Chapter 9

When the new semester started, I lived in 1984 for eight months now. I let my hair grow out because it was okay to wear a mullet again. I was happy.

Topics in the high school U.S. Government class didn't lend itself to interactive teaching as much as U.S. History did. Last year, the students could recreate famous battles or events, but talking about the formation of the Second Continental Congress was not exciting. I still could do a few things.

"Pull harder legislative branch," I said.

It was my fifth period class, right after lunch. I had the students broken up into thirds. One third was the executive branch, another third was the judicial branch, and the final third was the legislative branch. Each group pulled on a corner of a large sheet folded into a triangle. Carrie was on her back in the middle of the cloth. She'd hit the ground if the legislative branch didn't pull their weight. It was a physical demonstration of the concept of checks and balances.

"What happens if one side gets too strong?"

I gave the judicial side a pull.

"It gets unbalanced," a boy said.

"Correct," I said.

I gave a harder yank causing Carrie to fall.

"Hey!" she complained.

"You didn't think we were going to let you get off nice and easy, did you? Okay who wants to go on the checks and balances ride next?" Most hands shot up. It was fun for them.

Everyone in their seats five minutes before class ended. I did something different for this class. I made seat assignments. The students usually sat in the same spots day after day anyway but I decided where for this period. I was mindful of friendships and kept them together. I had a bigger purpose. I assigned Chris to sit right across from Jenny. Jenny's friend Carrie was right in front of her. If there were ways I could force Chris and Jenny to interact maybe he'd get the nerve to ask her out and maybe she'd see that he was an okay guy. I had to help because Chris wasn't doing it on his own.

By mid September I had to do something about Chris. I saw him get hassled by Tommy and Danny several times this school year already and he just took it. Angela stopped bugging Chris at least, though I could tell Chris was nervous around her. As far as the boys, Chris would have to handle the bullies. I couldn't seem to get his inner aggressiveness out of him. I knew he had it since he was me. I had to figure out how to make him snap.

His passiveness effected our martial arts advancement. I was ready to go up a belt level but Master Kenji said Chris was not so I stayed at my current level. He'd barely fight back against Kenji during padded sparring sessions. Chris wasn't the strongest boy but I knew he could hit harder than he did.

I had an idea. I asked to use Kenji's place. Kenji wasn't too fond of my idea since there would be no padding or gloves, but I explained my reasoning. He accepted it and trusted me. Kenji was a good man.

I called my mom and arranged to pick Chris up on a Tuesday.

"Why are we here?" Chris said when we arrived at the dojo.

"You're going to learn to fight," I said.

"I already know how."

"If you knew how then you'd do it when you got picked on. You and I are going to fight." I said the last with a menacing tone.

"I don't want to fight."

"I know but sometimes you have to do it so people will stop messing with you."

I gave him a hard shove. He almost lost his balance.

Chris looked a little angry. That was good. I wanted more of that.

"Come on," I said advancing on him. "Defend yourself or lie there and let me beat the shit out of you."

I did a leg sweep which knocked him to the ground. I waited for him to stand.

"Stop," he said.

"No! You're going to have to do it. It's your job to stop me or anyone else that does things like this to you. So what are you going to do about it?"

I slugged his arm.

"Ow!" he reacted and rubbed it.

I pushed him again.

"Stop it!" he said angrily.

I shoved him against the wall. Everyone had an inner hulk ready to come out. Chris had one deeper than most people.

"You don't have to win but you have to fight back. You can get beat up but still teach people not to mess with you."

"Please don't make me hit you!"

"It's okay. Hit me! I deserve it."

I kicked at him. He stopped it with a distinctive martial arts block. I punched his shoulder again. He partially blocked it and I followed it up with a hit to his stomach with my other fist. Chris bent over in pain before reacting with a flurry. He punched rapidly. I couldn't repsond fast enough because he was younger so his reflexes were quicker. I dropped to the ground so he would stop.

Chris shook. I slowly stood. I reached out. He brought his hands up to defend and attack.

"You did it!' I said proudly. I widened my arms to show I was done. I hugged him tightly. "You did it."

I had no idea if Chris truly "got it". It would take an incident to know for sure. I only had to wait until the next day during lunch break.

Chris ate alone as usual and Tommy and Danny apparently had nothing better to do. Danny reached in and grabbed the banana from the table. While Chris turned toward him, Tommy took his lunch bag.

The way Chris stood immediately told me something was different. He took a step toward Tommy. Tommy, surprised, shoved at Chris, Chris turned sideways to avoid it while slamming his palm hard under Tommy's chin. Danny charged when he saw his buddy fall. Chris turned and gave a back fist to his head.

Chris collected his fallen lunch items. Tommy rose while Chris had his back to him and hit Chris on his back with double fists. Chris painfully fell to the ground and rolled to his back. Tommy charged and Chris while on the ground gave a quick kick to his gut. Tommy stumbled back. Chris got to his feet. An enraged Tommy charged and met a stiff jab to his face from Chris. I could see the red around Tommy's nose even from my distance away.

Kids formed a circle around the three combatants as they tend to do during a school fight, so I hurried over. Danny was still on the ground, so I was concerned about that.

I used Chris's victory as a teaching point since he was in my class after lunch.

"Just as Chris defended himself from aggressors, one of the roles of the U.S. government is to defend us from people who want to hurt us whether from outside the U.S. or from the inside like Tommy and Danny were. Whoever they are, when we are attacked we must give them a bloody nose."

Chris was the talk of the school for a week and a half. I knew things changed ... at last. The boys and the girls saw him differently. Suddenly he had friends!

