Black Belt Billy

The swirling air was bitter and nipped at Billy's toes through a hole in is scuffed shoes. He sat on the plastic bench outside on the playground where the toddlers played after naptime. Billy wished he were a toddler again, as he took a big boy bite through his peanut butter and jelly sandwich and swallowed it without chewing. Thats what Bruce did. Billy took a smalkler bite this time and carefully chewed it, he didnt want to choke on it like mother always told him would happen if he didnt chew his food slowly.

 

Billy swung his feet back and forth under the bench whcih he sat upon and grinned at the silly kids running around the courtyard. They looked immature and kiddish as they screamed and ran around in pointless circles, and the boys chased after the girls. Billy considered himself a grown up now that he was in the third grade. he was smack in the middle of his elementary school grades so he wasnt old or baby. he grinned to himself again when he was about to take another bite out of his sandwich, then a familiar scrawny handy pulled the bread out of his hands and billy bit his thumbs. the scawny hands pushed them so that theyd stay in the place they were in. "hey baby. sucking yours thumbs again like a baby!" taunted the familiar squeeky voice. the boy let go of Billy's hands and came around to face him. "hello bruce. how are you doing?" billy was very mature for his age and thats whyy most kids teased him, they insisted he didnt know how to have any fun.

 

Bruce smiled his awful smile which showed off his two missing front teeth. "hey billy goat, why dont you say i beat you up today at noon recess? hmm,? what do you say?" Bruce  crossed his arms and tapped his foot waiting for Billy's reply. "okay" Billy replied surely and he closed his snack bag, and gripped the black rubber handle firmly soBruce couldnt snatch it away. Bruce's wise expression slid off his face faster than a tsunami pulled in a tide. "what do you mean okay? i guess ill have to ix you up so you are scared. you should be scared Billy goat. youre a rotten good for nothing oreo. youre black on the outside, and white on the inside. but you cant just stick to who you really are right? trash! thats what you are!" and Bruce kicked at Billy's only pair of shoes and the sole riped opem. Bruce guffawed and managed to get out "just like your garbage shoes!"

 

another reason the other students taunted Billy, he was Black skinned. Billy stood up, protecting his ground. "i am not scared of you Bruce. You are the one who should be scared of me. I have a black belt" Billy quickly lied feebly in an attemt to ward Bruce off. Bruce simply burst into another round of Hysteria and toppled ot the floor in laughter. When he was done, he stood up again and brushed the dirt of his slacks. "you? the billy goat has a black belt? id like to see that!" Bruce stuck out his hand and just as Billy was about to shake it Bruce pulled back his scrawny little thid grader palm. He chcukled and said "phsych!" and he ran off into the building about ten seconds before the recess bell would go off and all of toddlers would rush back into th building, liike the babies they were, along with their grown up teachers.

 

Billy held back his tears and stayed strong, and forced himself to keep it together at least until he got home. When billy got home, his mother noticed his tear streaked face and rushed to console him. "billy whats wrong?" Kendall asked. Billy merely shook his head and tried to break free of his mothers' grasp on his upper arms. "nothing. its nothing, let me go!" Kendall knew netter though. the taunting had gone too far, and she headed to the kitchen to get her white purse and go to the school downtown. "if you will not take care of this, i will. This is the only way billy. You cannot let those boys hurt yoou! dont you see, by showing them youre hurt, it builds them up." Kendall only had to look at her son's face to know what ashe was doing would eventually hurt him further. Kendall contemplated this for a moment and then sighed. She set down her purse on the high shelf in the living room above the flat screen television. She turned to sit in the revolving sofa chair, and picked billy up into her arms. "tell me billy, exactly what is going on. It was then she noticed his torn shoes. "im sorry, mother. I-I- tripped and it ripped. Im sorry, i know they were  expensive." Billy looked at his mother to see her face frozen in shock and horror. "is that whats going on here? are they making fun of you because you dont think we can afford new shoes?" Billy nodded and started sobbing again. Kendall held him closer to her chest and cradled him in her arms like she used to when he was a young boy. Kendall waited patiently until Billy stopped crying.

 

"dont worry, billy. i will go to the bank right now and get some money so we can guy you some new shoes. Listen to me honey. remember what i told you last time, when those boys were bothering you?"

Billy nodded his head yes and spoke. His voice was cracked as he said; "you told em about the boy who was beiong teased and he faught them off with his courage not words or fists." Billy recited back to Kendall what shed told him only last month. "And what did he do to show them his courage?" she persisted. "he told them he had a black belt, jut like i told Bruce. and we were going to have a fight during noon recess but i chikened out and spent noon recess in the library." Billy prattled on to distaract his mother from the planned fist fight, by telling her about all the new books hed found since it had been a long time since billy had been there. "no no no billy!" scolded Kendall as she set im donw on the revolving sofa chair next to her. she turned both chairs so that tey were facing each other and their knees were touching slightly. "i told you to tell them, you were too good to fight in any sort of way, it was either peace or ignoration. You wer to say that you had a black belt-" billy cut his mother off to insist that that was what he'd done. Kendall shook her head. "billy... no. you were supposed to tell them you had a black belt-" and kendall held up a finger just as billy was about to re-interrupt up to his lips, to signal him not to do so. "a black belt in strength. not arm strength or fist strength, but mind strength. the power to overcome your fears  and stand up for what you believe in. no matter how big, or young" kendall paused in her lecture to poke billy's stomach where it tickled hi so he would laugh. it worked. and there was a huge grin spread across his face. "the bully in this case but in other cases, the obstacle may be." Billy reached out to hug his mother and they stayed that way for an immeasurable amount of time. "thanks mom" shispered billy hoarsly into her ear throug her hair. Kendall shrugged and said "anytime, anytime."

 

 

         EPILOGUE: Bruce

Bruce lifted the slightly crumpled letter out of his spelling notebook, and hurriedly unfolded it. it read:

 

Dear Bruce,

we have come a long way together, since pre-k. we have been throguh a lot of challenging times, and rough spots in our relationship, if thats what it could possibly be called, but i will miss you. I have moved to cincinnatti, Ohio to live with my father and my mother came to, so we could care for my loving grandparents who live there. Its so far away but maybe we can be friends. we never really did have a chance to get to that, but i wanted to let you know i do have money. my family does have money and guess what my mother told me? youll never believe it but we might even have more than you! but im not giving this letter to you so i can brag. i would never ever do that. only a child would do that! im giving this to you as a sign of peace, of surrender. and thats not necessarily a bad thing. if you want you can say you won. if it makes you feel any better. but i wanted to tell you also, you dont always have to show your money, you could be humble. my father was transferred anyway last year to closer where his parents live for a promotion where his salary will almost nearly triple! wowie, thats some sum of money were talkiing about.

but i hope youll be reading this far enought to get to the most important part: This:

last week when i did not show up at noon recess for our fist fight where i would show you my "black belt"

i did. by not coming. I went to the library something i wanted to do, not what you would make me. because no one makes me who i am, only i can do that. and thats why im making a precedent for the rest of eternity (of our friendship- if you want to have one)

on the back of this letter is my address in my new home. i hope youll write back. thanks for all th lessons youve taught me, i now hae reference to look back on if i ever experience the same thing,a nd now i know what to do the first time it happens, and it wont be drawn out anymore.

i hope you learned a lesson from all of this too.

     your friend,

            billy

 

Author's Note

this never happened to me bu the tory hit me when i was in the midst of writing a poem. i hope we can all learna lesson from all of this!
please ignore the grammar, spelling, and etc. mistakes. what do you think of the lesson? and the sotry andthe chracters?