This work is inspired by "My Reward" by Azil.
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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.