Chapter 7

From a few kilometres away we heard, "I found somebody who needs help." It was Bobby. The replies came a moment later and we just listened to them. This was not an emergency. These kind of calls came in all the time. A lot of people needed assistance.

The kids ran back to the carriages and we put them in. Some teenage boys came by and stopped. They liked what they saw but none of us flirted. We had a goal now. We left the disappointed boys behind as we hurried through the park.

Information was coming in as we walked. Montreal caught many of the immigrants to Canada. There was a boy that attracted Bobby's attention and then his twin brother arrived. They were born in Banghazi Libya. They were not runaways but they lived a very rough life. Bobby was sending more than the usual amount of data because he wanted to find a way to help them. I admitted to myself that they were not good material for the school but they could fit in.

Bobby started to talk to them. They were a year younger than him. They had few friends. Their father was a nut case. He beat the boys, their sister and their mother consistently. They had arrived in Canada six months ago but had yet to go to school. The children did odd jobs and gave the money to the father who bought marijuana and hashish for his own consumption.

We got to the community centre and pushed our carriages in. There were lots of mothers here but only one that was as young as me. Bobby brought the two boys over and introduced Qudamah and Amid to us. They were average looking but they had many scars visible on their faces as Bobby had told us.

I shook hands with one boy then the next and said, "I'm glad to meet you." They did not understand English very well so I searched their mind and said in poor Arabic, "We came over here for some exercise. Do you want to play—basketball?"

The boys were Muslim and the mixing of genders was not done but the two were young. Bobby got a ball and began to show off his ball handling ability. Since this game was along gender lines, Kim and Melissa had to help.

The babies went to the wall to watch while Kim threw the ball up. I stumbled on purpose and Amid took off with the ball. He could not play well and double dribbled a lot. We gave chase but let him have a chance to shoot. Kim caught the rebound and tried to make her way to the other basket but Qudamah stole the ball and went back.

Bobby got the ball and sunk a basket to give them a small lead. This was not much exercise for us but it was fun to see the boys run their hearts out. They were not in shape so Melissa sunk a basket to show them that they could not slack off.

Bobby gathered reinforcements and then so did Kim. We were all exhorting the children to try harder to win. Two young men about fifteen and sixteen joined in. They played rough and knocked the younger children around. They even used the ball as a weapon the way I had to Sandy Donaldson's face years ago.

I contemplated stopping the game and getting the boys to leave but I saw an opportunity. The two boys were here recruiting just as I was. They were in a gang that usually got in trouble. Some was for money but most was to reduce the boredom in their lives.

More boys and young men were here and in the gang. This was a safe place for them to meet and talk. They were now watching the two with us. They were not the leaders and this was looked on as a form of testing.

Eventually Kim got the ball and took off down the court. The older boy got in the way. He had a grin because he was going to knock Kim down and get a chance to feel her breasts and pussy. Kim stopped three metres away and the basket ball flew out the way I had once thrown a soccer ball. The boy caught it in the face. The ball bounced back and Kim raced around the boy to sink a basket.

I studied the two. They came from Chernivts in the Ukraine. Their fathers were violent men that had used intimidation and even beatings to get what they wanted. The boys saw nothing wrong with this. It worked in the Ukraine and it worked here.

The two were out for blood now. They were going to tackle Kim so it was me that took the ball. Both charged at Kim until the one that had been hit by the ball before got it again when I hit the side of his head. Kim used her foot and swept this guy off his feet and into the path of the other. They went down and Melissa took off with the ball and sunk a basket.

She called out, "Too bad the boys want to play a different game than we do."

One of the women that watched this finally saw what was happening and came over. The two guys got up and were looking for blood. The woman hurried up and got in front of them. She was shorter than they were and she said, "You two leave."

The one to be hit twice said, "Fuck off, bitch." What he said was in Ukrainian.

I said in the same language, "In the Ukraine you can act like a bully and get away with it. You are not there now. Your fathers are bullies too but they would not pick on children."

The other one said with a grin, "You are not a child."

I walked up to him and said as I touched his forehead, "Not long ago I put a 45 APC round right here. Do you really want to try me?"

