Gaining Ground

"No, now that we're here. It'll be okay." He winced as he turned his head to rouse Avery. With both daughters awake and protesting, they headed for the entrance. "Hey, Anderson"! Mallory moved lightning fast, without even thinking! Just an automatic response! The fist swinging toward David sent her sprawling. Dazed, she struggled to get up and reclaim her dignity. David's pistol trained quickly on the drunk assailant. "Whoa, whoa, I don’t want no trouble." Dark, wild eyes showed shock that the young couple was armed. "Okay, if you don’t want any trouble, why'd you hit my wife?" "You know I was swinging at you! Some man, hides behind his wife!" David held the gun unwaveringly, trying to think of an answer to defuse the situation. To his relief, the police chief pulled in beside them. "You kids sure stir up trouble," he grumbled. "Crazy Feather, what's going down here?" David holstered his gun, hoping Jim Dunlap had the situation under control. Since the policeman had directed his question to the assailant, David turned his attention to Mallory. "Are you okay?" Always quick to shake things off, she answered quickly. "Ye-eah, I think so." She raised her right forearm to see a long scrape starting to bleed; and a lump forming. "I guess I hit my arm on the curb." She rubbed her jaw gingerly, too. Trying to decide the best way to spin his story, the man addressed as Crazy Feather, at last found his voice. "Look, Jim, I don’t make a habit to hit women! I was swinging at him, and she got in the way." "You're drunk again. Why were you trying to hit anyone? You usually don’t get violent." The patient police officer turned toward David and Mallory. "Are you sure you're okay, Ma'am?" I~I think so." Mallory sounded stunned. Then to make things worse, both girls recovered from the initial shock and terror, to scream in unison. "Look, let's just go inside. We can get a better look at this and patch you up, while I get to the bottom of things. Did y'all say some kinda racial slight to him? That riles him up."No, Sir," David strove for calm, although his head hurt, and thinking straight with both girls crying at their loudest made it hurt more. "We never saw him. We got the girls awake and were starting toward the door. He screamed, 'Hey, Anderson,' and he was already swinging a wicked, right upper-cut. Mallory blocked the blow~because~" "Yeah; because you sustained a nearly-fatal brain injury, that put you in a coma for four months! I'm sorry for what I said about y'all stirring up trouble." "Well, we're sure that's how it must seem," Mallory's words of understanding "Would y'all care to join us; our treat?" "Well, I appreciate that and all, but I guess I need to go book Crazy Feather in~again. And once more try to explain to him that his actions have ramifications." "Well, would you be violating any protocols by all of us eating first?" David didn't want the police chief to get in trouble, but he was curious what he might have done to raise the Native American's ire. "I'd like to find out what we've done~" "Like you don't know~" The inebriated scrapper roused quickly from his subdued state. "Can it, Brown!" The Chief glared at his prisoner. "Do you want to eat and work things out, or not? I'm hungry, and you know how cranky that can make me." Mallory crossed the small café with both daughters! The normal potty/diaper change routine. She replaced her bloody tissue with a paper towel soaked in cool water. The lump was already going back down. She was pretty sure no bones were broken.