It seemed that from the day they were born, Angela and Jessica were always doing something for someone, whether helping their grandma or one of her friends with grocery shopping, or being big sisters to orphans in one of the local foster homes, or training puppies to be Guide Dogs, or running their own little Sunday school for children whose parents didn't attend one of the three churches in town. Even their schoolteachers would often ask one of the girls to teach a lesson to their class if the children seemed to be having a lot of difficulty. Everyone agreed that Angela and Jessica were the best thing that ever happened to Cactus Creek Junction.
And then there were Jake and Roy. They had moved into a trailer at the edge of town with their Uncle Zeke, himself in and out of trouble with the law, when their parents both got sent to prison for trying to blow up a dam in Colorado. Jake and Roy were bullies, who enjoyed getting expelled from school. With little more than an eighth-grade education, mainly in the school of hard knocks, they were rarely employed and many in the community assumed that whatever the boys had rightly belonged to someone else. By the time he was 19, Jake had an SUV that had probably been stolen from another state, but was in such bad condition that its owner didn't bother to report it.
And so it was one cool summer evening that Angela and Jessica were walking home together from Bible study, each wearing a new dress that she had received as a gift of thanks from the pastor's wife, when Jake and Roy, their bellies full of beer shoplifted from a local convenience store, decided to make women out of the girls.
"Hello, girls," said Jake, a jack-o-lantern grin carved across the bottom of his face, his customary dirty jacket flung over one shoulder.
"Hello, Jake, Roy," said Angela, who was polite to everyone.
"What have we here? Two little birds on their way to Bible study. How cute. Maybe you could let us teach you something out of it." Jake threw his jacket on the ground and began to laugh.
"Jake," said Jessica, "don't do something you'll live to regret."
"Oh, we're going to have some fun. Only you're going to regret it that you have your pretty little heads up your pretty little butts so much you won't even look at us."
"Jessica, let's go in here," said Angela, knowing that they could go into just about anyone's house and be safe.
"Ain't nobody home here," said Roy. "It's why we chose this spot. Ha-ha-hee-hee!"
"Shuddup," said Jake. "Now, just come along with us. We're going for a little ride."
"No," said Jessica.
Jake looked at Roy and said, "Did she say no? Nobody says know to me." The girls started to walk, then run away. Roy started to run after them. "No need for that," said Jake. He took out his rope and lassoed the two girls.
The more they resisted, the tighter the rope got. It wasn't that Jake was a cowboy. He was, instead, a cattle rustler, and he knew a place where he could keep stolen cattle that was close to the main highway but behind a small hill that overlooked a little valley where a good number of cattle could be kept without being noticed. He and Roy would enjoy the girls there.
They wrestled the girls into the back of Jake's truck. He whacked Jessica so hard with a tire iron that he broke her right leg. She screamed bloody murder with pain, but she was in the truck and they were headed about fifteen miles into the country.
Jake took Angela first and threw her onto the ground, breaking a couple of bones in her back. Roy, who was not as strong or big, threw Jessica down. He watched his brother throw the girl down and tear off her underwear before raping her, then did likewise with her sister. "Ain't this fun, Bubba?"
"Yeah, I wanna do it again!"
"Let's switch, then we'll go inna town and get some more!"
"Yippee!" The beer they'd stolen from their uncle seemed to be making the two boys more excited than ever about the night.
"Look, I need to recharge a bit. Let's go check out our stuff over yonder then come back. Tie up the girls; they'll be fine...unless a rattlesnake gits 'em. You ever had sex with a girl dyin' of a rattlesnake bite?"
"Nope."
"Me either. I'd sure like to find out what it's like! Don't go away girls. We'll be right back to finish you off-"
"Unless the snake gets you first! Ha-ha-hee-hee!"
A century ago, there had been a mine in this area. Not even the old timers remembered what had been in the mine--or even if there had been anything at all. The mine was not on any maps, and no claim records existed for it. Had the SUV passed a foot or two to the left or right, the mine might well have been forgotten permanently. As it was, though, the left front tired found a weakness in the ground above the shaft, and it gave way. The wheel plunged through, and the truck tipped over into hole. Jake and Roy were not wearing seat belts, and thus got thrown out on their heads.