I did not have to cast pain or even fear because the guy believed me. Both of them left right away. We all stopped to see them go.

The woman said to me in French, "What caused all this?"

Kim said, "They were hurting the children for the fun of it. One wanted to play football not basketball. I let him taste the ball the way he gave it to others. The flavour was not to his liking. Look around at the youngsters that were crying or had bloody noses."

Bobby pushed in and spoke like one of the locals. "Those guys hurt us. The girls saved us." The woman ignored Bobby when he went into the act but she had no issues with us.

Before the woman left, a girl came over and asked Qudamah in Arabic, "What happened?" She was their ten year-old sister, Fadiyah.

Qudamah spoke fast then remembered that I spoke his language and placed himself so I could not hear. Apparently he had seen the two that had been expelled before.

The three children were bright and inquisitive but this last feature was being beat out of them. Fadiyah was coming to her father's notice and her mother had to be near to save her from his sexual advances. The girl was ready to run though she loved her brothers and mother.

The game had fractured but Bobby had started to teach the guys his ball handling abilities. He was not doing anything a normal could not do yet but he might if we let him.

The rest of us walked over to the babies and the girls on our team came too. They liked the way Kim tripped the guys and the way Kim and I used the ball offensively. Once we had the babies in our arms, the girls focus turned to the children and we were forgotten. The babies were pouring out the charm and the girls had no chance at all.

Jordan wanted to be fed and as yet he had not been weaned. Our slave had an exhibitionist streak no matter what she said and Jordan was firmly attached. Stan and Jessica were on the bottle only because Kim and I were so busy. They liked the closeness that Jordan enjoyed and Kim and I became pacifiers for them. It made us feel closer to our children too. In a minute the two settled down but Stan usually used his free hand to hold my other breast as if making sure it was going to be there when he needed it. Perhaps he was also thinking like his father.

In half an hour, Jordan was full and taking a nap and then so were Jessica and Stan. The noise in the large room did not bother them. During this time we scanned those around us for how we could help them. We went back to basketball and it was now Melissa's turn to show what she knew.

Bobby and Melissa started doing long distance shots and were basically showing off. One was still a kid and the other was just a big kid. The two got into a competitive spirit and sunk baskets from mid-court. Their respective teams would return the balls. They were not guiding the balls after they left their hands so they were only getting about 60%. Soon this was not enough and each backed up. The building quieted as the children and the adults saw the competition.

The shooting escalated until the two were as far away as they could go and still getting baskets a third of the time. The competition grew when Bobby jumped higher and higher and then shot at the maximum height he reached. Melissa did the same then had to use her abilities to support her breasts when landing. She did not have a sports bra.

When the adults that worked at the complex came over, I said, "If you two are finished showing off, we should leave. They are thinking of asking you if you want to go professional. One wants to be your manager."

Melissa stopped but Bobby had to get in a few more shots. They then had to answer questions or at least try to be polite and avoid them. It took five minutes to get away and we went outside to simply get away. Most of our respective teams came with us.

I said to Bobby, "How does it feel to be headed for a professional team?"

"Don't rub it in. I made a mistake."

I said, "It was fun though?"

He gave me a big smile. Just because we were smart, didn't make us immune to what our glands made us do.

Fadiyah was looking at Melissa with hero worship and her two brothers were looking at Bobby the same way. The other children were too and in varying amounts. I wondered how I could help the three Arabic speaking children. The father was going to rape his daughter someday and probably beat one of his family to death or at least put them in the hospital.

Bobby said, "You can find where their father gets his drugs and follow it up the line and then down. You give the info to Marcel so he will prosecute."

"Sounds like a plan, Bobby. Get what you can from the kids and we'll start."

There was an ice-cream concession nearby and I acted like a kid too. I bought everybody something to eat.

Fadiyah said in Arabic to me, "How do you know our language?"

I had to smile because I did not know it very well at all. I used her mind to help me formulate my speech. I lied and said, "I had a friend once who spoke the language. I stayed over at her house a lot."

The girl had a sad thought, she did not have any friends over. "How come you guys are so good?" She meant using the basket ball.

"We practice a lot. We go to a special school that pushes us to do our best."

