I see them almost every day. June and David occupy the apartment across the hall from mine so we usually bump into each other on a regular basis. A sweet woman in her fifties, June Roberts still manages to keep attractive - to me anyway. Her hair remains jet black with no trace of grey and her figure, while fairly buxom, curves in all the right places. She is always pleasant to me - more than pleasant really - much to the chagrin of her most distasteful husband. David Roberts is not an agreeable person; large in stature and short in personality and humanity, his wife seems to live in almost perpetual fear of him.
As usual, I had been out early to collect the morning newspaper. With the paper under my arm I was just about to put my key in the lock when I heard the Roberts' door being opened.
"Morning, June!" I called as I saw my neighbour. It was still early and she wore a simple, light blue housecoat that hid her curvy form from my eyes.
"Hi Harry. You ok?"
I had known June and her husband for the eight years since they had moved into the building and I could tell now that she wanted to chat. I popped my newspaper inside my open door and walked across the hall to where June was tying her garbage sack. As always, our conversation flowed easily. We talked about what was in the news that day, June smiling up at me almost constantly. I guess we had been chatting for about ten minutes when I heard the rumbling voice of David from deep within their apartment.
"What the hell is taking you so long?" he shouted, "Jeez! I bet your flapping away to that creep from across the hall, aren't you? Come on, You haven't made breakfast yet!"
I stopped talking expecting June to disappear back into the apartment, but she simply sighed deeply, looked up into my eyes and continued her conversation. When he obtained no response, David shouted again and then quickly appeared on the doorstep beside his wife.
"Come on you," he said angrily, "come inside. NOW!"
I could see that June was a little frightened by his tone but stood her ground defiantly.
"In a minute." she said evenly. "I'm just talking to Harry - and he's NOT a creep!"
And then it happened. The inevitable. I think I saw David raise his hand before June did. The blow was open-handed, but the noise as his palm connected with June's face still resonated around the hall. I saw the tears form in June's eyes - more from shock than anything else, I think - all the emotions began to build up inside me. All the times David had moaned about this thing or that, all the snide jokes and sly digs that he constantly made and all the whispered secrets behind people's back's suddenly came flooding back to me. As my fist connected with his jaw, David fell backwards. It all seemed to happen in slow motion - the fall seemed to take minutes rather than a second. It all seemed surreal until I was quickly brought back to reality by the sickening thud of his head hitting the floor. I expected June to hate me. I expected her to go to her husband and never speak to me again. But that didn't seem to be happening. June simply stood there and looked down at David as he lay unconscious on the floor, a vacant expression on her face.
"Christ, sorry June. I didn't mean to hit him that hard. It's just that..that.."
