A few days after the verbal battle between Hannah and Burton, Hannah was getting the children ready for school when there was a knock at the door.
“Can I help you?” Hannah asked cautiously as looked into the face of a man that lives only two houses down. He was a shorter man, a messy mop of black hair and unkempt appearance. He always rode a bicycle everywhere he went.
“Sorry to bother you, ma’am,” he slurred as he looked in every direction. “Can I use your phone?”
Looking back at her children eating breakfast at the table, she reluctantly agreed and stepped aside and allowed the man to enter. She pointed him in the direction of the telephone and went about her routine of getting ready for the drive to the elementary school.
“Yeah, well…” the man’s voice became clear and filled with anger. “You’re a fuckin’ bitch! You had my damned electricity cut off you fuckin’ whore!”
Hannah looked up, startled by the turn of the conversation he was having with whoever was on the other end. Suddenly, as the man slammed down the phone and began to rant, Hannah realized that he had gotten between her and the children. She panicked as her mind filled with the dangerous scenarios.
“I’m sorry but I have to get my kids to school now,” Hannah said as calmly as she could so not to enrage the man even more.
“I can’t believe that stupid cunt had the nerve to fuck with my electricity!” he bellowed.
“Excuse me, we have to go now and I’m gonna have to ask you leave.” Hannah said with a tad more authority as she tried to inch closer to her children.
A long string of almost indistinguishable explanatives sprayed from the man’s mouth as he waved his arms wildly.
“HEY!” she yelled. “Buddy! You need to leave!”
“Yeah well, you’re a fuckin’ bitch too, ya no good slut!” he barked and glared at her for a long moment before pushing past her, deliberately slamming his shoulder into her as he did, and headed for the door. Once out on the porch he reached for the knob and slammed the door with so much force that the glass insert shattered and sent shards of broken glass everywhere.
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