Charlie Green pulled into the motel parking lot, cut the engine to his
Crown Vic and waited for his wife’s lover to arrive. He leaned back in
his seat and pulled out a half eaten double cheeseburger from a
wrinkled bag and ate. The trailblazer that his wife drove sat in the
parking lot beneath room 6B just a few spaces down and across from
where he waited. Ten minutes later a Ford F-150 pulled into the motel
and parked in the space next to the trailblazer. A man with shaggy
dark hair, white cut-off sleeve shirt and denim jeans got out and
walked up to room 6B on the second level.
Charlie waited five more minutes, enjoying a cigarette. He finished
and flicked the butt out of the open window. Wiping the crumbs of his
lunch from his black t-shirt he got out of the car and headed for 6B.
He walked up the metal steps to the second level and pulled out a
fresh pack of Camels he bought on the way to the motel. He threw the
plastic wrap on the ground and packed them against the palm of his
hand. Ten times, every time. He had OCD about it. He had OCD about a
lot of things. He pulled out a cancer stick, lit it and rapped his
knuckles against the door. A woman wearing a tight wife beater, jeans
and a shocked expression opened the door.
“Charlie,” she said.
“Hello, Mandy.”
“What are you doing here?”
“You going to let me in?”
She turned without a word and let the door creak all the way open.
Charlie entered the room, cigarette dangling from his lips. The man
from the F-150 lay on the single bed, shirtless, drinking a beer.
Charlie recognized him from an office Christmas party picture of
Mandy’s. He had been dressed in an elf costume with his arm draped
around her and another girl. An I’m-fucking-your-wife smile spread
across his bearded face.
“Who the hell is this?” the man said getting to his feet.
“This is my husband. Charlie,” said Mandy.
Charlie took a drag from his cigarette. The ember glowed only half as
bright as the fire of anger in his eyes. Flicking ash he exhaled a
plume of smoke in the other man’s face.
“What the fuck is he doing here?” he said standing eye to eye with
Charlie. Reaching behind his back Charlie pulled his 9mm and slapped
the guy across the bridge of his nose with the barrel. The man grabbed
his face as blood squirted between his fingers.
“Ah, fuck.” The man cupped his nose with his hands and fell to his knees.
“Shut up. I need to talk to my wife,” Charlie said.
“Charlie,” said Mandy. “What are you doing?”
The Other Man lay on the floor groaning and spitting blood. “You broke
my fugging nose, asshole.”
Trying to maintain his cool Charlie grabbed him by the hair and shoved
the Beretta into his mouth. “Shut the fuck up. I will fuck you in the
face with this. Do you understand me, you smug piece of shit?”
The Other Man mumbled something inaudible, possibly yes, and then
Charlie shoved him onto the bed.
“You’re crazy, Charlie. Just go home,” Mandy said and retreated into
the bathroom, slamming the door behind her.
“Not without you,” Charlie shouted through the door. “We have some
things to talk about.”
She opened the door and stuck her head through the crack, tears
bubbling in her eyes. “It’s too late to talk. Just leave me alone.”
He replaced the gun and slid his fingers over his buzz cut head.
Confusion, anger and heartbreak writhed over and under in his gut like
a school of hungry koi. He put out his cigarette, quickly fired up
another and looked around the room. The Other Man was gone. Must have
had enough of the married life for one day.
“Mandy, please come out so we can talk like adults here.”
“Just go home. What are you even doing here? Spying on me?”
He didn’t respond because the answer was obvious. Charlie paced the
room instead, smoking and listening to his wife’s sobs coming from the
bathroom.
Minutes later, Mandy opened the door and came out like a groundhog
scared of its shadow. Her eyes were red from crying. “I don’t know
what happened to us. Ever since she died you haven’t been the same.”
She looked up into his eyes. “She was my daughter too, Charlie.”
Charlie didn’t say anything. He hung his head and inhaled smoke. He
didn’t want to think about the accident. It had to be more than that.
Sure, he had been a little withdrawn lately. As a private investigator
he had a lot of people to check on and follow up with. Mandy was a
nurse, working long hours. Amy had been gone a year. He took another
drag and let the smoke leak between his lips. It swirled around his
head like little phantoms.
