We stood there, the three of us, just staring at the six
large teenagers walking towards us. I can only imagine that from an outsider’s
perspective we must have looked like three kids who suddenly looked into the
face of Medusa and were immediately turned into statues.
It was Finn
who broke our silence “Fuck, what are we going to do?” was all he said.
“I aint
giving up my bag to them fuckers.” Fish answered.
“We gotta run.” Was all I managed to
reply.
“Hey,
retards! Don’t you go anywhere! You gotta pay your candy tax!” one of the six
yelled at us.
“Tell you
what,” Fish said, “You two run faster than I do and I’m a better fighter, so,
take my bag and head down Karl street.” Then he handed me his pillowcase.
“Nah Fish,
you aint taking a beating for us. Let’s just drop one bag and all take off.” I
said.
“Screw
that,” Finn said, “We follow Fish’s plan. We’ll meet up in my garage. They know
about the rafters so if we get away, they won’t look at my house.”
“Yeah, but
then they’ll be pissed off and kick our ass’s later.” I said.
“Not if I
have anything to say about it.” Fish said and that’s when we heard a sharp
click.
I looked
towards the sound and saw Fish had pulled out a switchblade and was holding the
gleaming steel in his right hand. The street lights reflected off the polished
surface. When I looked at Fish’s face I saw the crazy eyes he was famous for.
“Fish, you
don’t want to end up in Juvie. Shit.” I said.
“I aint
gonna kill them. Hell, I probably won’t even cut them, but they don’t know
that. Now run fuckers.”
Finn and I
turned and ran.
“Where the
fuck are you going? Get back here!” one of the Nine Hundred Six yelled.
We ignored
the order and kept running.
“Get them!”
was the response.
As Finn and
I rounded the corner from Libel street onto Karl street I glanced back to where
Fish was. He was standing tall, waving his knife around and in front of him
three of the Nine Hundred Six stood with their hands in the air. The other
three were in pursuit of Finn and I.
“Shit, we
got three bogies.” I said to Finn.
“Fuck them.
We run faster.” He said and started to pull away from me.
The sound
of our candy sloshing around along with the coins in our bags drowned out the
sounds of the older bullies yelling for us to stop. I could hear Finn trying to
tell me something but I couldn’t understand him. I tried to speed up but
carrying two bags of candy and money was slowing me down.
As we
passed the large evergreen that was in the yard of the first house on Karl
Street I saw there were still some kids walking along the street in costume.
The kids were smaller and there were only a few adults with them. As we passed
by them, Finn screamed something unintelligible to me and then we were gone.
Halfway
down Karl, when we should have cut into the back yard of the house at 600,
which shared a fence with my back yard Finn dodged to the left. Towards 601 on
the wrong side of the street. I followed.
Once in the
back yard of 601 Karl, Finn scurried to the back of the tool shed and stopped.
He knelt down and tried to catch his breath. “What the hell are we doing? We’re
supposed to go to your garage?” I said through heavy gasps.
“Bags…
slowing down… stash ‘em.” Finn muttered.
I nodded
and looked around, there was a couple of bushes near the shed and I quickly
stuffed mine and Fish’s bags behind them. Finn followed suit.
We heard
our pursuer’s shouts and we peaked around the corner of the shed. They were
standing between the houses. One of them was holding his side, another had his
hand on his head and seemed to be crying. “Come on out you bunch of pansies!
Come get your ass whooping!”
We ducked
back behind the shed “What do you want to do?” I asked.
“Double
back. They don’t know where we are, so we go back for Fish.”
“Sounds
good. Jump the fence and head up the back yards?” I said pointing to the fence
not five feet from us.
Finn
nodded. “Just give me another second to catch my breath.”
We didn’t
get to wait as long as we would have liked, our three bullies started yelling
and searching the back yard. We quickly shimmied the fence and ended up in the
backyard of a house on Karl Drive. Neither of us knew who lived there and to
tell the truth, we didn’t care.
“Skip, aint
this where that girl Laura lives?” Finn asked.
Why the
hell did Finn do that? I asked myself. Bringing up Laura. Ugh, as if I didn’t
have enough shit on my mind right then. “No, man, she lives closer to the East
River and on the other side of the street. Now shut up about her. Let’s go.”
We headed
towards Libel through the backyards. We were two houses from Libel when Finn
started talking again. “So we got a plan? Or do we just blaze in there and
rumble like the Sharks versus the Jets?” he said referring to West Side Story.
The movie he and I had watched at least a half a dozen times over the past
year. It seemed the local UHF station had gotten rights to it and decided to
run it at least once a month to try and get ratings. Also, after school or on
rainy days in the summer, we’d just make popcorn and watch the television. The afternoon
movie theatre was usually a western, a kung fu film, a bad horror movie, but
then they started showing West Side Story. Finn was addicted to it. I was bored
with it, except for Riff. I liked his character.
“No plan,
but with only three of them, Fish with his knife and you and I show up, we may
just win.” I said.
“Yeah, one
day we’re going to kick all their asses. I can’t wait for that day.”
“I’d be
happy if they just moved.” I said as we got to the sidewalk on Libel.
We both
turned towards Karl Street and saw Fish standing on the corner with two larger
forms and on the ground were three squirming bodies. “What the hell?” Finn
asked.
“No clue,
but let’s go find out.” I said and started jogging. Finn followed.
As we got
closer to Fish and company, we realized the two teens standing with him were
the Jamrog twins. The bodies on the ground, squirming, crying and moaning in
pain, they were three of the Nine Hundred Six.
“What the
hell happened?” Finn asked as we slowed to a walk.
“The twins
showed up.” Fish answered with a shit eating grin.
“Yeah, we’ve
been wanting to get a piece of these jerks for a while.” Dennis said. He was
apparently the older of the two twins.
“Yeah, hard
to believe they’re related to the Sandovals.” Glenn said as he kicked one of
the squirming bullies in the stomach.
“Where are
the other three?” Fish asked.
“Last time
we saw them, they were halfway down Karl in the backyard of one of the houses.”
I said.
“Where are
the bags?” Fish asked.
“Stashed
them in some bushed behind a shed.” Finn answered.
“Well, let’s
go get them. No need to hang out here.” Fish said as he closed his knife and
slipped it into his pocket.
“Uh, guys,
what about the other three?” I asked.
“Don’t
worry, Glenn and I will go with you guys. They aint gonna mess with you no
more.”
“Cool,
thanks. Finn said.
Twenty minutes
later all five of us were crowded into the rafters of my garage, Dennis and
Glenn were offered anything they wanted from our candy supply. They declined
and quickly pulled out some Marlboro’s and lit up and started talking about
girls.
The three of
us, Fish, Finn and myself, separated candy, divided it all up and counted the
change.
In the end,
we all got what we wanted and spent the night eating as much sugar as we could handle
and we learned that while running from a fight is smart, it’s much smarter to
have friends who are older and bigger than the bullies who terrorize you.
I know, not
an earth shattering revelation, but as an up and coming teenager who is out
wandering the mean streets of your town, it is a vital survival tactic.
Happy
Halloween.
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