Deafening Silence

By Vandemonium1

I think this is a story of courage and would like to dedicate it to one of my heroes who displayed the same type of courage. He was a funny looking brown guy that was murdered when he was 78 years old. Despite being only 5’ 5” tall, he stood face to face with the largest power on earth at the time, half naked and armed with nothing but his resolve. As he wasn’t carrying a gun, they couldn’t shoot him. As he wasn’t carrying a knife, they couldn’t stab him. He won. In his actions, Gandhi taught the world how those robbed of power can defeat those who robbed it.

It seems that every story I publish I get someone commenting along the lines of, ‘you didn’t develop the character, so I can’t empathise with them.’ Below is my response to that.

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Dave is one of the bravest, strongest characters I have ever met. He is a man of few words and so it falls to me to tell his remarkable story. Let me tell you from the outset, I forgive you in advance if you don’t believe me, but I swear on my grandmother’s grave, it’s true. Okay, so she isn’t dead yet, but you know what I mean. I’ve cobbled the story together from interviews with his wife, friends and other townsfolk. I’m John by the way, a reporter with the Melbourne Times. You’ll notice that I didn’t list Dave himself as a source of information. The reason for that is that I only got him to speak to me once and then all he said was, “My Dad once told me, don’t have anything to do, do nothing. Don’t have anything to say, say nothing. That’s all I did.”

I have enough material and it is a bizarre enough material that I’ve decided to write a book. It will be as much about small town dynamics as about infidelity and the actions of a remarkable man. A man of average intelligence who when faced with the choices that the modern court system would give him, decided to fight back his own way. For fairness, I should point out that this is my interpretation. As I said, Dave doesn’t talk much. My main source was the wife. She talked like a canary, mainly, I think, for my promise of a couple of grand. She needed that to help with her legal bills.  

A little scene setting is in order at this point. At the beginning of this story, Dave and his wife lived in an isolated city of about 25,000 people, with their three children, Sarah (15), Mike (14) and Pete (12). Dave is a mechanic; his wife works for the biggest fish in their small pond. The man is an old fashioned bully, who owns the town’s biggest car dealership. Everyone knows that the town’s long serving mayor is retiring next year and our man is the leading contender to replace him. Leading because all the other declared candidates withdrew their interest, citing ‘personal reasons’. Like I said, he’s an old style bully.

The town has its own newspaper, that until very recently showed absolutely no interest in the story of Dave and his wife. What can I say? The owner of the paper drives a car with a certain dealership’s sticker on the back window. I, on the other hand, work for a major newspaper, based in the state capital. I was bullied at school, so even if this wasn’t a great story, I would have tried to get involved in Dave’s fight against Goliath. Anyway, enough dribbling, on with the story.

Ann screamed into the pillow under her face as the man above her unloaded into her. She was glad of that pillow. It was hard enough faking the scream and the vaginal contractions. Faking the facial expressions as well would have been a task her acting skills just weren’t up to. As she struggled to breathe under Donny’s relaxed weight above her, she thought it hadn’t always been like that. At the beginning of their relationship, the newness and the forbidden excitement of it all had resulted in genuine pleasure. Now the familiarity of it all, the lack of romance and the guilt, robbed her of the sexual relief she craved. Donny was a fair enough lover, with more than adequate equipment, but an hour snatched in a seedy motel just didn’t do it for her. When she’d decided to start her affair, seven months ago, she’d dreamt that big powerful Donny, had a big powerful 10-inch cock. But it was so close to her husband, Dave’s, in size that she couldn’t tell the difference. At first, the novelty of it all had made it differently exciting, but without the long, romantic build up, late 30’s women crave, the sex became mechanical. That would change, she knew. Donny was going places and she intended to be there when he arrived. There for the romantic dinners and the all night love sessions she craved.

She knew she didn’t love Donny, but that was fine because she didn’t love Dave, her husband, either. It was enough for her to know that Donny loved her and she reasoned she would come to love him in time. Only three things impinged on her perfect plans. One was her own guilt. Her strict Christian parents would never approve of her behaviour and what she was doing and intended doing to Dave. She wasn’t looking forwards to that conversation with her husband. Although she didn’t love him, she did respect him as a loyal, hard-working man, trying to do the best for his family. It was just too bad that his best wasn’t good enough for Ann. Although the conversation was still a year away, she already dreaded it.

The second was that Donny refused to divorce his frigid wife until he was actually elected mayor. That condemned her to occasional hurried motel liaisons, rather than all night sessions following a romantic date.

The last impediment to her paradise was Donny’s puerile nagging for anal sex. Every time he brought it up and she was forced to say it was never going to happen, it degraded his love for her in her mind. Her ass was for shitting, always had been and always would be.

Back in the present, as her sexual heat began to fade, her guilt started to build. Donny rolled off her and started to get dressed. As usual, she would take a shower and leave at least an hour after him. That way, no one would see them leave together or arrive back at work together. Donny finished dressing and kissed her goodbye. Before he opened the door, she reminded him,

“Look out the window and make sure there’s no one we know around.”

Donny obediently opened the curtains and glanced out, but suddenly drew back and let the curtain fall back.

“Hey Annie, there’s a guy sitting on the hood of your car. He saw me open the curtain and looked at me.”

“What the hell!”

Ann jumped out of bed and opened the curtain a crack to peer surreptitiously out.

