My phone rang. In the kitchen, Dina stopped whatever she was doing. Michael stopped looking thru the DVDs, and with a frown on his face turned to look for whatever was making that alien sound. Behind the curtain, I froze.

I didn’t know what to do; we didn’t learn how to handle such kinds of fixes in school. On the sofa, Michael had figured that the sound was coming from under the pile of DVDs, and he began digging thru them. "nina stamina ah ah!”, my phone sang. Dina was frozen, my heart was pounding.

Then it stopped ringing, it was actually a beep. But Michael didn’t give up his search, and before long, he had it in his hand. He looked at my phone strangely, suspiciously, and a look of understanding came over his face, quickly followed by great fury. He shouted "Dina, whose phone is this?”

That guy looked angry, and I understood exactly why. Obviously, he suspected Dina was cheating on him, and the phone belonged to her other guy. The fact that the phone might belong to a girl friend of Dina might not have crossed his mind, because I doubt he would have been so angry.
Dina came out of the kitchen slowly, trembling and the look on her face confirmed her guilt.

The man knew something was going on behind his back. Behind the curtain, I felt horrible for putting Dina in such a fix, but it was too late for regrets.

I considered my alternatives; I could just walk out from behind the curtain, pick up my phone and walk out of the apartment, and leave these two to their usual business. I mean, it wouldn’t be the first time he would be beating her, and it was really none of my business to interfere in a conflict between a man and his woman. But I doubted Michael would simply let me walk away.

The other alternative was, I could get out from behind the curtain, and take responsibility for my actions. Evidently, if I hadn’t come to see her, none of this would be happening. I would tell the guy it was all my fault, and if he wanted to beat someone, he should beat me. 

Yet another alternative would be to stay behind the curtain, and lay low till the storm blew past. This one was very appealing because the guy was in a very crazy state of mind, and he is a really big guy. Whatever I did anyway, he was going to beat up the girl, so there would be no point in me getting myself beaten up, yet I could avoid it.  I decided to stay behind the curtains.

But I didn’t stay for long, because in two sentences, Michael knew where I was. "Whose phone is this?” and "where is he?” and he was striding in my direction. I understood how a rat feels when it is about to be eaten by a very large cat. I was terribly scared, and I was shaking like a leaf!

Dina was crying by this time. Michael came where I was, whipped back the curtains, and saw me standing there, like a statue. He grabbed me by the shirt, pulled me out and shoved me down on the floor. That is when I lost it.

He had no right manhandling me. I hadn’t forcefully entered his house; I had been invited in by his wife! I was not a criminal. Suddenly very angry, I stood up, and looked at him defiantly.

He realized the change in my attitude, and held back the fist he was bringing towards me. He turned towards Dina, and just before he slapped her, I shouted, "don’t touch her!” He turned, very surprised that I could tell him how to treat his own woman!

He turned to me, ready to beat the day lights out of me, but suddenly, we heard a sound and we both turned to Dina; she had crumbled onto the floor. We both rushed to her; Michael, because she was his woman, me, because I had the biggest crush on her.

She had fainted, she was breathing slowly. In this crisis, we forgot that we were supposed to be fighting, and we carried her to the sofa. Michael was too shaken to drive, so I offered to take her to hospital.

Ends