“So, that’s why you’re fucking a co-worker, because Amy is gone? What
kind of shit is that?”
“No, I’m not.” Mandy ran her fingers through her long hair and
groaned. “I’m not sleeping with him.”
Charlie stepped toward her, causing her to take a step back. An inch
from her face he said, “Then what was this? He’s sitting in a motel
room with you, his shirt off and his dick trying to break out of his
pants.”
“Okay. I admit I planned to sleep with him today. But we never have before.”
“You’ve never slept with the guy before?”
“Never,” she said.
The rage cooled a few degrees and he stepped away from her to try and
think. She sat down on the edge of the bed. She said, “Since she’s
been gone you’ve been so distant. You’ve been working extra hours,
coming home so late. I feel like I don’t even know you anymore.” Tears
streamed down her face and dripped from the edge of her jaw. “I was
lonely.”
Charlie stamped out his cigarette in an ashtray on the dresser. “I
didn’t leave that gate open. It wasn’t my fault.”
“I know, Charlie. It was an accident. It wasn’t anyone’s fault,” Mandy
said. Her voice caught in her throat. “She just fell in.”
He leaned against the dresser and lowered his head, fighting back
tears. “We should have built a fence around that pool.”
“She’s not the only one I lost that day, you know.” Mandy lightly
touched his face.
She burst into tears again and Charlie wrapped his arms around her.
The pain of their loss bringing them close as the memory of their lost
daughter hovered over them, a dark fog of misery and regret.
They embraced each other at the edge of the bed in silence. Minutes
passed as they slowly regained their composure.
“I’m sorry.” Mandy said.
Charlie remained quiet in his cloud of despair.
Mandy said, “I shouldn’t have done this.”
“No, you shouldn’t have.” He stood up. “But, you’re right. We have
grown apart. Things haven’t been very good between us.”
Mandy lay back onto the bed with a loud sigh. “Let’s just go home and
forget this ever happened. We can work on some things. Get close
again.”
Charlie wondered how he could ever forget that his wife was trying to
have an affair with a man she worked with every day. Before he could
speak the devil appeared.
Now wearing a shirt and a bandage across his nose The Other Man walked
through the open door and said, “That’s him. That’s the fucker that
broke my nose.”
Another man the size of a Volkswagen Beetle squeezed into the room
behind him. Charlie noticed they both had guns stuffed into their
waistbands. Without a word The Volkswagen lumbered toward Charlie.
Charlie reached for his gun, but before he could aim it the big man
snatched it from his grip and tossed it across the room. He hit the
guy with a right, then a left in the face, but the guy just laughed.
Kicking his steel toe boot into the big man’s knee Charlie brought him
down like a fallen oak. As he fell Charlie slammed an elbow to the
man’s temple, then wrapped an arm around his throat and put him in a
choke hold.
The Other Man, still standing in the doorway, pulled his .45 and
pointed it at Charlie. “You motherfucker,” he said and pulled the
trigger.
The bullet sounded like a wasp buzzing past his ear. Charlie pushed
the unconscious man to the ground and stepped over him to face the
shooter. He lunged at the man and grabbed his wrist holding the gun,
slamming his other hand into the guys elbow. The gun went off again
before it fell from his grasp. Charlie rammed his elbow into the guy’s
chin. The Other Man hit the ground but didn’t go unconscious. He
kicked at Charlie’s leg knocking him to the ground.
Charlie leapt onto the man with the agility of a panther. He pummeled
his knuckles into the guy’s teeth and broken nose. The man tried to
fight off the blows, but only grunted in pain as his face was bashed
to bloody pulp. Charlie kept hitting him and hitting him until finally
he stopped moving. He groaned in agony and spit a mouthful of blood
onto the floor. Charlie stood up, grabbed the .45 and turned to check
on Mandy.
He immediately saw the blood splatter sliding down the wall. Mandy
splayed across the bed. There was a weeping hole in her throat. She
tried to speak but only a wet gurgle escaped. The bed soaked up her
blood. She looked at Charlie with fear in her wide eyes, trying to
breathe.
“Baby”, he whispered. “Baby, no.”
Charlie sat on the motel bed cradling his wife in his arms and wept as
she stopped struggling for her last breath.
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