Moose and Goose

Chapter Seventy-seven

Some female patrons are watching the scene, and others run out of the door with their children and husbands. David's standing at the bar with Judith at his arm, tugging his sleeve.

"Where's our waiter," he asks the woman with his voice raised. She grabs the phone in front of her, and when she dials the emergency number – nine eleven – he scoffs then mashes the button to end the call.

"David, let's just go," Judith begs him. So far, he's thrown three chairs in his fit of rage but only broke one. She looks at the dismantled leg lying near the half wall by the exit, then at him.

The woman gasps as he reaches across the bar and snatches the phone out of her hands, returning it to the hook switch. David glances at her name tag.

"Look, Debra, I'm trying to be a gentleman here. I don't usually hit women," he says, and Judith lowers her eyebrows at him. "but I can get pretty ugly if I'm annoyed, and right now – I'm getting there."

"Sir, we don't have anyone here that matches your description." Debra stands her ground, but her quivering voice informs them of her fear.

"You think I'm stupid? I saw him at our table!" She jumps and immediately hangs her head as tears fall. Judith feels her heart skip a beat, and all she can think about is the possibility of them dying for offending a white woman.

"Hey, actually, I think I made a mistake." They look at Judy when she speaks, and her voice is as unsteady as the bartender's.

She knows he's persistent – sometimes stubborn or prideful would be the best fit to explain his actions – and nothing she can say will snap him into reality, but her adrenaline and concern force her to intervene.

"I'll stand here for hours if I have to." Judith emits a defeated sigh, her shoulders falling when he turns his head to the terrified matron. A tall man with a beer belly stretching his flannel shirt approaches them from their left and grasps Judith's attention.

"Ma'am, is this boy bothering you," he asks the barkeep, and David veers toward him, scanning him up and down. His sandy red beard brightens his pale, freckled face and dark brown eyes.

"Boy? Do I look like a boy to you?" Judith darts her eyes between them, and Debra sprints past the black door into the back room.

"I think you best be going." David closes the gap between them and shoves his chest, pushing him a step back. Judith widens her eyes. She always knew him to be hot-headed, but to her, his choices lately seem out of the ordinary.

Before she can correct him, the bulky man lifts him off his feet with his meaty fingers tight around his neck. Judith clasps her hands over her open mouth as her ex claws the white man's hand, his face turning red from lack of oxygen.

"You put your hands on that woman," the man asks, and when David gasps for air, he only chokes himself more. His flailing legs remind her of those attached to a rag doll, but the man doesn't let up. "Answer me – boy!"

"He didn't," Judith hollers for him, and he glares at her. "Please let him go. We were just heading home."

"You better thank your African God that I'm a Christian man," he tells David before dropping him onto his feet. His knees buckle, and he falls onto them and his palms. Judith stands beside him, and she locks eyes with the lumberjack before he turns to his pudgy wife and son. "Let's get out of here, Paula. These two made me lose my appetite."

"Fuck you," David grumbles the last word to complete his obscenity against Judith's hand, and she sits the other behind his head to hold his lips shut. The man and his family glance at them, and when Judith gives a fake smile with her body trembling, they proceed out of the restaurant.