Mean Woman Blues

to kiss him, and he called me a whore.”
    At this, her father’s face whipped toward her, stonier than ever, as if he agreed with David. “Then he started to get… sexual…” She glanced furtively at her father, oddly embarrassed. “…and I pushed him away.”
    Her father spoke angrily. “Now why the hell would you do a thing like that? You just said you tried to kiss him.”
    She was taken aback. “Because… uh… he called me a whore.”
    Her mother reached to stroke her forearm. Her father said, “Hmmph,” to acknowledge her answer. “And because… uh…” She was finding it hard to tell. “He got rough. He scared me. So I pushed him away. And then he tried to pull me back…”
    Her father’s stare was like an icepick. “Y’all into little games?”
    She couldn’t believe what she’d just heard. She felt herself blushing, not out of embarrassment but out of shame. “No! No, we’re not into little games. Daddy, this was no game. What do I have to do to make you understand? He threw me against a wall.” Her hiccups were gone.
    Her mother pulled her close again. “Oh, honey.”
    Her father got up and paced. The phone rang. All three of them ignored it.
    Finally, Karen said, “Mama, my back really hurts. Do you think I could have some ice for it?”
    “Oh,
honey
,” her mother said again and got up to get the ice.
    When she was gone, her dad turned to her, furious. “Now you listen to me, Missy. You’re supposed to be grown up, but you don’t ever grow up. You just make one bad decision after another and expect this family to clean up your messes. You’re going to have to figure this one out on your time, you understand? You leave your mother and me out of your filth.”
    Karen felt sick. “Excuse me, Daddy,” she said, and ran to throw up. After washing her face and rubbing it with some of the ice meant for her back, she started to feel a little better.
    Damn the McLeans
, she thought later, lying on the bed in her old room.
Why couldn’t I have the kind of Southern father who’d kill any bastard who messed with his little girl?
It was all her mother could do to persuade Boyd to let Karen stay the night.
    She was dozing, trying to cope with the pain, when she heard the doorbell ring. She knew who it was even before she heard her father’s heavy footsteps on the stairs. “Come on down. Your husband’s here.” He didn’t wait for an answer.
    David was waiting in the den, her parents having tactfully melted away. “Karen. My poor little lamb.” He crossed the room and tried to put his arms around her. She grabbed them and shoved him away. “All right. I deserved that. I came to apologize.”
    “I’m not going home with you, David.” She would have to tomorrow, but at least she could have one night of peace.
    “Karen, darlin’, you mean the world to me.”
    “David, you
hit
me!”
    “I most certainly did not. I’ve never hit a woman in my life.”
    She shrugged. “Shoved then. What’s the difference?”
    A strange look came over him, something she’d never seen before. It was pain, she thought. Trouble— the kind the guests on his show had, nothing she’d ever associate with Mr. Right. “Honey, something bad happened tonight.” He held up a hand to stave her off. “I mean besides my hurting you. I am truly sorry about that Karen. You may not believe it but I am. When I said I was under pressure, I didn’t mean from some stupid television show. I was afraid for my life, honey. And yours.”
    She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
    “Baby, I’ve got some things to tell you. I’ve got some enemies. I saw someone tonight, someone from my past… and I couldn’t help it, I just went nuts. I was so crazy with worry— and so
damn
upset to see you at the studio— I just lashed out at you. Honey, I swear to God nothing like that’ll ever happen again.”
    “What do you mean ‘enemies,’ David?” She heard the edge in her voice and hoped he did.
    “It was a long time ago. Back when I was running this little company in Phoenix, somebody was getting picked on and I took his side. Fired a couple people.”
    Karen didn’t get it. “So? That’s enough to hit your wife over?”
    “Fired was just the beginning. Once these two guys were gone, we discovered they’d been stealing from the business—”
    “Ah.” It was starting to come clear. “And they were going to pin it on the picked-on guy.”
    “That’s my girl! You got it. Long story short we