Heart Fades to Black
Chapter 4: Newly Wedded Bliss
Well, everyone says that one of the hardest things about marriage is getting used to living with each other. It doesn't matter how well you think you know your spouse, inevitably there are surprises. The only reservation that Lillia had about us is that we'd only known each other a season and a half. "Most marriages here, the boy and girl have grown up together and often have been sweethearts from childhood. And even then, the adjustment can be difficult. You and her are going to have a lot of learning about each other to do - and quickly." I started climbing up that steep learning curve on our first full day together.
Our first day of marriage started out just fine. We stayed in bed late - and not sleeping in either; after all, it was the nearest we were going to get to a honeymoon for a good long while. I'd managed to get some eggs and vegetables into the refrigerator the previous day, and Popuri fixed us one of her excellently heavy country breakfasts. Over the table, she asked me if she could go back to her folks' home everyday and do some of the housework for them. I couldn't see any reason why not - it's not as if our house would keep her busy all day so I gave my permission with the proviso that she call on Rick for any heavy lifting - as she would call on me for it here. So about eleven, while I was out in the fields, I saw her leave the house and head over to Chicken Lil's.
She did go over there and tend to the house while talking to her mother, all right. But then she went and did what I considered a characteristically Popuri-ish thing. In the mid-afternoon, she went on into town and right into Rose Square where Sasha, Anna and Manna were having their daily gossip session. Way I heard it, she just walked right up to them and cheerfully announced that she was expecting in the early Winter - just as matter of factly as if she'd told them how many tomatoes we'd shipped that day.
First I heard of it was when I went into the General Store for my usual late afternoon shopping. I thought Jeff was smirking a little as we talked, but it was Karen who followed me out, shook my hand and doubled-down on the irony.
"Let me be the first to congratulate you, Pappy!"
"Huh? You already knew about that."
"Yeah, but now the whole town knows," and she went on to explain.
I...well, I freaked. To me, this was way beyond her normally harmless flakiness. I'd spent a season and a half working hard to present myself to the villagers as a solid, responsible person - and here she had blown it all away in a 5-minute talk with Manna! I ran back home fuming, burst into the house, found her in the kitchen slicing up some potatoes and confronted her with the matter. That wasn't a good idea, but I was out of control and she quickly got that way also. After a few minutes of shouting at each other so loudly that I was amazed Rick didn't come over to break it up, we ended up holding each other with her crying and me half-heartedly apologizing.
"Jack, people are going to know soon enough anyhow. I'll start showing in awhile and people can count seasons."
"Yeah, I suppose. But it's going to ruin my reputation here."
"No it's not, because you married me - without anyone making you, either. That makes it all right with them."
Well, we made up in the usual way but I was pretty uneasy just the same. For the next few days, whenever I met anyone I was expecting to get scornful comments, nasty looks, snubs, whatever. And what I actually got was...nothing! In fact, people seemed to have more respect for me than I'd seen before. Popuri had called it right, and then Karen in one of her cynical asides showed me the rest of it.
"People were happy enough you marrying her, thinking that would make you put your roots down in that farm. But a baby on the way...they're delirious with joy over that! Now you're really tied down. You'll be working Erehwon for the next twenty or so years - keeping them all in the style they're accustomed to." She smirked. "You really know how to totally commit yourself, eh?"
I was hoping that that incident was unique - a matter of revealing the big secret of our marriage to the village - and with that behind us, we would have no more major problems with each other. Well, in those days, I was a hopeless optimist.
Certainly people change after they are married - how could they not, living on such intimate terms with someone new. What catches people is thinking that they are in control of these changes in themselves. And what especially throws people is thinking that they can produce the changes that they desire in their spouse.
It was three days after the wedding that Popuri started her campaign. At least she had the wit to start out soft and sweet - choosing to wait until, well, the late evening's afterglow to broach the matter.
"Jack, do you ever miss the life that you had before in the city?"
I couldn't say that I hadn't been warned - and in the back of my mind I was kind of expecting this.
"Which city? My old hometown of Capitol City, or Liberty City?"
"Either of them. Living here must be so boring to you after all that excitement. Don't you ever think of going back?"
