Caution: There is physical and emotional abuse in this chapter beyond force dressing.

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Walking into the kitchen made the already dejected Rick Shell feel even worse. Nothing today was going his way. He spent the entire morning doing his chores before going over to his girlfriend's place. The most time consuming one was him doing a detailed cleaning of the kitchen. Now instead of being able to get an A rating from the Allenghy’s Board of Health, the room would cause any restaurant to be closed immediately.

In the sink there were dirty pots and pans, but none of them were soaking. The counters and floor had bits of ground meat, dried tomato sauce, leaves of cabbage, boiled and unboiled rice, along with crushed empty beer cans. The stove was covered with a repulsive mixture of ground meat, fat, burnt spices and egg yoke. The walls had tomato sauce and grease splatter over them like a Pollock painting. The air was stinking from the pungent smell of cooked cabbage. In short the kitchen was a perfect representation of how Rick was feeling about his life, a mess and it stinks.

As soon as the door was closed behind him, Rick’s father's big mouth opened up to make the mess of his son’s life even messier. In a jovial voice he said “Hey Little Dick why isn’t the kitchen clean?”

There was no answer. Rick told his Dad many times to call him Rick, not Dick. That in no uncertain terms he does not want to be called Little Dick. Answering his dad would just let his dad use Little Dick more often.

Rick’s Dad, also known as Big Dick, was not happy about the non-answer. For once, he was just joking about the kitchen not being clean and calling his son Little Dick. Rick has to quit being so serious. Also, if Dick was a good enough nickname for himself then it is good enough for his son. In a serious voice, “I said, Little Dick why isn’t the kitchen clean?”

Still no answer. Lynn standing up to Rick gave him courage not to back down. If that little twerp did not back down then he was not going to either. There is no way Lynn had more courage than him.

Big Dick was going to show why his nickname fit him. There was no way the father was going to let the son show any disobedience without some sort of fitting retribution. “I know why the kitchen isn’t clean. It is because you are a useless little dick, Little Dick.”

Jill had enough of her husband riding their son. Big Dick can put her down all he wants. She chose to stay. She did not see any way out. Their son, had no choice. “Dick quit it, you know that our son does not want to be called Little Dick. You can respect that.”

“Why should I respect Little Dick, he does not respect me. I asked him a question and got no answer.”

“You know he wants to be called Rick.”

“Oh, calling him Little Dick was a joke. If he would man up and take a joke then maybe I would not call him that anymore.”

Rick was not going to have his mom take the brunt of the hammer of his dad’s anger over him. “I will clean up the kitchen in a couple of minutes.”

Big Dick was a big baby so getting his way acted like a pacifier. “Good.”

Jill was not going to let her son clean up after his dad. She picked her fights with Big Dick and now was a good time to have one. The damage done to her would be minimal. She knew with a witness around she would only get berated by her husband. There would be no hitting this time. Even if there was physical danger, Jill would still have stood up to her husband. Her self esteem might have been beaten out of her by Dick and she believed that she deserved everything he did. This did not make her think that others deserved the bad treatment from her husband.

“Rick, don’t! Your dad made the mess after you did your chore so he can clean it up.”

Jill standing up to Big Dick made him cry like a baby whose ill gotten candy was taken away from him. “Jill, our son offered to clean it up. I did not tell him to.”

“Quit it Dick. I told you to clean up the kitchen after you finished making the stuffed cabbage. You know you asked that question to get him to clean it up.”

Being beyond perfect was the only way to disagree with Big Dick. When someone points out he was wrong he would always be looking for ways to twist their words to give them the worse possible meaning. Jill saying told was a major mistake. No one told Big Dick what to do in his house. It was his house, his rules. Jill’s husband used getting up from his recliner to make a show of force to put down any resistance of him getting his way. “Listen here, you do not tell me what to do in my house. If I want to make a mess in the kitchen and have my son clean it up. I will do so. Little Dick clean up the kitchen right now. That is your chore and it is not done.”

Rick could not move. He was stuck between the immovable object of his dad’s petulance and the irresistible force of his mother’s love. He knew that she was sacrificing herself to protect him from Big Dick. Not listening to his dad would be a proverbial fuck you. Rick so wanted to give that message to Big Dick. He would not because it would hurt his mom. His mom would get the retribution of him not listening to his dad.

Jill made her point and wanted peace. She gave in to Big Dick’s true desire, not having to clean up the mess he made. “Fine, I will be the adult out of us two and clean up your mess.”

Big Dick moved on from just wanting not to deal with the mess he made. Now he also wanted to make sure people did not question his authority. “Jill, you are my maid, not our son’s.”

Rick was not going to back down today. “Mom is not anyone’s maid. You always talk about taking responsibility for what you do. You take responsibility for making that mess and clean it up yourself Big Dick.”

