Chapter 3

With the start of a new school year all the summer's friendships had to be integrated into our school friendships. The Gordon sisters and Clara were all going to the same school as Ray and I. Shannon and I were in the same grade, Trudie and Clara were one year behind us, and Ray was a year behind them. It was good to get back to school because it was a place where I did well. I had good grades and was on friendly terms with most of the other students. The kids from our project were definitely from the poorest neighborhood that our school serviced, but there were enough of us that we didn't often get teased or ridiculed for the cheaper clothing that we wore, or the fact that a lot of us got free lunches in the school cafeteria. For the first week of school everything seemed to go okay, but then people started making comments about Trudie's being dirty and always wearing the same shirt and pants to school. When they started teasing Trudie, Shannon and Clara tried to stick up for her and shield her from the teasing, but there were three or four boys who seemed to make it their mission in life to follow Trudie around and torment her. It wasn't any kind of terrible hazing at first, they would just walk by her and hold their noses and say thing like 'phew, you stink' or ask her if she had more than one shirt and pair of pants. Trudie would just stay silent and try to ignore them.

Trudie ignoring them wasn't working, and they started escalating their insults, and even started pushing her into other people as they passed by. Shannon finally got into a fight out in the playground area with Mike Keegan, the leader of the four boys tormenting her sister. As fights go, it was only remarkable because Mike had to punch Shannon in order to get her off of him. She had wrestled him to the ground and they both were unable to get dominance as far as position went. After a minute of fairly even wrestling, some of the bystanders started taunting Mike about his not being able to even beat a girl. Frustrated and embarrassed, Mike lashed out with his fist and punched Shannon in the mouth. Everyone who witnessed it seemed to give a collective gasp, all at the same time, and I heard that Shannon was so surprised at actually being punched, that she just stopped what she had been doing. Mike used that pause in the action to get to his feet and walk away from Shannon. He and his friends were congratulating each other on his fine victory when my brother decided that he would get himself involved. I'm not sure about all the things he said to Mike and his buddies, but it was something about what cowards they all were for beating up a girl and for teasing Trudie like they were. He soon had all four of them chasing him around the playground, but he was able to avoid getting caught until he managed to find one of the teacher's that was supervising the playground area and situated himself close by her until after the bell rang signalling the end of the lunch period. I heard all about what had happened during the next period, because I had been busy doing something else during the lunch period and wasn't out on the playground when all of the excitement had taken place. When I heard about it, most of the talk was centered on the fact that Mike Keegan was telling everyone that he was going to kick Ray's ass after school. I figured that I better make sure that Ray didn't get himself hurt too badly or else my father would give me a lot of grief because of it.

I got outside of school just as soon as the final bell rang, and was waiting for Ray when he came flying out the door. He ran right over to me and then stopped running. A few seconds later, Mike and his buddies came tearing out the door in hot pursuit. I think that Ray must have thought that I'd protect him, and that's why he stopped running. Mike and his buddies came to a stop and then Mike told me his version of what had happened between him and my brother.

"Mike I don't care whether you kick his ass or not. If you can catch him, that is. I'm not going to let your buddies gang up on him though, just you." Ray took off running and Mike was soon after him. When his buddies started chasing after the two of them, I was forced to start running as well. Ray was a terrific runner, fast, and with amazing endurance. It was the one physical area where he could easily out perform me and almost everyone else in the neighborhood. I assumed that he was simply going to put enough distance between himself and Mike, that he'd get Mike to eventually give up and quit chasing him. He had a different idea though, and he would slow down or even stop running long enough to hurl insults at Mike and tell him what a coward he was for hitting a girl. It was sufficient motivation to keep Mike angry enough to keep on chasing him. I was getting tired from running after all of them, and starting to get stitches in my side by the time we'd run about two miles or so. I would have given it up soon, because Mike's other three buddies were stopped already, bent over and holding their aching sides, just like I wished I could do. Ray saw the Mike was running out of gas too, even though he'd allowed Mike to close the gap to within fifty feet. When Mike stopped and bent over himself, gasping for air, Ray quickly turned back and ran up to Mike and punched him in the side of his face. He got away with that because Mike hadn't been paying attention as he approached. After the punch, Ray simply ran off again. Mike was off and running after him right away, his anger giving him the energy he needed to continue with the chase. After seeing what Ray had done, Mike's three buddies also resumed their pursuit, but at a far lagging pace. This went on for at least another mile, Ray pausing to keep Mike tantalizingly close before he would just sprint away out of danger. The whole time they were running after Ray had first hit him, Ray was talking to Mike, asking him how it felt getting punched in the face by a seventh grader, and telling him that if he kept chasing him he was going to wind up getting his own ass kicked.

By the time Mike stopped for the final time, he was in pitiful condition. His face was beet red, and he was huffing and puffing, unable to get enough air into his lungs to continue the chase. Ray closed with him then, and the two of them traded several punches back and forth. I was a long ways away, but I could see that Ray was at least holding his own in the fight. When the buddies started hurrying up a little bit to get up closer to the fight, I had to pick up my pace to try to overtake them, or at least be close by in case they decided to pile on Ray. They got to the fight a little before I did, but they just stood there watching as the fight continued on. Ray had taken several good punches to his head, but he had landed even more blows himself. He was really angry, enough so that he could tolerate being hit. He was crying, but I knew Ray well, and I knew that they were tears of anger, not of fear or pain. He was punching first, and then wiping the tears from his face after. He wasn't much of a fighter, and his technique suffered from lack of experience or training. Luckily for him, Mike wasn't that much of a fighter either, and his run had cost him far more than it had Ray. In the end, it was superior conditioning and stamina that prevailed, and Mike finally just gave up. Ray turned away after Mike's surrender, and started walking towards home by himself. I stayed with the four guys, mentioning to them that there better not be any further continuation of the fight after Mike had given up. I then took off, jogging as fast as I could manage, and overtook Ray. He was still upset, although no longer angry. Ray hated violence, and had been exposed to far too much of it all of his life.