Never Again by Norm Shute Copyright 2oo4 Norm Shute

Paul Bryant was drunk again as usual. Third time this week and it was only Wednesday. Three crumpled singles sat near an almost empty glass of beer in front of Paul sitting dejectedly at a table by himself.

“Cripes look at the time Annie’s gonna kill me for being out so late.” Paul groused to no one in particular.

“Hey barkeep one last one for the road” Paul called out sliding the singles towards the ocelot behind the counter.

“Do you want another Wicked Weasel Ale or something different before you go?” The bartender inquired.

“Yeah let me try an Oroso pilsner because that weasel is kicking this bear’s butt .” Paul slurred. The ocelot poured the pale gold liquid into a frosted glass and picked up the singles as he slid the glass in front of Paul. The tipsy grizzly drained the glass in three swallows, wiping the foam from his lips with his paw as he staggered to the door.

“Thank god it’s only ten thirty “ Paul slurred as he walked to the apartment, surly Annie couldn’t be too upset about him being drunk again.

Paul slid his key into the lock and opened the door as quietly as an inebriated four hundred pound grizzly was capable of. Slipping off of his clothes Paul slid his ursine frame into bed next to Annie who was pretending to be asleep until a cold paw slipped under her pajama bottom and slowly began to massage her tail. Annie ignored Paul’s advances until an unwelcome hand tried to massage Annie’s bosom.

“Look just become you come home all hot and bothered doesn’t mean your going to get anything.” Annie growled.

“Aw come on honey don’t I turn you on anymore?” Paul slurred trying for another grope as he fell off the bed.

“Not when you come home all touchy feely and smelling like a brewery,” retorted Annie straightening her bedclothes.

“Don’t make so much noise or you’ll wake Seth up,” Annie whispered as Paul staggered to his feet his pants tangled around his ankles.

“I’m not making that much noise damn it,” Paul growled clenching his hands.

“Besides I remember when you liked to be woken up for a little nookie,” Paul groused.

“It’s late and Seth has school plus you have to leave at Five o clock for work remember,” replied his mate.

“Aw come on , daddy wants his honey pot besides you’re the one making all the noise anyway,” Paul replied trying to slide his hands under Annie’s pajama bottoms again.

“I said no and I mean it,” Annie replied pushing away with enough claw exposed to make her point.

“Watch your damn claws and get back here woman I said I wanted some lovin’,” Paul roared.

“Not in your life ,” replied Annie as she was hit by a left cross that staggered her as she fell to her knees.

“Just shut up take off your clothes and come to bed now,” roared the now enraged bear swinging wildly .

“What’s the matter dad?” Seth asked as he walked from his bedroom towards his parents bedroom down the hall from his just in time to see his father back hand his mother. Annie’s head recoiling from the blow as a wash of blood and saliva escape from her split lip.

“Please go back to bed Seth” pleaded Annie as she tried to defend herself from Paul’s onslaught.

Seeing his parents grappling in the hallway Seth returned from his bedroom with a baseball bat heading straight for his father.

“Hit her again and you’ll have to deal with me,” roared Seth as he defiantly waved the bat at his fathers head.

“So the cub has come to the aid of his mommy has he,” scoffed Paul as he ducked a blow towards his head.

“You’ll have to do better than that boy if you want to beat me,” growled the grizzly sizing up his son.

“No I just have to be smarter that’s all,” replied the cub as he feinted a blow to the head catching his father in the mid section forcing the air from his father as the bat met it’s mark.

“Not bad boy but your too close to your opponent ,” Paul replied as he held onto the bat wrenching it from his son’s grasp. Throwing the bat down the hallway, Paul caught Seth with a quick jab to the eye sending the cub into the wall. Paul watched his son carom off the wall and land in a heap on the floor.

“One of these days you’ll learn not to mess with the man of the house,” sneered Paul as he stepped over his son heading back in the direction of Annie. A loud knock at the door stopped Paul in his tracks as he motioned to Annie to be quiet as he answered the door. Paul was met by two police officers as he opened the door to see who was knocking.

“Is everything all right ? We’ve had a few calls about a disturbance here,” the patrolman asked.

“No everything is fine sir I’m afraid I don’t know what your talking about,” Paul lied trying to block the view of the policeman at his door.

“If everything is as you say then you’ll have no problem letting us in to confirm that,” replied the officer.

“Suit yourself,” replied Paul as he opened the door.