"Like I told you before, there's nothing for me to go back to. They're not building spacecraft anymore. Only thing that might be open to me is grad school. And do you have any idea how hard the life of a grad student's wife is if you don't have money? Especially with a baby on the way. We're much better off here."
"You could get another kind of job, I'm sure. You're smart; you could make lots of money out there. You should have more confidence in yourself."
"I'd be competing with tens of millions of others looking for any kind of work. Be real chancy. This farm is a sure thing." She looked skeptical and I tried to explain to her what a depression in an industrial/commercial country meant. It was wasted effort on my part - after all, this was a girl who'd not even known what a bank was before I'd told her!
When she didn't understand something, she got impatient, then cranky. "Jack, you're just being difficult! Surely it can't be as bad as that. Pooh! This is the best country on earth; people don't starve here. I've never seen anyone go without essentials."
"That's because you've never been out of this village - see what a good place this is?"
Wrong thing to say! That really got her going; she went on for what seemed like hours about how sick she was of the village and its people. She finally ended up crying that if I really loved her, I wouldn't keep her locked up in a place she hated. I held her and tried to ease her mind with vague promises.
"Look Pi, when I get this place back into shape and the money really starts coming in - say towards the end of next year - we'll do some traveling together. And by then, the baby will be old enough to stand it also."
She sniffled. "You really mean it?"
"Of course I do. I promise. Look, let's start planning it out now. How'd you like to dine at the roof gardens on top of the Acme Insurance building? We can see the city lights spread out for kilometers and kilometers as we dance all night long under the stars..."
That didn't resolve the matter, of course. She kept coming back to the issue, and each time my 'someday over the rainbow' routine impressed her less and less. She got more impatient with my talk as time went on, and her response was to get shriller. Then she started in on the petty faultfinding. Only nothing was really petty to her. Something like my inadvertently putting my cap on her vanity table rather than on the front door peg 'where it belongs!' would set her off like I'd been sleeping with every woman in the village. Her attitude was fraying my nerves and I soon enough got to where I was returning her snapping and shouting in full.
"Popuri, why the hell don't you wait a minute for me to finish reading this before you wipe the table!"
"Because I've got to get the crumbs you leave behind cleaned up before the bugs get in here! You eat like a pig, you know!"
-or-
"Jack, get that dog out of here!"
"I thought you liked Wowser. You said you liked animals."
"Yes, when they're outside where they belong. You didn't even housetrain this puppy! He's always peeing all over the floor! It's disgusting!"
One thing that really got to me was when she started complaining about my books on display in the living room. She could read, but rarely did - when we brought her things over from Lil's, there wasn't a single book among them. She had no liking at all for my library, and it became another thing for her to campaign about. It was another thing that rubbed me the wrong way.
"Popuri! Some of those books are the journals of my ancestors. Some of them are two-three hundred years old. What do you want me to do, throw them out? It's not going to happen!"
"I'm not asking you to throw them out! But why do we have to keep them in the living room? They're ugly! And they collect dust, too. If they're so old and important, why don't you give them to the library? Or store them in the barn, anywhere else but here. Why do you need books that old anyways? Aren't they out of date? And what about your school books?" She waved around my copy of Hypergolic Propellants - Principles and Practice. "Why do you keep this? You're not working on that stuff anymore."
"For that matter, why do you keep 53 different headbands in the dresser?"
"That's different! I use those!"
We did always make up our quarrels - in bed, of course. At least that was the one part of our marriage where we had no problems at all. We lusted for each other just as much as we had that first night on the beach. But you can't spend all your waking hours doing the dirty - apart from that little matter of working for a living...well, a guy can only do so much service along those lines. We're not made of steel, you know. And it was getting so that whenever we weren't in each other's arms, we were at each other's throats.
In the country, people tend to drop in on each other unannounced. They call it 'being neighborly.' We certainly had our share of visitors - especially around dinnertime as Popuri's skill with any recipe involving eggs was well known. We welcomed them all warmly - she liked playing hostess and I enjoyed my waxing social standing. Besides, it gave us an excuse to put our incessant bickering on hold and put on the face of a happy newlywed couple. Our guests were interested in how our newly married life was coming along and in my progress on the farm - not necessarily in that order, either! One afternoon however, we had a most unexpected visitor. I answered the knock at the door to find Mary standing there.
