Greenhouse Bully

We stood between the greenhouses staring at each other. He was taller than me by three inches and much stronger. He said he was going to kill me. I turned and walked away.

As I walked away his fist came down by my head missing me by inches.

"BOOM! I knew you were a coward Robert!"

More to come....

Kidney Bully

My kidney on my right side hurts every day.

Clayton Fleeman punched me in the kidney when I wasn't looking. He is a coward but so am I.

When did this happen so many years ago? 13 or 14 years old? I don't remember our ages.
We were playing line soccer and I kicked his leg by mistake and so later in the game he hit me in the kidney when I wasn't looking. He is a coward.

More to come........

Doctor Bully

My father held me down as I screamed in agony. The doctor pushed the hypodermic needle into my big toe over and over again. He looked at me with an evil smile as he cut the wicker splinter out of my big toe with a single jerk of the scalpel. I cried out in pain.

"Stop that garbage."

"Yes sir."

More to come......

Movie Bully

"Hey you, you move to the front of the theater! I don't like you little whip business men!"

The five punks in the back row began to violently kick the back of the row seats ten seats above us.

I sat with my family and watched as people moved to the front of the movie theater to get away from the gang of five.

"That's right move to the front where you belong!" Said one of the five.

I thought to myself; "Don't say anything, just let it go."

"Hey you people three rows ahead of me. I need you to move too. You smell bad."

The other four laughed at there gang leaders comment.

"They don't have to move!"

The gang of five was shocked and so was I. It was my voice but it was like someone else had spoke the words. The leader of gang looked down on me from the high ground and spoke.

"There is five of us but only one of you. Are you sure you want to mouth off to us?"

"There only needs to be one of me."

Again it was as if someone else spoke through me but it was my voice.

I turned around and watched the movie that had been playing for five minutes. I was going to die so I could see Gremlin's 2 in peace and quiet. I was the greatest of all fools. My sons and their mother with a friend were going to see me beaten to a bloody pulp after the movie ends. I could leave before the movie ends but that would be a sign of weakness and might invite the attack.
I had to let this play out and pretend to be brave.

The movie ended and the gang of five almost ran out of the movie theater. I chuckled at this.

The young punks must have seen too many Kung Fu movies and thought a lone fighter could take five on at once.

When I got outside I couldn't remember where my car was parked. With my family and a friend in tow I began to look for my car. Then I saw the gang of five huddled together in a group of old cars. With my exceptional hearing I could just make out their conversation 500 feet away.

"There he is. Don't let him get you alone or he'll kill you. That's the way they always do it."

I couldn't help it. I started laughing as loud as I ever laughed. This scared the gang of five even more. Which made me laugh even louder. Finally I found my car and drove off.

As I pulled out of the parking lot, I honked my horn and waved at the gang of five.

They didn't wave back.

Mugger Bully

A young woman walked towards me.

"My boyfriend says that you are to give me some money so we can go to a movie or he'll shoot you."

I was in Westport an old neighborhood of Kansas City Missouri.

"I don't see a gun. Where is his gun?"

I've never been scare of any man that threatens by sending his wife or girlfriend over to me.

"You better believe he has a gun! He has it in the pocket of his leather jacket."

"Tell him I'll give you the money if he shows me the gun."

She walked back to her boyfriend and told him what I said. He looked angry and sent his girlfriend back over to me.

"He says he's going to shot you through the pocket of his leather jacket if you don't give us money to go to the movies now!"

"I don't think so. It's his hand in the pocket of his leather jacket. Now you two need to find someone else to mug because I'm going to go buy an art book at that bookstore."

I began walking to the bookstore and those two Westport muggers followed me.

I keep looking around for a policeman to flag down but couldn't see any. The couple was walking 30 feet behind me. I walked into the bookstore and they stopped following me. I could see the couple waiting for me just a few steps from the doorway through the big bookstore windows.

