This work is inspired by "My Reward" by Azil.
------------------------------
Melissa was over again a few days later working on homework, as she had been for the last several days, although I got the impression it was more for an excuse not to be home than anything else.
"You care more about your fucking golf swing than your daughter!" we clearly heard Beth yell from across the street. Everyone but Melissa was shocked we could hear them from across the street. I looked out the kitchen window and saw Mike had stormed out of the house, with Beth yelling at him from the front door.
"I work hard to provide for this family, I deserve to have somethings for myself!" Mike yelled back as he dragged a garbage can down to the curb. Rather than place it for pickup the next morning, he basically threw it towards the street, the can upending its contents into the road.
"You don't need a thousand dollar a month country club membership more than your daughter needs an education! You can go to a different course for a few months," Beth countered.
"That does not sound good," Charlie commented, looking worriedly at Melissa, who sat at the table, frozen stiff.
"The tuition is insane. There ain't no need to pay all this when she can just go to a state school like I did," he yelled as he stormed back up the driveway. Beth, rather than going back inside, came out into the yard to meet him halfway, then stormed past him to the pile of garbage, picking the can up and fishing some items from the detritus, which she then swung around to brandish at Mike.
"She hasn't even picked a school yet! How do you know where she wants to go? I can't believe you are throwing away materials from schools that are reaching out to her!" Beth replied, waving a wadded up pile of discarded brochures and letters at him. "Did you think I wouldn't notice? You were suddenly in a hell of a hurry to take out the trash, something that you NEVER do," she added, shoving the materials into his arms, then turning to clean up the other trash.
"Sorry if I am too busy working for this family to do menial labor! Some of us are in charge of an entire department and have to see patients, not just cart around towels and stick in the occasional needle all day!" Mike said, trying to shove the papers back into the garbage can. Beth blocked him and again pushed them back into his hands.
"I work long hours just like you do and you better damn well know I do way more than that. I bet I do more on most shifts than you do in week!" she screamed, "And only one of us ever does ANYTHING in this house!!"
"Oh please! You're not even a practitioner, nothing you do is hard. Why should you be telling me what to do with the money I earn for this family? You barely contribute much anyway. You only even have that job because the hospital wanted to hire me in the first place!"
"Do you need anything?" John asked, seeing Melissa at this point holding her hands over her ears. Charlie came over and hugged her from behind as I looked worriedly across the street. Several of the other neighbors had come out to see what was happening too, and I saw the telltale glow of several smartphone screens; they were definitely on camera.
There was a loud crashing sound as Mike kicked over the trashcan again, throwing the brochures on the ground and stomping on them for good measure while angrily yelling. I headed for the door, cell phone in hand.
"Tom, where are you going?" Charlie yelled.
"Strong words are one thing, but Mike looks like he might lose it. I have to make sure Beth is ok," I called back. Several of the other neighbors had switched to talking into their phones while others kept filming, so I figured the police had been called and getting over there and in between them was the most important thing.
"You son of a bitch, you know full well I took this job specifically so you could have that one! You were so desperate for it, I dropped out of practitioner school so we could move out here, all for the sake of your career!! " Beth yelled back, too incensed to care about the re-toppled trash heap.
"I got you that job and I can make sure you never get another anywhere in this town!" Mike spat back. "I'm the doctor, I'm the specialist, I'm the department head, I'm the important one!! NOT YOU!!! You're just a shift nurse!" He screamed back, fists clenched and shaking with rage.
"Beth, Mike, is everything ok?" I yelled as I ran over and got between them.
"Tom, thanks for coming," Beth said. "Mike's gone crazy!"
"Oh if it isn't Tom, your best friend," Mike yelled, lifting the trashcan over his head and making to throw it. "Of course. Tom who's always around. Tom who you can talk to about anything. My daughter is over at your house right now, isn't she?!?! Stop sticking your nose in my family business Mallory!!"
"Mike, put the trash can down. The entire neighborhood knows what's going and and you're on on camera," I told him as calmly as I could muster, raising my arms defensively in case he actually did try to hit me with the trashcan. "I will lay you out if you even think of trying to hit either of us with that!" Faint sirens could be heard approaching.
"Go away, Mallory!" Mike yelled again, barely coherent. "I am talking to my wife!" he yelled, and reared back preparing to hit me over the head with the can. Beth slid in around me before I could even react and let out a haymaker right into Mike's stomach. He went down hard in front of me, gasping, the trash can falling directly onto him as flashing lights flooded the scene.
"Not anymore," she said icily.
The cops pulled up, and I quickly stepped to the side, hands up just in case. One of them went over and picked Mike up. "She attacked me!" he yelled, but the cop ignored him, forcing his arms behind his back, pushing him over the hood of the cruiser, and cuffing him while reading him his rights.
We spent the evening giving police statements. Beth nearly ended up being taken in as well; she had been the only one to actually hit the other. There were enough witnesses, several cell phone films, and the cops' dash cams had captured the the last part as they pulled up, so there were no doubt who was the aggressor, though. Melissa ran out and into her mother's arms, crying, and was eventually shown into her house with Charlie and John to keep her company while Beth and I continued to talk to the police.
Beth and Melissa gathered Mike's belongings into a couple trashbags and delivered them to the police lockup where he was being held the next morning. They had a restraining order against him before the local courthouse opened, and a divorce with sole custody went through within a few hours, both thanks to Power. No one noticed or cared freakishly fast that was or the lack of any trial or hearing for any of it. Beth basically got everything that wasn't in those trashbags, and some hefty alimony to boot. Mike yelled bloody murder from the cell when he was informed, trying to argue he should be the one keeping the house, that it was his money, that Melissa was his daughter. The more he yelled the higher the alimony payment went.
The hospital was none to eager to be associated with him after the videos went up online, and he quickly discovered it was he, not Beth, who would never work in this town again. That didn't need any intervention from me (the hospital didn't want to be anywhere near this PR nightmare). By the end of the day, Mike was homeless, broke, and and out of a job. Mike slunk out of town with what few items he had left a few days later after being released and told in no uncertain terms that if he went within 10 miles of Beth or Melissa ever again he would be in jail for life before he ever got in sight of them (with Power reinforcing his belief that they could do that).
Charlie and I were over at Beth's house for the next few days (Power getting all of us out of work, though Melissa still went to school) helping expunge all signs of Mike from the house. I discreetly had Power remove and conjure up new furniture and do some slight instant renovations with no one finding it odd. No sign of Mike remained in the house. Beth and Melissa both changed went back to Beth's maiden name, Silversmith.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I was having a cup of coffee together with Beth at her new dining room table a couple days later, discussing the usual things: kids, the idiots on the city council, and the weather, her job. The incident and the former resident were taboo subjects. I noticed Beth looking at me with a serious expression, thinking hard about something. "Tom, I'm going to ask you a question that makes me feel very funny. I hope you don't mind."
"You know you can ask me anything," I replied, curious.
"I enjoy your company, but you are over here all the time hanging out. And the sex... I mean I like it, god do I like it... but it occurs to me we have fucked in your pool, in your house, in my house, on the street..." She was warmed up and the words were coming fast. "It's noon right now; my shift starts at 2, but shouldn't you be at work? You're part-owner of a business. And, Tom, I think you're a great lover and all that..." I smiled and thanked her, but she would not be derailed. "Even teenagers have to rest, but you keep going for hours at a time. Yesterday you fucked me for I think 5 hours straight after breakfast and somehow I got to my noon shift on time. I manage to get all the things done around the house even with you fucking me all the time..." She stopped and took a breath.