Mad Dad, Fun Dad

by Doug Draper

  “See, it’s that easy,” Derek said, ignoring Joe’s concern. “If you swing the pipe that hard and land even one shot to the guy’s chest, he won’t remain standing—guaranteed.”

  “That would be nice,” Ben said quietly while studying the pipe and imaging what it would be like to swing it when face-to-face with the boys.

  Derek watched Ben for a few seconds and then pushed him away from the station. “Now, go hide the pipe in the bushes up the road and it’ll be waiting for you tomorrow.”

  Ben regretted the last time he went along with one of Derek’s plans, but this one needed to be done. He didn’t have any other ideas for protecting Joe.

  Ben followed Derek’s instructions, completing his return to the station about the same time his father arrived. Al stepped out of his truck with a couple of boxes that he carried to the office. While standing behind a customer’s car at the gas pumps, Ben watched his father and brother to see if they talked about him. He worried that Joe might have seen him go up the street with the pipe and told his father about it, but his secret appeared to be safe. Joe focused on homework and his father filed receipts from his purchase.

  After filling the customer’s car with gas, Derek smiled and said, “Man, I’d pay good money to watch the show you put on if those clowns chase you again.”

  Derek simulated a batting motion. “I can see you hitting a homerun and sending those boys crying all the way to their mommies with broken ribs and wet pants.”

  CHAPTER 9

  Despite being furious the day before, Ben hoped the bullies would leave him alone. Overnight, he had grown uncomfortable with Derek’s plan, worrying that he could seriously injure the boys with the pipe. Before leaving the classroom at the end of the day, he whispered to Julie that he might not see her for a week or longer.

  “I’ll probably be getting into a fight after school with two fifth-graders and expect that’ll get me suspended,” Ben said.

  “Ah, Ben, you should tell Mrs. Adamson about your problem and let her take care of it,” Julie said. “Fighting is a bad idea. You could get hurt.”

  “Don’t worry about me. I’ve been getting help from my friend at the station and he taught me a trick he learned in prison.”

  “No. You need to talk to Mrs. Adamson or the principal and do what they say. Don’t listen to someone teaching you terrible things. I’ve always thought you were a good boy and wanted to stay out of trouble.”

  Julie gave Ben a concerned look and headed for the classroom door, briefly pausing there. She gestured toward the teacher and nodded at Ben. He understood the message, but he didn’t want to get Mrs. Adamson involved. Word would spread that he tattled.

  After Julie left the classroom, Ben made his exit, avoiding eye contact with Mrs. Adamson. He looked for Joe in the hallway and on the playground, but he couldn’t find him and walked toward the station alone.

  When starting down the street that led to the station, he noticed Joe running four blocks ahead of him with the two bullies about a half block behind. Seeing Joe easily outpace the bullies gave Ben some relief, but he still hated watching his brother run away from a fight. As soon as Joe reached the station, the bullies made obscene gestures at him and then turned and walked in Ben’s direction.

  By walking on the other side of the street, Ben tried to pass the bullies without being noticed, but one of them spotted him. “Hey, Joe’s little brother, you’d better start running. We already chased your sissy brother down the street.”

  Ben took off with a mix of fear and anger driving his legs. The boys crossed the street and charged down the sidewalk about forty feet behind him. Ben noticed a car coming his way and dashed across the street a few seconds before it reached him.

  Cutting in front of the car caused the driver to shout and honk at Ben. It also forced the boys to stop chasing him while waiting for the car to pass. The risky move placed more distance between Ben and the bullies, but they gradually closed the gap.

  By listening to their footsteps and taunts, Ben knew they would catch him before he reached the hedge where the steel pipe waited. To run faster, he tossed his books and lunch box into the yard of a house as he sprinted by.

  “You’re such a momma’s boy,” one of the bullies said. “I bet you’re going to have her come back and pick up your stuff for you.”