“Fuck! That’s Dave.”

“Your husband?”

“Yes. How the heck did he know I was here? I’m not ready for that conversation yet. Donny, this could wreck our plans.”

“How? What’s he going to do? No divorce lawyer in this town is going to take his case. I’ll word them up this afternoon.”

“But he could go to the media.”

Donny laughed.

“In this town? I don’t think so. They’re too smart to publish anything bad about me. They know I’ll own this town for the next 10 years or until I make a run for state politics. Don’t worry about them. Anyway, this could be good. You’re always saying we never get enough time together. Now he knows, that could change. What’s he going to do about it? I mean, look at the guy. He’s half a foot shorter than me and about half my weight.”

“He could tell your wife.”

“Hmm, you’re right there. I don’t want the bitch tipped off before we’re ready. Tell you what, I’ll go and have a talk to him.”

Donny bent down to kiss Ann again and marched out of the door. Ann cracked the curtains again to see the confrontation. She looked straight into the eyes of her husband. Letting the curtain drop, she felt guilt eating at her. She waited a couple of minutes until she heard Donny’s raised voice, then cracked the curtain again. What she saw was very upsetting. Donny was leaning over Dave, who still sat on her car. Once again their eyes locked through the curtain. Ann fled to the bathroom and showered until the water ran cold. Still she hadn’t managed to wash her guilt away.

Ann was dressed and steeling herself to look out the window again, when Donny rang.

“How quickly did hubby leave after I had words with him?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t looked since you left.”

 With Donny bolstering her courage, Ann looked out the cracked curtain again.

“Shit, he’s still there.”

Donny was confused. His stand over tactics always worked. Like most bullies, he only had the one tactic.

“What did you say to him before?”

“I just told him the facts of life and pointed out the health hazards of standing in our way and the futility of trying to do anything about it.”

“What am I going to do? I can’t leave with him out there.”

“You’ll be fine Annie. It’ll be dark in an hour. Stay where you are and I’ll send a couple of, er, associates around to have a word with him.”

True to his word, an hour later there was a heavy knock on her door. Ann looked out and saw Frank and Rick, two of Donny’s employees, outside the door, holding Dave between them. They were so big that Dave’s feet were off the ground. She opened the door and they shuffled in. Dave had a neutral expression and just stared at Ann. She quickly averted her eyes and made for the door. When she heard a sickening thud behind her and an expulsion of breath, it was pure reflex to look. She saw Rick holding Dave and Frank with his fist cocked again. As she looked, Dave stood up straight again and looked her directly in the eye. Feeling sick, Ann fled.

She picked up some takeout on the way home to feed her family. She fielded questions on where their Dad was, and why he wasn’t answering their phone calls. She slept extremely poorly and there was still no sign of her husband when she left for work the next day. Donny wasn’t in that day either and she couldn’t bring herself to speak to Frank or Rick. With extreme trepidation, she returned home just after her usual time. To an empty house. She rang Sarah and Mike but both cells went straight to message bank. Ann began to fret. It was well after dinner time when she heard a car in the driveway. Looking out the window, she saw her kids getting out of her parent’s car, with both her Mum and Dad. They trooped in. Her mother opened the conversation.

“Annie, why didn’t you tell us Dave was in the hospital?”

“I…I didn’t know.”

Silence settled on the room. Everyone stared at Ann. Finally, her father broke it.

“Maybe you didn’t know, but the fact that you’re not rushing over there or even curious about why he’s there, tells me it’s no surprise to you.”

Faced with this logic and five suddenly accusing stares, Ann could only slump into a chair and avert her eyes. She might as well have screamed, “Guilty.” After another minute’s silence, she fled to her room. She heard her parents making dinner for her children. Her mother tried to get her to come out of the locked room, but Ann couldn’t face that. Eventually, when all was silent downstairs, she ventured out. The hum of her children’s conversation abruptly stopped when she entered the room.

“Have you all eaten dinner?”

Her children just stared silently at her. Finally, Sarah broke it.

“Mum, you know how daddy got hurt don’t you?”

“I had no idea he was in the hospital.”

Silence returned, as everyone, except maybe little Pete, accepted that the lack of a denial was as good as an admission. This time it was broken by Pete’s sobs. Ann hurried over and wrapped her arms around him.

“What’s wrong sweetie?”

“It hurt me to see daddy hurt so much. He’s got broken ribs, a broken nose and two black eyes.”

Ann recoiled in horror at what she’d not prevented. Mike filled the ensuing silence.

“Why did you hurt Daddy, Mum? What did he do to you?”

Ann’s answer was pure reflex.

“He didn’t do anything to me.”

Too slowly, she realised that once again she’d failed to deny being the one that hurt Dave. In her own mind she blamed herself. She shooed the children to bed and basically drank herself unconscious. The next day Donny refused to discuss Dave at work, but offered to discuss it at their usual motel later. Frustrated, Ann agreed. As soon as she got there, he tried to fondle her but she snapped at him until he stopped. He just shrugged his shoulders when she asked him what instructions he’d given his two thugs. When she described Dave’s injuries, Donny showed no interest or empathy at all. She stormed out and arrived back at the office two minutes before him. The tension between them for the rest of the day was obvious to everyone within 100m.

