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“Not really. I just heard you were thinking of moving….”
“Yeah. It’s time.”
“Just when we were all starting to get to know each other.”
“Yeah, well.” He shrugs. “Theydosay it’s never a good idea to get too chummy with the neighbors.” He looks back inside the house. “The boys are fighting over the damn fish again. I think they could use your help,” he says to his wife.
“ ’Course,” Dani says. “Nice talkin’ to you, Maggie.” She disappears inside the house.
Maggie nods, about to turn around when Nick’s voice stops her.
“Stay away from my wife,” he says, all traces of cordiality gone.
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me. Dani’s too much of a polite Southern belle to say anything, but talking to you upsets her.”
“Talking to me upsets her,” Maggie repeats, her voice a monotone.
“It does. So how about you keep to your house and we’ll keep to ours.”
Maggie takes a deep breath. “How about you stop using your wife as a punching bag.”
The silence that follows is so intense, it all but shouts.
“I’m sorry. What did you say?”
“You really want me to say it again?”
Nick takes a menacing step toward her. “No. I think you’ve said more than enough. I’d get the hell off my property, if I were you.”
“What are you going to do, Nick?” Maggie asks, holding her ground. “Hit me? Show me what a big man you are?”
“You’re crazy,” he says, as out of the corner of her eye Maggie sees an unfamiliar car pull into her driveway.
“Mom,” Erin says, exiting the driver’s seat. “Come see my new car!”
Maggie glances toward her daughter, then back to Nick. “Dani might be afraid of you,” she says, her voice rising, “but I’m not.” It takes a second for Maggie to realize this is true, that she doesn’t need a gun to feel safe, that she has finally emerged from the long shadow of her own fear. “And I’m warning you that if I see so much as one more bruise on your wife’s body,” she continues, “not only am I calling the cops, I’m calling everyone I’ve ever met and telling everyone I see that the revered Dr. Nick Wilson is a goddamn wife beater. I’ll stop total strangers on the street. I’ll picket your office. Hell, I’ll post the news on fucking Facebook!”
“Maggie?” Craig cuts across the lawn to the Wilsons’ front walk. “What’s going on here?”
“Your wife’s a goddamn lunatic,” Nick tells him. “No wonder you left.”
“Wait just a minute…”
“I’m warning you,” Nick says to Maggie. “Stay away from us.” He goes back inside his house, slamming the front door behind him.
Craig looks at Maggie. “Looks like you got your spark back.”