"Mary? What a pleasant surprise. What can I do for you? Would you like to come in?"
She smiled thinly. "Thanks no, I'm just staying for a moment. Actually, I came to say goodbye."
"Goodbye? Where are you going?" At this point, Popuri had come out of the kitchen and was standing bedside me, wiping her hands on her apron.
"Oh, hello Popuri. I'm going off to college, the state university. My parents old alma mater - yours too, as I remember."
"That's wonderful news! But I hadn't heard anything about this. When did you decide to do it?"
"A couple of weeks ago. You contributed to it, you know. Remember the first time we talked at the library, when you said I was still young enough to go? Well, I've been thinking over the fact that my life here really isn't going anywhere. I mean, being the librarian in a small town where nobody reads - what's the point of that?
"The main concern I had was that I wouldn't be admitted, never having gone to school and all. But when I mentioned the matter to Dad, he brought it up to some of his contacts there and it turns out that they do have an admissions program for home-schooled people. I had to take a battery of tests - Thomas proctored them - and I guess I did OK because they accepted me."
"I'm so happy for you! When are you starting?"
"Next Monday. My folks are going with me to help me get settled in - we're leaving this afternoon. I'll be taking a couple of weeks of orientation classes before the regular semester starts. I've already got a part-time job lined up at the main library." She giggled. "Working in a real library for a change, I'm looking forward to it. And I already know what I'll be taking - I'll major in library science and minor in English lit. Big surprise, huh?"
We chatted about the university and its life for a little. We ended up with her asking questions about the campus and jotting down my answers in a notebook.
"...oh, and if you do take the campus dining plan, try to eat at the Northgate cafeteria whenever possible. Especially on Fridays - those codfish balls are awesome!"
She talked while scribbling. "I'll keep that in mind. Well, that's all the questions I can think of. Is there anyone there you'd like me to look up for you?"
"If you ever happen to pass by the Alan B. Shepard Hall - that's where the Aero/Astro department is - you might go in and tell Dr. Jenkins that I sent my best wishes."
She scribbled. "...Alan B. Shepard Hall...Dr. Jenkins...right." She closed her notebook and gave us a wistful smile. "Well, I'd better be on my way back home now. I've got to finish packing before the Princess gets here. Popuri...I'm going to miss you. Even if we weren't as close as we should have been, you've always inspired me with your cheerfulness." They hugged briefly, separated and she went on. "You take good care of yourself...and that baby...and please take especially good care of Jack."
"You know I will. You have a good life in the city, now."
"I'll certainly try." She turned to me, hesitated and offered her hand. I took it and we held on for a bit. "Jack, I'm glad that I knew you. I wish you all the success and happiness in the world."
"And you also, Mary. I look forward to reading your novels as you publish them."
So we said our last goodbyes and she turned and walked slowly and deliberately back into town. We watched her for a bit, then Popuri turned to me and said, "I think she's still in love with you."
"I know she is. Well, it's best for her this way. She can make a new life for herself and forget all about me. I'm happy for her."
We went back into our house with our arms around each other's waists and didn't quarrel for the rest of the day.
Mary's leaving the village pretty much completed Karen's social isolation. She confined herself to working in the store, brooding alone at the beach or at the Goddess pond, and then passing out drunk in the Inn every night.
She'd become the target of most of the malicious gossip of the townsfolk - sharks prefer to go after the wounded, they say. Mostly they were scornful of her for not being able to keep Rick attached to her, and for her letting herself go in drink. People being as they are though, once tongues start wagging they never stop at the known facts. They have to speculate. Like I learned when I dropped into the clinic one afternoon and found Manna and Elli deep in discussion.
"...Well Elli, you know Karen was more depressed by Mary's leaving than she was from breaking up with Rick. What else am I supposed to think?"
"No! I refuse to believe that. They were just very good friends. People don't do that kind of thing here!"
"People like you and I, certainly. But you know both of them were always a bit odd. Surely you haven't forgotten the time Mary got delusional from eating those strange mushrooms of hers..."
If Manna was the queen of nasty innuendo - well, she only persisted in it because others were willing to participate. A lot of dirty mindedness hides behind those wholesome small town facades, I kid you not.