Jake heard voices. "Other one's over there...no, back at the high--cattle rustlin'--state patrol didn't say...need a chopper...call the coroner...rape...well, I hope they get...officer...no family that I know--arrested?...lookie here...FBI--what do we need...oh, I guess...got the tape...yeah, a crime scene."
Jake wondered if they were talking about Roy. He knew there were cops. Had they found the girls? If so, he was in for it. People around here didn't take too kindly to rapists. Were the girls dead? If so, that would mean he might be in for...the death penalty. Jake tried to move. It might be his only chance of escape.
"Hold it right there, son, you're not going anywhere." Jake passed out, then saw a glowing figure in the dark.
"I am Jessica. You have raped and murdered me. You have raped and murdered my sister. You must pay."
"I never touched you, you little bitch!" shouted Jake in his mind.
"You're right," said Angela. "You raped me and left me for dead. We are both dead now. You must pay the price."
"Yeah, well, Roy and I ain't paid for nothin', and we ain't payin' now. Now go to hell."
"You are so sad, Jake. Roy was much more reasonable. We are going to heaven to be with Jesus." Jake thought about the religious fanatics in the local churches, and started to laugh. "Here is where you are going, Jake--to hell. You will spend eternity wishing things were as good for you as they are right now. It is that bad."
Jake laughed. "You're nuts," was all he said.
"Here's what you face, if you are allowed to live. You are a thief, a rapist, and a cattle rustler. If you don't get the death penalty, you will spend the rest of your life in prison. No parole. Nothing." Jake didn't feel like thinking, and he wished the girls would leave.
"Go away!" he shouted. "Leave me alone."
"We tried to get away from you in town. You roped us like cattle, put us in your truck, broke our bones. We will not leave you now."
"Until you make a decision," said Angela. "You can escape all the punishments for all the crimes you have done. You can be free."
"Really?" said Jake, who thought, I must be having a bad trip.
"Really," said Angela. "Jake, do you repent of all your sins and accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior?"
Jake tried to clear his mind. This religion stuff again? Well, if it would get these visions to go away, he'd go with it. "Yes, sure, I accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior."
"Both have accepted Him. Will He accept them?" asked Angela.
"If they are sincere."
The emergency room at the hospital was too brightly lit for Jake's taste, but that may have been because he was a creature of the dark. He heard more voices: "...conscious...it's okay, we're done..same as the other one...no, much worse, but she's alive...we got an accident on 45...stand by...catheter...IV drip...way late...just barely alive...I need coffee...slap him around, George..."
"Jake," said the voice of Angela. "You are sincere. Congratulations; you're saved."
"Shall we tell him now?" asked the voice of Jessica. "Roy didn't take it very well."
"No, we will wait. Jake has time...all the time in the world."
Jake didn't expect to see his uncle in the hospital room. He also didn't expect to see who had actually come--Angela and Jessica's mom and dad. "Honey, we're so sorry about what happened. I am so angry right now; I know it wasn't your fault. Why do horrible things always happen to the innocent? I'm just sorry those two can't be brought to justice," fumed their father.
"What?" asked Jake, but his voice sounded all wrong.
"Don't try to talk, dear," said the mother. "You've been through a lot. Just rest."
Jake tried to rest, but he welcomed the vision of Angela and Jessica this time. "What's going on?" he asked.
"You and Roy died in the accident. Your heads were smashed in pretty bad. We died also. But God has decided to let you guys live--in our bodies. You will take over our lives, and you will soon start to remember things that we remember. Eventually, you will remember nothing of your own lives. You will dress as we dress. You will remember the time we were raped. You will forget the fun you had, but remember our suffering. And you will be better for it."
"I don't understand--God?" Jake would have been an atheist, only he had never given the matter much thought.
"Rest," said Jessica to the person now in her body.
A day or two later, Jessica was wheeled into Angela's room. Even after the nurses left, Jake hesitated before saying anything. "Roy? Is that you?"
"Yes, well...not anymore...Jake?"
"Yeah, I'm in Jessica's bod. How are you?"
"Okay. It feels strange to be in someone else's body...especially a girl's."
"It just hurts for me." Roy looked under the sheets for his privates, but bandages and tubes covered the area. "Have you looked?"
"Yeah, and I'm a girl." Jessica looked at Roy. "You ever worn a dress?"