The two Dobermans entered the house to find a bleeding she- bruin cradling an unconscious cub in the hallway. Seeing this Paul was handcuffed and an ambulance was called to the house.

“So I take it I’m under arrest,” Paul sighed as he was led to the patrol car.

“No sir your in protective custody until we can determine what happened,” replied the patrolman.

“We’ll sort this out at the hospital where we’ll meet up with Detective Rupert,” Paul was told as they led him to the police cruiser and set him in the back seat. Oh just freakin’ great thought Paul just what I need .

Detective Nigel Rupert sat uncomfortably in a plastic chair that protested his six hundred plus pounds nervously wringing his paws as the doctors examined Paul, Annie, and Seth. The chair groaned loudly as the burly bruin stood up to meet the two doctors that were walking towards him.

“How are the Bryant’s doing doctor?” the Detective asked as he displayed his badge to the first doctor he met.

“Well Detective we’ve found that Mrs. Annie Bryant is suffering from lacerations to the face and multiple contusions and blunt trauma to the face and upper torso, and to her son Seth we observed blunt trauma to his left eye with a laceration over his eye, and on Mr. Bryant we found blunt trauma to his midsection that would lend itself to being struck by a bat or other blunt object, plus his blood alcohol is one point four five, a little high even for his species.”

“Were you able to get a statement from either mother or son on what happened?” queried the Detective.

“Your not going to believe this but neither mother or son will say anything but that they tripped and fell causing their injuries and the father wont admit to any wrongdoing,” the doctor replied shaking his head in disgust. The bruin walked over to the two patrolmen waiting in the emergency room reception area.

“Do either of you have statements from any witnesses or any concrete evidence that can be used to charge Mr. Bryant with spousal assault,” the ursine detective inquired.

“ No sir Officer Deek and I responded to a possible domestic disturbance call but no one stated that they saw or heard anything. It wasn’t until I asked to talk to Mrs. Bryant that we noticed blood on her face and saw the child lying in the hallway that there was anything wrong at all,” replied the patrolman.

“So what your telling me that I have nothing to charge this man with, Nigel grumbled.

“Yes sir it appears your nephew has eluded yet another domestic violence charge,” remarked the officer.

“For your information if you could get me a statement from any witness I would be more than happy to lock up Paul to teach him a lesson or two,” the detective replied. Turning around Nigel angrily stormed off heading for the emergency room.

Nigel walked up to the nurses station and asked where Annie and Seth were being treated then asked where Paul was being seen. Nigel walked into the room where Annie and Seth were being sewn up.

“Is there anything I can help you with Officer?” inquired the doctor sewing up Annie’s muzzle.

“Yes there is I’m going to talk to Mrs. Bryant’s husband but when your done with her and her son could you send someone so I can ask her some questions once she can talk.”

“No problem sir I should be done in a few minutes I’ll send a nurse when they are ready,” replied the doctor sewing up Mrs. Bryant. Nigel headed for the room where Paul was sitting and closed the door.

“So you must be feeling awfully proud of yourself right about now,” the detective remarked as he removed the handcuffs off of Paul’s wrists.

“Yeah looks like Annie decided to do the right thing and stand by her man and Seth decided to honor his father for a change,” remarked Paul as he rubbed where the cuffs had been removed.

“If Annie had done the right thing I’d be taking your stupid butt downtown for spousal abuse you miserable excuse of life,” Nigel exclaimed as he backhanded his nephew off the chair he was sitting on. “And for your edification Father is a name you haven’t earned yet! Ever since you were a cub you’ve been a hot head,” Nigel replied . “Not much has changed your still a child with a temper,” remarked the bruin shaking his head in disgust. “I’ve seen your father take down perps that out weighed him by two hundred pounds like it was nothing and yet he never as much as raised his voice let alone his hand to either you or your mother in all the years he was alive so I know you were taught to never hit a lady,” Nigel continued knocking Paul to his knees with a quick shot to the ribs. Paul lunged at his uncle only to be met with a quick shot to the kidney as his uncle subdued him with a choke hold.

“If you try anything else stupid it will be my pleasure to kick your ass from one end of this town to the other, do you understand?” growled Nigel as he released his nephew.

Nigel almost walked over the nurse that had come for him as he stormed out of the room where Paul was sitting looking quite dejected. Apologizing for his forcefulness Nigel asked to talk to Annie in private. The bruin handed the nurse some money and asked her to take Seth to the cafeteria while he talked with his niece in private. After Seth and the nurse left Nigel handed Annie a small zippered bag that he had pulled out of his coat and waited for her to open it. Annie gasped as she removed a small silver plated derringer with ivory grips.