The art book I was looking for was sold out. The only two other costumers in the bookstore left through the front door running the mugger gantlet without a reaction from the couple. They were waiting for me. I must have hurt their mugger pride. I went to the check out counter.

"I need you to call the call the police for me. That couple just outside your front door is threatening to kill me if I don't give them money."

"I don't want to get involved. You need to leave my store."

"If you have a back door I'll be glad to leave your store."

"I don't have a backdoor, you'll need to go out the front door."

"I can't go out the front door or I'll get mugged. Besides you're lying as I know you have a backdoor."

With that the clerk ran into the backroom. He yelled at me from the backroom.

"Leave my store now or I'll call the police!"

I yelled back.

"Fine with me, I want you to call the police!"

The bookstore was empty except for me. A couple of would be muggers out front and a cowardly bookstore clerk in the backroom. I watched the boyfriend mugger through the front window give evil stares to anyone approaching the bookstore. It was comical how you could see people change their minds about going into the bookstore by body language and the expressions on their faces.

I yelled back to the store clerk.

"Hey Mr. Bookstore Owner how about closing your eyes and letting me run out your backdoor?"

"I've got a gun and I'll shot you if you come back here!"

"Great, everyone has a gun today but me."

All I wanted to do was buy a $20.00 art book, how did I become part of a three way book store stand off. That thought gave me an Idea. All of us in this little reality play were cowards at heart.
I could use that and the ego of Mr. Boyfriend Bully.

"I'm going to try something Mr. Bookstore Owner. If I die I'm going to haunt this bookstore and if I live I'm going to tell everyone what a coward you are!"

I walked over to the big window by the front door and tapped on it. Mr. and Mrs. Mugger turned and looked at me.

"I love books! I can stay in here all day. You two are going to miss the early show."

I turned and walked away like I wasn't scared at all. I just started shopping for books. I saw the mean stare from Mr. Mugger out of the corner of my eye. Mrs. Mugger was pulling on his arm begging him not to come into the store and beat me up. After a few minutes of this she won and the couple turned and walked away. I left the bookstore in stealth mode. The front door didn't have a bell on it and I opened and closed it as quiet as I could. I wanted Mr. Bookstore Owner to stay in the backroom for as long as possible.

I went directly to were my car was parked. I had somehow lost my parking ticket and the parking attendant told me that would cost me twenty dollars.

"See if you can read my license plate!" I said to the parking attendant as I speed off without paying. I looked in my rear view mirror as I speed out of Westport and thought to myself;

"Still no policemen to be found."

Note; This all happened before the age of cell phones.

Skateboard Bully

Who's the bully in this tale, me or the skateboard punk?

I lived 75 miles from my job and it was the worst job I ever had. I was wholesale live fish wrangler for 500 smelly fish tanks. One day after work at the end of the long drive home I came to a traffic jam in the small town I lived in. Finding a traffic jam in a town of 250 people didn't surprise me as I thought a farmer was driving a tractor through town.

There was 15 cars ahead of me going into town and I thought to myself; This is slow even for a tractor. For crying out loud I was only going under 10 miles a hour! I turned into the town from the highway and when I got home going down Arctic Street I saw what was holding up traffic.

Two kids on skateboards where taking there sweet time going down the highway and holding up traffic. No one honked at them or anything. I got out of my car and started yelling at them.
The dark hair boy of the two started calling me every curse word known to man.
My response is not something I'm proud of saying.

"When you turn 18, it would be better that you never find yourself alone on the same street with me."

As I walked into the house I thought; "I shouldn't have said that, he's a punk kid of 13 or 14."

Directly behind my house was a large parking lot (Large by Kingsville's standards) where the two skateboarders were heading towards when they rolled down the highway. For years the bank parking lot had been used as a hangout for teenagers and young adults to drink beer, do drugs and have sex. I never understood why the bank put up with it. Still don't but it had drove me crazy to the point I did some very extreme things to stop these in town underage parties.

