Chapter 6: How do I Explain This?

Lefty came at me from left, he didn't throw a left though however, he threw a right. No pushing and shoving, no more talk, just stepped right up and threw one in there. It looked like a doozy too. I'm sure it would have hurt had it connected, but instead it flew right in front of my face. I'm no boxer, but I believe that was called a right cross. His whole body was behind it and when he missed he ended up stumbling forward to regain his balance.

I'd like to say I did a cool ninja move, or bobbed and weaved, or at least ducked. I didn't. I just stood there like target ready to be hit and was as shocked about the miss as he was. He quickly recovered and turned back toward me. This time lefty, who was now on my right, threw a left hook. At least it's what I think a left hook would look like. I raised my right arm to block the blow, momentarily forgetting that it was broken. Then two things happened, first the cast covering my right arm simply fell off. I don't mean it broke and I was able to straighten my arm, I mean it broke into fifty pieces or more and my arm was suddenly free. Second, Lefty screamed in pain and backed away holding his left hand.

"What the fuck did you have in that cast?" the meat in the middle demanded.

I didn't know what to say about that. They weren't watching closely enough or they would already know that Lefty's left didn't land. It stopped several inches away. I glanced at him and he looked like he was in a lot of pain and was headed for the door. That still left the odds at two to one, not that it really mattered because in a fair fight I couldn't hold my own with either one of them. I might get in a few before I went down, but these guys had at least fifty pounds on me.

They decided they'd had enough and started to close on me together. A moment later a red glow appeared in front of them in the shape of a low wall. They stopped, but the wall started moving toward them. That was just too weird for them. They both took off, leaving me alone with the tardy bell sounding.

Oh boy, what the heck do I do now? I slowly moved my arm, and if felt fine. Remembering the quick healing on my head I put one and one together and hoped I was right. I slowly applied pressure to my arm and it didn't hurt. Then I walked over to the wall and started tapping it, a little harder each time until I was full out banging on it. No pain! This was fantastic!

I quickly rinsed off all the plaster residue and sweat from my arm. Then I made my way to math class. My mind was on anything but math, but I didn't want to add skipping school to my troubles. Mr. Miles inquired about my tardiness again, but I just apologized and quickly made my way to my seat. Robert and Greg were about to jump out of their seats when they saw me without a cast or a bandage. They had both seen me this morning so knew something was up. We couldn't talk till after class, so they would just have to wait.

As soon as the bell rang, they were both on me.

"Where's you cast? Why isn't your head bandaged? Is that a wig?"

The last one made me laugh. "Hell if I know, guys. The damned thing just fell off and my arm seems to be fine."

"No Way! I heard the bones snap myself," Greg said.

"I know ... I saw the x-ray, but what can I say. Not a scratch on my head either," I replied.

"That's crazy! Is this some kind of joke? Did you fake the whole thing somehow?" Robert asked.

"You were there, man. You saw the blood and the ambulance. How would I have faked that?"

"Occam's razor man. You can't just heal a broken bone overnight," Robert said. "Therefore, it must not have been broken to begin with."

"It was broken! They took x-rays and everything, there's no doubt about that. What's your next hypothesis?" I asked.

"This is something out of the Twilight Zone," Robert said. "We better get to class."

"See ya'll at lunch," I called out as I headed off to Civics.

At lunch, I had some serious explaining to do. Amy was staring at me open mouthed when she saw me walk in.

"What ... Where? What's going on?" she started.

"That's a damned good question and I wish I knew that answer. Let's grab some lunch and I'll tell you what I know and see what you think of it."

Greg and Robert joined us as we all sat and started eating.

"Spill it!" Amy said pointedly.

"I just don't know what to think. Here's what happened." I filled them in on my unexpected meeting with the nurse. While they were still shocked about that I continued with my interlude in bathroom.

"You got attacked again? None of them hit you?" Amy asked. She had started examining my arm very gently and then started working it more aggressively to see if it was really as healed as it seemed.

"They tried, but they never connected," I replied. "That's starting to hurt you know," I told her as she gave my arm a strong twist. "It might not be broken, but it still has nerves!" I gave her a smile so she knew she didn't really hurt me.

"The first guy missed, then he tried again, but sort of "bounced" off. He never actually made contact," I explained. "The other two left without actually throwing a punch."

Robert looked at Greg for a moment. Then they nodded in unspoken agreement. The both quickly grabbed the dinner rolls from their plates and threw them at me! At point blank range, I hardly had a chance to react, yet somehow both rolls missed.

"It's a good thing neither of you play baseball. If you can't even hit me from across the table then you would be positively dangerous on the field," I laughed at them. Then I noticed that none of the three were laughing with me, they were just staring again.

"What?"

"Mike, you might not have been able to tell, but ... they didn't miss." Amy said.

"What do you mean they didn't miss? They didn't hit me."

Robert took over. "Mike, both of those rolls were on the proper trajectory and should have hit you. Then they ... turned just enough to miss."

"You mean like a curve ball?" I asked. I still wasn't sure if they were joking or not, but they looked very serious.

Greg and Robert looked at each other again. "I don't think so," Greg answered. "We would have had to try and throw a curve ball and I doubt either of us could have done it. Either there's a very strong, localized air current, or something else changed the directories of those rolls. Maybe the same thing that let you walk out of a bathroom unscathed after three football players tried to attack you." He actually reached his hand up and felt for an air current across the table in the path of the roll, then shook his head.

"So what is it? What could possibly do all of these things? Including healing my injuries and even growing my hair back?" I asked exasperated.

"No idea. It's either something out of science fiction or Old Testament biblical, only it's the real deal right here in front of us."

The bell rang ending lunch and signaling us to head to our next classes.

"Are we still on for tonight Amy?" I asked hopefully.

"Of course!" She smiled at me and gave me a scorcher of a kiss before heading off into the crowd. At least nothing blocked the kiss!

Coach Johnson called me over as class started. "I have a note here that says you're to spend your gym class in the library as you've broken your arm. I don't see a cast, so can I assume that the front office is confused and there's some kind of mix up again?"