One day I saw Karen sitting by the pond as I went there to forage. She looked so desolate that I wanted to talk with her and try to cheer her up. She was having none of it - when she heard me coming she turned around and glowered at me, her face saying 'stay the hell away from me' more eloquently than words ever could have. I stayed away from her. It saddened me that someone I had liked and admired disliked me so intensely, but there was nothing I could do about it. I ended up staying clear of her as much as possible and she seemed to like it that way.
One habit Popuri started right after we set up housekeeping was one I'd heard was not uncommon among country folk. She'd turn on the television first thing in the morning and kept it on until we went to bed - actually, if I hadn't turned it off then, she'd probably have left it on all night too. It's not as if she was sitting in front of it all day watching, she rarely did that. In fact, she didn't seem to pay much attention to it. One time, when I knew she'd had the weather channel on for several hours, I asked her what the forecast for the next day was and she hadn't a clue! It just seemed to be comforting to her to have it droning in the background. But every now and then, she did pay attention to it.
I guess just about everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing when they first heard the news. I was harvesting tomatoes - in fact, I had 26 of them in the basket when Popuri came out of the house and called to me.
"Jack, I think you should come in here and see this."
"What's that?"
"Your spaceship - they don't know where it is."
"What?!"
"They've lost it and they can't find it - I don't understand all of what they're saying."
I dropped everything and ran into the living room, where the news channel had gone live to Mission Control. It sounded pretty damn grim.
"Flight, comm."
"Go comm."
"The level 3 codes on the Goldstone feed all give null results. They're not transmitting. Even if they were just on the omni at 0.1% power, we'd see it."
"Rog. Any recommendations?"
"Keep transmitting in the blind and hope they can hear us while they're fixing it."
"Do it. Go continuous."
A very upset looking network science correspondent broke in.
"To recap for those of you who have just joined us, 53 minutes ago all communications with the Venture One spacecraft were lost. All channels - data, video and voice - went out simultaneously with no warning. The controllers here have been going over the telemetry data prior to the comm dropout, looking for some clue as to what happened, but so far have seen nothing..."
I forgot about the farm work and spent the rest of the day - and much of the night - glued to the tube. There was a lot more talk, of course, but that was the whole story right there. The spacecraft - and its crew of 44 men and women - was never heard from again. The great adventure of the early 21st century had ended in...dead silence. To this day, nobody knows if it courses its eternal orbit around the sun as a derelict ghost ship or merely as a cloud of radioactive debris.
I slept poorly that night, and when I did, I dreamt. I dreamt of that glittering white clean room in Liberty City that had been the center of my life for three years. I dreamt of a gleaming new rocket engine - the pride of 21st century technology - being lowered into its transport pod. But the pod was already full - overflowing with blood and mangled body parts.
It started with Manna's gossip as that kind of thing so often did. I was passing by - but not through - Rose Square one afternoon on my way to the clinic to get some vitamins for Popuri. Even though I was out of their sight, something in the air that day carried the voices of the gossiping women to my ears, and the snatches I caught got my immediate attention. I stopped to listen.
"...well Sasha, you may think it's just her usual thoughtlessness, but I think it's quite shameless. Everyone knows how close they were last summer, and she's seeing him out in the open!"
"Now Manna, I'm sure it's quite innocent. After all, they're just talking as she buys snacks from him..."
"Just talking! About what? Do you know? Does anyone? And the looks they give each other! Don't tell me that's innocent!..."
And she had told me she never wanted to see Kai again! My first reaction of course was to find her right that instant and confront her. A moment's thought told me how unprofitable that would be. The answers to my questions - just what was she doing with him and how long had it been going on - would be lost in the shouting match and angry tears that would inevitably follow. I was already suspecting that she acted that way partially out of policy in order to deflect unwanted questions and topics.
Another moment's thought - of who I could talk to about this - gave me a jolt as I realized how shallow my relations with people here were, excepting my in-laws. And I certainly wasn't going to unload this on chronically ill Lillia or excitable Rick unless I really had to. Mostly, the other villagers and I exchanged civilities over business, but I didn't trust most of them enough to open up over this. And the ones I did trust - Ann would of course side with and cover for Popuri, Cliff would probably offer me meaninglessly cynical advice, and Pastor Carter would deliver up plenty of empty, saccharine platitudes. Useless, the lot of them - except for...