  The other bully shouted a couple of names—“wuss” and “pansy”—to reinforce his friend’s insult. The humiliation of being chased and disrespected triggered deep anger in Ben and convinced him to use Derek’s plan. As he approached the hedge, he looked over his shoulder to see how long he had to dig out the hidden pipe.

  “We’re right here and going to beat the crap out of you,” one of the boys said.

  If all went well, Ben would have barely enough time to grab and swing his weapon. To gain an extra second, he added a sprint to the end of his run and then thrust his hands into the hedge, grabbing the cool steel pipe and yanking it out with one motion.

  The two boys, running side-by-side, were nearly on top of Ben when he spun around to face them. As Derek had taught him, Ben held the pipe in two hands like a baseball bat, pulled it back over his right shoulder, and then swung it as hard as he could. The chest of the boy nearest to Ben served as his first target.

  The boy saw the pipe coming and uttered a little whimper as he held his books in front of him to block the blow. The pipe whistled through the air, knocking the books out of the boy’s hands. The pipe continued undeterred and made a loud thumping sound when it connected with the boy’s upper chest. He had run into the blow, so his feet continued moving forward while his head and shoulders went backwards. The boy landed flat on his back and let out a loud gasp.

  Homerun!

  Energy surged through Ben’s body. With a growl, he jumped over the fallen boy and tried to hit his friend, but the boy jumped sideways and ran into the street. Ben chased him, taking a swing at his back and delivering a glancing blow. The boy yelped and changed directions to evade the menacing pipe. Still furious, Ben continued the chase for about half a block before the boy sprinted away.

  Ben turned to look for the fallen boy and saw him picking up his books. He charged toward him with the pipe above his head like a sword. The boy noticed Ben coming and took off, leaving one of his books behind. Ben chased him, scooping up the book and holding it up in one hand with the pipe in the other.

  “Hey, you left your book here. Why don’t you come back and get it?”

  After taking another dozen steps Ben gave up the chase, having grown tired from running with a heavy pipe in his hands. He also started to regret what he had done. Julie’s advice came to mind that he should be a “good boy” and not listen to Derek. He returned to the yard where he had thrown his books and lunch box. After gathering them, Ben walked to the station.

  Derek was pumping gas for a customer and spotted Ben’s arrival. “Hey, how did it go?” he asked.

  Ben paused at the pumps, shrugged his shoulders, and said, “Fine.”

  “I don’t see a black eye or any blood. What does the other team look like?”

  “They ran home. I think it’s over.”

  “Good for you. Now give me the pipe and I’ll put it back in the tool bin. We need to keep quiet about what you did. It’s nothing your dad needs to hear about.”

  Without replying, Ben handed Derek the pipe and then walked into the office where Joe sat behind the desk doing his homework. Ben placed his things on the office desk and showed Joe the book left behind by his classmate. “This belongs to one of those guys who chased you down the street. Please give it to him tomorrow and say I’m sorry.”

  Joe glanced at the book but didn’t take it and asked, “Sorry about what?”

  “Tell him I’m sorry. That’s all.”

  “Do it yourself. I’m not getting messed up in whatever you’ve been doing.”

  Ben decided that Joe was right. Having committed the foul, he should deliver the apology. That night, sleep evaded Ben for
hours as troubling thoughts kept circling in his head. Once again, he let Derek convince him to do the wrong thing. Even though the victims deserved it, he wished that he hadn’t set up an ambush. Being “meaner” than the bullies brought him no satisfaction.

  CHAPTER 10

  Ben’s apology took courage but only fifteen seconds to deliver. He found the two bullies in their classroom and walked to the desk of the one he had hit in the chest with the pipe. Being in the fifth-grade classroom scared Ben because he had been picked on by many of these students. He also knew that students visiting a classroom must have the teacher’s permission to enter it. And Joe sat nearby, watching him break this fundamental rule.

  He plunged ahead and handed the boy his book. “You dropped this yesterday. I’m sorry about what happened with the pipe. I won’t do it again.”