That night she didn’t fret when her children weren’t home before her. Again, her parent’s dropped them off, but as soon as they smelled dinner cooking, they left without a word. All the children gave monosyllabic answers to any question she asked. Whenever she entered the room they were in, conversation ceased.

The next day, things were still frosty at work and very uncomfortable. At her empty home that night, she just sat at the kitchen table and pondered how to break the impasse with her children. She was so deep in thought that she hardly registered her children returning and when no dinner was present, Sarah and Mike preparing a meal around her. She only snapped out of it when Sarah noisily put a plate in front of her. She ate alone in the kitchen while the children ate in front of the TV. She just couldn’t handle those accusing stares. She shuddered to think what Dave was filling their heads with.

After another cold day at work, she returned home to a bustling house. Her mother greeted her at the door.

“Are you going to feed your children today?”

“Of course mother…”

“Good,” her mother interrupted and left the house. Ann turned to see Pete carrying a plate of cheese and biscuits up the stairs.

“Hey, no food upstairs, you know that.”

“Daddy’s hungry,” Pete threw over his shoulder as he kept on up the stairs. That’s how Ann discovered Dave was home. She busied herself making dinner, occasionally glancing at the stairs. It was only 13 steps, but it was a psychological chasm. At any one time, one or two of the children were upstairs. Sarah took Dave’s food up. As they sat at the dining table, Pete innocently asked, “If Daddy didn’t do anything to you, why did you hurt him? Why won’t you talk to him?” Ann had no answer to that. When Sarah started to explain the concept of guilt to Peter, she fled, leaving a half-eaten dinner. Ann walked for several hours. When she returned, all the kids were in bed.

She needed stuff from the master bedroom and bathroom, so she snuck upstairs and peered in the open door. Dave appeared to be asleep, on his side, facing the doorway. The sight of his swollen face, with white strips holding his nose in place, bypassed everything and went straight to her conscience. The sound of his ragged breathing just about killed her. Ann gathered her necessities as quietly as possible and went to put it in the spare room directly across the hall. She returned to the master bedroom with the intent of whispering a request for forgiveness to the man she’d once loved. A man whose current mental and physical pain she could have prevented. As she knelt down next to the bed, she saw his eyes were open and staring at her. She fled again. That night, Ann again couldn’t sleep. Through two walls and a corridor, she felt Dave’s eyes boring into hers. When her relationship with Donny first turned serious, she knew conflict with Dave was inevitable. She’d gone over and over in her head what she would say to Dave. Now that it had turned from an academic exercise to reality, it hit harder than she’d ever imagined.

Ann forced Donny to talk to her the next morning and tried to get him to advance his plans to divorce his wife. He was adamant that until after the election, there would be no divorce and no admitting to an affair. If she wanted to divorce her husband now, it was up to her. He would assist her with time off and money, but essentially, she was on her own. That’s when Ann first suspected that she might just be a fuck buddy for Donny, although she was far from convinced. The heat from the burning bridge behind her, forced her to follow her chosen path.

She took time off to see a lawyer and arranged to have Dave served as soon as the papers were ready. She left the service all in the hands of the lawyer. To expedite the divorce, she kept her demands reasonable. Her having primary custody but with liberal visitation rights for him and the formulated child support and alimony. She also wanted residency of the house until she was ready to move out. That should be just after the election next year.

The next part of the story won’t make sense unless you know the layout of the dealership that Donny owns and Ann works at. The front of the building is a huge showroom. Along the wall at the back are four glass walled offices, end to end, with solid walls between them. On the far right is Donny’s, then Ann’s, then the two belonging to the admin manager and the service manager. As the offices are long and thin, there is only one place to put a desk. At the opposite end to the door, against the end wall. Because Donny’s and Ann’s doors are at opposite ends of their offices, this means their desks are basically together, with a solid wall between them. The service centre is around the back.

Ann never saw Dave walk into the dealership. She was busy tapping away at a keyboard. In, he did walk though; right up to the reception desk. He leaned on it and just stared right into Ann’s window. One of the two receptionists recognised him. He’d coached her softball team in high school. She knew he was Ann’s husband, although he’d never been there before. She tried to engage him in conversation, but he just stared neutrally at the offices. The receptionist couldn’t see if it was Ann or Donny that was the target. While she kept talking, the other girl who shared the front desk went to Ann’s office and told her Dave was there. Ann’s head swung around. From her vantage point, there was no doubt where Dave’s eyes were focussed. They bored into hers, even from a distance of 12 metres.

Ann quickly broke eye contact. Still, she felt his gaze on her. Without looking, she reached for the venetian blind control and twisted it to he-can’t-see-me-now. A minute later she put one finger between two slats and peeked out. Both the girls at reception we whispering to each other conspiratorially. Dave was still staring at her window, with his now familiar neutral expression plain through the bruises and bandages.

With his stare burning through the blinds, Ann picked up the phone and rang Donny. She told him to look out his window.

“Shit. What’s he doing here?”

“I don’t know Donny. Get rid of him…it hurts.”

Donny put the phone down and strode out to the reception desk.

“Mr Brown, this is a private business. I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

Dave didn’t acknowledge Donny in any way, shape or form. He just kept staring.

“Come on, don’t make me call the police.”

Without taking his eyes off Ann’s window, Dave reached into his pocket and handed his phone to Donny. Donny lowered his voice to a level he thought was audible only to the starer.

“Listen shithead. So I fucked your wife, get over it.”

