Chapter 2

John called his lawyer when they got home. “John, I can see your problem, but there is not much that you can do about it. You have three choices: let the kids go to school and fight their own battles, sue the school and the Board of Education to try to force them to do a better job of controlling the bullies, or pull Jack and Nelly from school and go through home schooling. Frankly, home schooling is so early in its infancy in this day and age of 1983 that it still does not have a strong backbone of legal muscle. It is my opinion as your legal adviser that you should go with option number one and just let the kids live with it.”

“Okay, Ed, I’ll go with your recommendation, but it does piss me off. I’ll tell you this, my kids are going to fight if it comes to that, so I may see you in court after all. I hope not, but there it is.”

As it turned out, Mrs. Cold let the matter of the punishment for fighting drop, so that became a non-issue. The bullies avoided Jack and Nelly, so there were no fights. On a few occasions, Jack and Nelly did intervene in behalf of a kid that was being pushed too far, but their reputation saved them from having to fight. Thus, they finished 1^st and 2^nd Grade without any more fights, but the situation changed a bit when they got to 3^rd Grade.

A new kid came in who was in the 3^rd Grade, but was four years older than the twins. Yes, he was a bully. When it came to brains, he was a very dim bulb. He was giving some of the 1^st and 2^nd Grade students such a hard time that several parents were organizing an effort to kick Gavin McGregor out of school. The petition was due up for consideration at the next Board of Education meeting, and nobody could predict where it was headed.

Well, the question came to a head before that meeting. Jack and Nelly were walking past a small decorative hedge growth when they heard a scream come from there in a young girl’s voice. Neither one of them had any intention of ignoring the obvious plea for help, and they pushed their way in among the bushes to find Gavin McGregor in the process of raping a little girl who could not have been more than eight years old.

He had already penetrated her and was working to push his way into her vagina far enough to get some satisfaction from the rape. It must have been very painful for the girl judging from the relative sizes of his penis and her vulva. She was crying in great sobs as she wiggled and kicked in an effort to escape.

Probably it was to be expected, but Nelly reacted first. She shouted, “GET OFF OF HER, YOU BULLY!” and proceeded to kick McGregor in the ribs. The kick was not forceful enough to cause any real harm. The real purpose of the kick was to get his attention.

McGregor’s reaction was to sweep his arm around and knock Nelly down. This was certainly enough to wake Jack up from his stupor of surprise. This was his first sight of any sort of sex act between humans, and he was not sure of what he should do. However, by knocking down Jack’s sister, McGregor had wakened a sleeping giant.

Jack lined himself up just as he had been taught and launched a roundhouse kick at McGregor’s neck. Perhaps it was just as well that this was the first time that Jack had tried this maneuver in real life because he misjudged slightly and hit McGregor in the side of the head just above his ear on the left side. The side Jack hit was not important, but the kick was important.

The kick was delivered with enough force to knock McGregor completely off the little girl. Blood poured from her vulva as if McGregor had caused a serious tear in the girl’s vagina. The girl was not naked, so she was spared the nosy stares when she ran out of the bushes. The girl was in such pain that she only got as far as the playground before she fell. Nelly was right behind her and told her to stay on the ground.

Nelly had been carrying a cell phone since that mess up two years ago, so she did exactly the right thing and dialed 911. John had taken the twins to meet all of the 911 dispatchers, so she was talking to someone she knew, and, more importantly, knew her. Nelly gave all of the information that the dispatcher asked for and was told that an ambulance was on the way.

Nelly told the girl that medical help was on the way, and she should stay where she was so that they could find her. Meanwhile, she was going to help her brother. She rushed back into the mass of bushes and saw that Jack had the situation well in hand. McGregor was lying on the ground on his side, and every time he acted like he was going to fight back, Jack kicked him as hard as he could in the kidney. Jack must have been accomplishing something because every kick produced a loud scream of pain from McGregor. That kidney was going to need some serious attention when McGregor finally got to the hospital.

Jack said, “Nelly, please call Dad to come here. I think that I will need his advice. After you do that, please call 911 for a cop to arrest this rapist and for another ambulance. I don’t think that McGregor will be able to move by himself once I stop kicking him.”

Nelly made the calls, and John dropped everything to rush to the school. The first ambulance had just arrived and was drawing quite a crowd. That was enough to get the monitors’ attention, and they came to see what was going on just as John arrived. Like the ambulance, John drove across the playing area, and the monitors were very disturbed about that. They almost completely ignored the girl who was receiving medical help.

The cop showed up, it was John’s friend Bill, and that was a good thing. Bill took the time to get a quick statement from the girl and the medics. All he really got was the statement that the girl had been raped by a very large boy who was a 3^rd Grade student.

The two men pushed their way into the bushes and found Nelly and Jack standing guard over McGregor. Bill noticed immediately that McGregor’s fly was open and his penis was clearly visible sticking through the opening. Bill said, “Okay, I’m here. You can stop kicking the rapist.”

Only moments later, Ms Alfredson, the playground monitor from their first incident burst through the bushes. Her first words were, “Oh, my God, the little bastards have done it again! This will get you two expelled this time.”

John happened to hear her remarks, and reacted in kind. “Go fuck yourself, you stupid Bitch! You have just set yourself up for one hell of a lawsuit. Those are my two children, and they have just rescued a girl from that rapist. It probably would not have happened if you had been doing your job!”

Bill said, “Ma’am, it would be better if you leave for now. I heard your remarks about these two fine children, and I may be a witness at your trial.” That was enough to drive Ms Alfredson back to her friends outside the bushes.

The medics and the ambulance finally arrived. They had been delayed because of making a delivery to the hospital. One of the medics said to John, “We may have a problem here. Your son may have kicked the rapist one too many times. His kidney is going to be in very sad shape.”

Bill said, “Jack, I need to get a statement from you. Tell me in your own words what happened.” This was enough to get Jack to relate what had happened from the moment they had heard the scream come from the bushes. Of course, he had to go to police headquarters to retell the story at least 10 more times. John had gotten his lawyer there in time to hear the last eight retellings, and everybody agreed that Jack had told the same story every time. By mutual agreement, the first three tellings of the story by Jack were thrown out because his lawyer had not been available.

They were all sent home, and the consensus was that Nelly and Jack were heroes. On the way home, John swore to get that stupid Ms Alfredson fired and paying a hell of a lot of money to Jack and Nelly.

John called Ed, his lawyer, and got the lawsuits underway. Hardly had John hung up the phone when he got a phone call from a reporter wanting to interview Jack and Nelly. It turned out that the girl they rescued was the youngest daughter of the Mayor of Silver River. Uh-oh, this was even more serious than John had realized. He called the chief of police to ask what he should do. The answer was to refuse the interview since the case was still pending. The interview would be okay after the trial, but it would be old news by then and not worth the reporter’s time. John breathed a sigh of relief at that.