Moose and Goose

Chapter Fifty-two

"I don't love Mary," he blurts out, expecting her to stop fighting him. She tugs her hand again, and he squeezes her tighter. She drops the bag. "Please listen to me. She doesn't fuck me the way that you used to."

David pulls her closer to him, and she begins to slip into another memory.

No. No, not this again. Just pull away and leave.

"We used to have fun. We had a chemistry that I don't have with her, and you loved me." Her heart pounds in her ears, and she feels her stomach descend with the phantom sweat on the nape of her neck. David leans his lips closer to her right ear, and he whispers, "You used to scream my name."

"David, stop," she yells, reminiscent of her screaming on their first date.

Before another memory plays in her head, she lunges her right knee into his crotch and watches his eyes and mouth grow wide.

He takes his hand off of her to grasp his groin, and as he groans in pain, she sprints out of the room under the stairs. He follows her with his eyes until she turns the corner. He drops his head, his face turning red.

Huffing and puffing, she continues to the living room, and her chest crashes into the front door. The lights are low and warm-toned around her, and the door is locked.

Her shaky right-hand fumbles with the bolts, and David emerges from the laundry room with his hands in fists at his sides.

Judith turns the top lock, her breath and tears clouding her vision. He stands under the frame between the living room and the foyer, then clears his throat. She gasps at the sound of his voice but continues fighting with the bottom lock.

"I let myself be vulnerable for you, and you take my feelings and crush them," he says, then limps toward her. Just as she turns the lock on the knob, he stands behind her. Judith pulls the door open, and he slams his right hand against it, forcing it to shut. "You're not leaving me again."

Judith heaves it open again, and David bangs it shut just as quickly as the first time. She gasps again, her breaths entering and exiting like asthmatic wheezes.

David trails his hands around her small waist, and he hugs her trembling body in his arms. He pulls her to the floor, and as he straddles her backside, she shrieks, "Stop!"

"Stop screaming before you wake up my parents," he yells, and faint footsteps follow. They avert their attention to the stairs as a little girl descends them in a lavender gown that reaches her ankles.

"David," the girl calls for him, then approaches the arch. Judith attempts to crawl from under his legs, but it's to no avail.

"Great going," he mumbles, then in a louder voice, he says, "Go to bed, Shelly."

"Go get help," Judith yells, and the little girl watches her. David presses her face into the rug in one hand and pushes her back down with the other. His weight on her squeezes the air out of her lungs.

"David, what're you doing," she asks her brother, and he takes a deep breath. Judith's face turns red, and her eyes shut. She wants to scream, but she's unable to breathe.

"Michelle, go to bed," he yells, and the girl flinches. He watches her dart up the stairs, then he exhales from relief and looks down at Judith.

He removes his hands, and as he straightens his posture, her eyes flick open, and she draws in a big gust of air.

***

"Momma, me and my friends wanted to be Jill, Sabrina, and Kelly from Charlie's Angels," Vera tells Sheryl. Judith trudges down the stairs with dark circles under her eyes and her afro askew. "I'm supposed to be Farrah Fawcett, not whoever this is!"