Karen seemed to be the worst person in the village to talk to about it. She'd made it perfectly clear that she disliked our marriage, didn't want to hear anything about it, and had pretty much given me the cold shoulder since the wedding. But...there was a time when I felt I could talk to her about anything, and she did know much of what went on there. She had also always kept my secrets well. Well, it was a chance...
She was working on the store's books when I entered - she glanced up at me, got an 'oh, it's him' look on her face and started to return her attention to her work as I walked up to her.
"Ah, Karen, got a minute?"
She didn't look up. "For what?"
"I need your advice - on a matter you don't want to hear about, I know. But I'm desperate here."
At that, she did look up - she squinted my way and regarded me coldly for what seemed like years. I mean liquid nitrogen cold. Finally she closed her ledger, turned to Jeff with an 'excuse me for a bit, Dad,' and walked to the door gesturing for me to follow.
We went to the mailbox and she folded her arms and gave me a brusque, "Go ahead."
"Ah, have you been hearing anything about Popuri and Kai recently?"
She smirked. "Oh, it finally got back to you, did it? They always say the husband is the last to know."
"Well, what is going on between them?"
"She's going to the beach every afternoon and hanging out at his shack. She's been doing it for some time now, apparently. I think she's just standing out there talking to him..." she shrugged "...but who knows for sure? It's not like I'm wasting my time spying on them. What? Is she sneaking out on you at night?"
"No...well, I don't think so." Working as hard as I did made me sleep pretty damn soundly. "But why is she doing it?"
She shrugged again. "She's bored, I guess. Looks like you're not keeping her occupied enough at home. Neglecting your marital duties already, hmm?"
Last thing I needed just then was to be baited. I snapped, "Damn you, Karen! You got no call to talk like that..."
She snarled back, "Screw you too, Jack. You're the one who came to me for help, remember?" She turned to go.
"Wait, wait, I'm sorry. I do need help. I don't know what to do."
Her face was scornful. "Well, what do you expect me to do? She's your wife. You mean you don't know how to keep her under control?" Then she did start walking back into the store, shaking her head and muttering 'wimp' under her breath.
So it looked as if I was on my own there. But at least she'd inadvertently given me an idea. It was already mid-afternoon and if they were doing this regularly...well, I could spy on them.
One thing that meeting her on the sly had done for me, I knew all the back paths and secluded places of the village very well. In a few minutes, I'd stationed myself amidst the piles of abandoned boating gear on the beach - it was a place within sight and earshot of the snack shack. And I was getting an eyeful and an earful all right.
Kai was standing behind his counter with that 'hey babe, ain't I a stud?' pose and she was standing on the other side giving him those bedroom eyes I knew too well - like she'd always given me! He was telling stories about beach resorts on the other coast with her all wide-eyed and chirpy and bubbly, "...they really have swimming pools indoors? Oh, I'd love to see that!"
I could only take so much of that before I eased out of my hiding place and slunk back into Rose Square. The gossip session there was breaking up, and the ladies - so called - must have guessed that I'd seen it for myself as they gave me pitying, condescending looks as they left. It wasn't bad enough that she was cheating on me - or at least thinking about it. Everyone else here knew it and I was becoming the laughingstock of the village!
I tried to get a grip on myself. I was aching to head right down there and confront the two of them, but I knew how that would turn out - Popuri and I screaming at each other with that creep looking on smirking. No profit there. I finally decided to wait until she'd left the shack, and try talking calmly to her as one adult to another, appealing to her reason. She liked being treated as a grownup, and I sometimes made progress with her doing so.
I hung out in the square for a few more minutes until I felt calm enough to execute my plan, and then headed down the steps onto the beach. My timing was perfect - she'd just left the shack and was walking right my way, holding a purplish sno-cone. When she saw me coming towards her, she got that 'oh damn, busted!' look which she tried to cover up by burying her face in the snack.
I gave her what I hoped was a calm smile and greeted her. "Hi Pi, whatcha doing?"
She looked warily at me. "Eating a sno-cone."
