Saturday, September 13, 2008

Church Bully

I was eleven and he was seven. He was picking on preschoolers and the adults didn't see it.

We were at a church picnic. I was the oldest kid there. I thought to myself;

"He's younger than you let a an adult handle it."

He was slick in his cruelty always knocking a kid over when no adult was looking.

I started to charge him several times but when I did he would make a noise. The adults would look his way and I would stop my attack.

He just kept knocking kids over and looking at me smiling as if to say I dare you to snitch.

The little kids ran crying to their mothers too afraid to tell what happened.

"Just slow down and don't play so rough."

"Yes mommy."

One little boy walked past me and gave me a look that said it all. In his eyes were written; why don't you stop this?

I saw the Church Bully chase down a kid and hit him as hard as he could in the middle of the back knocking him to the ground. I ran towards the bully and he made a noise but I didn't care.

All the adults were looking at me chasing him down and hitting him in the middle of back.

The Church Bully fell to the ground crying louder than any of the preschoolers. He was still crying when his family left the picnic. I felt like a fool for playing his game and was embarrassed I hit him. Jesus wouldn't have hit him. The only thing that made me feel better was that some of the preschoolers smiled at me before they left with their parents.

When I got home my parents talked to me about what happened.

I never saw the boy that was the Church Bully, bully anyone again. We became friends and he started riding unicycles because I rode unicycles around town.

As an adult I'm a world class snitch. I don't care if you're a beggar or a billionaire if you hurt little kids you'll pay a price you can't imagine.

4 comments:

Toxiferous said...

This is a fascinating bully story that explores another facet of bullying. As a long time pacifist (for the most part) I've found it to be very difficult when I've been put in a position similar to this one. It's hard to be bullied, it can be hard to be the bully and it's certainly hard to be a witness to bullying.

Robert A Vollrath said...

I was very tempted to change the facts on this one but I decided to tell the bully stories that I was the bully in. This turned out good but it could have turned out very bad.

I've got three more bully stories this month. Skateboard Bully, Movie Bully and Mugger Bully.

Joan Sandford-Cook said...

My, you have been so busy with so many new posts whilst Ive been working on my plum acrylic decorative pieces. Are you like Anita Davies, and hardly need any sleep at night??? All your bully stories could make up a great booklet for use in social studies in college.

Robert A Vollrath said...

I'm really struggling as a writer now. This is the fourth day without a twitch in my left arm or left side of my face. This is a big thing for me as I've had those twitches since 1975.

Fixing this part of my broken brain is a small miracle to me but the writing part of my brain isn't working as well. Your comment on the Bully Stories is a positive reinforcement just when I needed
it.

My sleep patterns have changed of late. I go to bed around 9:00 PM and wake in the middle of the night to write. I go back to sleep around 6:00 AM and wake up again around 10:00 AM. My new found inner peace is letting me have deeper periods of sleep.