Nothing worked and I only made myself the town fool in the process. I had a vision of a kid getting cut in the parking lot and thought I could change that but for all my trouble it still happened. My father's best friend oldest son got his chest cut up in the parking lot of the bank.
The boy that cut his chest loved dogs and Bobby had thrown rocks at his dog. The boy got him drunk and cut his chest after he passed out. For ten years this put an end to the parking lot parties. The boy went to jail and Bobby went to the hospital.

The day ended and night fell and the parties came back because of me. Because I threatened a young teenage boy. I would have just taken the abuse since I had some of that coming to me but when they threaten my then wife and mother that was too much. I call the Johnson County Missouri Police Department and they sent a police car out with sirens on. Before I heard the sirens the parking lot thugs drove off. The police found an empty parking lot.

An hour after the police left the parking lot filled up with the drunken punks. I looked at the gang of fools from my back yard. One of them yelled out.

"Hey Vollrath! Do you know what a police scanner is?"

Night after night the same thing happened until finally the police quit coming. It was easier to say I was a liar than to solve the problem. I asked the police not to call it in to a police car but to send one directly from the station. I asked them not to use the siren when they came but the police didn't want to know the truth. We did have a town sheriff but I had a low opinion of him.

Ray with his wife had beat up the man who would be my Brother-in -Law because they believed him to the father of their Grandson. Jeff my wife's brother didn't deserve to be beaten up by the town sheriff and his equally mean wife because my friend Tim was the man that got their daughter pregnant. Sheriff Ray's Grandson was the skateboard punk that cursed me and had rode his board down 58 highway. I didn't know that at the time.

I had a chance meeting with Sheriff Ray and his friend City Councilman Gene at the post office.
I asked them to stop what was going on at the bank parking lot.

"It can't be stopped and you're making a big deal out of nothing."

Said the dumbest Sheriff I ever knew. At that I remember that I saw this town sheriff wear his shoulder holster with gun in place at a high school basketball game. The shoulder holster was on backwards over a dress shirt. Why was I talking to this stupid criminal that beat up Jeff?

Then Gene piped up.

"You can't stop teenagers from being teenagers!"

My anger boiled up and I exploded in rant of words at the two men.

"My wife and mother are being threaten with rape and murder! I'm being threaten with murder! Cowards like you two shouldn't be part of city government! You know I'm getting death threats from people on bank property, so I'll just call the FBI and name names next time it happens!"

It never happen again. There was no more bank beer parties.

Work in progress. My in draft save isn't working all the time so I'm posting this unfinished version of the story and will hand write a version to work off of. This is half the story and it gets more complex in the second half.

Years later I was doing some artwork for a movie. Simple little job, all I had to do was draw a tattoo with washable ink on an actors arm. The script called for a primitive sub-human creature that embodied rage. The actor was a nervous wreak and keep looking at me with fear.

"Don't worry this tattoo isn't really possessed. I'm the only one possessed around here."

He looked at me like I was going to kill him.

I know it was a bad joke but I was just trying to lighten things up. I was in a barber shop and everyone was quiet as I finished the drawing on the young man's arm. I told the director goodbye and walked out.

That night I got a call from Eric the Director about Chris the actor, the man I drew the fake tattoo on.

"Chris told me to apologies to you."

"For what?"

"For all those death threats that small town gang made against you when he was a kid and he said something about you were almost his uncle. What does that mean?"

I didn't reconizes Chris as a man. A flood of memories came back to me. I remembered the first time I saw Chris. A four month old baby boy and he looked like a little version of his father Tim. A week later I was trying to talk my Brother-in-Law Jeff into signing a form so baby Chris could have his last name changed.

"I'm not leaving your apartment till you sign this Jeff! That is not your child."

Jeff finally signed it and I gave the paperwork to Jackie my then wife and Jeff's little sister.
Jackie gave the paperwork to Chris's mom.

It was Chis that I yelled at for being such a skateboard punk.

I told Eric the long story. Eric said that Chris was willing to apologies in person.

"No, what he said to you is all the apology I need. My revenge was how nervous he was in that barber's chair as I drew on his arm."