I didn't like to shop but I was a happy shopper today after seeing Chris finally defend himself. He did it in a definitive manner too. Tommy and Danny were unlikely to mess with him again.

I stopped at the mall. I needed new shoes. For items I hadn't purchased yet while living in 1984, I always initially thought the prices were great bargains. I always had to remind myself that I wasn't making as much money, so the prices were relative.

I bought my shoes and got out of there quickly. If it was the modern day and I was an adult Chris Walker, I'd hang around and perv on the high school girls for a while, but I felt no need to do that. I had more sex in the last eight months as John Coleman than I had in several adult Chris Walker lifetimes and while my sex rendezvous times with Debbie waned to infrequent, I was still content and knew it was a matter of time before I met another woman to start up a fling with.

I stopped at Kentucky Fried Chicken, they weren't KFC yet, because I didn't feel like cooking. I bought a bucket so I'd have leftovers. I put the bucket on top of my car while I unlocked the door when I saw Carrie. She was with a big guy in his mid-twenties who I assumed was her boyfriend. She looked sad as the couple talked.

I was about to say "Hi" when I saw the guy slap her.

"That's enough!" he yelled. "I don't give a fuck what you think! Do what I said!"

I had no idea what it was about and I didn't care. Nothing justified slapping a girl.

"Hey!" I yelled, stepping out. "Leave her alone!"

"It's none of your business," he said.

"When you slap a girl, it's my business."

"It's okay, Mr. Coleman," Carrie said.

"You know this guy?" her boyfriend demanded to know.

"He's my teacher."

"Well, I don't care who you are!" he said, taking a step toward me.

I let out a deep sigh. I had enough of fighting after going against Chris last night and watching Chris defend himself today.

"I'm just..." I said.

"Just butt out, okay?" he interrupted. He yanked on Carrie's arm to get her to come.

"Ow!" she cried.

"Hey!" I said, rushing to her defense. I pushed him away.

"You fuck head!" he said.

He moved faster than I expected. He shoved me forcefully and I landed on my butt hard. He pulled on Carrie again.

"Joey," she protested.

"Let her go," I said rising. "She doesn't want to do what you want to do."

"Stay out of it!" he said.

He punched. I didn't react fast enough. He hit me square on the cheek. It hurt like hell.

"Stop it, Joey!" Carrie screamed.

"Do you want more, old man?" he said.

"I'm not that old," I challenged.

"Leave him alone," Carrie said. "I'll do it."

I said, "You can do a lot better than this guy, Carrie."

"You're making me mad now," Joey said.

If he was just getting mad, I'd hate to see what he was like when angry.

I blocked his punch and counterstriked to his chest. It knocked him back but he was too fast with his other hand and clocked my ear. That didn't feel good at all! I got a strong kick on his knee. He buckled, recovered, and like a bull barreled into me. I had no chance. I was knocked to the ground. He stood over me while I went into a defensive position. I knew I couldn't beat Joey. I knew some martial arts but it didn't make me Superman.

"Have you had enough?" he growled.

"Not until you leave without Carrie," I answered. I didn't want to get beat up, but I couldn't let Carrie go with him. I could envision Joey blaming my interference on her and beating on her for it.

Joey stepped away. He turned to Carrie. "We're over! You hear me? You're nothing! I was about to dump you anyway."

I was so happy when Joey left. I was in enough pain already. I wasn't in the mood for more.

"Are you okay?" Carrie said, rushing to me.

"Yeah. What about you?"

"I'm okay."

"You must feel a little sad about the break up even though he was a loser boyfriend."

"Yeah," she said, looking at me like I had just discerned a big mystery.

"It's normal," I said. "He's the type of guy you'll get over fast. Help me up."

Carrie took my outstretched hand and helped pull me to my feet.

"Ow!" I groaned. My right leg was in flames. I lifted my pant leg. My leg was scraped up from when I hit the ground and slid.

"Do you need a doctor?" she said alarmed.

"No," I said. "I just need to get home and take some aspirin."

I gingerly walked toward my car. It hurt to put much pressure on my right leg.

"So where do you live?" I asked. "I'll drop you off."

"On Monroe," she said.

"That's close to me. I live on Howland." Monroe and Howland were about three blocks apart.

"You can't drive," she said.

"I can do it."

"Let me drive. I'll walk home."

I tried to bend my leg but it hurt too badly. Carrie was right.

"Okay," I reluctantly said. I grabbed the bucket of chicken off the car's roof and worked my way around to the passenger side.

I was nervous about Carrie driving my car, but she drove smoothly. Not once did I fear for my life or for the car. I directed her into my parking spot.

Carrie assisted me to my couch. She was a good girl. I reclined back with my feet up.

"Where's your aspirin?" she asked, returning from the bathroom.

"In the kitchen cabinet to the left of the stove," I said.

"Oh," she said, as if it was a strange place to keep it. It made more sense than the bathroom to me.

She brought over a couple of pills and a glass of water.

"Thanks," I said.

She returned the drained glass to the kitchen.

"You don't have to stay," I said. She hovered like a nurse or maybe like a mom.

"I don't have anywhere to go. My parents think I'll be out with Joey until nine."

"Don't you have homework to do like in your Government class?"

"Mr. Coleman didn't give us homework today."

"I'll have to talk to him," I said.

"He's a really nice teacher. He wouldn't do that."

I smiled at her compliment. I tried to turn and groaned.

"Can I get you anything?"

"No. Go on home." I tried to sit up. She looked ready to pounce if I needed assistance.