A Simple Life: Chapter 222

A moment of tense silence is broken by a smattering of awkward laughter. Jack wasn’t laughing though. The instant I’d uttered the word ‘wife’ his already angry scowl took on an even darker tone. There was violence in my brother’s eyes directed squarely on me. I grip my helmet tightly, ready to wield it defensively if I am forced to. Before Jack can reply I seize the advantage of surprise to at least lay his sins bare in front of everyone while I still could.

“You b-beat your wife.”

“Avie!” He snaps as he rises to his feet.

“You beat your wife! Y-Your p-p-pregnant wife!” I say louder, causing a stir among the onlookers. There were no snickers now. Jabbing two fingers into my chest I continue. “L-Like you used to b-beat me!”

“I didn’t beat nobody.” He says, his low voice carefully controlled to mask the rage, as he weaves through the pool tables on his way to shut me up. “Why are you lying like this Avie?”

“You really th-think I’d be here just t-t-to lie?” I counter. “One look at L-Lauren and they’ll see w-well enough what a p-p-piece of garbage you are!”

A flinch of Jack’s eye tells me that my words had hit home. He knew as well as I that Lauren’s bruises couldn’t be hidden, especially now that it had been called out in front of his cohort.

“Hey boys.” Comes the voice of the guy who manned the front door. “No family shit in here. Take it outside.”

“I got this, TJ.” Jack says ominously as he closes on me.

The closer Jack got the bigger he got. Ten feet tall he stood, then twenty! As a lifetime of smacks, punches, kicks and humiliations come flooding back to me from the past that looming, invincible, terrible figure of my memories becomes real before my eyes. I couldn’t beat him! Winona couldn’t beat him! Nobody could beat him! Nobody but our father, the only man more fearsome than Jack. Unlike that story with the beanstalk in this tale Jack was the giant. My heart is pounding with terror and my feet itching to take flight…but I stand firm in the face of certain doom. Grandpa had taught me that you might not always come out on top but that giving your all is what mattered in the end.

He stops two strides away and narrows his eyes.

“It was you.” He hisses, his voice low enough for only him and I to hear over the music. “It was you all along. I knew it!”

“L-L-Lauren never did anything wrong.” I say. “She d-defended you! It was YOU! You and those s-sick thoughts in your s-s-sick head.”

“L-L-Lauren is fucking WHORE!” I tremble as the shouted last word rattles my nerves. He glances back to our silent audience. “She had it coming! Cheating on me! With my own fucking brother!”

A murmur spreads through the onlookers. Though many grimaced with disgust to my shock and dismay I spot more than a few nods of understanding among them. What kind of people were these who could justify domestic violence? The answer, of course, was that they were the type of people Jack chose to surround himself with.

My faith in humanity is further shook when I hear a voice, a woman’s voice no less, call to him. “Get’im Jacko! Kick his sissy ass.”

“Y-You’re n-n-not g-gonna hurt her anymore!” I shout, my naturally high, soft voice sounding so very feeble as it is swallowed by the cavernous room.

“Oh yeah? Are you gonna stop me, Avie?”

“I am!” I shriek. “You’re n-not g-g-gonna hurt anyone! N-N-Never again!”

“Oh, but I think I am, little brother.” Jack says as he rolls up the sleeves of his flannel shirt. “I was gonna take it easy on ya for Grandpa’s sake. But you just had to come down here, didn’t ya? You’ve only got yourself to blame.”

“F-FUCK YOU!”

“Fuck.” Grumbles the doorman as the chances of a scrap go from probable to inevitable. “If there’s blood you’re cleanin it up, Jack.”

For a moment I watch frozen as my foe slowly folds the sleeves up his thick, hairy arms. He almost seemed to be savoring this moment before the battle to come. Oh how I wished that I were Althea now. Against this giant she would have a clever plan, a spell just for the occasion, or if all else failed a party of loyal friends to back her up. But this wasn’t FoF. I had no magic here, the time for clever plans had long since passed, and my friends, while on their way, were nowhere to be seen. The only chance I had was for one lucky shot. I take one deep breath and cast my mind back to the destruction of the grill. Little did I know then that it would turn out to be practice for the real thing.

Just as Jack finishes rolling the second sleeve I harness my hatred, just as I had done with the grill, and launch myself toward him. Holding the chin guard of my helmet with both hands like one of those hammer throw Olympians I swing it with all I had with the intention of smashing Jack’s thick skull.

“AAAHHH!!!”

Unfortunate for me my battle-tested brother was no inert barbecue. With the exact same ease he’d shown when I took that first swing at him at the grocery store Jack pulls his head back with a half a second to spare. The helmet harmlessly whiffs by his face.

“Whoo! Almost got there, Avie.”

“RRRM!” With wild, desperate swings I try again and again and again.

Whiff! Whiff! Whiff!

Now fully prepared for my attacks Jack ducks and weaves my every swing.

“NO!” I scream. “YOU’RE N-NOT G-GONNA HURT HER!”

Whiff!

To his eyes my fury was that of an enraged lover and the ‘her’ only made sense if it referred to his wife. But that was not the woman I fought for now.

“I HATE YOU JACK! I F-FUCKING HATE YOUUU!!!”

Whiff! Whiff!

Try as I might I could not land a blow. Not even a glancing one. He was toying with me! I was giving all I had and it was nothing to him! How could I defeat this monster if I couldn’t even hit him!? My rage was futile and my adrenaline soaked wrath was already waning as a growing panic sets in. After another whiff I leap back, spin in a full circle, and HURL my helmet right for his ugly face.

Bap! With a cocky grin on his face he catches my hurtling helmet in both hands.

“Is that all you got, Avie?” He asks. “You about done now?” Tossing my helmet to the side he cracks the knuckles of his right hand. “My turn.”

“I hate…you!” I say through hard huffing breaths as Jack the giant closes in on me. My impotent anger seething inside of me turns to tears that roll down my cheeks. “I f-fucking hate you! I w-won’t let you! I won’t l-l-l-let youuu!”

“Nighty-night time little brother.”

“NO!!!”

The next thing I knew I had Amos’ gun gripped in my shaking hands and aimed dead center of my brother’s heartless chest.

Chapter 223