Chapter 9

Wayne grabbed his daughter from my hands and threw her inside. She landed on the carpet and hit her head against the couch.

I took a step back but in a few seconds Wayne's giant fist flew into my eyes. A stinging bolt of pain shot up into my head. Wayne managed to leap forward and catch me before I fell. He threw my body into his living room. I landed near the couch and crashed my head against a metal bar on the coffee table.

Wayne stared at his daughter and pointed to the stairs. "Get up to your room now!"

She got up and limped quickly to the stairs. Before she disappeared to the top story, she pleaded with her father. "Please, Dad! Don't hurt him."

Wayne lifted me up by the neck till my face was level with his. I struggled to breathe. So close was my face to his that I could feel and smell his breath. I saw up close the black stumps of hair on his badly shaven face. My legs kicked nothing but air. Wayne finally threw me back down.

"Who gave you the right to take my daughter away?" said Wayne.

"If you..." I spat out a mouthful of blood into a nearby ashtray. "If you treat her bad, you don't deserve her."

"She's my property. You have no right to take away my property."

"You have no right to hurt her."

"I'm hurting her for a good reason. I'm punishing her for bad behaviour. That's how good parents raise good children. It's called discipline! It's a word your parents are obviously unfamiliar with. I care about her too much to let her grow up to become another drug- and sex-crazed teenager. The child will hate me now, but over time the child will love me. The harsher the discipline today, the greater the love tomorrow."

I stood up but Wayne put both his hands on my shoulders and pushed me back down to the ground till I was forced to kneel in front of him.

"Do you think I'm just gonna let you go?" said Wayne. "For the sake of justice, you need to be punished."

After Wayne took his hands off my shoulder, I stood up and took a step back.

"Take off your pants," said Wayne, pointing to my shorts.

This situation seemed oddly familiar.

"I said take off your pants!" he cried.

I grabbed the waistband and started pulling my shorts down till they fell to the floor. I took a step back, grabbed the shorts from the floor, and threw it at Wayne.

The old man caught the shorts and lifted it to his nose. He breathed deeply, inhaling my bodily fluids. His eyes locked onto mine.