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Copyrights reserved by the author. If in doubt, please click on 'Copyrights' for details. Our Friend Steven by John J. Yezman Copyright 2001 John J. Yezman
The Summer of 1959 was an eventful one for the three young boys about to enter the sixth grade. All of them were at Jeff Wyman's house enjoying the last day of summer vacation, and all were admiring Jeff's baseball card of Mickey Mantle, the New York Yankees' hot new star. Jeff stood at the side of his bed as his friends, Steven Ellis and David Mahler, continued to look at the small image of the New York Yankee. Steven looked at Jeff and said, "Okay, I'll give you Al Kaline, Norman Cash and Whitey Ford." This was a generous offer, especially since Kaline and Cash were members of the hometown team; the Detroit Tigers, but Jeff couldn't be swayed to trade Mickey Mantle. Steven viewed Jeff's determination and said, "Okay, I know you won't budge." Dave spoke up, "Hey guys, it's the last day of vacation. Let's celebrate." Jeff replied, "Yeah, I'll go see if dad will take us down to the Avon Dairy." Mr. Wyman approved, and drove the kids to downtown Rochester, Michigan, a small rural community about thirty-five miles north of Detroit. The boys sat by Mr. Wyman at the counter of the 1950's ice-cream joint, with the juke box blasting and the pinball machines clanking in the background. The boys talked about going back to school the next day and were a bit apprehensive about entering the sixth grade. As the boys continued to talk of tomorrow, Mr. Wyman noticed the counter girl, and a few patrons, looking at Steven, who was a bi-racial child, half-black and half-Caucasian. Mr. Wyman returned the stares, as if to say, "Knock it off", but Steven was used to such stares. Growing up a bi-racial child in a small conservative town, in the late 50's, it was almost a daily occurrence. The next morning, on the first day of school, the boys met in front of the Saint Ambrose parking lot, talking about how the day would evolve. Father Garner came out and instructed the students to line up according to the grade they were in, and they were all led to their respective classrooms. Upon entering their classroom, the boys saw Sister Marie sitting behind the desk and Dave whispered to Steve and Jeff. "Hey! I guess it could be worse, but not by much!" The class was instructed to find temporary seats. The students knew this meant sitting down facing the front of the room without talking, hands folded on the desk. Sister Marie, dressed in Dominican garb, her chubby face and brow, protruding from the tight habit around her head, appeared menacing to the young sixth graders. She began to speak. "When you hear your name called and I touch the desk you will be sitting in, come take your seat. The person who is sitting in that seat will go to the back of the room until your name is called." Jeff hoped that, wherever he was seated, Steven or David would be seated close to him. The first row by the windows was filled without any of the three being called, then David was seated in the next aisle, three desks from the front, and Jeff was seated two seats behind him. Jeff hoped that Steven would be seated next to him in the third row, or, if fate would have it, that seat would be assigned to Susan Martin, the blonde, blue-eyed beauty of the sixth grade. As the seat next to him was about to be assigned, Jeff held his breath and crossed his fingers. Sister Marie blurted out, "Vinnchenso Minchella." No! No! Not Vinnie Minchella! Vinnie should have been in the eighth grade, but had been held back twice, failing the fourth grade and the sixth. Vinnie was one of the biggest kids in school and considered one of the toughest. His five-foot ten-inch, 170 lb. frame topped with greasy, jet-black hair combed back in a D.A., sat down in the desk to the side of Jeff. His black leather jacket reflected the florescent lights from the ceiling. Jeff looked at him briefly and said in a low, shaky voice, "Hi, Vinnie." Vinnie did not speak; he just gave Jeff a brief, blank stare as if to say, 'Don't talk to me, you worm.' Jeff thought, 'I hope this semester goes by quickly.' After a few days, things appeared to be settling in. One morning, Sister Marie asked the students to clean the erasers during recess. Each student in the class would smack the small felt erasers together to get the chalk dust out of them. After Sister Marie passed all the erasers out, she began to teach the math lesson. David, who sat a few seats in front of Jeff, patiently waited for Sister to write the math problem on the huge chalkboard, in front of the room. As soon as Sister Marie faced the chalk board and began to write, David turned around and tossed one of his erasers at Jeff's head, striking him in the forehead. Jeff wiped the chalk from his head and picked up the eraser. As Sister Marie continued to write, Jeff threw it back at his friend David, but the throw was high and the eraser continued on, hitting the nun right in the back of her black veil, leaving a square chalk impression on it. Within a split second, Jeff thought, 'What am I going to do?' To talk during class was a misdemeanor, to get caught chewing