The trouble was, Donny had no idea of the power of his own voice. Both girls at the desk heard his sotto voce comment clearly. In her office, again peeking through a crack in the venetians, Ann saw both heads swing towards her. She then saw Donny stride back to his office.

Two minutes later she heard a commotion at reception. She created another crack and looked out. What she saw horrified her. Frank and Rick had Dave by an arm each and were carrying him towards the outer doors. Dave was travelling backwards and stared at her the entire trip out of sight. Ann thought to herself, serves him right. Why can’t he just let me go. Then she remembered that all her dialogues with Dave to date had been in her head. Until he’d caught her in the motel with Donny, he’d no idea that their marriage was even in trouble. With that amount of shock, it was no wonder he was at a loss for words. She wasn’t totally devoid of empathy and she genuinely felt for Dave. Ann raced to her door and exited her office. She saw Donny with a sadistic grin on his face.

“No, Donny, no. Not again.”

“Let me handle it woman.”

With this statement, Donny gestured with his head for Ann to return to her office. She opened the blinds again and stewed. Donny cancelled his afternoon appointments and just stayed in his office. Ann noted that there was a constant stream of employees hitting reception and many small cliques formed and dispersed. She distracted herself from wondering what that was all about. At 1PM, two policemen arrived and spoke to the receptionist. Donny must have seen them. They were invited to his office, the blinds were closed, then they left 15 minutes later.

Ann was dreading going home, so before she left, she asked if she could move into the motel unit the company rented permanently. The same unit she and Donny used. She snuck home before the kids got back from school and packed a suitcase. Then she sent a text to Dave and Sarah’s phone saying she wouldn’t be home. At the end of the day, Donny helped her unpack in the unit. Desperate for distraction, she allowed him to fuck her.

At 6.30PM, her mother rang. Before she answered, she thought, typical of Dave to use her own family against her.

“Where the hell are you Ann? Why aren’t you home to feed your kids?”

“Um, I’m not coming home tonight. Dave can look after them…”

“Dave is in the hospital again. He’ll be there for at least a week this time.”

“What? I’ll be home as quick as I can.”

Ann pushed Donny off her.

“What did you do to him this time?”

“The stubborn prick has to learn that he can’t mess with me, Ann.”

Ann dressed quickly and sprinted home via picking up take outs. The first thing she noted, when she threw her front door open was all three children sobbing in the lounge, being comforted by her parents. Her mother intercepted her and led her into the kitchen.

“What the hell is going on Ann? You abandon our children while your husband is in the ICU.”

Ann watched her mother’s nostrils flare.

“Then you come home with grease for your children’s main meal of the day. What is going on Ann?”

“It’s none of your business mother. Dave and I are going through a rough spot at the moment that’s all.”

The two women stared each other down for half a minute. Her mother broke the silence first.

“I note that you showed no surprise when you found out your husband is in hospital. That tells me that what the children say is true. You did have something to do with Dave ending up in the ICU.”

“No mum, I had no idea Dave was in hospital again.”

Silence settled over the conversation again. Again it was broken by Ann’s mother.

“Well?”

“Well what?”

“Aren’t you a little curious what your boyfriend did to your husband this time?”

“What boyfriend?”

“Come on Ann, you reek of sex.”

Ann looked at the floor and remained silent.

“Well, seeing as how you are so interested, I’ll tell you. This time the doctors are fairly certain he has a fractured cheekbone and possibly a fractured skull as well. They are sure that one of the ribs that were broken last time was pushed into his chest this time and punctured a lung. The ambulance driver told me they picked him up from an alley near your work. Tell me Ann; what did the poor guy do to you to deserve this treatment?”

Ann couldn’t answer. She was too busy sobbing. Her mother sat in silence until Ann ran upstairs to her bedroom. She noticed there was blood on the sheets of the bed she hadn’t slept in for four days. She screamed her hurt in the pillow. She had no idea how long she stayed there but finally there was a soft knock at the door. It was her mother.

“I have to take Dad home. All this stress is causing his blood pressure problems to come back. He almost fainted when he stood up just now.”

“Okay mum, I’ll see you out.”

By the time Ann got downstairs, her father was walking out the front door. He turned to give her a withering look, but didn’t say anything. While she was saying goodbye, the children slipped off to bed. Ann sat and tried to think of a way out of this train wreck. The only way she could see was forwards.

Breakfast the next day was silent. When she got to work, Ann discovered Donny would be gone for the day. She desperately needed reassurance that at least the future side of her plan was on track, so she texted Donny and begged him to meet her at the motel that evening. She then texted her mother and asked her to meet the kids after school and look after their dinner as she had things to do. The reply was, ‘Yes, good idea’.

Donny met her after work and reassured her their plan was right on track. The police couldn’t connect either of them to Dave’s two beatings. Ann didn’t bring up the subject of her husband’s second assault. Sure, Donny had arranged it, but she could have stopped it simply by running after them as her husband was carried out the door. She allowed Donny to make love to her until after 9PM, then Ann showered and went home.

Although it was almost 10 when she arrived, all three children were awake and looking at her expectantly.

“Why aren’t you guys in bed?”

Her mother replied on their behalf.

“I let them stay up until you got home. They’re keen to know how their father is.”

“I…I…I don’t know.”

“WHAT! Didn’t you go and see him tonight?”

