Ancil“Easy boy!” The man shouted to the dog. “Easy!”
Kate’s father and his two buddies were scary but the sight of the dog had me paralyzed. I hated dogs, especially pit bulls. Don’t get me wrong, pit bulls aren’t that bad but every time I saw them they brought back bad memories; memories of when I was twelve and my best friend Nixon was fatally mauled by a ferocious pit bull. What made it even worse was that I was there when it all happened. I saw the entire thing with my own two eyes and I couldn’t do anything to save him. I’ll never forget the day it happened, February 21st. We were walking home together from school when we encountered a stray pit bull. Without hesitation, it attacked us. But, Nixon was unfit, to say the least, and he couldn’t run very fast. I don’t think I need to tell you how the story ended but the ending has haunted me ever since. Seeing the vicious creature gnaw away at my best friend had scarred me for life. Now lying here drenched in the rain, the entire visual came back to me all at once when I saw the pit bull.
“I’ll spare you this time but if you take my daughter away ever again, I’m not going to be as merciful. Remember that.” He then walked off pulling Kate along with him. His two buddies followed, leaving me on the ground in a wounded mess. I heard him mumble the word “idiot” as he was walking away.
“You’re the idiot!” I shouted, my voice rasp. I heard his footsteps stop. “Only an idiot will physically abuse his own family, let alone his own daughter.”
“I give you a chance to leave and you still find it in you to insult me. You should be on your knees giving praise to God that I didn’t leave you as a vegetable on the ground. But instead, you lie there like a wounded dog and call me an idiot. How rude can you possibly be? Guys let’s show this idiot what we do to rude people.”
I heard fingers cracking and a great deal of footsteps then the next thing you know, I was on the ground being kicked and punched by Kate’s father and his buddies. The pain was unbearable! Everything was black for a while but I just lay there motionless. Some time into the attack, I heard the sound of police sirens which brought me some relief. Kate’s father and his buddies abruptly stopped kicking me and jolted off into the night. Two officers, who seemed to be off duty, sprung out of the police car and sprinted after them.
I lay on my back and just stared at the moon in the sky while I tried to catch my breath and get over the pain that throbbed through every part of my body. I was weak. I was distraught. I was in one of the pits of sadness that made you feel like everything was worthless. I lost the girl of my dreams, I was beaten up by that same girl’s dad, and to top it all off, I was wet. I was soaking wet!
The rain droplets felt cold on my face as it poured down, still heavy. The big round head of the moon was then replaced by the round head of Kate which lowered my levels of sadness a bit.
“You okay?” Kate asked me. Her wet hair hung from her head and mostly covered her face.
“I think so. Maybe! Not so much.”
She helped me up and led me over to the side of a building where I sat on the ground using its stone walls as a backrest. My nose was running red and my vision was thwarted from a black eye that I had gotten. My stomach was on fire and I still subconsciously felt the kicks to my body. Kate sat on the ground next to me and just sighed.
“I truly am sorry for what I did,” I said.
“You don’t need to say sorry. It’s fine.”
“Really?” I asked, confused.
“I think you got enough retribution for kidnapping me,” she said with a very vague smile. She then looked at the huge bump on my head and said, “I think you need to put some ice on that.”
I glanced at her, first at her eyes then down to her neck where I noticed something. “Is that why you wore the turtleneck to the workshop today?” I asked, completely ignoring her ice plea.
“What are you talking about?”
“Is that why you wore the turtleneck to the workshop today; to hide the scar on your neck?”