  Before the boy could respond, Ben left the room without either of the bullies saying anything or following him. They didn’t want to explain why a puny fourth-grader had walked into their classroom, dropped off a book, and apologized. Any discussion of the incident would seriously damage their reputations.

  When the day ended, Ben hurried to meet Joe for their walk to the station. Without exchanging words, the brothers headed off at a faster pace than normal. Joe still hadn’t asked any questions about what happened the previous day. After a couple of blocks, Ben looked back to see if they were being followed.

  “Stop it,” Joe said, poking Ben in the shoulder to reinforce his command. “Keep your eyes straight ahead and ignore anything they say or do.”

  “Quit punching me,” Ben said. “I’m tired of it.”

  Joe ignored his little brother and kept walking.

  “You can slow down,” Ben said. “Those guys aren’t following us. And I don’t think you’ll have to worry about them again.”

  No response from Joe. That didn’t surprise Ben. His big brother often ignored problems. Joe would pretend his classmates had never taunted him and that Ben hadn’t gotten involved. Joe’s skills included making undesirable things vanish from his life.

  The boys walked in silence the rest of the way to the station. When they arrived, Derek was helping a customer at the pumps. He whistled and waved at them.

  “Hey, boys, why aren’t you running today?” he asked with a laugh. “It looks like my plan delivered as promised. Listen to me and nobody will mess with you ever again.”

  A week later, Ben stood alone during recess watching a group of boys from his class throwing a football and taking turns trying to catch it. It looked fun and Mrs. Adamson had often encouraged him to try fitting in better with his classmates, so he jumped in front of one of the passes. The other boys had been doing the same thing, so he thought it was part of the game. When Ben went for the ball, he surprised himself and caught it, feeling a wonderful sense of accomplishment. His proud moment didn’t last long.

  Mike Omanski, the boy who had been waiting for the ball, pushed Ben in the back and then reached around and slapped the ball out of his hands. Before Derek strolled into his life, Ben had always lowered his head and walked away from such incidents, but this day he turned around and pushed back as hard as he could.

  After recovering from the surprise of Ben retaliating, Mike lunged forward, wrapping his arms around Ben’s head and tackling him. Landing on the concrete playground stunned Ben and left him unable to keep Mike from sitting on his chest and pinning his arms to the ground. Mike held Ben in this degrading position while taunting him with threats to break his nose and knock out his teeth. Other boys quickly formed a circle around Mike, encouraging him to punish Ben for touching their football.

  Ben started squirming and trying to break loose of Mike’s strong grip. In response to the resistance, Mike tightened his hold on Ben’s arms and mocked him with an exaggerated laugh. The sneering faces that surrounded Ben triggered a hatred for his classmates and an intense desire to punish them for this humiliating moment.

  “Get off me, you stinking, fat pig!” Ben yelled.

  With an arrogant expression, Mike asked, “And what are you going to do if I don’t?”

  A spark of creativity gave Ben a way to bring down his opponent. Even though Mike sat on his chest, Ben’s legs had complete freedom. With all his might, he kicked his right foot up as far and as fast as he could. Ben’s foot caught Mike at the base of his skull.

  Ben and his tormentor still had eye contact when the blow caught Mike from behind. Mike’s first reaction came as a look of shock. A second later, his eyes rolled back, and he tumbled off Ben without making any effort to soften the blow of his face hitting the concrete playground. Mike uttered a moaning sound but not a word.

  Furious, Ben jumped to his feet and kicked Mike in the face and then several times in the torso with all his strength. The rage that gripped Ben’s brain rocketed to a higher level than anything he had ever experienced—beyond the anger triggered when bashing the fifth-graders with the pipe. Deep hatred for this boy exploded and Ben wanted to make him pay for every hit and insult that he had suffered in his life—at school and home. Ben’s muscles tightened, his face turned red, and his mouth spewed a steady stream of filthy words—everything from the vast catalogue his father had taught him.

  While teachers had overlooked the daily blows suffered by Ben since kindergarten, they didn’t miss this attack. It helped them that Ben didn’t take the sneaky approach of the bullies. He attracted the attention of the entire school by shouting profanities that many of the kids and some of the teachers had not heard. Mrs. Adamson and another teacher rushed to the scene and grabbed Ben from behind.

