The Strand-on-the-Green Strongwoman chapter two (standard:drama, 4552 words)
Author: Brian Cross	Added: Jan 06 2020	Views/Reads: 1572/1076	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Maggie Wells witnesses an incident at a London tube station that sets her on a course across country seeking retribution using her formidable physical power.

Chapter Two 

Maggie had felt Bill's presence in bed, had felt him coming onto her,
but her powerful outstretched arm prevented him getting any closer. 
She'd made it seem like a reflex action made in her sleep, but that 
wasn't the case. She'd heard him sigh and roll away from her and had 
been glad of it; besides, he had reeked of stale beer. Maggie had been 
aware that their relationship had been going awry for some time, and it 
hadn't all been Bill's fault. Her temper flared more than it used to, 
and she really didn't know why. There hadn't been another guy in her 
life, and yet she knew she was drifting away from him. 

It didn't help that he sought refuge down the pub, but Bill didn't have
many vices to be fair. He was quite good-looking in a rough and ready 
sort of way, and perhaps that was what attracted her to him. Rough and 
ready suited her fine in adolescence, and why wouldn't it? She was the 
toughest girl around. 

But although her temper might not have abated, there had been subtle
changes in her outlook. Maggie was aware that her sympathetic leanings 
towards the elderly conflicted with her more tempestuous ways, and 
perhaps that had attributed to those changes in perspective. 

At any rate, Bill hadn't been his normal garrulous self that morning as
he took himself off to the garage where he worked as a mechanic, and 
Maggie wasn't in the mood to appease him. Maggie elected to take her 
car that morning, a Kia, not much bigger than a Mini. Bill's idea, 
though why she'd succumbed to his suggestion, she didn't know. Economy, 
he'd said, and she'd gone along with it. Didn't suit her at all. Her 
work colleagues had mocked her once they'd found out. Mighty Maggie 
they'd come to term her for obvious reasons – in a tiny Kia. A muscle 
car would have suited her better, she thought with a smile, her biceps 
stretching the fabric of her blouse as she wrenched the driver's door 
open and started the journey. 

After yesterday's events, Maggie wasn't in the mood for the tube, and it
had little to do with her confrontation with the yob; no, when the 
temperature reached boiling point, the stagnant air on the tube became 
stifling, not to mention the care home's air conditioning system wasn't 
always up to the mark. Sometimes, even her strength could be sapped; 
the combination of adverse factors could be exhausting. 

Of course, the traffic had to be contended with, and there was little
she could do about that. But as luck would have it, today was one of 
the rare jam-free days, and Maggie arrived in Notting Hill with 
twenty-five minutes to spare. 

She hustled swiftly through reception with a brief nod of
acknowledgement to Debbie Bates, the receptionist, and sprinted up the 
stairs. 

Moving swiftly into the locker room, she slipped into her blue-checked
carer's uniform and joined Sue Butcher and Tracie Dennis, her shift 
colleagues in the rest room. 

They were leaning over the glass-topped coffee table with the front page
of the Chiswick Times the subject of discussion. “What's so special 
about last week's paper?” Maggie asked, peering over Sue's shoulder. 

“It's not last week's,” the fair-haired Tracie Dennis answered. 

“It's this week's brought out a day early cos look ...” Tracie raised
the paper aloft, and Maggie struggled to conceal her shock. ‘Vicious 
attack at Strand-on-the-Green,' the bold black headline informed. 
‘Female dubbed the Strand-on-the-Green Strongwoman beats up male in 
broad daylight and heaves him into the Thames,' the article 
enlightened. ‘First reports indicate the attack was entirely 
unprovoked. Police hunt dangerous strong woman; the assailant is 
described as five-three to five-five tall with striking ginger hair and 
a strong build. She was reported as wearing a blue hooped tee shirt and 
dark Capri pants.' 

“You can come across nutters anywhere,” Maggie said dismissively once
she'd recovered her senses. 



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