Chapter 1

It started in high school and although I didn't know it at the time it would have far reaching consequences. Looking back on it I could see that it was just juvenile young teen bullshit; the kind of thing most teens go through and usually forget as they grow older.

Except in my case it didn't happen.

It was the ninth grade and I was more or less going steady with Mandy Light and had been since the eighth grade, at least I thought that I was. I'd given her a friendship ring and we did some hot necking whenever we could.

On Friday night I showed up at her house to pick her up for our date to go to the movies only to be told by her mother that she had already left for the movies with Donny Haight. I was confused for a couple of seconds thinking that I'd forgotten something, but then I remembered talking to Mandy during lunch at the school cafeteria about the movie we were going to see. Mandy knew I would be there to pick her up at six and she had taken off with Haight?

I didn't know what to think, but I did know I was pissed. I headed for the movie and when I saw Mandy and Haight standing in line at the ticket booth I walked up to them, grabbed Mandy's hand and pulled the ring I had given her off of her finger. I guess I wasn't to gentle about it because Mandy cried out in pain. Donny said:

"Hey! Leave my girl alone!"

"Shut your mouth Haight; this is between Mandy and me."

He went to push me away and it pissed me off and I punched him in the face and gave him a bloody nose. He started to come at me and I set myself to take him on, but some of the adults who were in the line grabbed us and kept us apart. One of them told us to take our beef someplace else. I turned and left.

I went on home and spent my time thinking of evil ways to make Mandy and Donny suffer. I finally fell asleep and when I got up in the morning I was over it. The only thoughts I had of Mandy were along the lines of "To hell with her!"

Around one that afternoon I was in the garage working on the 1971 Ford Torino that my dad and I were rebuilding hoping to have it ready by the time I got my driver's license when mom yelled out to me that I had a phone call. It was Mandy and as soon as I heard her voice I hung up on her.

I told mom that Mandy and I had broken up the night before and that I had no interest in talking to her so if she called again just tell her I was busy helping dad and unable to take calls.

I thought about things over the weekend and planned my coming week so I could avoid Mandy as much as possible. It would be hard because we were mostly both in the same classes, but it could be done. The only place I couldn't avoid her would be during lunch in the cafeteria. I could skip lunch, but decided not to. I could just ignore the stupid bitch.

Mandy did call twice more that weekend and both times my mom told her that I was not available to take calls.

When I got to school Monday Mandy was standing by the door waiting for me. She stepped forward to talk to me and I walked right by her without a word and headed for my locker with Mandy trailing along behind me telling me that we had to talk. I ignored her, got what I needed for my first class out of my locker and then headed for the classroom.

Avoiding her in class was easy because Mr. Wilcox used assigned seating and he went by the alphabet. Light was close to the front of the room and Zieger was at the very back so we weren't even close to each other. Also, when class was over I was closest to the door and was able to leave the room before she was even halfway to the door.

I managed to avoid Mandy until lunch and even then I waited for her to go through the line and take a seat before I grabbed a tray and went through the line. I picked a table on the other side of the room and sat down. I was two-thirds through my lunch when Mandy got up from where she was sitting and came over and sat down at my table. I looked up from my salad and when she said, "Why are you being such an asshole Danny?" I got up and walked away from the table. Mandy got up to chase me, but ran into Nancy Wilde causing both of them to drop their trays on the floor. By the time they got straightened out I was gone.

There was more drama that afternoon. After gym I was in the locker room when Haight came up to me, said "I owe you cocksucker" and threw a punch at me. I caught his wrist, pulled him off balance and then shoved him head first into the shower room wall. It dazed him and I must have gotten his nose again because blood was running down his face. I didn't say a word, but I wanted to get dressed and out of there before Mr. Williams came in to see what the disturbance was so I kneed Haight in the crotch and that took him out of play long enough for me to do what was needed to get me out of there.

Mandy was waiting for me by the door when school let out, but I walked right by her. She started to follow me all the while telling me to stop and talk to her. I started running and so did she, but she gave it up after a block.

About five that afternoon I got a call from Billy Neubert asking me if I wanted to go to the Arcade and maybe Harry's Malt Shop and I said I'd meet him at the Arcade at six-thirty. He was already at the Arcade and playing a pinball machine when I got there. There were some other kids there that we knew and we bummed around and played games for a couple of hours and then we headed over to Harry's Malt Shop.

Over a burger and fries Bill asked me what was the deal between me and Donny Haight and why the dust up in the locker room earlier in the day. I told him the story and he told me to watch out for Haight.

"I heard him tell a couple of other guys that he was going to get you."

"He won't try if he knows what's good for him."

"Shit! Speak of the devil."

"What?"

"He just walked in."

"So? He won't start anything in here. If he does Harry will bar him for life."

We sat and talked about a half a dozen different things and then it was time for us to go. I was maybe ten feet out the door when I heard:

"Hold up there shit for brains" and I turned to see Donny Haight coming out the door. "We have some unfinished business to take care of."

"Fuck you Haight" I said and turned my back on him and started walking away.

"What's the matter Zieger? Afraid of a fair fight?"

I kept walking.

"I knew you were a coward" he said and then he laughed as he said to the others who had come out with him "Look at the wimp run."

I turned and walked up to him and I guess he expected me to stop and then trade insults with him before we got into it because he just stood there smirking at me. I walked up to him and without saying a word I punched him in the face. Blood started running from his nose and he instinctively raised his hands to his face and I buried my fist in his belly. He gasped and bent at the waist which brought his head down to where I could bring my knee up into his face, but at the last second I decided to just hit him on the right side of his head with my fist. He went down to the ground and I considered kicking him a couple of times for good measure, but figured that would be overkill.

