The Beatdown

Greg ran. Greg ran fast. He had to run fast. He had to run faster than the boys who where chasing him. Failure was not an option. If he failed he would pay. He would pay in his own blood. It's a lesson he learned many times and his pursurers would be all too happy to teach him the lesson again, just in case he forgot. There is something to be said for repetition. If you repeat something enough times, you tend to not forget. Greg had been taught this lesson many times.

Greg continued to run. He ran past the old liquor store where some bum had passed out in front of. He ran past the laudramat. He ran past the dollar store. His pursurers continued to chase him. He could feel his legs starting to turn to rubber. He ran through the pain. The aching in his legs was nothing compared to the pain he would feel if he was caught. Normally if the boys didn't catch him by now they would give up, but today they didn't. They kept the chase going. Greg turned a corner and ran right into Lenny. Lenny

had doubled back and was waiting to meet Greg. Greg knocked Lenny down and before Greg could get away, Lenny grabbed one of Greg's legs and wouldn't let go. Soon the other boys caught up to Greg. It's was time for the lesson to begin. Greg attempted to defend himself. He even got a few good punches in but there were too many. Soon they had Greg restrained and the flurry of punches began. They didn't stop until Greg was caughing up blood. Satisfied with their work, the boys left Greg gasping for air.

With the feeling of humiliation hot on his mind, Greg picked himself up and slowly walked home. He didn't want his mother to see him like this again. When he got home she would baby him and that made the humiliation feel all that much worse. His dad however, had a different opinion. His father said he needed to take care of his own business. He tried to teach his son how to fight, but Greg didn't see how that would help when it was just him against 5 other boys. His father insisted that he had to stand up for himself or he would get pushed around his entire life, but Greg didn't understand, at least not yet.

When Greg got home and after his mother tried to baby him, Greg went up to his room to sulk. Bitterness and restentment had taken hold of his heart and he lamented over his afflicted state. He didn't really know what to do. His father did seem to be right about something, Greg thought, running away wasn't a permanent solution to his problem. He needed a plan. The problem was the more he thought about it, the more depressed he got. Greg thought about it all night and he went to sleep in a seething rage.

The next dat when Greg woke up he was determined. Today would be different, he didn't know what he was going to do but he was going to do something different, something unexpected. Something that even he didn't know he was going to do. As the day went by Greg got more anxious. His tormentors knew better than to start a fight on school property but they took every opportunity to let Greg know that once school had concluded, Greg was fair game.

School did conclude and Greg was off to the races. Because his tormentor's knew his route home, He decided to take a different route this time. They would still chase him but they wouldn't know where he was going so they couldn't ambush him this time. This time when Greg ran down the street he ducked into the General Hardware store. Looking frantically he saw what he was looking for, wooden bats. He grabbed a wooden bat and right before the lead pursurer could get to him, he swung for the fences. He swung with all his might and he connected cleanly with his target. He hit Lenny right on the side of his head and Lenny went down for the count. The adrenaline was pumping through Greg's body now and the rage at such a fever pitch that Greg didn't stop. He swung the bat down on Lenny again, who was at this point unconscious and unable to defend himself. Greg didn't stop. Fortunately for Lenny, Greg only got in a couple more swings before the store owner grabbed the bat away from Greg and called the cops. The other boys, seeing Lenny's fate all disbursed. They didn't want any witnesses that could help collaborate Greg's story once he gave it to the police.

When the police arrived, an ambluance was called and Lenny was taken to the hospital. Greg didn't feel any remose. He was only taking care of business. He explained to the police officer about how the boys chased him every day and gave him a beatdown. He explained how his father told him he had to take care of it or people would push him around his whole life. He explained that it seemed to him that violence was the only means of resolving the issue. The police officer took down Greg's statement and called his

parents. Since the other boys had fled the scene like rats deserting a sinking ship, there was no one there who could accuse Greg of making anything up.

When Greg's parents arrived, they were told about the icident and Greg's mother collaborated Greg's story, telling the police officer that Greg had home home many times beaten up. The police officer asked why the family never reported the attacks and Greg's father reponded that Greg needed to take care of the problem himself, or people would push him around all his life. This collaborated Greg's previous statement to the officer. Greg was released into the custody of his parents and the office said that because there were witnesses to the attack, Greg would probably have to stand trail for assault. On the way home Greg's mother cried but Greg's father wasn't upset because Greg was just doing what he had told him to do.

Once Lenny got to the hospital, it was discovered that he was hit in just such a way as to cause death. It is amazing what the human body can withstand but when it is struck in certain ways, it ceases to function and this was the case with Lenny. It was actually just dumb luck, or lack of it, that this was the case because if Lenny were struck at any other angle or just a few milimeters in either direction up or down, he would have lived.

Once Lenny died, Greg was charged with manslaughter and had to stand trial. Because he was a minor, he was tried in a court for minors. It was at this time that the history of Greg's beatdown's became public record. The prosecutor presented Greg as a vengeful troubled young man who knew exactly what he was doing while the defense presented him as a young man who was just defending himself from constant abuse and went a little too far. Lenny's parents refused to believe their son would act in the manner that Greg and the other boys had testified that he did. To protect themselves from possible retribution, the other boys threw Lenny under the bus and said that he was the one who was the mastermind behind all the attacks on Greg. Lenny's parents asked the judge to throw the book at Greg.

After dilibrating for some time, the Judge decided to send Greg to a youth detention facility for his crime. It wasn't a horrible place but there were horrible people who lived there. Once Greg arrived, one of the boys who clearly appeared to be in charge, told Greg that as long as he followed orders, his stay would be a pleasant experience. If he failed to follow orders, he might have some trouble. It was a veiled threat that really wasn't veiled all that much. Greg got a sinking feeling that he just went from the frying pan into the fire.