"Yeah, but not as me," said Roy. "Angela and Jessica wear them all the time. I think I saw them once going on a nature walk or something. They had on jean skirts or something that time."
"When you were Roy, did you ever want to wear a dress?'
"No!" said Angela's voice so loudly that several orderlies came running. "It's okay," she reassured them. "I...uh, remembered something about the other night that frightened me."
"All right," said a nurse. "You two have had enough for one day. Jessica, you must go back to your room. You should not be talking about the...incident."
"We weren't," protested Jessica. "Something just went in her mind. Sometimes the same thing happens to me. I just go to sleep when it does."
"Jessica, you're going home today," said Dr. Nelson. It was late in the morning when he looked her over. Her parents had come in, but her dad was visiting Angela at the moment.
"What about--" Jessica almost said "Roy," but her mother interrupted.
"Honey, she has a broken back. She'll have to stay till she gets some feeling in her legs."
"Can we see her before we leave?"
"Of course. We've been planning to stop by on the way out. Would you like to get dressed now?"
Jake started at the sound of the word "dress." He'd have to wear one, of course, since he was Jessica now. "Can I get dressed in the bathroom?"
"Yes, of course, honey. But you will need help, what with your broken leg." Jessica realized that this meant she'd not be going out too much for a while.
In the bathroom, Jessica's mom handed her a slip to wear under the dress. The slip dropped almost to her knees when she stood up. "This dress should be easy to put on. It's similar to your green one. You wear it like a coat and tie the belt." Jessica put it on and sat down on the toilet.
Angela was almost asleep when her mom, dad and sister stopped ib her room on the way out. "I can feel my right leg today."
"I wish I couldn't feel mine right now," said Jessica. "God, it hurts!"
Her parents, reacting to this near profane outburst, took it as an occasion to pray, which they all did before leaving. Jake didn't know how to pray. "God, my leg hurts. Please help me as only you can. Amen."
Roy, in Angela's body, said, "Lord, forgive the souls of Jake and Roy, and help us to be better because of this, in Jesus' name. Amen."
The ride home took only a few minutes, and Jessica was soon asleep in her living room chair. Her mother gently kissed her on the top of the head.
"How is she?" asked her father.
"Good, very good," said her mother. An angelic glow radiated from Jessica's face.
Jessica got the cast taken off her leg the same day that Angela came home from the hospital. The seriousness of her injuries meant that she had to stay some time longer, and when she got home, she was still in a wheelchair. "I have most of the feeling in my legs now," she said after everyone had settled in, "but it's very hard to move them."
"Yes, honey," her mom explained. "You haven't been able to use them for a while, so they are very weak." Nevertheless, Angela insisted on doing what she could to help her sister and her mother take care of the house, and soon she was able to walk on her own.
Sunday came, and the girls insisted they were now able to go to church. This would be the first time they put on really nice dresses since coming home, and Jessica, who had grown used to the denim skirts that passed for casual wear, now was looking forward, though a bit anxiously, to wearing a new dress that she had tried on only once. Angela was also a bit anxious about wearing s dress for the first time in public, and wondered if anyone would be suspicious of what had really happened to Jake and Roy, or guess the fact that their spirits now inhabited their victims' bodies.
They need not have worried. The only close call, if it indeed was even that, came when old Mrs. Nelson, whom they had helped with her garden on a number of occasions before the rape, came up and asked if they thought the two boys were burning in hell. "I do not judge anyone, Mrs. Nelson, because I know Jesus is taking care of all that business."
"But surely you must believe--"
"That Jesus is my Savior," said Jessica, emphasizing the word "my." She went on, "What He does to or for or with someone else is between Him and that person."
"Yes, but--"
"Mrs. Nelson," said the pastor, who had heard the conversation. "I'm glad to see you appreciate the Christian attitude of these children. I sometimes fear, though, that they make me irrelevant," he continued, smiling. "Come, let us find you a seat, as the service is about to begin."
"Would you like to sit in your regular seats?" asked one of the ushers. As Angela and Jessica didn't know where their regular seats were, they asked the usher to show them the way.
"They couldn't remember their seats?" sneered one of the gossipy old women sitting near the back of the sanctuary.
"Considering what they went through," said a middle-aged man sitting next to her, "'tis a wonder they remember anything at all."
If only he had known...