The House on Olive Street (26 page)

“I don’t know. Maybe.”

“If you found out that ten dinners with him were pleasant, if you found him to be sweet and gentle and loving, would you rethink this idea of leaving him?”

“Sable, it’s too soon to say whether I would. I’m not thinking that far ahead. I just agreed to go to dinner with him and talk about the plans I have for the baby.”

“If he didn’t hit you for, say, a year, would you think you were safe? Would you move back in with him? You and the baby?”

“Why are you doing this to me? I haven’t said I’m moving back in with him!”

“I just want to know whether you believe him,” Sable said.

“What?”

“Do you believe him? Believe what he says? Believe what he said to you out there on the planter box?”

“You don’t even know what he said!”

“Doesn’t matter,” Sable said.
“Do you believe what he said to you?”

“Yes!” she burst out. “Yes, I believe him, but he didn’t say anything suspicious. He just said he was sorry. He’s getting counseling. He knows where he went wrong. He’d like another chance, maybe counseling for both of us, but he’ll understand if I’m not willing to try again. He just wants to take me to dinner!”

“You willing to bet on that?” Sable asked.

“Oh, Sable….”

“Really. Wanna bet?”

“No, I don’t want to bet! I just want to see for myself!”

“That’s just as good. Give me ten, maybe twelve minutes with him. Go back to the bedroom or up to the loft where you can hear real good and wait. Listen.”

“What?” Beth asked, totally perplexed.

“Beth, do you trust me?” Sable asked.

“Of course I
trust
you. But you may be wrong about—”

“If you’re right, if he’s telling the truth about how much he cares, how much he loves you, and how much he’s changed, he’s all yours. If you do this one thing for me, I’ll never ask another thing of you as long as I live. If you’ll just let me have him for ten minutes and not say a word or try to butt in no matter what happens, I’ll be your slave till you die. I’ll babysit for free till I’m ninety.”

“What are you going to do?” Barbara Ann asked nervously.

“I’m just going to talk to him. As Beth’s most trusted friend, I’d like to assure myself that he has her best interests at heart. Just listen,” Sable said. “And don’t stop either one of us. Just listen for ten minutes. If I’m wrong about him, I’ll apologize. I’ll get down on my knees and kiss his shiny little pilot shoes. I’ll take back every bad thing I ever said about Jack Mahoney, if I’m wrong.”

“That’s not too much to ask,” Barbara Ann said cautiously. “You afraid to see what he’s made of?”

“No,” Beth said. “But I don’t see the point in just trying to make him mad. Why stir up trouble? If Jack’s—”

“If Jack’s a good boy who knows where he went wrong, who’s sorry and who’s in counseling and who loves you, then Jack doesn’t have anything to worry about, does he? Come on, Beth. Take a chance.”

“This isn’t smart,” she said. “This isn’t a good idea….”

“Why? Do you think he could be…I don’t know…volatile and unpredictable? Because if you think that,
you shouldn’t even have dinner with him. If you think he could get mad and maybe lose his temper if someone says the wrong thing to him, you’re in big trouble, aren’t you? But if you think he’s on the mend here, maybe learning to control his temper, then there’s nothing to worry about, is there?”

“Look, even the mildest-mannered man can be pushed too far,” Beth said.

“Hey, Beth, I’ve known a lot of men over the years and I’ve been brutal to a few. I’ve even pushed a couple with bad tempers too far. I’ve been called a bitch before—I can handle it. If Jack’s safe enough for you and the baby, then he’ll be docile and controlled and civil no matter what I say to him, right? He knows he was wrong, right? I’m not going to hit him, for gosh sakes. I’m not going to make him defend himself. Come on, Beth. Give him a chance to prove himself.”

“Come on, Beth,” Barbara Ann said. “What’s ten minutes out of the rest of your life?”

“I don’t know about this, Sable.” But Barbara Ann was already leading her away, already calling to Elly to join them in the loft.

“Time doesn’t start till he knocks on the door, wondering where you are.”

“Okay,” Barbara Ann called back.

“Oh dear,” Beth said as she was being dragged away.