"Can I have a taste?" She held it out to me and I took a bite. "Mm...grape. You come to the beach often?"
"Sometimes. I need a break from all the housework, you know."
"Sure, like I need a break from the farm work sometimes. Let's take a break together then, walk along the shore like we did in the old days. OK?"
She smiled weakly and nodded, I took her hand and we walked together along the shoreline towards the dunes.
"Pi, remember...this is where we started, what was it...gosh, not even two seasons ago. We were so happy together then, remember? What's happened to us? Why are we fighting all the time? I know I'm being snappish towards you and I'm really sorry. I do love you so, you know."
" I know it and I love you too. I wonder if people are right when they say I'm immature. But I just get so restless knowing there's this great big world out there waiting for me - and here I am, pregnant and in two kitchens."
"At least you're not barefoot. So that's why you're coming and talking to Kai everyday? Getting a glimpse of that world outside?"
She looked startled at that. "Jack...how long have you known?"
"Not very long. You've hardly been secretive about it anyways; you know it's the talk of the town. Some of it is...sorta ugly."
"Manna." She wrinkled her nose. "She's got a dirty mind. Jack, all we're doing is talking, nothing else. It's the truth."
"I believe you. But you know, dirty minds driving wagging tongues can cause a lot of damage in a small town. Even if you're doing nothing wrong, it doesn't look right - especially seeing how you and him were lovers before."
"Only you and Ann know that - and maybe Karen, I don't know. And I don't believe you're throwing that in my face!"
"Not throwing it at you, just stating the fact. I've never held it against you and I don't now. But you see, some of what's got people talking is that it shows on your faces when you're together." She looked distressed at that. "You see, I agree with you that people should look and act respectably in public. And no matter how innocently you're acting, it looks improper."
She had gotten very quiet and thoughtful. "So you think I should stop talking to him?"
"I'm not ordering you to. I'm just asking you to search your conscience and see if this is really how you want to appear to the village."
"I...I...you know, you might be right. Let me think about it, OK?"
"Sure Pi, that's all I'm asking."
She gave me a real sweet smile. "Jack, you can be so nice when you want to be. Why can't we be like this all the time?"
"I should try harder. Let's work on it together, OK?"
"All right. You want to go home now?"
"Um, I've still got a few things to do in town. You go on ahead and I'll be home real soon."
"OK, I'll start dinner then. Don't be too long, I think I'm going to feel real loving later this evening."
"It's a date then."
And we separated feeling more like a happily married couple than we had in awhile. Ha! Being sweet and reasonable with her worked after all. That was a habit I resolved to get into. I was also rethinking my attitude towards her wanderlust. I was questioning whether having a barn full of livestock by midwinter was really more important than having a happy wife. I was thinking that perhaps I should stretch out that schedule and use some of that money for a long weekend trip to Capitol City. It may have been utterly familiar to me, but it'd all be thrillingly new to her. The more I thought, the more I liked the idea. See the sights, stay at a nice hotel where we could dine and dance in style and even show off my gorgeous bride to my childhood pals - yeah, I liked it just fine.
Now if I'd just left it there - gone on home and surprised her with my getaway plan - our marriage would have been on the mend and I wouldn't have the rest of this story to tell. But you see, one of my failings is the tendency to overdo things. The Chinese have a saying about that; they call it 'painting feet on the snake.' When you do that, well, it's no longer a snake and you've ruined everything. That's what I was about to do.
I'd made my way back to the steps leading up to Rose Square when I stopped and looked towards Kai's shack. I could see him standing at the counter looking very pleased with himself and I had, well, an ill considered idea that since I'd won with Popuri, I might as well cover all the bases and get him to back off also. I headed over to where he was standing.
When he saw me come up to his stand, he started by playing it straight, putting on the face of a genial beachside concessionaire.
"Hey farmer dude, you got down here at last! What can I getcha?"
"What it is, I'd appreciate it if you'd stop seeing my wife."
"Huh? What you mean, 'seeing'?"
"I mean I want you to stop going after her. Whatever there was before, it's over now. Give it up."
He smirked a little. "Heh. I'm not chasing her; she's coming to see me. What am I supposed to do, tell her I can't sell her nothin' 'cause her hubby don't like it? That's not how business works!"
