Chương 42: Book 2 - Chapter 10 C

The table had fallen into a comfortable silence of the hungry when an argument broke out at the table behind Clark, Harry and Matt. There were some loud words. Then the woman started screaming, "You're hurting me!" There was the dull smack of a punch, followed by more crying. Matt spun around to look. He glanced at me.

"Matt, rescue the lady," I told him.

"If he swings, put him down and keep him down." Matt stood to face the problem, towering over the table, the angry man, and a sobbing woman.

"Do you need help, ma'am?" he asked her. She looked up at him but didn't say anything, surprised anyone cared. The man sneered at Matt.

"Mind your own damn business. The slut is fine."

"Ma'am, would you like me to call the police for you? Perhaps an ambulance?" Matt tried again, ignoring the man. Harry stood up too.

"Listen buddy, this is a family restaurant. Take yourself home and cool down." The man, seeing the size difference between the two men, decided that he was still angry and that Harry was the easier target. He stumbled out of his chair clearly drunk.

"It's my family and if my bitch of a wife needs a lesson I'll give it to her and anybody else who interferes." He came right at Harry, swinging a haymaker. Neat as can be, Harry gave him a sharp left jab straight into the nose and the man went down hard. Matt put a foot on the angry man's chest to hold him there and the rest of the restaurant clapped in approval. I leaned over to Amber, who was as wide eyed as the rest of her family.

"Once a Marine always a Marine," I told her and she gave me a nod with a big smile full of family pride. Matt looked at me and I gave him a thumbs up. He nodded in return. Finally management arrived, with shouts of, "What's going on here!" Janet, ready to defend any member of her family, hopped onto offense.

"About time you get here. This man was beating his wife, right here at this table and nobody did anything! My husband asked him to leave, so he tried to hit him!" she said with emphatic pointing.

"This is a family restaurant!" she continued, volume rising.

"Why did you even let this drunk man in here?" Matt was looking bewildered. Harry was looking rather proud of himself. Dick was looking at his Dad with new respect and Clark was still trying to figure out what had happened behind him while he had been shoveling food into his face.

"Janet, does the lady need help?" I asked. At my words she turned to face the crying woman. The manager gave me a grateful look. Janet transformed from defender to caregiver.

"Miss?" she asked the softly crying and tormented woman.

"Do you need help? Here let's take you to the bathroom to get cleaned up." The manager was beginning to get worried that Matt was not letting the man up. Matt looked down at the man.

"You ready for round two buddy?"

"No, I'll go home," he said through a bloody nose.

"No, you'll go to jail, I've called the Police!" said the manager. The man started to curse and try to go for the manager, but Matt just held him down. The manager, seeing this, looked at Matt.

"Would you mind holding him?" he asked the immovable Matt.

"Till the Police get here?"

"It would be my pleasure," Matt said, smiling grimly at the man on the floor.

"That was a nice punch," Matt told Harry.

"Were you a Marine boxer?"

"No. I wanted to be, I was skilled, but I just wasn't fast enough."

"I'll hold him," Matt assured Harry.

"Why don't you eat before your food gets cold."

"Sure you got him?" he asked Matt. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"Oh I've got him. He's not going anywhere." Just as Harry turned around, the angry man tried to claw at Matt's leg. He gave him a quick kick in the side, and put his foot back down on his chest, hard. Knocking the wind out of him, he softly told the man, "You just stay still and wait for the Police."

"I'm still starving. You ready for dessert or more chicken nuggets?" I asked Dick, breaking free the transfixed family.

"I think I'll have both!" he said, smiling. Amber watched us walk back to the buffet wondering how we could eat when something so exciting was happening. It took 15 minutes for the Police to show up. The Police car lights flashing through the restaurant windows. I leaned over to Amber to warn her.

"Better let your Mom know the Police are here. She's still in the bathroom with that lady. Be sure you don't talk to the Police. Let the adults in the restaurant defend your Dad. They won't believe you because you're family." She immediately got up and went to the bathroom. I looked at Dick and Clark.

"You heard what I said?" they nodded.

"You think I might be in trouble?" Harry asked worriedly.

"No, everyone saw what happened. But if Amber gets started in on telling them what happened the Police might just arrest her in self defense." Harry and the boys laughed, but understood it was serious. The manager led the officers to our section of the restaurant. When they saw Matt they tensed, and their hands tightened on their holsters. The manager came up to Matt.

"Thank you, sir. The Police are here so you can let that wife beater up now," he told him. The Police relaxed and scooped the angry man up off the floor, put him in cuffs and marched him out the door to polite clapping from the other restaurant patrons. After securing him in the back of their cruiser they were back. The manager made introductions.

"I requested this gentleman hold him down when he continued to act violent. This gentleman punched him in self defense when he was asked to quietly go home because he was causing a ruckus. His wife is the one who took the poor lady to the bathroom."

"I'm very sorry that your food got cold," the manager told Matt.

"Can I bring you another steak and baked potato?"

"Yes please, but can you make it to go? I have to get the kid home before his curfew," he told the manager.

"Sure. No problem," he said. One Police officer interviewed Harry and a couple other men who saw what happened. Nobody mentioned the kick Matt gave him, if anyone even saw it. The second Police officer came back shaking his head.

"I called for an ambulance. I've never seen anyone beaten that badly still walking around." That seemed to be the final straw. The officer collected names and phone numbers, thanked us for being good citizens and left when the ambulance arrived for the lady. I had managed two more trips to the buffet plus another to the ice cream machine as everything played out. I was finally feeling full. So was Dick. Harry was having trouble finishing and Amber was with her Mom.

Clark was looking at Amber's plate, wondering if he should make another trip to the buffet. I handed her plate to him.

"No sense letting this go to waste." He ate it, then decided he did want another trip. Matt's to-go order arrived. He looked at me. I stood, and walked around the table.

"Mr Petworth, it was an honor meeting a man willing to do something when confronted with real evil," I told him, reaching out to shake his hand. I reached out to shake Clark's hand.

"If you need more help, just call me, I'm happy to help," I told him and handed him a business card.

"Dick, nice meeting you. I think we put a dent in the buffet they will not forget." He gave me a firm, confident handshake.

"Matt, let's get home before Mom worries too much about us, or before this is on the evening news," I told him. Amber gave me a quick hug goodbye, but Matt and I both stayed out of the reach of Mrs Petworth. As we were driving home Matt asked, "How much of that did you know was going to happen?"

"I'm sorry I spent so long in the bathroom at the University," I told him.

"I know it embarrassed you."

"That was so Amber would see you in the parking lot?"

"Yup. I can't be everywhere, but I've got to be somewhere, right?"

"So everything that happened afterwards, was because you spent fifteen minutes in the bathroom?" he asked.

"Cindy Chisholm. That's the name of the lady he was beating. Two weeks from now he would have beaten her to death, then run and hid out in Arkansas. They never would have caught him.

"Now, she'll get free of him. She has never seen anyone take him down before. Between that and the embarrassment of the restaurant applauding you guys for protecting her, she finally has enough determination to get help.

"She'll file a restraining order, social services will help her and when she presses charges he'll get ten years in prison for assault. He will pick on the wrong guy in jail and get himself killed.

"It won't be a perfect life for her, but at least she will have a life to live," I finished.

"It's worth having," he said softly to himself. Then he looked in the rear-view mirror at me.

"What are you going to tell your Mom?"

"I had a great dinner with friends," I said with a laugh.

"What Mom doesn't know can't hurt me."