I hung up the phone and laughed.

Chris and I had only meet three times in our lives. How we had changed each others lives in those three visits.

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.

How to deal with Bullies

How should people deal with bullies?

Handle it yourself by standing up to the bully. I've done that with mixed outcomes.

To me the best way to handle a bully is a fine line between walking away from the conflict and forcing the bully to face his or hers own fear and shame if the conflict erupts into violence.

I've done this many times when I had no other choice.

I've been guilty of bullying bullies and that is really something no one should do.

When does teasing become bullying? I've been guilty of crossing that line myself. Words can be deadly weapons and I've hurt many people with my words.

One of the most effective ways to deal with bullies is not to deal with them. Two members of my family have been bullies all their lives. I don't see my aunt and uncle anymore. No bully is worth your time.

Write a story about the bully. That's what I'm doing on this blog. I'm trying to understand what I did right and what I did wrong in dealing with bullies. I hope my stories help my grandchildren deal with bullies. I hope my stories can help people of all ages deal with bullies.

Tell someone anyone about being bullied. I've told my parents, told the teacher, called the police, talked to the media, protested in the streets, and went to Human Resources with my complaints about bullies. I've even shoved a video camera in the face of some rich and powerful bullies.

There is no proven way to deal with bullies. I'll keep telling Bully Tales and maybe we can find a way to put an end to these tiny terrorist by softening their hearts before they become tomorrows criminals.

Little League Bully

I can't remember the name of the Little League Bully, lets call him John.

I was in my last year of playing in Little League Baseball and John was half way through the process.

My age group had just finished practice and John's age was going to start practice in a few minutes.

I was hanging around the ball park waiting for traffic to die down before I rode my bike the mile and a half back to town. The Pee Wee players had been dropped off early that day and while the adults were sorting equipment John walked over to the Pee Wee players and started knocking them to the ground out of pure mean fun.

I got off my bike and walked over to John. John had his back to me and had picked up a little kid by his shirt. I tapped John on the shoulder.

"Quit picking on these little kids."

John sat the little kid down and turned around to face me.

"What..."

Before he could say anything I picked him up by his shirt and spoke to him.

"If I ever see you pick on these kids again I'll beat you to a bloody pulp!"

I threw John to the ground. I walked over to my bike and rode home and never thought about what happened for years.

I was 17 and just got my drivers license and had started dating. I thought my days of facing bullies was behind me but my so called friends at school told me that John wanted to fight me.

"John who?"

"The guy you beat up in Little League Baseball."

"I never beat up anyone in .... Oh, I did knock this kid down to the ground for picking on the Pee Wee players. He's holding a grudge because of that?"

"He says you're the only person he backed down from and he's going to kick your butt now that he's old enough to beat you in a fair fight."

"This is real silly. Tell him I don't care."

The next day a group of so called friends came and told me he called me a coward.

"Fine, I'm a coward, its over with."

The next day a larger group of so called friends told me I was making him angry and making fun of him. That if I didn't come downtown that night to fight him he would come after me.

"Fine. I'm glad I'm making him angry and I am making fun of his fool's pride. He knows where I live and my number is in the book. Tell the coward that picks on little kids I'm not scared of him and if he wants to fight me that he needs to give me a call."

He never called me.

Uncle Bully and the Fishes

I was happy. I liked seeing the fishes on the end of boat dock in the shallow waters. I opened my mind and saw the little blue soul orbs around each of the two inch minnows. I was lying on my belly with my orange !940s Mae West life jacket on. My uncle was watching me on the dock. I was only three years old.

My head was pushed underwater by the big meaty hand of my uncle. My mind couldn't focus and the soul orbs disappeared around the minnows as they darted off. I thought my uncle would let up soon but he didn't. As I passed out from lack of oxygen I thought; "My crazy uncle is killing me."

In the blackness I thought it was a good short life. They were the best parents I had in any lifetime.
I wonder what the next life will be like?