Sable paced. She had a real gift for making a man want to belt her, this much she knew. But that wasn’t going to be enough. If Beth listened in and decided that Sable’s actions were somehow outrageous, no matter what the outcome, Jack would not be indicted. A part of Beth still believed that it was all right for a man to hit a woman if she provoked him. It would be Sable’s fault. About three minutes had passed when there was a knock
at the door. Sable quickly ran into the family room and looked up at the loft. “You can start timing me now,” she said in a stage whisper.

Barbara Ann peeked over and gave her the okay sign.

“Stay out of sight up there,” Sable added. She ran to the door and opened it. He had a frown on his face. He’d been kept waiting for at least ten minutes. Sable hadn’t even thought about what an advantage that was. “Oh, hello, Jack. Come in.”

“Where’s Beth?” he asked, stepping over the threshold.

“In her room, I’m afraid. Crying, I think. Poor thing. She’s changed her mind. She asked me to tell you.”

“Changed her mind about what?” he asked.

“Didn’t you offer to take her to dinner? Well, she decided against it. She said to tell you.”

“Go get her,” he said. “She’ll have to tell me herself.”

“She’s with Barbara Ann and Eleanor,” Sable said. “We’ve convinced her that this would be a mistake. She’s going to pass—”

“This is none of your goddamn business, you know,” he said. “Now go get my wife.”

Sable became heady with power. What was Beth thinking? He was already mad and nothing had even happened yet.

“Well, you know how women are. We made it our business. We feel we’re in this together. We love Beth, see. We hate seeing all those bruises on her. It’s revolting.” She saw his eyes narrow and the muscles in his jaw begin to tense. “You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Jack. You’re a lot bigger than Beth. And hitting her when she’s pregnant, too. That’s really low.”

He inhaled sharply through his nose and glared at her. “Fine,” he said. “Tell her to call me when she’s ready to talk.” He turned and opened the door to leave.

Sable panicked. She hadn’t counted on him being unwilling to have even a verbal tussle with her. But then he didn’t beat up everyone, did he? He worked with women on the job and wouldn’t still be flying if he punched every one who crossed him.

“There’s something I think you should know,” she said. He turned around in the open door. “I was the one who told her you were fucking around. I saw you in New York. In a hotel bar. With your hand up the skirt of some young blonde. Flight attendant?”

He stared at her for a second. Then a slow, mean smile spread across his lips. “That so?” he asked, but it didn’t sound like a question. “Well, thanks for nothing.”

“I thought she should know. So, are you getting counseling for that, too?”

“Listen, why don’t you just mind your own fucking business and stay out of mine.”

“I guess with a job like yours, it’s pretty easy to pick up women. Talk about a cheap date. The airline pays for the hotel and you probably get per diem checks to cover the dinner. I guess that would be a hard habit to break. What I can’t figure out is, what’s a guy who loves women so much doing punching them around? I don’t think Beth would have complained about all your screwing around if you’d just had the good sense to keep your hands off her.”

Jack glared at her for a second and then his upper body bounced with a small huff of laughter. He turned his back on her and walked out the door, slowly pulling it closed behind him.

Well, great idea, Sable, she thought. That was a bust. The gentlest man in the world would have had a hard time keeping his temper under control during a confrontation like that. She’d done everything but call him
names. And she’d been as snotty as she could be. So what did she prove? Big fat zero. She proved that Jack Mahoney could be badgered by a bitchy woman and would walk away before even talking back.

She sighed in defeat and began to move away from the door. It would be hard to apologize to Beth for that.

The door swung back open behind her; he hadn’t even pulled it all the way closed. “You know, I have you to thank for ruining my marriage. I love my wife. Until she got involved with you, we didn’t have so many problems.”

Sable turned around. He was standing there in the open door. He came in and slammed it. “Beth and I have a few things to work out, but it isn’t one-sided,” he said. “I’m not the only one with the temper. I’m not the only one who gets a little mad. Married people have disagreements all the time. That’s how it goes.”

“Getting mad and beating people up are two different things. Or didn’t you learn that one in kindergarten with the rest of us.”

“It’s not like that happened all the time. I got pushed too far a couple of times, that’s all. Maybe two times. I apologized. Under the right circumstances, anyone can make that mistake. Hell, you think Beth didn’t do a lot to push it that far? It wasn’t something that happened unless I was provoked.”

