Chapter 43
It was overcast and kind of cold, and there was no one else in the school yard. I was working on my jump shot, with Jeannie retrieving the ball for me. Catch the pass, take a dribble, square up, shoot. Catch the pass, take a dribble, square up, shoot. Jeannie's passes were not always really good, but it was better than chasing it after every shot. I was good with the dribble. I could pass, and I was tough on defense. But my outside shot was weak and so I tried to do a hundred jumpers every day.
I was on number sixty-seven when Leo and his troop came around the corner of the school. Croy was beside Leo.
Leo shouted at me, "You're in trouble now, Spenser."
I sank jumper number sixty-eight before I looked at him. Jeannie retrieved the ball and held it for a moment, then she dropped the basketball and ran away. Leo watched her go and turned and looked at me.
"Smart girl," he said.
"What's your problem, Leo?" I said.
"You knew the Mexicans was gonna ambush us, and you didn't tell us," Leo shouted.
"Nope," I said.
"Don't lie about it," Leo yelled. "Croy seen you talking to Petey Hernandez right before the fight. You betrayed your own damn kind."
"You are my kind?" I said. "I don't think so."
"You admit you knew it?" Leo said.
"Nothing to admit," I said. "I didn't know what they were planning."
Leo and his gang moved closer. I noticed Croy stuck pretty close to Leo.
"You think you can fight us all?" Leo said.
Besides him and Croy there were about ten other kids. The answer was obviously no. But I didn't care to say so.
"You ready to get it handed to you, backstabber?" Leo said.
"You first?" I said.
"All of us first," Leo said.
The gang spread out and formed a circle around me. They didn't seem in any hurry. I think they wanted me to be scared. I was scared. But I did everything I could to keep them from seeing it. I kept facing Leo, the leader. And as the circle formed, I took a step closer to him.
I said, "You and me, Leo? One-on-one?"
"Why should I do that?" Leo said. "There's twelve of us. Why should I do all the work?"
Everyone was quiet. It felt thick and strained, like it does just before a storm breaks. I was debating whether to hit Leo first. I had just decided to hit him when my father's gray pickup truck pulled into the school yard and my father and my two uncles got out. I felt all the tightness go out of my stomach. My back loosened. My breathing slowed a little. My father and my uncles pushed through the circle of boys as if they weren't there, and walked to where I was, and stood in a semicircle behind me.
Nobody said anything.
Finally Leo said to my father, "This is just us kids fooling around, Mr. Spenser."
"Lot of you," my father said. "Just thought there should be a few more with him."
"What are you gonna do?" Leo said.
My father ignored him.
"You think you're gonna have to fight him?" my father said to me.
"Yes," I said.
"Now's a good time, then," my father said.
"Oh, sure," Leo said. "And when I kick his butt, you big guys jump me?"
"Nope," my father said.
"What'll you do?" Leo said.
"Can't handle losing," my father said, "you got no business fighting."
"You touch me and my father will sue your ass," Leo said.
My father smiled faintly.
"You two fight," he said, "we'll see that it's fair, and win or lose, when it's over it's over and everybody goes home."
"Okay, Leo?" I said. "You and me?"
He didn't answer. I slid into the fighting stance they had spent so long teaching me.
"Don't rush things," Patrick said to me.
Leo tried to kick me in the groin, but I turned my hip and put a jab on his nose. The nose had recently taken a beating thanks to Petey and his friends. It was tender. He yelped. I followed with a right cross. He backed up. I shuffled after him. He hit me with a big looping right hand, which I half blocked. He followed that with an equally looping left, which I stepped inside of, blocked with both forearms and slammed him on the side of the head with a back fist. He tried to get his arms around me. I drove both my hands, palms up, under his chin and bent his head back and shoved him away. He tried once more and I hit him with a flurry of lefts and rights. He put his hands up to protect his head and I started hooking him in the ribs, left, right, driving off my legs, out of a crouch like they had taught me.
He quit.
He put both hands against the back of his head, and shielded his face with his forearms, and doubled up and dropped to his knees. I thought about kicking him. My heart was pumping, my breath was hard but steady, I could feel the rhythm of the fight in my whole self. I shook my head. Instead I looked around at the circle of boys.
"Anybody else?" I said.
Nobody met my eyes. As I surveyed the circle, I saw Jeannie behind it, near my father's truck.
"She come get you?" I said to my father.
"She did," he said.
I looked around the circle again. Then I looked at Leo, still crouched on the ground.
"Over," I said.
With his hand still clasped to his head, Leo nodded.
"You need a ride home?" my father said to Leo.
Leo shook his head.
"Your old man has anything he wants to discuss with me," my father said, "or Cash or Patrick, he knows where we live."
Leo shook his head again. My father stared down at him.
"You're not going to tell him, are you?" my father asked.
With his head still protected, looking at the ground, Leo said, "No."
"Why not?" my father said.
"He'd yell at me for losing," Leo said.
My father reached down and took hold of Leo's arm and helped him stand.
"He's wrong to do that," my father said. "Everybody loses sometime. You ever need to talk, come see me."
Leo nodded.
My uncle Cash looked at the circle of kids still standing around uneasily.
"Time to go home," Cash said.
Nobody moved for a moment.
"Now," Cash said. "Right now."
The kids sort of came awake and turned and went off in various directions.
Jeannie came over.
"I'll walk you home," she said to Leo.
I said, "Thanks, Jeannie."
She nodded and patted my shoulder. Then she took Leo's arm and led him toward home.
"She feels sorry for him," Patrick said.
"I do too," I said.
"Not bad enough to let him beat you," Patrick said.
"No," I said. "Not that bad."