Domestic Disturbance
Short story from "But Not Broken" anthology
Link to Amazon: But Not Broken
Married housing tents in a military base in an arid, semi-desert region somewhere somewhen.
Mike lay on his side on the bed behind his room divider. It was a western style bed with a mattress on springs several inches above the packed dirt floor of the tent. They were on track to replace the tents with sturdier huts, but they weren’t there yet.
Astra was behind her own room divider now, nursing the baby to sleep. That room had native style cushions for sitting and rugs for sleeping, and a padded depression for Lev.
Then she went around Mike’s room divider to sit on the bed with him. Sometimes he just kissed her on the forehead and she kissed him back on the forehead, and they said their good-nights and she went back to sleep in her own room. Usually, she sat on the bed for a while and they talked a bit before she went back.
He sat up when she came in, and gave her a kiss on the forehead when she sat down.
“Lev asleep?” he asked, just to say something.
“Mm hmm,” she answered.
She didn’t kiss him back and leave, so that meant she wanted to talk about something first. Maybe even … He shook his head. Don’t think of that, he thought, too soon, don’t spook her.
But she saw him shake his head. “Is something wrong, Mike?”
“Nah,” he said. “You want to talk about something?”
“There’s something wrong,” she insisted.
“Nothing wrong,” he said. “You’re just … kinda distracting. But I’m okay. What were you going to say?”
“You’re just like all the others,” she said and raised her hand to him.
“Whoa,” he said, catching her wrist. “I’m okay, but I’m not blind.” Then he smiled when he added, “And I am your husband.” It had taken a long time to get to that breakthrough, and it usually made her blush and smile to mention it.
But not this time.
She raised her hand again and this time he wasn’t fast enough and she slapped him in the face. And then some kind of dam broke. She was yelling at him, not just in his language but also in hers, and pounding him in the chest, and she’d gotten some good hits in before he managed to get control of her arms and push her away from him.
They were both breathing hard, and he saw a look in her eyes he’d never seen there before. It reminded him of something he thought of as the “backed in a corner” look. Hard. Mean.
“Astra,” he said carefully. “It’s me, Mike.”
She slipped off the bed to sit on the floor then, and began to cry. He came over to her and tried to touch her, but she shook him off, so he just sat down on the floor himself, out of reach, and tried to think of something to do or say.
That’s where they were when they both heard a commotion at the front entrance of their tent. Astra went wide-eyed and ducked behind her room divider and picked up the baby. Mike pulled on his shower robe and went to the door.
“Sir?” said a very embarrassed soldier, on patrol duty. “We had a report of a domestic disturbance.”
“Yeah, it got pretty loud, didn’t it?” Mike said, dead serious.
The other soldier in the patrol saw the scratches and bruises that Mike’s robe didn’t hide, and said, “I think we need to talk to Mrs. Hanson, sir. And please keep your hands where we can see them.”
Mike suddenly realized what this was looking like. He kept his hands out and warned, “You don’t go in there without a woman present.”
“Get Mrs. Durand,” said the second soldier to the first one. Then he got out the handcuffs. “Lieutenant Hanson, I think it’s best we take you in for now. Until we get this cleared up.”
It occurred to Mike that it would probably not be hard at all to overrule this soldier. He was just a soldier on patrol duty, and Mike was his commanding officer. There was a chance he could convince the soldier that this was all just a mistake, which in fact it was. But there was a crowd gathering, and this was starting to be about more than just Astra and him now. He held out his hands to the cuffs.
“What’s going on Mike?” asked Jane Durand, arriving with the soldier, and watching Mike being handcuffed. She saw the scratches and bruises.
“We had a fight,” Mike answered, simply. “They need you to check that Astra’s okay. She lost it, but they need to take me in until we clear this up.”
But before Jane could enter the tent, Astra herself came out, holding the baby. Her face was streaked with tears, and there were bruises from Mike’s fingers where he had grabbed her arms. Her voice was hoarse and harsh when she demanded, “Where are you taking my husband?”
