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Copyrights reserved by the author. If you are in doubt, please click on 'Copyrights' and read the details. Our Friend Steven continued. Jeff replied in a blubbering voice, "I understand." At that point, Vinnie let go of Jeff and Steven and left the lavatory, adding, "And don't you ever mess with me again!" Steven ran into one of the stalls to get some toilet paper, so his friend could dry his eyes. David, who was still standing at the door of the lavatory, was shocked to see Vinnie leave. He ran into the bathroom, yelling "What happened?" Steven told David the whole story and David said, "He's going to work your butt off, but it's better than taking a beating." All the boys were glad that it was over and glad that Vinnie valued the money more than the satisfaction of administering a beating. David and Steven told Jeff to tell his parents that he would be with them on Saturday, so he would have a cover story for what he really had to do. That Saturday, Jeff arrived at Minchella's Grocery Store and, true to his promise, Vinnie made Jeff scrub the walls, the sinks, and every nook and cranny in the back of the old building. Mr. Minchella came into the back room for the final inspection and he couldn't believe his eyes. He said, "Hey, Vinnie, you and your friend did a good job here." He paid Jeff his ten dollars and went back out, to the front of the store. As soon as his father was out of sight, Vinnie turned his palm up in front of Jeff's nose, and Jeff put the ten dollars in Vinnie's hand. Vinnie said, "Now that we're even, you can go." During the following months, Jeff avoided any contact with Vinnie. The three friends spent the rest of the school year doing what most eleven year olds do; going to the monster movies, going to carnivals, and playing combat on weekends. One warm spring Saturday, Dave rode his bike over to Jeff's house and together, they rode over to Steven's. When they reached Steven's driveway, they heard yelling coming from the house. As they listened, they heard Steven's stepfather say, "Everything would be fine if it wasn't for that half-animal bastard of yours." Jeff and David looked at each other; they knew that Steven was going through hell. Steven's stepfather was tolerant of him, when he was sober, but when he drank it was another story, and today he had been drinking heavily. The two boys felt completely helpless as they sat on their bikes waiting for Steven to come out. Within a few minutes, the stepfather staggered out of the house. He saw the two boys on their bikes and gave them a brief, glazed stare before getting in his yellow and white 1957 Chevy and speeding away. Both boys knew that the man was abusive when he drank, but this was the worst incident they had ever seen. They heard Steven's mother crying and heard Steven trying to console her. The two boys tried to regroup their emotions when Steven finally came out. David noticed a red mark on the boy's left cheek, although Steven acted as if nothing had happened. He went and got his bike, rode over to the two and said, "You guys ready?" They rode over to David's house to play Combat, as his yard was the biggest of the three boys. His parents owned an eight-acre parcel on the south side of rural Rochester, next to a square mile of open fields and woods. David and Jeff had initiated the play of Combat. The boys would play soldier, each trying to invade the forts the others had built, and pretending to machine-gun each other. As the boys played, the earlier traumatic episode was temporarily put aside, but it would indeed burn a dark memory into their young minds. Steven's stepfather sobered up and was even apologetic; he would stay that way until his next episodic drinking binge. The rest of the school year was pretty uneventful until the second-to-last day of school. It was now June, and the three boys had been running around the huge fifteen-acre schoolyard during lunch break. They had walked around to the side of the school, to take a breather, when an eighth grader named Tim Murray, a tall mature-looking fourteen year old, and his two buddies, came up to the three boys. Tim stood directly in front of them with his buddies on either side of him, forcing the three younger boys against the wall of the school. Tim said, "Hey Steve! How are you doing?" He didn't give Steven time to answer before he said, "Steve, I always wanted to ask you something. You are a pretty dark kid; I just want to ask you before I graduate. Just what in the hell are you?" Jeff and David caught the drift of Tim's statement, and realized that he was trying to humiliate their friend. Tim stood towering over the three, and his piercing hazel eyes and crew-cut looked menacing to the younger boys. "You know what you three look like with Steven in the middle? Sort of a reverse oreo cookie, vanilla outside and chocolate inside." Tim's friends chuckled and he continued, "You know, Stevie, I gotta come right out and ask the sixty-four thousand dollar question. Are you a nigger?" Again, Tim's friends snickered. Jeff spoke up and said, "Leave him alone" and attempted to push Tim. He was quickly punched in the stomach, and doubled over on the ground. Steven tried to help his friend, but was also punched in the mid-section and collapsed on the ground. Tim then said, "You are gonna tell me, boy. I've seen your mom and dad and they're both white. I want to know where in the hell you came from!" Steve and Jeff were still on the ground, doubled over and gasping for air. Their friend David was being held by his neck, against the school wall, by one of Tim's buddies. As the boys continued to gasp for air, they heard a loud 'WHACK!', and then a huge thud. They looked to see what the sound was and, to their amazement, Tim Murray was knocked out on the ground, his mouth open and his eyes set in a unconscious stare. The boys looked up in wide-eyed disbelief and there, in all his glory, stood Vinnie Minchella. His face had a blank expression and he was rubbing the knuckles of his right hand with his left palm. Vinnie looked at Steven for a brief second and then looked at Jeff, giving him a brief cockeyed smile, and then he walked away. David, who had seen the whole thing, told Steven and Jeff what had happened. He said, "While you two were on the ground, bent over, Vinnie was at the side of the building sneaking a cigarette and peeking once in a while, to make sure Sister wasn't around. He saw us over here and came over to see what was going on. When he heard Tim say that stuff, he pushed Tim's buddy Ryan, the guy that had me pinned against the wall, out of the way, and then he smacked Tim on the right side of his head. As soon as Tim was hit, he hit the ground. Ryan and Ed, Tim's buddies, ran back to the front of the school when Tim was hit." The rest of elementary school passed quickly for the three friends, as did high school and college. The world changed dramatically during that time and eventually the three friends parted. Jeff, now over fifty, still calls his friends, Steven and David, once in a while. He also remembers when they were kids, and thinks of it as one of the happiest times of his life. To this day, when Jeff reads in the newspaper about an isolated incident of racism, or sees something on the news, he remembers a time, many decades ago, in a school yard in Rochester, Michigan, when he and David stood by their friend Steven, and experienced first hand the disgusting evil of racism. Then he remembers Vinnie Minchella, and he smiles. The End |
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The author can be contacted at: johnjd2@prodigy.net |