The Novelist Portent
Johnny E. Mahaffey
November 10, 2018

Reply ID: 44bv

Dear RansomingTheCaptive:

Yeah, I just wish that it meant the same thing to more people.

But it's okay because I'm not giving up. I may be a hopeless romantic, but I truly believe in love. And no amount of bad luck or dire circumstances, or belittlement by exes (or anyone), is going to deter what my heart knows to be true.

Thank you, and all that you do with BTB. It has improved my life greatly, and has been my sole source of rehabilitation and therapy. Writing has been my cure and secret to healing. One day, I know without a doubt that all of my hard work will pay off, and none of my suffering will have been in vain. I have faith in that.

Things didn't quite turn out as I'd hoped, or has been promised, with Jaime. But that's okay. I don't regret that I tried. As usual, I screwed up. But honestly, I gave it my all and I still love her with all of my heart.

As for my Harley allusion, it was in July 2006, a few days after we'd have been victims of a home invasion, that I bought my wife one of those small aluminum bats. It was pink, HOT PINK! Her very own Harley Mahaffey bat, I mused. I was always a Harley Quinn fan as a little boy (very early '90s Batman cartoon with its animated Harley in the tight form-fitting suit). At the time, my wife fit the profile. So when I saw the bat, it had to be hers.

Unfortunately, as years passed, she became the Harley of a different name to someone else's Joker instead of mine. I am... Harley-less. Though I'll never forget the look on my wife's face in 2006 when I gave her little pink Harley Mahaffey.

"What the hell am I supposed to do with this?" She asked, reluctant to take it at first.

I told her to keep it with her in the Honda I'd given her. The next person who tried to put their meth-infused hands on her, knock 'em over the head! Since the cops back then wouldn't help us. Apparently, Harley Mahaffey stayed with Jaime for over a decade. That means a lot to me. Although it ended up in the hands of a pedophile, child molesting junkie who chased Jaime around the house with it until the cops came and took it as evidence.

I've already put some wheels in motion to get her a new Harley Mahaffey—just as pink and menacing. Hopefully, there won't be a next time. But if there is, maybe she'll get her hands on little Harley first. In... self-defense, of course.

[Magazine clipping of live action Suicide Squad Harley Quinn that cuts off at her eyes. Written by author: "Mahaffey's little monster".]