His attitude irritated me. "Only business I see here is monkey business. Look pal, you're playing a dangerous game. I'm trying to do you a favor so cool it before you get into real trouble."
He laughed in my face. "Trouble? Is trouble coming? Where is it? Under that gangsta wannabe lid? Lemme see!" He reached over, grabbed my cap, made an elaborate show of looking under it and then plopped it back on my head. "Nope, it ain't there."
I was getting steamed up and growled, "watch it or else..."
"You watch it, hick. Don't you have chickens to feed or something - why don't you go back to the homestead? You're bugging me. Worse, you're boring me. You bore her, too. That's why she comes to see me."
"I'm telling you, you'd better stop seeing her!"
"That's her call, not yours." He sneered. "You can't keep her happy at home, of course she's gonna come see the man who can!"
And I snapped. All the tensions of the last few weeks - no, the whole lousy year welled up into my head. And there, a few centimeters in front of me was the ideal outlet!
I shouted, "son of a bitch!" as I swung and caught his jaw with a solid right hook and had the immense satisfaction of seeing him crash to the floor.
All the hand farming I'd done that year had bulked me up pretty good - I had at least five kilos on him and it was all muscle. But he was plenty athletic and agile all right, and surprised me by springing right back up - brandishing a nasty looking switchblade that had seemingly materialized out of nowhere.
He snarled, "You try that again bastard and I'll cut your lungs out!"
He may have been coming here for years, but he didn't seem to know about farmers and our tools. In a flash I reached into my backpack, whipped out my sickle and brandished it at him.
"In your dreams, punk! Mine's bigger."
He got a wary look and went into a defensive posture, but didn't back off. He sneered, "Only thing you got that's bigger. Ask her."
"Ha! She always says that string beans remind her of you."
And so we were in a standoff. We kept trading jibes and watching each other for an opening, but my rage was fading fast - and I started thinking again. I was thinking that as pleasant as it would have been to see his head and his body in two different places, it would create a lot of trouble for me. Yeah, I could probably get away with calling it self-defense and likely the villagers would back me up - after all, they wanted me on the farm, not in the slammer. But with the courts as they were then, if it'd ever gotten that far you just couldn't have predicted what would've happened.
I was also thinking that my winning that thing wasn't a sure bet. After all, I wasn't really that much of a fighter - I'd always preferred to talk and maneuver my way out of trouble. Last fight I'd been in had been years before, and I'd never been in one involving weapons. And let's face it, a sickle wielded by an angry husband may look pretty intimidating, but it's a pretty clumsy weapon compared to a hand knife. Especially one in the hands of a guy whose every move showed he knew how to use it, and was ready and willing to do so.
So I figured I'd made my point - I'd gotten in the only blow, after all - and I started slowly backing away, all the time keeping my eyes on that blade and my sickle ready.
"So keep your stinking hands off Popuri! Next time, I won't go so easy on you!"
"That's right dirt eater, get the fuck out of here and don't come back!"
"Oh, I'll be back. With friends. I'm a big man in this place, you know."
"Big shit is what you are. Beat it!"
Once that was over, I had the most curious mix of emotions. With the adrenalin no longer flowing, I felt pretty peaked and shaky. On the other hand, I was pretty damn pleased with myself. I'd stood up to the guy - evidently an experienced street fighter - and held my own. If I hadn't exactly whipped his tail, at least I'd given him something to think about - that messing around with Popuri wouldn't be a free ride for him.
So I was feeling pretty good about what I'd done. But I also was feeling the fierce need to depressurize before going home. The Inn beckoned to me.
Doug watched me with his usual vaguely glum expression as I busted through the door and planted myself on the stool in front of where he was standing.
"Evening Jack. You're in early. The usual?"
He was already positioning a tin cup below the spout of a wine keg when I stopped him. "Not tonight, I need a something a little more potent. Lemme have a couple shots of bourbon straight up.
He gave me a good looking over as he poured out the hooch. "Say, is something up with you? You sure look agitated. You having problems with Popuri?"
I gulped down the first shot. "Nah, not her. Kai. Lemme tell you what just happened..." And I told him of the events of the afternoon with him listening judiciously - and pouring out more whisky as I went on. I guess I should have paid more attention to Ann who was stacking clean cups and glasses behind the bar as I talked, but I was concentrated on making my case with Doug. As it turned out, she was sure paying close attention to me.