Ann’s silence answered for her.

“So what did you do? Surely not. Tell me you didn’t get me to cover you here while you went to see your lover while Dave is in the hospital.”

“I never told you I was going to the hospital.”

Her mother swung around, grabbed her coat and headed for the door. With one hand on the handle, she threw over her shoulder.

“You disgust me. I’m ashamed to call you my daughter. Don’t ask me to look after your children again, unless it’s so you can go to your husband and beg his forgiveness.”

Ann thought she was learning to cope with three hours broken sleep a night. Like I said, I never got to know Dave, but from how other people describe him, he maybe would have forgiven Ann up to this point if she’d just abandoned her plans. She didn’t. From what she told me later, she thought she’d caused so much pain at that point that to back out would have made it all pointless.

When Ann’s mother rang her at work the next day, she thought it might be to apologise. It wasn’t.

“Ann, how could you be that heartless?”

“What are you talking about Mum?”

“Your husband finally gets out of the ICU and what does he get? A visit from his loving wife? No. An ugly process server and divorce papers. Who are you Ann? What have you done with my daughter?”

In her pain, Ann had totally forgotten that her divorce process was on auto pilot. The lawyer had obviously followed her instructions and had Dave served as soon as the papers were ready. As a reflex, she tried to remove the immediate thorn in her side.

“Mum, can you look after the kids tonight so I can go and see Dave?”

“No I bloody can’t Ann. Your father is in the same hospital as your husband. He had a heart attack today. They’re going to put in stents tomorrow. Goodbye Ann.”

Ann rushed home early to be there when the children got off the school bus. The bus arrived devoid of three familiar faces. Again, calls to two of their phones went straight to message bank. Two hours later she got a text to pick them up at the hospital. They’d all walked there after school. On the way home, she scolded them for making her worry. They all just remained silent and stared out the car window.

It was shortly after this that I became aware of the tragic story of Ann, Dave and Donny. I was sitting in my office wondering where my next story was going to come from. The world was going through an unusually quiet, peaceful period and news was hard to find. My phone rang. It was an old mate I’d gone to journalism school with, Matt Nigrum. He was good at what he did, but tended to shun the bigger organisations to concentrate on small town issues where he could make a difference. He’d been in the regional centre where our story occurred for about a year.

The doctors and nurses at the hospital where Dave was served, were so appalled by his wife’s behaviour, that they contacted Matt. With his normal talent, Matt quickly spoke to several people from the dealership and found out about Ann and Donny’s affair in addition to the two beatings Dave had suffered. No one came out and directly said it, but the fact that Dave was seen by three witnesses being carried out of the dealership by two known associates of Donny, led to its own conclusion. Matt tried to talk to Dave but he refused to speak. He then contacted the police to see where their investigation was at, only to be told there was no active investigation on the matter. He submitted the story to his editor and had the pleasure of seeing it torn up in his face. No negative stories would be published about Donny in that town. He immediately resigned and sent the story to me. I saw my editor and Matt received an offer from my paper the next week. I cleared my desk and left for assignment in Hicksville three days later.

From what Ann told me, the next week was a very uncomfortable one for her. Her children treated her like a leper and her social life was curtailed by not having her mother available to look after the children. She picked them up from the hospital every night. Donny was away on business every day during business hours and the only time she saw him was one night when he managed to sneak into her house after the children were in bed. That was the first time they spent the whole night together. She certainly craved the company.

On the Friday, Ann got a call from the school to come in for a semi-urgent discussion. That was when she found out that they were very worried about Sarah’s rapid weight loss. Ann couldn’t believe she’d been so negligent to not notice, so denied their claims vehemently. They dropped the matter and moved on to tell of Michael’s sudden propensity to violence and that little Pete was being bullied because he was always crying. Ann cried herself at that. All she could think to do was advance the divorce as quickly as possible and hope it blew over.

At first, Ann turned down the invitation to go out with four of her girlfriends that Friday night. Dave was still in hospital and Donny unavailable. She tried everything she could to get the children to speak, but failed. In frustration, she left the children at home and went out with the girls. She left the name of the place she would be with Sarah, in case it was too loud to hear her cell ringing.

She’d been there about an hour, fielding questions from her friends that had heard the rumours. Denying all knowledge of the violence visited to her husband. They’d finally relented and moved on to more fun topics, when she saw two of them looking over her shoulder. She turned around and there was Dave. One eye was slightly black, the other jet black. A bandage covered one side his face below the eye and he was slightly stooped, guarding his painful ribs. He was sitting at an adjacent table, just staring at her. In panic, Ann swung around, back to her friends and totally blew it.

“Oh, ignore him.”

Her friends saw her immediate facial reaction and heard her flippant comment. They also saw Dave’s suffering and could only wonder at the commitment it must have taken to come there and make his silent protest; for that it clearly was. They made up their own minds on Ann’s honesty over the last hour. One made an excuse to go to the bar. The two that knew Dave the best, went over to talk to him. The fourth just looked at Ann quizzically. Ann fled again. She paused outside the bar wondering if she should offer Dave a lift. Her own conscience wouldn’t allow her to talk to him yet though. Even though it was the decent thing to do, she just couldn’t do it. As late as two weeks ago, she’d told the guy she loved him, to divert any suspicion. He now knew it had been a lie. Ann drove home.