While he was down on the ground I bent down, grabbed a handful of his hair and pulled his face up close to mine and said:

"Any time you want to fight me I'll be ready to do it. I won't go out of my way to make it happen, but you had better be aware that I won't put up with your shit. You got a bloody nose Friday night not because you were with Mandy, but because you pushed me and you got another this afternoon because you threw a punch at me in the locker room. I'm not afraid of you Haight and I'll tell you this. The next time you want to try me I'll put you down and stomp the shit out of you and you had better fucking well believe it!"

I stood up and looked at the crowd that had followed him out to watch which, by the way, included Mandy, and said:

"See what a wimp can do if you piss him off?"

Then I turned and left. I didn't know if Haight would decide I wasn't worth the trouble or not, but I did know that whenever I was around him I was going to be ready.

The next day when I got to school Mandy was again waiting for me at the front door of the school. Trying to avoid her seemed to be a waste of time so I decided to just get things over with. When she stepped in front of me I stopped and said:

"What the fuck do you want Mandy?"

That set her back some since I had never used language like that around her before.

"I want my ring back Danny."

"Tough shit Mandy. I don't want to give it back to you. You ended our relationship with the crap you pulled on me Friday."

"You aren't being fair Danny. You have to let me explain."

By then we had gathered a small crowd so more to embarrass than anything else I raised my voice so that even those at the rear of the crowd could hear me.

"Fair? You want fair? Was it fair to me when I showed up at your house to pick you up for a date – a date we had discussed only six hours before – only to find out that you had taken off with another guy? Was it fair to me when I showed up at the movies and found you holding hands with another guy while you were wearing my ring? You basically stabbed me in the back and you want me to be fair? Not in this lifetime Miss Light. Just stay the hell away from me. Spend your time with the dickhead you threw me over for."

I left her standing there and walked into the school. What I said must have registered because Mandy never bothered me again other than throwing nasty looks my way whenever we passed by each other. At least in high school.

Haight was a different matter. I'd embarrassed him in front of people not once, but three times and he was unhappy about it. Unhappy, but unwilling to confront me directly. He tried to get back at me indirectly.

We both went out for football and we both made the team. Haight was on defense and I was on offense. Every time the team had practice scrimmages I was Haight's target. Even if the play was away from me he came after me and took whatever cheap shot he thought he could get away with. I let him get away with it because if I would have clocked his ass I would have been thrown off of the team. I'd just get him away from school and settle his hash.

Of course he figured that is what I would try to do so he made damned sure never to be where I was. We managed to make it through high school without him doing me any serious damage. It wasn't all one sided though. I did manage to get back at him a time or two. During one scrimmage he intercepted a pass and the God's saw to it that I was the one in position to make the tackle on him. When I got up I slipped, accidentally of course, and as I fell I drove my knee into his stomach with my full 190 pounds behind it. He had to be helped off the field.

There were some other times too; enough to let him know that I was going to do my best to give as good as I got.

After graduation I headed for State to study Business Management and Haight went to some college back east. As far as I was concerned it was goodbye and good riddance.

The end of my relationship with Mandy did not mean that my social life was over. By the time I was old enough to get my driver's license my dad and I had the Torino up and running and as one of the few in my class with a car it wasn't hard to get dates.

My relationship with Mandy had soured me on long term relationships so I didn't tie myself down to any one girl. I deliberately dated girls who I'd seen bounce from one guy to another. We would date until the girl showed signs of 'jumping ship' and then I'd stop calling her and move on to someone else.

They did tend to stay with me longer than they spent with other guys, but I didn't kid myself that it was because of my great looks and personality. It was because I had a car and thus the freedom to go places whenever I felt like it and I didn't have to make dates on a "If I can get dad (or mom) to let me use the car."

My life changed again in the 12^th grade. Her name was Pauline French and since the day she turned eighteen she had been the class punchboard and it wasn't because it was the only way she could get boys to date her. She was drop dead gorgeous and a walking wet dream.

Pauline fucked because she loved to fuck. Even though she could have had a steady boyfriend just by pointing to a guy and snapping her finger she did not have one. My sister Nancy, who was a grade behind me, told me that Pauline had told some of the girls in the shower room after gym class that she didn't want a steady boyfriend because he would get all pissed off and jealous when she tried on another guy.

"I like variety" Pauline had said. "I'm fascinated by the difference in guys. The different sizes and shapes; the way they do it to you and the different ways they taste. How some eat pussy and love it and others don't have a clue. Nope. No steady for me until I'm married and ready to settle down."

I'd never had a taste of Pauline, not that I wouldn't have liked to, but the circumstances never put us where I could ask her for a date. Not that I would have if given the opportunity. I wouldn't because I would have been afraid that the date would have eventually led to sex and I was sure that if that happened Pauline, with all of her experience, would laugh at me and possibly even ridicule me.

The sad fact is that I was still a virgin. Even in the eleventh grade when I was eighteen and legal (I'd missed a year because of a ruptured appendix) all of my female classmates (and therefore my dating pool) were mostly all sixteen and seventeen and sex with them could have put me behind bars. I'd necked hot and heavy with my under aged dates, but that was the extent of my experience. I was sure that Pauline with all of her experience would consider me a bumbling clown so I never tried my luck.

Then Fate, being the perverse thing she is, decided to fuck with me.

I was in the habit of giving my sister a ride home from school if she wanted one. A lot of the time she didn't because she had things she wanted to go do with her friends or with some guy she was dating.

That particular day it was raining off and on and so Nancy told me she would ride home with me. When I got out of my last class and headed out to go home I found Nancy waiting for me at the door and she had two girls with her. One of them was Pauline French.

"It's nasty out" Nancy said, "So would you mind giving Pauline and Linda a ride?"