Big Dick was a little amused, mostly pissed off, but he found it funny that his son thought he could stand up to him. Little Dick did not have the fight in him. “Oh how cute, Little Dick is trying to get all hard like a Big Dick. I do what I want because I am the Big Dick. Now maid after cleaning the kitchen you get the rest of the house spotless.”

To Jill, cleaning the house was worth the cost of getting her husband’s negative attention away from their son. Wanting the situation to defuse she said “I will hun.”

Rick was not going to be a twerp and let his mom have to work hard on her day off. “No. You will not mom. I am not cleaning the kitchen either. Dad is.”

The little entertainment Big was getting from his son trying to be a man was destroyed when Rick started to give orders to him. The man who thought he ruled his home had to put a stop to his son being uppity. He blamed his wife for the disrespect he was getting from his son. “Bitch, look at what you did. You saying that you told me to do something, has our son thinking he can order us around.”

Rick ran into the living room and got right into his dad’s face. “You will never call my mom a bitch again.”

Big Dick was now a little happy. He was going to put his son in his place. “Listen here. You don’t tell me what to do. You can’t even keep your word so why should I listen to you. You are now my maid and you will be doing what I told that bitch to do.”

“Not doing what I said. That is funny from you. You said that we clean up after ourselves and you don’t. You said you will not drink anymore, but you still get drunk. If anyone is a bitch around here it is you.”

Big Dick clenched his fist and cocked back his arm to punch his son. Even though the abusive father has done this countless times before, this time was different. He was going to do so in front of his wife. Until this moment Jill was under the delusion that she was protecting her son from Big Dick’s wrath by taking the punishment herself. The protective mother screamed “Don’t you dare” to her husband.

Her standing up to Big Dick was too little and too late for her son to stop her husband. This was in a way a replay of earlier today between Rick and Lynn, except this time Rick was the smaller one who was getting punched. The blow hit Rick in his solar plexus. The replay stayed the same, the little one did nothing back. Rick felt just like a twerp.

Right then was not too little or too late for Jill to do the right thing. She charged her husband. There was no way he would hit her in front of their son. Even if he would, taking that chance was worth it. Protecting her son was Jill’s most important priority in life.

Big Dick was not who Jill thought he was. She was not married to a man who was a little rough around the edges. She was married to a narcissist. He cannot be wrong and people who challenged him needed to be put in his place. He hit her. Again being a coward it was in the gut. The bruising would not be visible. No one other than who he deemed needed to know would. He would still be seen as a great man to the people outside of these walls.

Seeing his mom get punched made Rick put the scared twerp inside him to sleep. Now was the time for him to prove to his mom and dad and more importantly to himself, he was not a child anymore. His dad would respect him and not call him Little Dick anymore. His mom would know all the sacrifices she made staying with Big Dick were not futile. Her positive influence was paying off with her son doing the right thing.

Getting hit this time was different to Jill. The loving mom was not going to go down without swinging. Taking the abuse before was to spare her son from Big Dick’s anger. Now she did not have to worry about that, Big Dick already showed his true self to his son in front of her. At this moment she was going to at least not fail at setting a good example to her son. She punched Big Dick right in the face.

A little bit of blood was trickling from Big Dick’s face as he started to smile. That was her best shot and it did not phase him. Now in his demented self serving mind he was going to feel justified hitting her with his full force. All the times he hit his wife before, Big Dick’s rationaliztion was it was not to hurt her but to put her in her place. Now he was going to strike back in self defense.

As Big Dick was winding up to land the hardest bitch slap he could muster, a stinging pain came to his skull base. Rick was standing up for himself and his mom by hitting his dad with a rabbit punch. Some people would have called that a sucker punch and Rick would have agreed. He just punched a sucker. Big Dick was a sucker for he could not see how good he could have had life. Instead of wanting everything his way, Big Dick should have been happy with having a good job, a good wife, a nice home and son who admired him when he was not being abusive.

Rick was being merciful by not attacking his stunned dad. He was hoping and praying that punch knocked some sense into Big Dick. Instead Rick’s dad took his son easing off of the attack as a sign of weakness. As soon as the little bit of sense Big Rick had returned to him he turned both his body and attention to his son and then unleashed his full force on him.

There was a furious flurry of blows thrown by Big Dick. The pain from each of the blows was both physical and emotional. Rick’s heart broke by how easy it was for his dad to hurt those closest to him and that he claimed to love. One does not show caring by hitting. The pain from who the punches came from was what made Rick too weary to fight back. If a person who was supposed to be there for you could hurt you this bad then fighting for survival was not worth it. There was nothing worth being around for in his life.

Then as quick as the onslaught started it ended. Rick sighed in relief, he could now catch his breath before figuring out his next course of action. This time to regroup was short. Rick was being called into action when he heard his dad say “Bitch, you could not wait your turn so I am going to give you the rest of the beating your son was going to get then give you what was coming to you.”

