Jenny Kitchen is one of my favorite characters. She’s old and cranky, but always loyal to her grandson, Al Kitchen, who she raised. It doesn’t matter that he killed a man and was sent to prison for it. Jenny is an important character in my novel, The Sacred Dog. She still is in the sequel, The Unforgiving Town, even though she’s been dead two years.
Let me back up a bit about The Unforgiving Town, set for an April 7 release. A week after Al is released from prison, his dead body is found on a back country road. He served a lengthy sentence for manslaughter for killing a well-liked man in a botched robbery. The book shows what happened in the week leading up to his death and then afterward as the town’s honest police chief tries to find out who in this small town is responsible.
During the week he is back, Al can’t help reflecting on his grandmother, who stood by him during the 17 years he was locked up. Jenny got him a good lawyer so he was convicted of manslaughter and not murder. She visited him every week. She encouraged him to stay out of trouble and find a job in prison so he could get out earlier. As Al recalls, his grandmother was the only one who cared — although he does find an ally in his cousin Bernie Tucker, who helped Jenny, including giving her rides to visit Al when the old woman could no longer drive.
Al is grateful for his grandmother, especially since his parents died when he was young. His grandfather, on the other hand, was a piece of work.
Jenny wanted to be there when Al got out. But she made preparations if that wasn’t the case. She left a letter, entitled, When I Die, which reveals a whole lot about her personality. It also inspires Al to write his own although at the time it seems premature.
Here’s Jenny Kitchen’s letter.
This is me, Jenny Kitchen. If you are reading what I wrote then I am dead and gone to heaven if there is one. I deserve it for what I put up with in this life. I’m not planning to go to any hospital if I get real sick so you will probably find my cold dead body in my house. Sorry to do that to you. But this is what I want after that happens.
I am hoping my Al will be home before I kick but I wrote this in case he isn’t. I already asked Bernie Tucker to go to the prison and tell him the news herself. I don’t care who else knows. I don’t have any friends any more in this stupid town. Don’t bother putting an obit in the local newspaper. My death is nobody’s business.
I already told the man at Bendix Funeral Home I wasn’t wasting any money on a coffin. Just burn up my body in the clothes I’m wearing and stuff the ashes in the urn I picked out already. Everything is already paid for. See the paper in this envelope showing that just in case.
I don’t want no funeral. No way. No one would come anyways, except for Bernie. They won’t let Al out for that. Just bury my ashes in a hole at the family plot in the town cemetery next to my son and not that son of a bitch husband of mine. No flowers are needed. I would like Bernie to be there so it’s done right. Don’t call a minister or anybody like that to pray for me. I only went to church for funerals. Bernie can use the shovel in the barn to dig the hole for my urn. She’s strong enough.
I leave everything to my grandson Al Kitchen. See the will I wrote that’s also in the envelope. That includes the house and everything in it, the land, and money in the bank. I already went to a lawyer to put his name on the deed and my bank account so now it is all his. I didn’t spend a lot on purpose because I wanted to leave him something. Al was the best thing in my life. I love you, boy.
Bernie Tucker has been good family to me. It hasn’t been easy for her. So I want her to live in my house if Al is still locked up. She can have my room. After that Al and her can figure it out. She doesn’t pay rent. She just has to cover the house’s bills.
Make sure to take care of my cats.
Give my clothes away to somewhere people can use them.
Take care of my cats. I will write that again.
To Al: No one is going to like you when you get out. They’ll never give you a break. This is the unforgiving town. When that happens stay clear of everybody. You don’t want to go back inside. Find somebody to love who loves you.
One more thing to Al: You got a daughter but she doesn’t know it. She’s a pretty nice girl when I see her. Now she’s grown up. What are you going to do about it?
That’s all I want to write.
Good-bye forever.
Jenny Kitchen
Here’s the link for The Unforgiving Town, which is only 99 cents on Amazon. Why such a cheap price? I want as many readers as possible to read this book, which I so enjoyed writing. (The price will rise sometime in the future.) Thank you for those who have pre-ordered. Yes, there will be a paperback for those who prefer a book in hand.
This book is a sequel but you don’t need to read the prequel to understand what’s going on. Anyway, here’s the link to The Sacred Dog.