Claire - part 4

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Claire – part 4

Claire had her back to the table, finishing up putting cream cheese icing on the warmed cinnamon buns when she heard:

“Woman! Where is the bloody Chilli! This ain’t hot! It is cold for Christ sake!”

Then she felt it. The hot chilli bowl that was flung at her hit square in the middle of her back. It was all she could do not to cry out in agony. She would not give him the satisfaction of knowing he had hurt her.

As calmly as she could, she opened the fridge and resisted all temptation to throw the extra bottle of Habanero sauce at Frank. The boys were ominously quiet.

She served up another bowl of the chilli with lots of extra sauce and placed it in front of Frank. He grabbed her wrist and gave it a twist for good measure. “You slacking off, witch? What’sha been doing all morning? Huh?”

“The usual Frank. Cleaning and cooking for you and the boys.” She wouldn’t dare tell him she had a visitor. A stranger. A good looking male.

He let go of her wrist, shoved her away and commenced to shovel his chilli. The boys picked up where they had left off.

“Hey, pa! Did cha hear about the Eaton place? Some feller from da city took it over.”

“Ya, don’t say.”

“Ya. According to the Brown’s he’s lookin’ ta fix er up and make it a real goin’n ranch.”

“Lot’s luck on that un junior. Nothin’ but bad luck on that place.” he said snickering between shovels of chilli that was now running down his unshaven chin.

Claire tried not to appear that she was listening to the conversation. She was busy cleaning up the mess Frank made. Her back was burning. Her wrist was going to have a lovely hand print bruise. And it was staring to swell.

She took her time getting up off her knees, half expecting something else to happen. It always did when Frank was in one of his moods.

She went to the side board to retrieve the cinnamon buns. She was hoping Frank wouldn’t notice that were two fewer buns on the dish. She sighed inwardly and took the dessert to the table.

Frank scrutinized the plate and then Claire. “Damn woman! That is a smaller plate of buns. You make less? Putting us on diet are ya?” He went to grab her other wrist but she was quicker this time and he missed.

“No, Frank. I forgot to eat breakfast as I had so many things to do so I ate the first bun. I had the second one when I was making lunch because I was hungry.”

Frank eyed her some more. “You’re not preggers are ya?”

The look she sent him should told him everything, but “Good lord no, Frank. I am well past the age and you know it!”

Thank goodness Frank and the boys left fairly soon after. She could finally go and clean herself up and tend to the burns. Hopefully they wouldn’t be too bad. Seeking medical attention would be a problem.

This is my submission to Creative Writing- Write Something And Win Some SBD run by @aubreyfox