Jim handed Chloe a beer with his left hand and stared at his own in his right. Time for a little courage he thought as he took a big drink. This beer was much better than what he had on the night of his birthday. It had a much stronger flavor and he didn’t feel the need to vomit at the very smell of it. Nothing but the best for the Summer Celebration apparently he thought. He didn’t like the taste, but figured that if he had enough it wouldn’t matter anymore. Chloe took a drink from hers as well. Jim was finally ready to try and have a conversation when a woman began screaming behind the band.
“You lousy Son of a Bitch you slept with an Ist didn’t you?”
The woman yelling at the top of her lungs startled the pair and they both turned in the direction the sound had come from. “Well someone is angry,” Chloe joked as she grabbed Jim’s free hand. “Come on let’s see what’s going on.” Her blonde hair bounced as she pushed her way through the crowd dragging Jim along behind her. What horrible timing Jim thought until he realized that Chloe was holding his hand.
“Now Doreen; just calm down honey. You’re making a scene.”
The man was speaking softly and Jim could barely make out his words. He did recognize him though. Jim leaned in close to Chloe’s left ear and whispered, “That’s Patrick Dempsey. He’s my neighbor. I think he works in the food panty.”
Chloe leaned into his ear and Jim could feel her warm breath on it. “Yeah I recognize him. He used to be the mayor’s assistant until Mayor Parker was elected. I’ve heard some rumors that he was crooked, but no one seems to have any proof.”
“Don’t you ‘now honey’ me. I don’t care if I make a scene. Joanna saw you heading up North a few days ago and now I hear that there are Ist around. What am I supposed to think?”
Jim could tell that the man was getting frustrated. He let out a big sigh and raised his hand up in the air. The sarcasm in his tone screamed that this was not going to end quickly. “I don’t know, how about thinking that you should trust your husband? How is that for what you are supposed to think? Maybe, ooh crazy idea, just maybe you should ask him in private instead of yelling at him in front of the whole town. Oh and how about just this once having the conversation BEFORE you start drinking?” She started to speak, but he cut her off. “Besides if I were to ever cheat on you I haven’t sunken quite low enough to do it with a filthy Ist woman.”
The woman was crying now, but fought back the tears with loud sobs. “How do you know there is a woman up there and that she’s dirty if you weren’t up there with her?” The words were barely understandable through the sobs.
“I know there’s a woman because I heard the stories about yesterday just like you did and I know she is dirty because she is an IST. Of course she is dirty. Besides who knows if the stories are even true. There might not even be an Ist woman up north.”
“Jim knows.” Jim was caught completely off guard by Chloe suddenly speaking out loud. He was caught even more off guard by her hand shoving him out towards the fighting couple. “He was there yesterday. He knows exactly what happened and what the woman looked like.” The crowd was staring at Jim now and he was getting very uncomfortable.
The man turned angry eyes towards Jim and Chloe. “You two just stay out of this. This is between me and my wife. It’s none of your business.”
The sobbing woman looked at Jim. “Was she prettier than me?”
“Uhm, uh. She was, uhm.” Jim heard Chloe failing to hold in a giggle behind him. He had dealt with quite enough of being made fun of the last two days. When he spoke again he was forceful. “Pretty? She was a violent bitch that tried to kill me. She was a dirty horrible woman that stabbed someone who was just trying to protect me from her. If your husband even tried to approach her she would have killed him without blinking and he wouldn’t be here to listen to your drunken ramblings.” Jim wondered if he was being too harsh, but the woman annoyed him. He had always liked Patrick and didn’t think he deserved this kind of public humiliation.
Jim turned to force his way through the crowd. He heard the man call out behind him, “Hey you can’t talk to my wife like that.” He decided to ignore it and keep moving.
Chloe called out from behind him. “That was harsh. I like it.” She was slipping through the crowd trying to catch up with him. “Hey wait up.”
Jim turned to face her. “What the hell was that? I’ve been in school with you for years and you have never so much as said a word to me. Now suddenly you are following me around trying to find new ways to make me uncomfortable. What is your game here?”