Those words gave the tired and weary man the second wind he needed. There was no time to rest or wallow in his sorrow. The time to act was now. He knew how much those Big Dick’s punches hurt and damage a person. The black eyes, broken nose along with the other bruising would heal quickly. The wounds from knowing who gave the beating would last long in his soul and if not treated immediately would leave painful scars.

The young buck might not have been able to beat the old stag in a fight yet. He did know how to hurt him the most. Rick bull rushed his dad, lifted him up and drove his namesake towards the 60” flat screen TV. Using his dad's body as the way to destroy what brought Big Dick’s so much joy would hurt him. Tackling Big Dick’s through the television also had the added bonus of knocking him out for a moment.

Jill knew it was time for her and her son to leave. That was too much damage done today to the fiction which was her life. She saw that she was not able to protect her son from her abusive husband. The fact was in trying to do the best for her son she ended up hurting both of them. She desperately needed to disappear. She knew that if Big Dick got her alone again, that would be the last time she would be alone with anyone.

She called her son to follow as she was running out the door. She knew she had to keep on running to safety. She was running to stand still. On the path to get as far away as possible from the anchor in her life which other people called her husband an idea came to her head. She knew where her safe harbor would be. The only place she would find sanctuary was the one place she would not go. Big Dick would never look for her where he knew she would dare not go. Swallowing her pride Jill said to her son as they got into the car “Drive.”

Rick was already starting the engine. He did not need to be told to get away from the upcoming chaos and destruction which Big Dick wanted to give to his own family. Rick did need to know a destination. Jill answered her son’s one word question by uttering where she imposed a self-exile “My parents house.”

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Many miles away from the mess in the Shell and Stallworth’s home, Dara Wanger got a message from on his UnforgettableFly EASport account. It was from IronCityTurner, the Madden player that just whooped him a couple of minutes ago. The final score was 49-3 but he knew it could have been worse. The score was only 14-3 at halftime. Then right before the end of the second quarter something changed. IronCityTurner was taking a knee to end the half then said the last words he uttered in the match “I am the G.O.A.T.”

Dara had no idea why his opponent made such a brash claim. If he thought about what he said without thinking before the bravado filled declaration he would have known the answer. Joking around he called out IronCityTurner for running out the clock by saying he played like a girl. It was just banter about the conserative play calling from the other player. He was just letting off some steam about the playing style. That IronCityTurner was balling a slow ball control game. He was chewing up all the clock and Dara was always playing defense instead of offense.

The second half Dara sadly got what he wanted. IronCityTurner became more daring with his play calling. He scored 5 out of the 6 possessions he had. It would have been all six but at the very end of the game the old playcalling of his foe came back and he kneeled to kill the clock.

Dara was going to open this unsolicited message. He was too curious to see what was in it. He was soon about to be wishing that he did not. Reading the message made the loser of the match feel like a loser in life. He found out why his opponent changed so much. It was from Dara picking on him. What he said was not harmless banter. That there was another person, a stranger, playing against him and his words could hurt them.

Dara got new found respect for IronCityTurner reading the message. First he apologized for taking out his anger on Dara and said that was unsportsmanlike. Then he explained why he was angry. It took a big man to admit that he was forced by his sister and her boyfriend to wear a dress and makeup. That had to suck and Dara made it worse by questioning his manhood. Then IronCityTurner wrote, “I am telling you this for a man says what is bothering him.” Followed by a last part, offering to give Dara some pointers and stating he was working on never humiliating an opponent again.

Dara wrote a quick acceptance of the apology, apologized for hitting a sore subject and stated that the tips were not needed. Everything was good. That finally IronCityTurner was not boasting when he said he was the G.O.A.T..

Thinking that the little incident between him and IronCityTurner was clear, Dara was shocked when he got another message. It was little but contained so much about the writer’s character. It said that the offering of helping Dara to be better was not done for it was needed. IronCityTurner offered because he wanted to help.

That impromptu Madden training session between UnforgettableFly and Iron City improved more than Dara’s game. The time spent helping also improved Lynn's feelings about himself. They also found they shared more than a love for anything football. They both had unisex names. Instead of getting mad, Lynn laughed when Dara brought up how annoying it was when someone made a joke about it being a girly name. How could that person think it was so witty and original to make that stale joke.

The most important part of the training to Lynn was that he felt better about his name. He got it to honor a great man, his grandfather, and should not let other people think less of him because of it. Knowing that someone else had to deal with the same crap made him feel less alone. He knew that other men had to deal with the same small minded mindset about names. Helping Dara and gaining him as a friend helped Lynn believe that a name played no part in the making of a person.

Having that impromptu Madden training session with the UnforgettableFly helped with the healing process with Lynn. Being able to help someone be better would always be a way for someone to feel better about themselves.