My vision came back from the darkness and my uncle was holding me over the lake water.
I was coughing up water trying to breath.

"Fun wasn't it?"

"Yes uncle."

I didn't want to look at him. His soul was ugly and bleeding hate. I didn't like the colors around him. He would kill someone but not me or my parents.

He put me on the dock and I wiped the water from my face.

"Come on Bobby it is time we got off the dock. We wouldn't want you to fall off and drown."

Mother-In-Law Bully

My sons called her grandma hell.
To my shame I had other meaner, nastier names for her.
No one has the right to judge another person's worth.
I shouldn't have judged my then Mother-In-Law.

"I want to speak to Jackie."

"Your daughter is gone shopping, I'll have her call you when she gets home."

"She owes me money. I want my money!"

"She's shopping and I'm home with the kids. I'll have her call you back."

"Listen you son of a #%@* I want my money."

"Quit calling here you're diving me crazy. I've lost count how many times you've called and I've told her to call back. Why did you lend her money? You know she's can't control her spending!"

"You son of a #%@* you are worthless!"

"Stop calling me you crazy witch!"

I hung up the phone. I didn't call her a witch but a name that rhymed with witch. I shouldn't have called her that name. My then mother-in-law was insane. I believe she was abused as a child. My then wife payed her the money back but that wasn't good enough. She wanted me to apologies and I wouldn't. I should have apologised but I didn't.

Life lesson; always apologies to people. It doesn't cost you anything. I was young and dumb.

She called my parents and threaten to burn down their house.

She payed an ex-con to kill me.

"Robert I've payed my boyfriend $50.00 to kill you."

"Come on Helen, I'm worth at least a $100.00."

That was me, young and dumb.

"*%$#* you Robert. Here talk to the man that is going to kill you."

"Hi this is Robert. I hear you're going to kill me."

"I'm coming to your duplex tonight to kill you."

"Does your probation officer know about this plan?"

"I hear you're a coward."

"What's your point?"

"You won't come out and meet me in your front yard when I come to get you, will you?"

"We cowards are funny that way. We never volunteer to be killed in our front yards."

"I'll break your door down then and rip out your throat."

"Now you're just silly. I have a policeman that live across the street from me, so come on down."

He never showed up and my then mother-in-law stopped threatening me.

Years later after my then wife and I were divorced as a favor to my ex-wife I drove my ex-mother-in-law 40 miles back to her home so Jackie could work some over time at her pet store job.

On the drive back to her home she showed me she had lost most of her mind. She thought I was still married to her daughter and spoke as if her dead son was still alive. I felt the kindest pity for her.

Helen, I'm sorry I called you that name. I didn't have the right to judge your worth.

Gun Bully

I was all of 14 years visiting my cousins in Grandview Missouri when my older cousin Jimmy Jr. asked me to come upstairs to show me something in his parent's bedroom. I followed him upstairs and when I came to the doorway he pulled a gun out of a dresser, pointed it at me and pulled the trigger.

CLICK

The gun was empty but I jumped with fear. I had a heart murmur in my early teens that I inherited from my mother. The Doctors said I would outgrow it but at that moment it felt like my chest would exploded. My heart was wildly beating out of sync. It had never been that bad before or since. If I couldn't my heart under control I would pass out. I used a trick I taught myself when I was a little boy. I blanked out everything but me from reality (I can edit reality but that's another story). I slowed my heart down and put it in a good rhythm. I was standing in a pitch black void and before reality faded back in I heard his cruel laughter.

He stood by the dresser with the gun at his side bent over with laughter. He pointed at me with his left hand and laughed harder. I wanted to walk over to him and punch him in the nose but I didn't. I was pacifist at that point in my life and would take a beating before I would hit back.

I went down stairs and asked my parents if we could go. It was a couple of weeks later that I told them what happened. Jimmy Jr. would take great fun at pointing unloaded guns at me and my mother in the years that followed. Why the rest of my family did nothing about this is beyond me. I threated to hit him once when he loaded and unloaded a gun in front of my mother and pull the trigger while the barrel was pointed at her.