"All of you?" She meant did Bobby go there too. "Do they speak Arabic there?"

"No, but we learn French and English quickly." Since she was thinking of Bobby and his possible elevation to a professional team, I said, "Bobby is one of the best in out school. He likes sports but I think he will probably be a lawyer or a politician. He doesn't know himself."

Bobby liked the girl. He was not the one to chalk up conquests but he liked to flirt. The girl was about the same age as Bobby and not really ready to enter into most of the games we played in our group. Her upbringing was lacking in much of what she needed to survive and avoid pregnancy. Here it was the street that would help her more than her parents.

The Libyan children knew very little about their father's business. We could take a stroll through their neighbourhood and see if we could find more. The area was not far and a trip through the park was far more preferable than along city streets. Eight tagalongs walked with us one other girl a year older than Fadiyah wanted to be near us.

Bobby gave his thoughts on the school and the pack. This was to show that he felt that he belonged where he now was. He pushed a proper respect for education. To hammer this down, he used instances where education could be used to find a niche for everybody while those with little education took the jobs that did not necessarily fit them.

We had been walking only ten minutes when I felt some excitement ahead then so did the rest of our pack. Bobby kept talking but most of his intellect, like ours, was focussed around us.

Kim said, "Well, Piper, what are we going to do? It looks like only the two we shamed want to really hurt us."

"This gang is particularly vicious and I'd like to show the ringleaders how their victims can fight back."

Melissa said, "Giving them a lot of pain will do nothing to their outlook on life. We will have to tinker. Do you want to take the time to do it?"

"What do you think, Bobby?"

"We are going to have to fight. It will make the gang more receptive to our ideas. It will also give the children with us a positive role models. You keep telling us the old maxim about the trip of a thousand miles starting with one step."

"Well I guess we can start at the bottom as well as taking out the twisted businessmen."

Bobby said aloud to those with us, "We have a learning experience for all of you. We wanted to show you how we fight. This time our group has to be more careful than usual. We want our opponents to learn that they cannot use force all the time and get away with it."

I translated Bobby's words into Arabic and added, "When the lesson starts you may be afraid but don't worry. None of them are armed with more than a knife." Those with us were worried and I said in Arabic and then in English, "You are not in danger. If we were, we would turn around. We have our children with us. We wouldn't take them into danger."

Qudamah said, "Who is it?"

"The two boys that were mean to us earlier. They have some friends with them. They want to hurt Kim and me. They are just children so we will not cause any permanent damage but I'm afraid we are going to give them a lot of pain. It's like a daddy spanking a bum. He loves his children but wants them to listen. These boys need a stronger spanking or they won't learn anything."

"Where are they?"

"They are ahead of us and waiting for us to walk by them. They think they are like soldiers. They're only children playing at soldier. If any of you want to go, you can leave now. It will seem like you only walked part way with us."

Fadiyah said, "Are you really able to beat them? They're mean. They beat up an old man and took his wallet once."

"They did it more than once. Now what do you want to do?"

There was a pause while she decided then she said, "I'll stay and maybe help you. I can fight."

Amid and Qudamah quickly added, "We can help too."

Melissa said, "Thanks guys but there is not enough here to get us going. Kim and Piper are going to do the fighting and we are going to watch. If there were a lot then Bobby and I would fight too."

The children looked at her, unsure of her words. Her body language and the inflection in her voice told then as much as her words.

We left the tarmac path and walked on the grass even closer to where the boys were hiding behind the trees. Bobby and I told the children with us the number of the boys and where they were. Mentioning the names of our antagonists helped. We could not talk much about each because we were getting close.

The children shifted to our left and away from the bullies we were approaching. We wanted some room. Fadiyah and the other girl were to push Stan, Jordan and Jessica away for us to give even more room.

It was very hard for the children to not look at where our antagonists were going to spring out from.

Eight boys or young men sprang out at us. The children with us began to run but surprisingly only the two girls pushed Stan, Jordan and Jessica away.

Kim and I worked methodically and kicked and punched. Our aim was not to incapacitate them but to cause the maximum amount of pain. This meant that we had to just sting one then go to another and then another. This tactic cause them to lose their cool and attack us even more aggressively.