A Dangerous Picture to Take

My long-time friend James was looking very down-trodden these days. I did not feel that I could ask him about it, as he very much did not like to talk about his emotions. He had been like that since the two of us were teenagers in high school. When I came over to visit with him and his wife Ethel, I thought that I could see the cause of his unhappiness. Ethel was treating him badly, making cutting remarks about his job and the way that he dressed, among other things. This was definitely not something that he would talk to me about. I wanted to tell that old joke to him, “Why the long face?” being asked of a mule, but I refrained.

One early Wednesday evening, I went to James and Ethel’s place to drop off a book that James had expressed an interest in, a book I had bought and read and told him about on the phone. I noticed as I pulled into the driveway that their car wasn’t anywhere to be seen. I initially thought that I should leave the book on the doorstep, but it looked like it might rain, so I knocked on the door. James came to the door and was very pleased to see the book. After thanking me, he said, “This will give me something to do tonight. Ethel is ‘out with the girls’ on Wednesday night, as she often does, and there are no hockey games on the television.”

I wanted to ask him what Ethel’s being ‘out with the girls’ meant, but that might be a little pushy on my part, and I didn’t want to intrude in that aspect of his life. Plus, I could see that he was quite eager to read the book, so I did not ask.

It had been a long day’s work, so I decided not to cook for myself (What hamburgers again?). I felt I deserved a reward that I would not expect to get from the bosses. There is a bar/restaurant not far from where I live which not only has good beer, but does the best hot chicken wings in town. It was a bit of a drive, but it was certainly well worth the effort.

Soon I was in the parking lot in front of the bar/restaurant, eager to encounter the hot tingle of the wings and the finely brewed British beer to cool my mouth down. I sat down at the bar, beside a kind old gentlemen with a cane who stood up briefly and moved his chair to give me more room.  

I ordered, my meal and beverage, but first I had to hit the toilet. I had eaten a large lunch.

On the way to the washroom I was quite surprised, you could say shocked by what I saw. There was Ethel, not ‘out with the girls’ like she told James she was, but with a tough-looking bunch of boys, whose apparent leader sat next to Ethel, the only woman at the table.  His right arm enclosed Ethel, and she clearly enjoyed the feel of the contact judging from the smile on her face.  I turned my head away so that I would not be recognized by James’ apparently unfaithful wife. So this was how she spent her Wednesday nights!

As I sat on the toilet, depositing the remains of my lunch, I thought. What should I do? If I told James what I had seen, he would be quite likely to reject my shocking statement as a bad joke or a jealous lie. I needed to provide evidence for what I was going to tell him.

           I went through the pockets of my pants, and found what I was searching for, my cell phone which I could use to take a picture of the vilifying scene. I knew from the looks of the men at the table, particularly the one with his arm around Ethel, that I would be putting myself in danger by doing this. But James was a good, long term friend, so I had to do it.

           As I washed my hands, I planned my photography. First I would head straight for the bar, fortunately that was where I had eaten and drunk my supper. After doing that I would pretend to drop something on the floor. While bending down to pick it up, I would take a picture. It was chancy, but it was all that I could think of.

I am Discovered

           Unfortunately, I picked a bad time to take the photo. Ethel was looking directly at me when I took the picture. She spoke with a loud voice saying, “That is a close friend of my husband’s. You have to grab that cell-phone and destroy it, so my husband never sees the picture”. 

           The man with the arm around her pointed at the cell phone with his left hand clearly indicating to to his ‘boys’ that they should get the cell phone, and, as he said, “Destroy it, so the picture will never be seen by anyone.”

           They rushed towards me. What could I do? The solution was literally handed to me. The old man gave me his cane. When ‘the boys’ approached me I swung the cane at the first one to come near me. I hit him directly in the head, and he stumbled backwards.

           By that time, other patrons, a couple of them quite large in size, also took my side in the matter. They came between me and my would be assailants. The bartender shouted out loud that he was going to call the police. The leader of the ‘gang’ withdrew his arm from Ethel, pushed her away and said, “Okay boys, we are blowing this joint”. To the bartender he called out “I am leaving money here for our drinks. I don’t want any trouble with the cops.” He then put a stack of bills on their table, and led ‘the boys’ out of the bar.

           Ethel got up, and walked with large steps up to me, aiming her face right at mine, and said. “Well, I believe that this is the opportunity you have been waiting for since we were together in high school. I will leave him. You can have him. You’ll probably be a better wife for him. He bores me, has no ambition, and wears t-shirts all the time.”

           I called James with a warning. He was silent for a few seconds, then he thanked me. This would be the beginning of a change in both our lives. Slowly, very slowly over the weeks to follow, we began to return to the relationship we had in grade 10, even more.