812 Speak to Jaime, she is setting up dates for him through a dating agency, pretend your looking for a date, she doesn’t know who you are just play it casual ok.

Wear something sexy and flattering; make him think of nothing but you.

Thanks Jo

Jerry

“Ok this is going o be tough” Joelynne thought to herself. But instead of worrying, she pulled out her mobile from her jean pocket and dialled as she spoke each number,

“0, 4, 2, 7, 3, 4, 3, 8, 1, 2” and held it to her ear as it rang.

“Hello Frangipani Dating Agency, this is Jaimie” came a chirpy upbeat voice after the first ring.

“Oh hello, Jaimie is it?” answered Joelynne coyly into the phone.

“Yes it is, how may I help you?” came the reply.

“Hi, my name is Julie and I want to register for a date” Joelynne answered in a perky voice.

“Ok, first off you can either come into the office and register or you can do it now over the phone, which would you prefer?” continued Jaimie without taking a breath.

“Which would be the quickest, I am so desperate to meet a handsome guy” replied Joelynne giggling to herself.

“Ok, well in that case, over the phone will be best. I am going to ask you some quick questions to find what kind of person you’re after ok?” said Jaimie.

“Of course, ask away” replied Joelynne.

“Ok, your obviously female, so a male in what age range are you after” asked Jaimie firstly.

“Well I am 19, so I will say between twenty and thirty” came the reply.

“Ok, so are you after just a date, a relationship, a future husband or just something casual?” came the next question.

“Umm, I would have to say a relationship” replied Joelynne, as she glanced at John Manly’s profile in her hand.

“Ok. Well they were the two main questions. It actually might be better for you to come in and see one of our consultants, that way we can add your profile and also a picture,” said Jaimie casually.

“Ok, sounds great, umm do I make an appointment now or just come in?”

“By appointment, lets see . . . . . . . . we have an opening at four fifteen this afternoon, and that is it until tomorrow lunchtime” replied Jaimie casually flicking through the desk date book.

“Ok, I will take the four fifteen slot, see you then. Ah wait, what is the address, silly me, nearly forgot” Joelynne replied with a little giggle.

“Do you know Jones Street North?” Jaimie asked.

“Yeah, its near the fire department administration office right?” came the reply.

“That’s right, we are three doors down on the left” answered Jaimie.

“Ok, I will see you then , bye” responded Joelynne hanging up the now silent phone, before saying to herself,

“Phew, that was one weird woman; I hope I didn’t sound that cheerful.”

Looking at the time on her mobile phone, Joelynne noticed it was only eleven fifteen in the morning,

“Man, it feels a lot later than that, oh well, I may as well make myself some lunch” she said to no one in particular as she realised her stomach was grumbling. Walking over to her small but compact kitchen, she opened the fridge and pull out the rest of the fruit salad she had left over from breakfast, and grabbed an apple and raisin muffin from the bread basket.

“Ok, time to silence you Mr Grumbles” she laughed at her stomach.

As she sat down at the table, her phone started ringing.

“Oh, what now, I was just about to eat she said to herself, before answering.

“Hello”

“Hey Jo, its me, are you busy?” Jerry’s calm voice answered, rolling her eyes, Joelynne replied,

“No of course not, what up?”

“We have just been informed that no. fifty-one is set to leave the country in one week, and it’s up to us to stop that from happening. Have you phoned the dating agency yet?” he asked.

“Yeah, actually just have, I got an appointment at four fifteen this afternoon, why?” Joelynne answered.

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About the Creator

Ashleigh Holmes

Married mother of an adorable little girl who keeps me on my toes. I love art, craft, photography and food. I love to write about parenting and the trials I have struggled with, and also photography as an outlet for lifelong anxiety.

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