CLICK

That gun was empty too. He just laughed at me. He knew I wasn't a fighter.

One day while his parents were gone he was playing quick draw with a loaded gun and accidentally shot his mother's china cabinet. He's a Federal Marshal now.

Now I have to stop the story here and tell you I believe in minimalistic revenge. A Eyelash for a Eye. I'm about to take minimalistic revenge on you Jimmy Jr. with one question.

CLICK

Shot any china cabinets lately?

Lies of a Rich Man (Part Five)

I put the CCD inside the display case using the security bolts to lock the space artifact in place under plastic.

The space telescope exhibit was a traveling museum piece created by one of the most famous institutions in the United States of America.

The space telescope exhibit was a traveling piece of junk.

In a meeting of all the exhibit techs the Three Headed Monster
( Managers; Mike, Mark and Dave) decided not to turn off the computers at night that ran the space telescope exhibit.
They told us that not enough exhibit techs were familiar with the exhibit Apple Computers (The computers weren't the reason the exhibit was a piece of junk).

"Mark that's not a good idea."

"Just why is that a bad idea?"

"None of the space telescope exhibit islands have any vents on the boxes that house the computers. If you run those computers 24/7 you'll have a fire in a few weeks from the computers overheating."

"Robert, I was an officer on a nuclear submarine. I think I know more than you do about what a computer system can take."

You would think he would know better than I, with his Navy education.

I was the last person to work on the space telescope before it opened to the public. People that build museums don't know anything about how a museum operates. The space telescope exhibit needed darkness but the end of the exhibit space was a big glass wall with a glass door in the center. This wall let light shine in from a stairwell. Dave the dominate head of the three headed monster asked me if I could think of a way to block out the light.

"Sure Dave but I'll need to destroy a little history."

"What do you mean?"

"Because the Collection Department hates this Science Museum all the concept art is stored in prop storage. All the concept art is on black foam core."

"Do whatever you need to do Robert just get that glass wall looking black."

End of Part Five

Lies of a Rich Man (Part Four)

A member of my family has asked me not to finish this story. Lies of a Rich Man is a true story and I feel I must finish this story. There is a level of criminal activity in the world that no one writes about that I call Legacy Crime. Either behind a shield of lies that we call Corporations or Marxist Dogma these highest of all criminals give marching orders to all the lower forms of evil in the world.

Moshen and I had our 15 minutes of fame for saving the girl on the Bike on a Wire exhibit.
The CEO of the museum said we followed the guidelines for a rescue but that was a lie because we made it up as we went along.

The two heroes of the hour went to Human Resources to address the issue of racism and safety in the work place. Moshen a man born in Egypt had been called a terrorist by our supervisor Richard. It was a joke but it was the worst joke I ever heard on a job. I had been fighting for over a year to get 17 dangerous exhibits removed before a child was killed. Tim the man that was the head of HR lied to both of us and nothing was done about our complaints.

I knew my time was short at the museum but I was glad to get the job of putting part of a space telescope exhibit together. This traveling exhibit had real space artifacts in it and for some strange reason the props department was in charge of security of space artifacts. I was the props department.

I unpacked the most priceless of the space artifacts a CCD (Charged Coupling Device) that took some of the most famous space pictures from orbit. I keep this obsolete electric sky eye on me so there would be no chance of theft. In the past at the museum two space artifacts had been stolen but after I threaten to call the FBI the theft returned the stolen artifacts but thats another story.

I keep the CCD in my hip pocket as we assembled the display case it would fit in. One of the three managers we in Tech Ops had nicked named the Three Headed Monster came to check on the progress we made.

"Robert where is the CCD?"

"Here in my hip pocket."

I pull the CCD out of my hip pocket and turn it in my hand to show the second head of the three headed monster named Mark that I had the priceless space artifact.

"Do you think that is the best place to keep that?"

"No, I think the Collection's security vault is the best place to keep this."