Her mother was there, looking after the kids. They hadn’t seen each other in a week and Ann suddenly realised she’d never even enquired about her father’s health. God, how self-centred had she become? They both got the kids to bed, then Ann asked about her father, but tried to change the topic when her mother raised the thorny issue of Dave. Her mother was having none of that though. She asked Ann if Dave had done anything to warrant he asked Ann if Dave had done anything to warrantDave. ather but changed the  a lie. Her own conscience wouldn’ there, the girlher divorcing him. Ann mentioned a couple of petty little niggles, but when she saw her mother was unconvinced, went on to explain that she’d simply fallen out of love with her husband and in love with someone else. She found lying to her mother easy. She certainly wasn’t going to mention that she used Donny’s attention to her as an opportunity to trade up, as it were.

The older generation woman let her daughter have it on her opinions about bunking out of her marriage and children. No holds were barred. Ann sat through it uncomfortably. She vehemently denied having anything to do with Dave’s two beatings. At the end she didn’t ask whether or not her mother had discussed with her husband if he would forgive her for the attack on their marriage. In her mind, the plan was intact. She did ask if Dave was coming home that night and was coldly told that he was due to be released in two days but had rung asking where she was earlier. She realised that Dave must have snuck out of the hospital to go to the bar earlier.

 Ann did a lot of thinking in the next two days. She decided that the decent thing to do was apologise to Dave for her infidelity, but to point out that the beatings were the result of his own immature behaviour. She would demand that he spoke to the children and explain that she had nothing to do with his pain. She thought there was a reasonable chance he would go along with that and a small chance he’d beg her to stay. One thing was for sure, any aggression on his part would result in threats of a reduced share of the marital assets in the split. Dave had other plans.

On the night he was released from hospital, Ann and Donny left work early and went to the unit. With no need for secrecy, they both walked out the room together just after 6PM. To be greeted by a silent, Dave, Sarah, Mike and Peter watching them from where they stood across the carpark. Donny immediately strode towards them. All three children stepped in front of Dave. Dave said something Ann couldn’t hear, then stepped in front of them protectively. Donny looked at the three witnesses, turned and strode away. Ann slunk to her car and drove away. Dave took the kids out for a meal and returned to his home with them just before eight.

Ann heard them come in, laughing and talking. She kept washing her dinner dishes. When she’d finished, she went into the lounge, meaning to separate Dave from the kids and present her ultimatum. The three children stopped talking when she entered. There was no sign of Dave. When she enquired where he was, she was told that he’d taken his pain medicine and gone to bed. She tried in vain to get the kids to talk to her normally. That failed. She shooed them to bed and rang Donny for comfort.

Exhausted she decided to turn in early as well. At the top landing of the stairs, she saw the light was on in the spare room and that there was a pile of her clothes and her toiletries on the bed. Vowing that this shit had to stop now, she strode to the master bedroom door. It was locked. Going back downstairs, she retrieved the spare key from the kitchen. Thinking how Dave was behaving totally unlike the man she knew, she armed herself with a rolling pin for self-defence, just in case. Using the key, she opened the bedroom door. The light from the hallway revealed Dave on the bed and a form in a sleeping bag, on a mattress, this side of it. As she was processing the sight, the form in the bag arose to reveal Mike standing between her and Dave. Mike looked at the rolling pin then hissed forcefully,

“You will not hurt my dad again.”

Ann wanted to say it was all a mistake, that she wouldn’t ever hurt Dave. In Mike’ eyes, she saw the futility of this. Instead, she retreated weeping to her room. Did she sleep like a baby that night? What do you reckon?

Dave was still unconscious when it was time to leave the next morning. The kids took turns. Two would be eating breakfast in the kitchen, the other would be sitting half way up the stairs. It was so obvious that this one was a guard that it broke her heart. She left and spent the day planning a speech on how to redeem her children’s trust.

She returned home at her usual time. Dave and the children were talking in the lounge. She barked at the kids to go into the kitchen. They looked at Dave, who nodded. When he painfully started to rise, she ordered him to stay away.

Once the three children were settled at the kitchen table, Ann stood glaring down at them, facing the door, the table between her and it. She opened her mouth to begin her prepared speech, when she saw her tormentor standing just outside the doorway.

Almost two weeks of guilt, self-loathing, frustration and sleep deprivation, caused something inside Ann to flip. The neutral expression on Dave’s face was the final straw. On pure reflex, Ann destroyed the remnants of her life. With a strength she didn’t know she had, she picked up the heavy glass fruit bowl in the centre of the table and hurled it towards her torturer. It slipped in her hand at the last moment. That caused her aim to be off. In slow motion, she saw the bowl heading for the doorframe. Just before it struck, she looked at Dave’s face. She swears now that the neutral expression turned to a smile. That was his only muscle movement however, as the heavy bowl hit the frame. It broke into two pieces. One piece smashed harmlessly against the frame. Not so the other piece. It deflected about 30 degrees and hit the undamaged side of Dave’s face.

Still in slow motion, Ann watched in horror as bright crimson blood sprayed out of a deep cut, before her husband sank slowly to his knees, then fell on to his side. Like a sick film projector, life sped up again. The children, initially stunned to silence, started shouting concurrently. Mike reacted first, jumped up and protectively stood over his father. Seeing the blood still pulsing from Dave’s face, Ann instinctively grabbed a hand towel and rolled it up while striding to her recumbent husband. She intended to use it to staunch the blood. Mike raised his hands to ward her off, but she determinedly pushed him backwards. He fell hard. Ann knelt down and pressed the towel into Dave’s face.

