Robert Tanenbaum - Absolute rage

From the doorway of the barn, Lucy could see Dan and his mother on the other side of their car, just the tops of their bodies over the hood of the Jimmy. She couldn't hear what they were saying, but she could read the body language. Rose was arguing with him, her body stiff and bent a little toward him; he was turned slightly away with his face averted. Suddenly he broke away with a shake of his head and started back toward the house. His mother went after him and clutched at his sleeve, but he pulled away. Then Emmett leaped from the cab, caught up with Dan, grabbed him, and spun him around. Lucy heard their voices raised. Both their faces had gone red. Emmett shoved Dan toward the truck, Dan shoved him back, and when his brother snatched at the front of his shirt, Dan popped him one in the mouth, a short left. Emmett stepped back and felt his mouth. He looked at the blood on his hand and went at Dan.

Lucy knew a thing or two about boxing, and she could see that neither of them was a skilled boxer, just fairly decent bar fighters. Half a dozen blows traded, and a little wrestling, and then they were down on the ground, each trying to choke and pummel the other into submission. Emmett, bigger and heavier, soon got astride his brother and rained blows on his face. Their mother was screaming, now, "Stop it, oh, stop it," Lucy could hear that much. Rose bent over and tried to separate them, pulling at their clothes, their hair. A random elbow or knee clipped her in the jaw and she sat down hard. She put her face in her hands and wailed, a high, hopeless sound, like a small child. The twins and Lizzie, who had been playing with the puppies in the barn, came running out to stand next to Lucy. The boys watched in fascination. Lizzie bit her lip and was very still.

Lucy started toward the fight, not really thinking about what she would do when she arrived, but here she was forestalled by the arrival of her father and the agitator Russell. Russell yanked Emmett off Dan. Lucy could see blood all over Dan's face, and before she quite knew it, she was running toward him. She saw Emmett throw a clumsy punch at Russell, who ducked it and countered with a short, solid blow to the solar plexus. To Lucy's vast surprise, she saw her father slip behind Emmett and put him in a competent-looking half nelson. The young man bucked and yelled, but Karp was able to jam his face up against the truck and held him there, talking calmly, until, by a nod of his head, Emmett indicated he was through fighting.

Daniel had vanished. As soon as his brother was off him, he had taken off running. Lucy called out to him, but he ignored her and ducked between the house and the greenhouse, heading toward the big field, the dunes, and the beach. Lucy looked in the direction he had gone for a moment and then went to see if she could help Mrs. Heeney. Marlene was already on the job, however.

"What the hell, Rose! What was going on here?" Marlene helped Rose to her feet and examined her face. "Christ, you're going to have a fat mouse there. What happened?"

"Marlene, I don't want to talk about it," said Rose, pulling away and brushing the dirt from her blouse. "I'm fine. Just let me go home."

Emmett said, "I'm sorry, Mom." He actually hung his head. Lucy noted that he had turned from a somewhat frightening man to a sheepish, overgrown boy.

"Oh, just get in the truck, Emmett!" Rose snapped. "Lizzie! Come on, we're going."

They departed without another word. Karp and Marlene exchanged a look and a shrug. "Well! Who wants to go to the beach?" he said cheerily, got a yell of assent from his sons, and took them into the house.

"What happened?" Lucy asked her mother.

"Damned if I know. She wanted Dan to do something he didn't want to do but his Dad wanted him to, and Emmett apparently tried to muscle him."

"He wants to stay here and not go home to West Virginia. I'm going to go after him."

Lucy ran into the house and emerged a minute later with a bulging plastic freezer bag. She whistled up Gog, who emerged from the barn drinking and drooling but, as ever, game for a walk.

She followed the dog past the field and across the road and into the dunes and found Dan sitting near the place they had gone the first day.

"Are they gone?" he asked.

"Yes." She knelt in front of him and took a damp washcloth out of the bag.

"How did you find me?"

"I have an expensive tracking dog. Hold still, I'll get the blood and dirt off you."

She did so, gently and carefully. He closed his eyes and let her do it. He thought of his mother doing the same service, innumerable times, and considered in his analytic way just why this was different. He closed his eyes and let her work; he could smell the soap on her skin as she leaned close.

"There." She affixed a Band-Aid to a cut on his eyebrow. "You still look like you lost a fight, but you won't scare the children."

"Thank you. Are we playing doctor now?"

She ignored this. "What was he trying to do, your brother? Take you back by force?"

"Something like that. Emmett isn't really stupid, he just acts like it sometimes. Dad is God Almighty and I'm his play-pretty, and-"

"His what?"

She saw a blush creep up his battered cheek, which she thought charming. "Toy, I mean. When we were growing up, he was the enforcer. 'Emmett, go get your brother and make him fix his room.' He's still doing it. I used to daydream about sending away for one of those karate courses and studying in secret, and one day when he tried to beat on me… boom! But, needless to say…"

"You got him a few good ones," said Lucy encouragingly. "He's pretty tough."

"Yeah, he is. The only good part about being Emmett Heeney's brother was that he was the only one allowed to beat on me. I never had a hard look from another kid all through school." Dan paused, took a breath. "I'm not going back there. I hate it there."

"I figured that's what the fight was about. Why didn't your dad come over and yell at you himself?"

"Because he knew I'd say no, and he'd lose a point. He can't make me do anything. I'm eighteen, I have a full scholarship, and I can make enough money doing programming to pay my own way. Dad's a negotiator, and the first rule of negotiations is never put yourself in a position where you're going to lose. So he sent Mom and Emmett. That way he can throw up his hands and blame them. But the fight… it wasn't really about that. Mainly it was he made a really nasty remark about you. He made out… you know. That you were why I didn't wanted to go home and pass leaflets to the working class." Dan was starting to blush again.

"And you slugged him to defend my honor? " Before she could help it, a giggle burst from her mouth and she felt herself joining him in shameful red.

"I guess, in a way." The unfamiliar idea made Dan uncomfortable at first, but after a short while it seemed right. It was not impossible to think of this girl in those terms. Whether in fact Emmett had been correct in his surmise did not get discussed at this point.

"Well, thank you," she said. "No one has ever done that for me before. Of course, it's so rarely threatened in any way. My honor, I mean. I'm sorry you got so banged up."

"I've been beat worse." He picked a grass stem and started to chew it, then flung it away with the thought, oh, great, the perfect hick look, a big shiner and a grass stem in the mouth.

"So," said Lucy, "what now? You'll stay here? At your house?"

"No, they're all leaving after this weekend. People are coming to fix the place up and get it ready for sale. Maybe I'll get a tent and just live on the beach."

"Don't be silly! We can put you up, if you can stand us. I'm sure my mom won't mind. She likes a medieval menage-dogs, servants, retainers, children, all banging against one another and having to be straightened out. It's her fun."