Chapter 4

I had another weekend off, and the boys had a Scout camp out scheduled. I had been a Scout, I enjoyed being outdoors, and Annie, well, her idea of “roughing it” was a Holiday Inn without a hot tub. I packed up, supervised the boys packing, and off we went Friday after school.

It was a Scout campout. Adolescent boys cooking for themselves, over fires that they had lit, after collecting the wood, splitting it, laying the fire, and setting the tinder. Then, assembling the meals, from menus that they had selected, and cooked from scratch. Then, washing the dishes, themselves, in orderly groups, and, having sanitized everything, putting it away in an organized fashion.

Yeah, me too. I couldn’t hardly believe it, either. But, it happened. Just as it happened in Scout camps all over America, that very weekend, and others, year round.

So, after all this self-reliance-ing, and merit-badging, and (of course) running around out doors and in the dark and the wild, well, we came home Sunday night, dirty, smelling of woodsmoke, and tired. So, Annie and I, after dinner, set the boys to bathing, and cleaned up the kitchen, and started the laundry, and then chased the boys to bed early. Annie did wrinkle her nose at my eau-de-birch ambiance, and so I got my own clean up orders, at the conclusion of which, I lay down for a quick nap that turned out to last all night.

I awakened to Annie’s departure, although, it seemed, she thought me still asleep. I saw her standing in the bedroom doorway, looking at me. I couldn’t identify the look on her face, although it certainly seemed reflective. She glided to the bedside, bent, and softly kissed me on the lips. She murmured something, indistinctly heard, perhaps, “Honey, I’m so sorry for all this”, before she turned and left.

Once I had recovered from my time In The Great Outdoors, I went back to work. Surprisingly, there was a poverty of folks performing stupid human tricks, accompanying a deficit of coughs, colds, and miscellaneous sick folks to cure. So, again, I came home early. This time, they asked for volunteers to go home. (“Me! Me! Me! Oh, MeMeMe! Me! I’ll go home!”) Evidently, the boys had another sleep over at their sister’s (this was really becoming A Thing!), and it appeared that Annie figured it would provide another opportunity for happy, fun, times, with Lance.

Once I got home, it sounded as if one of the parties was not altogether enjoying their “happy, fun times”, as I heard crying, and moaned entreaties as I entered the door. Recalling my last such surprise entrance, I released the safety on my Colt, and crept toward the source of the sounds. Peeking around the jamb of my bedroom door, I beheld what appeared to be Lance, with a figure on her knees before him. I heard Annie pleading with Lance to stop, to release her, to stop it, because he was hurting her. Another glance, and I saw blood trickling down that expanse of her belly that I could see, between his knees. The next instant removed all doubt of what was happening. He drew back his arm, and delivered a slap, knocking her into my field of view. She was naked, and I saw where that trickle of blood originated. He had cut her lip, evidently with a previous blow, and I could see that she was bound.

Annie fell over onto her side, and before this dickhead reached to pick her up, I could see the cable tie holding her wrists together behind her. Sure sounded as if this had left “tawdry assignation” in the dust, and was flat out running into felonious assault. I still didn’t know if Annie had been fucking this dude voluntarily (or had been doing so, voluntarily, at one point), but this part was clearly non consensual as hell. She and I still had to sort what had been happening, but, she was still my wife and mother of my children, and I was goddamnned if some dickhead was gonna mishandle her while I was standing there.

I drew the Colt, and placed my, opened, pocket knife in my off hand. I entered the room, and placed the pistol muzzle over his right kidney. “Times up, motherfucker! Just slowly lay down, and don’t move quickly. I’m kinda twitchy, seeing my wife get assaulted!”

Of course, he did move quickly, pirouetting and pinning my gun hand against his right side. I stepped to my right, clearing Annie from my muzzle, and, as he reached over to wrestle the pistol from me, jerked my strong hand backwards rapidly. He turned to his left, my right, and while he was maneuvering on the pistol, I punched him as hard as I could, with my left hand, in his right flank, just under the ribs.