In a very un-girl like manner, Sarah tackled her mother off her father. Seeing that his angry sister was more than a match for his mother, Mike arose, went to the medicine cabinet, grabbed a sterile pad, ripped it open and applied it gently to his father’s face. Sarah screamed at Peter,

“Phone emergency!”

Knowing how bad this was, Ann ran to the phone. By controlling the call, she hoped to just request an ambulance while keeping the police away. She had just put her hand on the phone, when she heard Mike scream,

“Use the phone upstairs Sarah.”

In a moment of clarity, Ann realised that they’d misinterpreted her actions as her wanting to stop the phone being used. Sarah sprinted past her towards the stairs. Ann went to give chase but little Pete stopped her the only way he could. He wrapped his arms around her lower legs. Ann went to take one step but fell heavily when her legs wouldn’t move. She lay there screaming hysterically, then removed Pete’s arms firmly, stood and ran.

That’s the first time I saw Ann in the flesh. One hand covered in blood, running to her car. I’d just arrived to request an interview. Seeing the bloody, screaming woman, I took the liberty of inviting myself in and took over Dave’s treatment. The ambulance arrived, followed by the police. While Dave was taken away, the police started asking questions. I arranged for Sarah to ring her grandmother to come and look after them. That’s how I heard first hand what had happened to Dave this time, as the children recounted how their mother had attacked their father, then allegedly tried to smother him and stop them calling an ambulance.

I’d interviewed enough people by now to suspect that the local police might be a little less than zealous protecting Dave’s interests. So I rang a contact in the state police and within three hours, two flying squad members turned up. The flying squad are a group of police that move from town to town. Accepting that the local force can sometimes go a little ‘native’, the flying squad come into a town, blitz the local bad drivers for a few days, then move on. I stayed long enough to see the children giving their statements all over again, then took Sarah and Mike to see their dad. That’s when I got my only words ever from him. I took them home and bowed out.

Unbeknownst to me at the time, Ann fled to Donny’s house. She was greeted at the door by his wife. Donny thinking quickly, explained to his wife that Ann was an employee of his with an abusive husband. The generous woman offered her house as a refuge for the night.

Ann was too distraught to go to work the next day but Donny did, leaving the women alone. Just after lunchtime, Donny’s wife, Pamela, was in the kitchen, but ran into the lounge when she heard a scream and a crash. Ann was lying on the floor in a dead faint. Looking around to see what may have caused it, Pam eventually looked out the window. There was a man, whose face was almost entirely swathed in bandages, standing outside their fence, staring at the house. Pam waited for Ann to start coming round, then asked what was happening. Through Ann’s incoherent mumbling, Pam caught the word, ‘husband’. She called the police to remove the abusive man, then called Donny. Donny got there first and strode into the house, ignoring Dave, to start damage control.

The police arrived and recognised Dave. One came to the door and asked Pam if Ann was there. Pam innocently said yes. To Pam’s bemusement, Ann was arrested. To avoid answering difficult questions from his wife, Donny left to organise a lawyer for Ann. He had to keep a lid on this whole mess. He went back home very soon afterwards, when Pam rang to say the creepy man was still staring at their house. On the way home, he hatched a plan. One that involved waiting for darkness. He kept Pam entertained all afternoon.

I was at the police station, after learning of the morning’s drama over the police radio, trying to get details of what Ann would be charged with. They weren’t very talkative. I then spent a couple of hours trying to locate Dave, with no luck there either. Finally, I went back to the motel and started to type up the story, while eavesdropping on the police radio channel.  

That’s how I located Dave. Just after dark, Donny must have rung the police to move Dave on. I heard them being dispatched to Donny’s residence. I jumped in my car and got there just as the police were watching Dave get in his car and drive off. This guy seemed to attract trouble, so I decided to follow him. I was within sight of his house when he pulled into his driveway and painfully climbed out. I saw two shadows detach themselves from trees and close in behind him. One raised an arm and hit Dave on the back of the head with something. I didn’t wait any longer but gunned the engine and bathed the scene with my headlights. I snapped a couple of photos with my ever present camera. Two large men ran off up the street, leaving a motionless Dave behind. I called the ambulance and police again and waited for poor old Dave to be carted off to the hospital for the fourth time in two weeks.

I suspected that Dave wouldn’t be able to survive many more episodes like this. What I’d witnessed wasn’t the prelude to a beating, but something much more serious. I gave a statement to the flying squad police and handed over my photographs. Dave spent another night in hospital while being checked out for yet another concussion.

I was in court the next day when the judge arraigned Ann for assault, occasioning grievous bodily harm. The police let it be known that attempted murder might be added later. Donny posted her bail, gave her a wad of cash and took her to their motel unit. He suggested she threw her phone away as it was a fair chance that was how Dave was tracking her. He also requested, that apart from at work, she stay the hell away from him. With an out of town reporter sniffing around, well, he just didn’t need the bad publicity.