Suddenly, everyone saw the woman who had fled miles across the wilderness, alone, to find a place where it would be safe to have her baby. Mike’s face softened to see it.
“Astra,” asked Jane, “could we go into the tent? I’d like to make sure you’re okay.”
Astra looked at Mike, who nodded, and took in the fact that his hands were cuffed in the front. Then she strode over to him and put the baby in his arms. Mike stood tall and held him securely, although the cuffs made that awkward.
Then she turned to Jane. “As you wish,” she said, and walked ahead of her into the tent. More loud words came from the tent, though not as loudly as before. Mike was smiling now, and the two soldiers looked extremely uncomfortable.
After a few more minutes, Jane came back out with Astra, whose face was now washed and whose arms were crossed in front of her.
“Gentlemen,” said Jane, “Mrs. Hanson is fine.”
One of the soldiers went over to Mike and unlocked the cuffs. “I’m sorry, sir,” he mumbled.
“No, soldier,” said Mike. “Don’t be sorry. You did exactly what you were supposed to do. You investigated and got Mrs. Durand. And the next time you get a call for a domestic disturbance, you do exactly the same thing again.”
Astra came over to him and he handed the baby back to her.
“Although I sure hope next time it’s not us,” he said with a sigh.
There was some scattered laughter in the crowd at that and it dispersed.
“Mike,” asked Astra, when they were back in the tent again, sitting on the floor, “why did those soldiers come here and handcuff you?”
Lev was fussing. He’d been sleeping when Astra had picked him up and woken him, and he was still tired. Astra put him to her breast to settle him.
“We live in tents here, Astra. People heard us.”
“They heard me,” corrected Astra.
“Yes, they heard you.”
“Jane wanted to know if you hurt me.”
“You did let her examine you, right?”
She nodded.
“Is that why they came?” she asked. “Because they thought you were hurting me?”
“I’m pretty sure that at first they just came to tell us to quiet down,” said Mike. “But when they saw this …” He waved his hand over the marks she’d made. “They thought, rightly, that they should check on you.”
“But that only showed that I hit you,” she said. “Which a wife should never do!”
“Or a husband, either.”
“It would have been your right …”
“No, Astra,” he said. “It wouldn’t have been. Or do your people think a husband has the right to beat his wife?”
“Yes … no … I don’t know …”
“I’m pretty sure the answer is no,” Mike said. “That was pretty embarrassing though, wasn’t it?”
He’d meant to provoke a smile, but it didn’t work.
Instead, she looked ready to cry again. “I was so afraid. They were taking you away.”
“And I was so proud of you,” he said. “Standing there, facing everyone.”
Lev lolled off the breast then, asleep. Astra laid him on her lap, and without thinking, Mike reached over and straightened her shift to cover her again. He knew she didn’t like being exposed, even to him.
The simple, unconscious gesture made her smile at him. He didn’t even realize what he had done to merit the smile, but he broke out into a wide smile himself.
She put Lev down in the padded depression behind the room divider to her area of the tent, then went around Mike’s room divider and sat on the bed. He followed her, sat down next to her, and kissed her on the forehead.
“So what did you want to talk about before?” he asked.
“Whether I should try to get chicken for our stew tomorrow,” she said.
At that, he just half laughed, half cried and took her in his arms and held her. After a little while, she pushed him away gently.
“And your answer?” she asked.
“Yes,” he said, smiling. “Chicken is always good. I like lamb and mutton fine, but chicken is good for a change.”
Then she kissed him on the forehead.
He sighed. Not tonight. Of course not tonight, after everything else.
She saw and met his eyes.
He looked back, steadily. No, he was not going to apologize for wanting what he wanted. But please Lord, don’t let it all happen again.
Then she smiled at him. “Goodnight, husband,” she said and left for her own place.
No, not tonight, he thought. But everything was still okay. He turned on his side and went to sleep.