gum was a felony, but to hit Sister with an eraser surely meant a death sentence! Jeff frantically searched his mind to find a way out before sister turned around and looked for blood. As she turned around with her fists clenched and her face as red as could be, Jeff opened his mouth, opened his eyes wide, and looked over at Vinnie Minchella, as if to say 'Vinnie did it'. Sister caught Jeff's expression and centered on Vinnie. "Mr. Minchella, stand up and come with me, out in the hallway!" she yelled. Vinnie could only reply, "Sister, I didn't do it." Vinnie had witnessed the whole scenario of the eraser throwing and he had also seen Jeff looking at him with his 'pointing the finger' expression. Sister Marie then asked Vinnie, "If you did not throw it, then who did?" Vinnie stood mute; he had a code of not tattling on another kid, even if that kid had thrown the blame at him. None of the other students said anything, not daring to interfere in Vinnie's decision. As Vinnie walked away with the enraged nun, Jeff thought, 'I'm dead. Dead! Vinnie is going to kill me the first chance he gets.' Jeff knew that he would have to face the music, but he thought that taking his lumps would be better than having his parents find out that he caused trouble in the classroom. At recess, Steven and Dave talked about Jeff's predicament and tried to help him find a solution. Jeff told them, "I want to get this over with as soon as possible; I hope by the end of the day." "I'm sorry," said David, "If I hadn't thrown the eraser in the first place, this wouldn't have happened." When the boys came back from recess, they passed Vinnie in the office. He gave Jeff the death stare as they walked by. Vinnie was no stranger to the office. He was usually in there at least twice a month for not doing his homework. Vinnie wasn't a bully or a trouble-maker in the traditional sense, and he was not ignorant; he just found school boring. He was a hard worker, and helped his father in his grocery store. The day went by without incident as Vinnie was kept in the office for the rest of the afternoon. Jeff would get very little sleep that night. His father noticed his silence at the dinner table, but didn't pursue the matter. Steven called him and said, "I talked to Dave and we're going stay by your side all day tomorrow. We're not going to let our friend get hurt; Vinnie will have to take on all three of us." Jeff felt a bit better, but did not want his friends to get hurt for something he initiated and that night, as Jeff lay in his bed, he knew that the coming day would be the day of reckoning. He hoped he could get through it without dying! The following morning, the boys arrived at school. As they got off the bus, Dave said, "We're not letting you out of our sight." The boys looked at the bike rack at the end of the parking lot and saw that Vinnie's Schwinn Flyer was not there. Jeff said, "I gotta use the bathroom", so all three went in. Steven said to David, "Stand outside; if you see Vinnie coming, warn us as fast as you can." Steven and Jeff went into the lavatory and, while Jeff used the urinal, Steve stood a few feet from his friend, ready to shield him if Dave came running through the doorway with the alarm. Steven looked around the lavatory and thought it strange that no one else was in there. As Jeff zipped up his pants and went to wash his hands, Steven noticed that one stall was occupied. Just as he began to bend over to peek inside to see who was in there, the door of the stall flew open and out walked Vinnie. Vinnie had hidden his bike and told the other students that if Jeff or any of his friends asked if he had arrived at school, the answer had better be 'No'. As Vinnie moved toward a startled Jeff, Steven was ready to pounce. Their friend David was still on guard outside, unaware of what was going on inside. Jeff's face went pale and he was speechless as Vinnie moved towards him and grabbed his jacket collar. Steven then jumped on Vinnie, trying to hit him as best as he could, but Vinnie pulled him off, holding him under his right arm as he held onto Jeff's collar with his left hand. He said, "Why did you act as if I threw that eraser?" Jeff replied in a shaky voice, "I don't know, Vinnie. I was afraid that my parents would find out and I would get into trouble." Vinnie replied, "And you think you're not in trouble now?" Jeff gasped, figuring he could be taking his last breath, as Steven struggled to loosen himself from Vinnie's grasp; to no avail. Vinnie continued, "I sat in that office with Sister Marie yelling at me, calling me a delinquent and worse, and I didn't tell her that it was you. Now, I've thought of pounding your hide into the ground, but that wouldn't give me any satisfaction. This is what you're going to do. You are going to come down to the grocery store at 10:00 am this coming Saturday. My dad says he wants me to clean and scrub the whole back room. He said that I could even get someone to help me and he would pay them ten dollars for the day. You're going to do all the scrubbing and cleaning, and when you get your ten bucks, you give to me. Do you understand, you little weasel?"
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