Ann was shocked. Donny was all she had left from her old life and the cause of it all going to shit. She asked how he could treat her so badly if he loved her. Donny couldn’t help the look of contempt that suffused his face. In that instant, Ann realised that far from loving her, she’d just been a bit of fun for him on the side. A bit of fun that was now a big liability. To confirm this, Donny told her rather coldly what her life would be like if she tried to make waves for him. Then, he left. He had an urgent job to do. His hired hands weren’t answering their phones. Ann stewed on the train wreck that her life had become and the fact she’d lost absolutely everything. She didn’t even have a medicine cabinet full of pills or a bath to slit her wrists in.    

She was cheered up, somewhat, two days later when Donny was arrested. My photographs of the night of Dave’s final assault led to his thugs being apprehended very quickly. To save their own asses, they rolled over on Donny immediately. Now his power and influence worked against him and he was denied bail. When my article was published in the weekly magazine that weekend, his wife left him quicker than a rat on the Titanic.

The dealership survived however and Ann continued her lonely existence until her trial. She brokered an uneasy deal with her mother to get her stuff from her old house but never saw Dave or her children again. Ann was honest when the police, tipped off by my article, questioned her about Dave’s first two beatings, thinking they had nothing to do with her. That led to her being charged with two counts of failure to report a crime and as an accessory to assault. Dave was granted interim custody of their three children and was torn about pressing charges on Ann’s direct assault of him. His mind was finally made up by child services. One particularly militant local officer, took Ann’s side and started proceedings to get custody granted to her. This was despite the wishes of all three of the children. Dave, realising that himself having custody was in the best interests of the kids, went ahead and pressed, on the grounds of maximising the chances of the correct result being forthcoming.

When the child support worker persisted, Dave took to sitting outside her house, staring at it. Although the police moved him on, it had the desired result. Soon, neighbours reported loud arguments coming from the house. Her husband was heard to scream, “Let me get this straight. The bitch ambushes the guy, screws around on him, sits back and does nothing when he’s put in hospital twice, then tries to kill him in front of the kids AND you still take her side?” An hour after this exchange, the government worker was seen lugging suitcases to her car. The case was dropped.

Ann still hadn’t worked up the courage to end it all when the circuit court came to town. With the evidence so overwhelming, all four parties pled guilty. Frank and Rick got three years, Ann got four and Donny eight. No one was there to see Ann taken from the dock down the special stairs to the holding cells. It wasn’t until this point that the full reality hit her. She wrote a long letter to her children, apologising for what she’d done to their family. She wrote another to Dave. It contained no apologies, things were way too bad for that, but did beg him to look after the children.

Dave became somewhat of a local celebrity and had no shortage of attention from the local available ladies. He even went out on dates when family business allowed or when Sarah and Mike gave him no choice. When one particular lady caught his eye, Sarah and Mike confronted her alone one night and gave her a thorough grilling, at the end of which they pronounced her worthy of continuing to see their courageous Daddy. Things are still going well with her and Sarah is thinking of dropping hints to Dave about proposing.

Epilogue.

Ann screamed into her pillow. This time, the scream was very genuine. Her mind was desperately trying to blot out the horrible reality of her situation. A little hard to do when she was on her knees, with her backside pointing upwards. She gasped, as once again the 10-inch cock of the person behind her plunged into her ass to the hilt. To distract herself, she focussed on every sense but feeling. First came the smells around her. Disinfectant, the margarine her partner was using as lube and yes, shit. She gave up at taste. She knew from experience that it would be morning before the taste left her mouth. Ann continued to sob until, with relief, she heard the unmistakable sounds of the person behind her reaching climax. Thank fuck for that. Relief from the indignity and the pain was minutes away.

Her bed partner tensed and shuddered in muted ecstasy, before finally collapsing sideways off Ann; who used the opportunity to roll out of that degrading position The cock remained hard and buried in Ann’s back passage. A strong set of arms enveloped her from behind and roughly groped her breasts. It was unwelcome, unerotic, and unfortunately, unavoidable. Gradually, Ann felt the groping cease, followed by the soft snoring behind her begin. Gently, she eased herself forwards. She knew from experience that she had to time the withdrawal just right. She had to relax her anal sphincter to remove the cock, but as soon as the head left her, clench quickly or suffer an undignified accident that she wouldn’t be free of until the morning. The morning. Yes, that was her dream. That reporter was visiting in the morning. He’d promised to speak to the powers that be to pass on one simple request from Ann. Get me a single cell, please.

Ann inched away from the hard plastic phallus. It was half way out when life returned to the arms encircling her and she again felt the big heavy breasts pushing into her back. Ann resumed sobbing.

As for Donny. What can I say. He was in a four person cell and was quickly learning that being a small town bully didn’t amount to much in the state prison. He was also starting to feel like an unsuccessful heavyweight boxing contender. He was certainly being badly battered about the ring.

The End

So how did I go? Did I develop Dave’s character enough? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I don’t care about the circumstances of how couples meet and marry. It doesn’t matter if they are fat, thin, short, tall, white, black or purple with green spots. There are standards of decency and behaviour that should not be breached.

Now lighten up.

Two friends are fishing near a bridge.  Suddenly a hearse and two funeral cars go over the bridge. One of the men stands up, takes off his cap and bows his head. When the cars have gone, he puts his cap back on, sits back down and carries on fishing.  His mate turns to him and says,” Dave, that’s one of the nicest, most respectful things I’ve ever seen.” Dave replies,” Well we were married for nearly 20 years.”