“I don’t understand,” exclaimed Annie holding the pistol like a snake that was trying to bite her.

“That pistol belonged to Paul’s father, he used to carry it as a last resort while he was under cover and now I want you to have it as your last resort for protection,” replied Nigel. “I know your not that keen on carrying a firearm but until Paul can control his temper I would feel better if you had something to protect yourself with. To load it all you have to do is push the release on the side and open it at the hinge in the middle, it takes either .45 long colt cartridges or .410 shot shells. I recommend the shot shells that way all you have to point and pull the trigger,” remarked Nigel handing her ten of each.

“I’m not comfortable with this but I’ll carry it if you insist Uncle Rupert,” replied Annie placing the pistol and ammo in the pouch zipping them up and placing the bag in her purse.

“Just think of that as your last resort and lets keep this between us and the walls,” grinned Nigel as he hugged her. Annie hugged Nigel then went to the dining room where Seth was waiting for her.

“All ready to go,” Annie asked as she approached the table her son was seated at.

“Yeah I’m ready, are we going home or to Grandma’s house like last time? I don’t remember if I have anything to wear for school at Grandma’s or not,” remarked Seth.

Annie brushed the long hair from Seth’s eyes looking at his swollen and cut eye and declared “I don’t think you could go to school without someone saying something about your face.” The two walked down the side walk to a waiting cab entered the vehicle and headed home for the night.

Paul had been on his best behavior for almost a month until he had been passed up on a promotion at work for the third time his boss citing that he still needed to show more self control with both his superiors and his subordinates. Paul unhappy with his bosses decision took the rest of the day off and spent it in the Prancing Pony Bar and Grill drinking away his displeasure. Paul sat stirring his drink absent mindedly peering into the liquid like a medium would a crystal ball trying to see his future.

“What the hell do they want from me anyhow?” Paul groused to no one in particular. “Five years of my life and this is how they pay me back,” Paul slurred finishing off his drink slamming the empty glass on the bar.

“I have half a mind to tell those jerks where they can stick that promotion ,all they would have to do is pull their heads out then it would fit,” chuckled the tipsy bruin. Paul staggered as he slid off of the bar stool and shuffled towards the door and headed for his car. The cool air seem to relax and settle Paul as he walked to his car. A smile formed on his muzzle as he unlocked his door and slid behind the wheel slipping the key in the ignition to start the car. That’s it, thought Paul ,Annie will make everything all right.

Paul’s car slipped into his driveway clipping the trash cans sending their contents all over the yard and the street. The tipsy bruin slipped on a greasy patch of cement sending him sprawling on the front lawn.

Slowly regaining his equilibrium Paul looked at his neighbors that came out to see what was making all that noise this late and said “What’s the matter never seen someone fall before? Shows over go back to bed.” After several attempts to place his key in the lock Paul finally opened his door and staggered into the house.

Paul left a trail of clothes to the bedroom where he tried to open quietly until he found it was locked. Pounding on the door Paul growled “Open the damn door Annie I wanna go to bed!” Paul continued to pound on the door his rage building until he ripped the door off it’s hinges and threw it against the wall.

“Damn it Annie I said I’m going to bed,” Paul bellowed tossing his shoes at the wall near his wife.

“If you want to sleep in this bed fine but not with me,” Annie replied grabbing her pillow and dragging a blanket off the bed as she tried to walk past Paul. Grabbing her arm as she walked past him “Where do you think your going?” demanded Paul. “Anywhere your not until you sober up,” Replied Annie trying to pull away from Paul.

“What’s all the shouting for?” asked a groggy Seth rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

“Shut up and get back to bed while you still can walk boy,” roared Paul throwing Seth against the wall. Seth slid down the wall leaving a trail of blood behind him and didn’t move or say a word as he came to rest on the floor. Turning back to Annie Paul pointed to Seth and said “Better behave or you’ll end up like that.”

“You son of a bitch, never again will I let you hurt us, never again,” shrieked Annie as she tore for her purse. Annie pulled the derringer from it’s pouch and pointed it at Paul who stood there laughing.

“And what are you going to do with that pop gun?” Paul laughed as he charged towards his wife.

“Never again,” replied Annie as she pulled the trigger, the first bullet striking Paul in the chest.

“Never again,” repeated Annie as the second round found it’s mark between Paul’s eyes.