"Collection's won't take it because space artifacts aren't a hundred years old."

"If this is an artifact then its not my problem as I'm in charge of props."

Mark gave me a mean look.

"As your manager I'm telling you that you are in charge of space hardware and you will find a better place to put that CCD than your hip pocket."

"No."

I put the CCD back in my hip pocket.

"What do you mean no?"

"If the last two pieces of space hardware that were stolen hadn't been returned to prop storage I could have gone to federal prison. You aren't in charge of anything now as you're in limbo without a job but collecting pay after you slammed a door on Dean our Creative Director and our CEO's buddy. Who would have stole those Shuttle Tiles but space fanatics like you or I?
I much rather be fired from this job than to go to Federal Prison for a theft I didn't do."

Mark turned red and Walked away.

End of Part Four

This story will take the rest of July to finish. To the best of my memory this story is true.
I have omitted last names and full names of people, places and exhibits to protect myself from lawsuits. This is a complex story and I thought this would be the last chapter but I feel now the story must go on.

Lies of a Rich Man (Part Three)

How many times did I try to flip the girl on the bike upright? I don't know. People were yelling and I saw six video cameras below me taping everything. I thought the closer the girl got the easier it would be but the worst it was. The aluminum pole was bending more each time I pushed down on the counterweight. Finally the bike on a wire was close enough I could grab the counterweight frame with my bare hands.

I dropped the pole and grabbed the frame of the counterweight with both hands pushing down with all the strength I had. If I didn't get the bike upright at that moment it would get hung up on two outrigger frames coming from the platform that would make it dangerous to get the girl off the bike. All my upper vertebrae popped and I felt the muscles in my back rip. I passed out.

I came to under the platform frame. Ronnie came over to me and asked if I was all right.

"My back is killing me. What happened?"

Ronnie was the nicest guy in my department and I don't think I could have stood up at that moment if he hadn't helped me. Moshen came over to me and said;

"We did good Robert, look the girl is safe."

I caught a glance of the girl being lead out of the museum in a wheelchair by the four security guards. The girl's legal guardian was yelling at the guards that she was going to sue.

For our trouble Moshen and I were given $5.00 each and a cupcake the next day. I had to laugh.

End of Part Three.

Lies of a Rich Man (Part Two)

I ran though the museum as fast as I could and was the first Exhibit Tech to reach the loading platform for the Bike on a Wire exhibit. The wire was twenty feet off the ground and the bike that ran across the wire had a counter weight of interlocking bricks held in an open metal frame beneath the bike. A 265 pound girl of fourteen was hanging upside down on the bike halfway out over the safety net five feet below her inverted head. Four security guards were trying to pull her back with a tow rope attached to the bike to reel kids in that didn't want the ride to end.

I took my work shoes off to walk out into the net as I looked up I saw the girl was undoing her safety harness that keep her from falling into the net. Most people don't know that you can be killed falling into a safety net. You can break your neck if you land wrong. The security guards began to yell at the girl to stop from releasing the safety latch but she ignored all four of the guards.

"Stop you could break your neck in the net!"

I screamed at the top of my lungs. She made eye contact with me and stopped unlatching the safety harness. Then I didn't know what to do and just stood at the edge of the platform trying to figure out what to do once I got out on the net. The Bike on a Wire had a flaw in its design as it was in a inverted position the heavy metal rim wheels weren't making contact with the cable and no matter how hard the guards pulled the tow rope the bike wouldn't move.

Moshen an Event Tech from the same department as me walked out on to the net. I felt like a fool as the girl needed someone to do something and I had hesitated and Moshen had acted.
Then I looked down below the net and saw over a hundred people had gathered below the net to watch the rescue, many with video cameras.