  Not knowing who held him, Ben shouted, “Get your hands off me or I’ll kill you!” Except he included an adjective to describe “hands” that Principal Smith and Mrs. Adamson later told him was highly offensive and should never be repeated.

  The teachers who rescued Mike had to restrain Ben for several minutes until his head cooled and chest stopped pounding. During the brief fight, Ben experienced a strange excitement that made him feel powerful—ready to take on every bully in the school and to hold nothing back when teaching them an unforgettable lesson. This new feeling electrified but scared him. He didn’t understand where it came from or what he should do with it.

  The fight ended with a one-week suspension for Ben and the requirement to apologize to Mike and his parents. Ben spent the week working at the service station. Al lectured his son about the need to “fight fair” and “never kick a man when he’s down,” but he didn’t ask why Ben kicked the boy.

  After listening to Al’s reprimand, Derek pulled Ben aside and said, “There’s no such thing as a fair fight—forget that nonsense. The point of a fight is that you either give the pain or you feel the pain. And it sounds like you’re starting to understand which side is best—the pain giver.”

  At home, Rachel delivered a much different message, saying, “Ben, you shouldn’t behave like a criminal. I can’t begin to describe how much your actions disappoint me. What were you thinking?”

  Ben mumbled, “Sorry.”

  “Please promise me that you’ll never fight again.”

  “OK,” Ben said, despite knowing that what happened came from a place hidden inside him, not something he knew how to control. He expected to break his promise the next time that impulse escaped.

  A few days after the playground fight, Ben heard his mother whispering to his grandmother about it. “I’m so worried about what will happen if Ben doesn’t learn how to control his temper. I’m afraid he’s going to become exactly like his father.”

  His mother’s words echoed a fear already growing in Ben’s heart.

  CHAPTER 11

  “Life isn’t fair, so quit bawling about it,” Derek said to Ben as they sat in front of the service station on cheap lawn chairs, enjoying a cool breeze coming off the mountains. The rest of the kids in Alma were in school but not Ben. While suspended for the kicking incident, Ben received his education from Derek.

  “Nobody is going t
o hand you stuff because you deserve it,” Derek continued. “What you get is what you take and then you have to be ready to fight hard to keep it.”

  That’s the advice Derek gave Ben after listening to him gripe about his suspension. Ben found it unfair to be punished for beating up Mike even though nothing ever happened to the two dozen boys who had kicked, punched, slapped, pushed, tripped, and spat on him since kindergarten.

  “Missing school doesn’t bother me,” Ben said. “I’d rather hang out here than have to put up with all the crap that goes on there. But I’m mad because my mom isn’t letting me go to the race on Saturday.”

  “She’s just trying to be a good mom and doesn’t want you to turn out like me,” Derek said with his hearty laugh. “You need to look at this situation differently. On the negative side, you’re only missing one race, and there will be many more to come. On the positive side, you got to kick a jerk in the head—twice, front and back! Now, that’s what I call a good deal. And if you want jerks to leave you alone, you’ll keep showing them that you’re nobody they should ever mess with.”

  “That’s easy for you to say because you’re huge, but I’m smaller than any of the other boys in my grade and even smaller than most of the girls. Everybody thinks picking on me is a lot of fun and, if I fight back, I’ll always be fighting and getting into trouble.”

  “Not if you do it right. You need to make it very painful for them and they’ll stop. And I don’t want to hear any excuses about how tiny you are compared to the giants picking on you. Haven’t I already taught you that there are ways for you to be as big as you need to be?”

  Ben briefly thought about Derek’s question before replying. “Yeah, you taught me how to use a pipe to beat up a bigger guy, but taking a pipe to school every day wouldn’t be allowed.”

  Derek turned to face Ben, flashed his huge smile that charmed the women who visited the station, and asked quietly, “Do you have a switchblade?”