Brother and Sister Read Online Free Page A

Paul was all over him, and Grimes was driven into the wall, leaning open-mouthed, trying to get his hands up to protect himself. Paul caught him solidly on his open mouth and Grimes’ head bounced off the wall.
     
    He started to slide down the wall, but Paul kept swinging, the punches holding Grimes up. Ingrid jumped at
    Paul, screaming, “Stop it! Stop it! You’ll kill him!”
     
    Paul and the naked girl staggered across the room, she trying to confine his arms and he trying to push her away. Grimes sagged to his knees, one eye already closing and the lower half of his face bloody from a broken nose and a cut lip. Paul managed, at last, to hurl the girl away from him. She stumbled over a chair and went sprawling. Then Paul grabbed Grimes by the hair, dragged him to the door and kicked him down the stairs. Grimes went flying, arms flailing, trying to grasp the banister. He kept rolling down the stairs, not able to stop himself until he thudded the floor at the bottom.
     
    Paul rushed back into the apartment, gathered up Grimes’ clothes and threw them down the stairwell. Then he went back into the apartment, closing and locking the door behind him.
     
    lngrid was sitting on the floor, the expression on Paul’s face prompting her to raise her arms protectively in front of her face, pleading, “Don’t, Paul! It isn’t what you think!”
     
    “You were in bed with him!” Paul roared at her.
     
    “I don’t love him, Paul! I swear to God, I don’t love him. I don’t love anyone but you!”
     
    He hit her, batting her hands away from her face with his left hand and slapping her forehand and backhand with his right.
     
    She fell back, sprawling, crying, “I couldn’t help it, Paul! I swear, I swear, I tried not to, but I couldn’t help it!”
     
    He went after her, grimly silent, hand upraised to hit her again. She rolled away across the floor, using a chair to help her to her feet. “Paul,” she gasped, “don’t do this! I’ll leave you if you hit me! Don’t you hit me!”
     
    He slapped her, open-handed, but it wasn’t enough, so he closed his hands into fists and did it right.
     
    When he had spent his anger, she lay cowering on the floor, sobbing and moaning. “Get out,” he told her, barely able to talk through his labored breathing. “Get your clothes on and get out, you tramp. Don’t come back.”
     
    She didn’t move. In fact, she acted as if she hadn’t heard him at all, but just stayed crouched on the floor, head buried in her hands, weeping noisily.
     
    He kept telling her to get up, to get to her feet and get out of the apartment. She wouldn’t move, though he kept screaming at her to do so. Finally he stalked out of the apartment and proceeded to get roaring drunk. Ingrid packed her things and left.
     
    The next day he borrowed two hundred dollars through American Express and went to see a lawyer. The divorce was speedy, requiring only that he keep signing forms, and then he moved back onto the base. He never heard from Ingrid again.
     
    That had happened three months ago, and it would have been over and done with except that Grimes was more of an idiot than anyone could have guessed. He tried to prefer charges against Paul for striking an officer. Colonel Gunderson, Paul’s commander, heard Paul’s side of the story and then told Grimes where to head in. Grimes was transferred, almost immediately, to another base.
     
    Three weeks later, Colonel Gunderson called Paul into his office. “You’re coming up for Airman First this month,” he said, “isn’t that right?”
     
    “Yes, sir.”
     
    “You’re going to be passed over, Dane,” said the colonel, “and I want to tell you why. It’s because of that thing with Lieutenant Grimes and your wife. I’m not saying you weren’t justified in what you did. But, no matter what the circumstances, a man shouldn’t be encouraged through promotion to go around punching officers.”
     
    Paul stared at him.