I had an idea. I keep a 15 foot long aluminum pole hidden by a fence to get shoes out of net when children lost their shoes riding the Bike on a Wire exhibit. The fence enclosed the Dinosaur dig site and I directed another Exhibit Tech to hand me the pole up to me on the platform.
As the bike was inverted the counter weight of interlocking bricks was on top. If I could jam the end of the pole into a gap in the bricks maybe I could flip the bike upright. I had been focused on the getting the aluminum pole to the platform and didn't see Moshen place the girl's hand on the cable holding the west side of the net up. This put the bike at 90 degree angle, still sideways but closer to being upright.

I put the aluminum pole in the gap between the bricks in the counter weight and pushed down with all my strength. The pole began to bend and the muscles in my back began to tear.
The bike was at 45 degree angle in the upright position and the four security guards pulled the bike two feet forward. I couldn't hold the bike in that position very long and I let bike back down as gently has I could. Moshen grabbed the girl's hand and set it again on the cable holding the net up. The girl and the bike were at a right angle again.

As I straighten the metal pole to try again many of my fellow employees were making fun of me and the girl on the bike. I gave them a dirty look and tried again.

End of part two.

Lies of a Rich Man (Part One)

The Rich Man was my boss's boss. I worked for the worst Science Museum in the world. That wasn't just my opinion but the opinion of a group of international exhibit builders that held a convention in Las Vegas in 2002 or 2001. I talked to these exhibit builders on a regular basis and they couldn't believe how poor the science content was in the museum.

I was an exhibit tech and my boss was named Dave. Dave was the most vulgar man I have ever known in my life. I heard him brag about abusing women when he was a young man. He even claimed to have dumped a nude girl on a bridge over the Missouri River when he and his friends were done with her.

My real trouble with Dave began when the Fire Marshall made a sexual remark towards me.
This wasn't the first time someone of the same sex made a pass at me but this was only the second time someone demanded sex from me to keep my job. The first time I quit a dream job before it began. This time I told the Fire Marshall what he could do to himself in very mean terms.

"I'm the Fire Marshall, I can shut this museum down!"

"I don't care."

"I'm going to have the apartment you live in condemned."

"I don't live in this city, just how are you going to do that?"

"Some of your exhibit tech friends do. Where do they live?"

"None of your business."

For the rest of the work day the Fire Marshall of a major city tried to find out where my friends lived so he could condemned their apartment because I had stood up to him when he made unwanted sexual advances towards me. Gay or straight there are jerks everywhere.
At the end of the day I went over to the Fire Marshall and spoke.

"Just because I'm the only Exhibit Tech that was willing to work in the Collection Department with someone with full blown Aides doesn't mean I'm Gay. It just means I'm not a bigot or that I'm scared of Aides. I'm going to lose this job soon enough without your help but if you don't leave me and my friends alone in the here and now I'll make sure you loose your job Mr. Fire Marshall."

I never heard anymore about the Fire Marshall's little problem with me. I had seen Dave bribe the Fire Marshall with Major League Baseball tickets for the many fire violations in the museum.

There were rumors that Dave had bribed the Fire Marshall with male prostitutes but I honestly don't know if there is any truth to that. I do know that the Fire Marshall never made any inspections on days that I worked from then till the end of my employment at the museum.

I wanted to quit the hell job but I seemed to be the only person that cared about the safety of the children that came to the museum. I would say something about how unsafe the museum was for the children and the answer would always be the same;

"Don't worry about it Robert, we have three million dollars of insurance."

I felt I was working at the museum for a reason and on April 13, 2002 that reason came.

"All Exhibit Techs report to the Bike on a Wire we have a girl upside down and can't get her off the bike!"

End of Part One.

Forklift Bully (the short story)

I remember the last phone call with my then wife before the divorce.
It was snowing large heavy flakes.

"Do you think I need to come to court?"

"No, I guess not. If you don't come I'll keep my word."

The next day there was 6 inches of snow on the ground. My father went with me to court. I can't remember which one of us drove. When we got into the court room my father found that his wedding ring was missing.

Under Construction (I need to finish the comic book too.)

Forklift Bully Pages 17 & 18

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Elbow

Forklift Bully Pages 15 & 16

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Elbow