Chapter 2

"No Beer, Plenty of Tension"

Whenever he got off work, Homer would always stop at Moe's for his after work drink with his drinking buddies. But, now that he was being punished by his own wife, that wasn't going to be.

"I can't believe that Marge would do that to you," remarked Lenny as they checked out of the Nuclear Power Plant. "I mean, weren't you doing your job as a parent?"

"Hell yeah, I was guys," replied Homer, bitterly. "Bart needed to be disciplined because that is what we were told by his teacher. Or rather Marge was. But, either way, I am his father and I deal with Bart as I see fit. Tell me something guys, have you ever had seen your parent punished for being a parent?"

"Not that I am aware of, no," said Carl. "Because I mostly was well behaved for the most part. I saw the actions of other kids my age and I took what I learned from them. Take it easy though, Homer, Marge will let up."

But Homer wasn't that optimistic. Marge was sticking to her guns and there was nothing he was going to do about it.

"Well," he sighed. "Don't expect me to show up at Moe's later until I let Bart see the movie."

"When will that be?"

"How the hell should I know?" Homer asked and giving his best friends one last look, he got in his car and drove home.

…

Meanwhile, Lisa noticed the tension that Marge had in her eyes and was beginning to see that her behavior towards her father was somewhat ridiculous.

"Look Mom," Lisa remarked as she watched her mom cook dinner. "I know we both feel bad for Bart, but did you think that forbidding Dad from drinking beer was the right call?"

"Lisa, you know sometimes your father can go too far on your brother. I stood by his decision initially, but now I feel something needs to be done. If Bart can't see the movie, then he can't drink beer, end of story."

"I hate to tell you this, but dad does have the right as do you to punish Bart. Remember when he threw my Thanksgiving centerpiece into the fire?"

"That was different, Lisa," Marge said, turning away from what she was doing. "Both of us were angry at Bart because he hurt you and ruined thanksgiving. The punishment we imposed, while harsh, was fair. This time around, it's just plan harsh. Personally, I would have just preferred to see your father strangle him, even though its not as effective."

"Exactly what I was trying to tell dad. I tried to put him in Bart's shoes, but he refused to listen. Bart may have put Maggie in danger, but even he doesn't deserve this."

Just then, the door opened and in stepped Homer heading towards the refrigerator and pulling a bottle of water. Seeing her father was in the kitchen, Lisa stepped out of the kitchen.

"Oh, hello Marge," said Homer bitterly looking at his wife. "Take a look, I'm drinking water. You happy now because I can't drink beer until I let Bart see the Itchy and Scratchy movie?"

"Maybe by being forbidden from drinking beer, you can become a better person."

"Hardy har har."

"I'm dead serious, Homer. You went too far with punishing Bart, even though you may not believe it. Bart is what he is and you can't seem to accept it."

Homer decided at that moment that he had enough of his wife's criticism of his parenting skills and left the kitchen. There he saw Bart, sitting at the edge of the window, looking out and feeling depressed. But it wasn't going to change his mind, Homer stuck to his guns and instead walked up the stairs with the bottle of water in his hand.

Stepping out of the kitchen, Marge looked over towards Bart and felt nothing but pity for him. So much went through Marge's mind at that moment on whether or not she made a mistake by standing by Homer when he laid down the law.

"Bart, I'm going to do everything I can to get your father to change his mind," she thought to herself. "He's gone too far with punishing you, but he doesn't see it because…he's so pigheaded and set in his ways."

Upstairs, Homer sat in his bedroom and just laid in bed drinking the bottle of water.

"Why would you do this to me, Marge?" he thought to himself. "What's wrong with laying down a little discipline, hmm? Do you want Bart to become successful or not? I told him he would thank me for this and how do you support my decision? By turning your back on me and retaliating against me by taking away my privileges like I am a child? Okay, we'll play this little game you want to play, and you will see that I did nothing wrong."

…

For three days, the tension between him and Marge continued and Homer still stood his ground on Bart. One day, Homer was desperate for a drink and went to the Kwiki Mart for a bottle of beer. When he returned home, Marge saw him with the drink and snatched it from him.

"I warned you, Homer, no movie, no beer!" she cried, snatching the beer and dumping it into the sink. "Have you decided on letting up?"

"No, I haven't."

"Then the punishment stands against you, Homer and I don't want to see this in here again. Because if you do, I'll break this bottle over your head."

"Oh, planning to get physical with me, huh? I don't know what's gotten into, Marge, but it stops right now."

"No it doesn't, Homer. Not until you change your mind about Bart seeing the movie. Oh, and here is another bonus. You are to be the one to take him to the movie and thus, get your drinking privileges back. The decision is yours!"

Homer watched as Marge threw his empty duff bottle in the trash. By this point, Homer's desperation for a beer was beginning to get to him and there was no denying the fact that he was going to cave into Marge's demands, despite his intentions to not cave in.

Days would go by until the final week of Itchy and Scratchy's run dawned on Springfield…