“What about your last two wives, Jack? Did they
provoke
you into beating them, too?”

“Is that what they said? Well, let me tell you something—they’re both lying whores. Both of them! All either of them ever wanted out of me was money—and the best way to go after it is to claim abuse. I never laid a hand on either one of them!”

“So, Beth is the first woman you’ve beaten up? I find that remarkable.”

“I never beat her up! Is that what she said? It’s not true. It’s not true. It got a little physical a couple of times—she had as much to do with that as I did. But I
never
beat anyone up! Were the police ever called? No! Was there ever a visit to a doctor? No! We had a couple of fights—that happens to people, okay? We just have some things to work out and when she gets away from you dykes, we’re going to be fine.”

“Dykes?” Sable repeated, nearly laughing.

“Libbers. Bitches. We never had a single problem until she started listening to you and those other two broads. There’s no way we can work anything out while she’s being brainwashed by the likes of you women. She needs to come home where we can handle our problems in private. That’s what a marriage is—private.”

“I’ve been friends with Beth almost her entire marriage! When was it your relationship was so untroubled? The first two months?”

“You know, you’ve got one hell of a nerve, talking to me like that. I’ve done for Beth and provided for her all these years and she’s never wanted for anything….”

“She wanted a husband, that’s what she told me.”

“I’ve taken care of her just fine. There isn’t anything I denied that woman. Not anything!”

“A baby,” Sable said. “You not only forbade her to get pregnant, you warned her she’d better get an abortion before you got back from your trip ‘or else.’ What’s ‘or else’ mean to you, Jack? You going to kill her next time?”

“You’re blowing this all out of proportion. I’m not perfect, okay. She hit me with it when I was worrying about other things. She did it behind my back—tricked me. She didn’t even talk to me about it first. But I’ve given that woman everything I have to—”

“Really? What have you given her? Boats and planes and lake property and ski trips and poker games and—”

“She can have anything she wants, she knows that! You’ve poisoned her mind against me when all we need to do is talk things over.”

“Save it, Jack. You beat her. You fucked around on her, beat her up, emotionally abused her and tried to isolate her. We’re the only friends she’s got, because even though you weren’t home, you couldn’t take the risk that there would be people in her life, people who might tell her she didn’t have to live with an ape like you.”

“When was the last time you even had a man, huh? What do you even know about it? You married? You ever been married?”

“Oh, don’t tempt me to tell you what I know about that.”

“Well, you don’t know shit about it, that’s how much you know. I need my wife back and I’ll be goddamned if I’m going to stand by and tolerate some butch chick like you spoiling her mind against her own husband, the father of her child, when—”

“She can’t work things out with you,” Sable said flatly. “It’s too dangerous for the child.”

“She
has
to work things out with me! I’m her husband! She can’t just walk away when she feels like it. We have vows. We said till death do us part!”

“She hopes to avoid that eventuality. Now get out of here.”

“Go get my wife,” he ground out. “Or I’ll go get her myself.”

“Kiss my ass.”

“Don’t push me, bitch. You’re starting to make me really mad.”

“Oh really? You mean, you’re just starting to get mad? This is just the beginning? That’s what I thought. When you get really mad, you—” She stopped midsentence and looked at him curiously. He had been far too easy to incite. This was a bad case. A lot of abusive men could hide their tempers when they had to. True, Sable knew the way to an abuser’s fist—years of practice, and all. But Jack’s fuse was shorter than short. “Tell me something, Jack. How young was the youngest baby you beat up?”

“Get my wife,” he said, singularly emphasizing each word.

“You beat your children,” she said.

“That’s a lie. That’s a fucking lie.”

“That’s why you pay child support but you don’t have visitation, right? Because the court protects them from you. Because you beat them. When they were small and helpless, you beat your babies.”

“That is a fucking goddamn lie!”
he screamed, his hand coming out at her face so fast she didn’t even have time to duck. She flew backward, her buttocks hitting the tile floor with such force that she slid about four feet. Her hand had barely come up to her cheek when he was on top of her, choking her, screaming at her and calling her obscene names. She returned to a very familiar time and place—stars swirling around in her darkening vision. She remembered sustaining a blow like that from Butch and one of her odd semiconscious thoughts being, “There really are stars.”