Doug and I discussed the matter for a little while. I'd come around to Rick's point of view that Kai was an intolerable nuisance and although Doug was a little disappointed in me at having thrown the first (and only) punch, he finally saw my point.
"Yeah Jack, guess we don't need you so worked up over him and her that you can't give Erehwon the attention it needs. Let me do this - you go on home and I'll talk this thing over with Duke when he comes in later. We'll work something out so do everyone a favor and don't go back to Kai's place - just leave it to us, OK?"
Despite my puffing my social standing to Kai, I knew that Doug and Duke were really the leading men in town. Money talked there as much as it did everywhere else and their commercial interests ensured that when they saw eye to eye about something, everyone else in the village fell right in behind them. So between knowing that those guys would be backing me up (I already knew that Duke despised Kai) and the half-dozen or so drinks of whisky I'd had, I was feeling pretty damn good about it. I shook Doug's hand and thanked him for his understanding, then headed to the door. On the way out I was looking for Ann to ask her advice about planning that getaway with Popuri, but she'd apparently ducked out. As it turned out, I'd find her plenty soon enough.
Walking home, I felt on top of the world! I'd gotten Popuri to see that what she'd been doing with him wasn't a good idea without us exchanging a single hard word. I figured we'd turned a corner in our marriage - now, finally, we'd start working out our problems like grownups instead of fussing and fighting all the time. And that rat bastard Kai - well, his days in the village were numbered. Doug and Duke would see to that. Yeah, life was looking pretty damned good after all - I'd won the whole pot, now I was going home to a gorgeous wife, a first-rate dinner and plenty of lovin' afterwards. For that matter, I grinned to myself, the dinner could wait - that hot date in the old conjugal love nest had moved up to number one on my priority list. Unfortunately, she had other plans.
Coming up to the gates of Erehwon, I was greeted with the sight of Popuri marching out of the house with Ann in tow. She had her nightie slung over her shoulder and thunder and lightning were in her face. When she saw me come through the gate, she stuck her nose high in the air with that 'don't even think about looking at me!' pose of hers.
"Pi, what's going on here?"
"Don't talk to me, Jack. Just get out of my way!"
"Pi, what's the matter?" I tried to take her by the arm and she roughly jerked away from me.
"Get your hands off me! What are going to do, beat me up too?!"
Ann gave me an apologetic look, and the whole thing was clear to me.
"Pi, look, let's go inside and sit down and I'll explain what happened. Let's talk this over like adults, OK?"
"Adults?! What kind of adult are you, going up to him and threatening him, then assaulting him?"
"Pi, he pulled a knife on me, for Pete's sake!"
"Because you attacked him! Of course he'd defend himself!"
"Hey, whose side are you on, anyways?"
"Pooh! Don't talk to me about sides! You're crazy, Jack, you know that? Crazy! I hate you! And I'm not going to spend another night in your bed!"
All the time this was going on, she was stomping her way through town with Ann and I trying to keep up with her. Ann whispered to me, "Jack, I'm sorry, I didn't think she'd blow up like this. Look, she's going to sleep over with me tonight. She'll be all right. We'll have a good long girl-to-girl talk and I'll calm her down, then she'll come home tomorrow. Just let me take care of it, OK?"
It wasn't as if I had much of a choice. I nodded to her, stopped and watched them proceed to the Inn, then slunk back home under the gaze of several people who'd stuck their heads out of their doors to watch the domestic battle of the year. I got back to my house, cleared the charred remains of dinner from the oven (she'd not bothered to turn it off on the way out,) and grabbed a couple of bottles of wine out of the refrigerator. Since I was already feeling pretty sorry for myself, I figured I might as well go the whole nine yards and have a liquid dinner.
It was nearly midnight with me sitting with the empties on my lap watching snow and listening to static on the TV (out there in the boonies, the stations go off the air at eleven) when it hit me. Popuri was spending the night in Ann's room - well, that was in the Inn...and Kai stayed right upstairs. But surely she wouldn't...but Ann wouldn't let her.
Or would she?
I didn't sleep a wink that night.
