Chapter 5

I called my daughter using a public phone and she started lashing me out as soon as she heard my voice. I wished I would have been wrong about her reason to call me.

“I’m mad at you, Dad. That horrible poster ruined my life. Why couldn’t you leave us alone?”

“I didn’t ruin your life. Your mother’s cheating did. Goodbye Elise. Don’t ask me to call you again.”

I hung up on her.

I was driving through a nice city in the northwest called Middletown when I saw a mini-complex which included a food court and a multi-purpose center that accommodated passenger vehicles, trucks, and vans. After some months on the road, my camper deserved a bath. When my wheeled home disappeared through the various stages of a high-tech computerized assembly line, I walked around and I stood at a nearby school playground to watch the kids playing.

The school grounds seemed to be open to the community. I saw some people walking their dogs.

A child walked fast in front of me. She was short, skinny, with scraped knees, and her clothes were old, used, ragged.

A bunch of loud girls was coming after her.

“Hey, Sabrina! Where is your dad?” a fat blonde bully shouted.

Laughter broke out on the playground.

I had been in her situation when I was a kid. I never had new sneakers and my clothes were always clean but they weren’t new. There was something in the girl’s black eyes I recognized. It was a mix of shame and fear, but also pride. This mouse could roar if they pushed her enough.

“I have a dad,” she said in a small voice. “Everybody has one.”

“Is his name on your birth certificate, dim bulb?” the blonde sneered.

Sabrina winced and tried to walk away, but the bully wasn’t the kind of girl you turn your back on

“Only losers don’t have dads.” The fat blonde grinned and grabbed Sabrina’s arm and spun her around.

“Do you even have a birth certificate? I hear you and your mother eat garbage. They say that your dad hated you and your mom so much he dumped you both in an alley and took off.”

It never ceases to amaze me how cruel some kids can be. My mind was now flooded with old unpleasant memories of my own childhood. Growing up in a family where money was tight had placed a bulls-eye on my back too.

Sabrina tightened her lips along with her fists.

I stood up and approached the group ready to put a stop to things if they got out of control.

The group of girls continued bothering her, calling her names, and so on, while Sabrina was doing her best to ignore them. Then the blonde tossed one final taunt, “Everyone says your mother is a whore. I bet right now she is having sex with someone to buy your lunch.”

The group erupted in laughter.

“What did you say?”

The group went silent.

The blonde bully stood an inch away from Sabrina’s face, wearing a nasty grin that said she’d been waiting for this. “I said your mom is a whore. The only job she could get is letting other men fuck her.”

Sabrina socked the blonde as hard as she could in the soft belly.

While the blonde writhed on the ground, Sabrina said quietly, “Don’t ever talk about my mom again.”

The blonde jumped at her and hit her in the face giving her a bloody nose. I thought it was time to stop being just a spectator.

“Enough!” I shouted. I lifted my gaze and the group of mean girls shrank back. I’m 6’2” so from the perspective of a group of sixth-grade girls, I was a towering monster.

The bunch of girls looked at me and ran away carrying the fat blonde with them who was grabbing her stomach and cussing.

As I approached Sabrina, she stared at me with a resigned look in her eyes. I tried to calm her.

“I know how it feels to be bullied. I was bullied myself when I was around your age,” I confessed. I stood a few inches away from her to show her I had no intention of hurting her.