By the end of the first week of school, Charlie was no longer nervous. He had made some friends. He had found that he could manage his classwork and homework well, and he realized he wasn’t behind the others.
Meanwhile, Joey seemed happy as well, although he still mentioned the boy who seemed angry, saying that his name was Chad Mariner.
“What’s he angry about?” Charlie asked one night during supper.
“I don’t know. He just scowls a lot, and on the playground he likes to push people around.”
“Have you had problems with him?” asked Ben.
“Not really, but the other kids seem afraid of him.”
A week later, when Joey was on the playground with the other fifth graders, Chad pushed him from behind and he fell to the ground.
Looking up, Joey asked, “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Just letting you know who’s boss around here,” Chad snarled. “You think you’re pretty smart, don’t you? Next time you grin in class when you guess a right answer, I’ll knock that grin off your face.”
Sure enough, the next morning Joey answered the teacher’s question and grinned. Later, on the playground, Chad again pushed Joey to the ground. “Get up, teacher’s pet,” he said.
Joey decided he had to do something. He stood and then tackled Chad, pinning him to the ground. Chad had one arm free and hit Joey in the right eye. They rolled around on the ground for a moment, each trying to hit the other, before Joey felt hands lifting him off Chad.
The PE teacher looked at the two boys and asked, “What was this all about?”
With tears in his eyes, Joey blurted out, “Chad knocked me to the ground. He did the same thing yesterday and threatened me.”
“I didn’t do nuthin’,” said Chad belligerently. “I was playin’ tag and accidentally ran into this twerp. Then he attacked me.”
“Did anyone see how this began?” the teacher asked the crowd that had gathered. Nobody said anything although Joey was certain they were just scared of Chad.
The teacher took both boys in to the school principal who got the same replies from both. She was quite sure she knew who the aggressor was but had no proof. She warned both boys that fighting again would result in calls to the parents and possible suspensions. “Joey,” she said, “you’d better have the nurse take a look at your eye.”
Joey went obediently to the nurse’s office, where he received an ice pack to keep down the swelling in his eye.
The rest of the day was uneventful until Joey got home and Ben saw his eye.
“What happened?” he asked.
Joey told him the story. Ben was not happy, to say the least. He was irate that Joey had been attacked, and he was angry that he’d received no call when Joey went to the nurse.
At the supper table, the men talked about what should be done. “Find out Chad’s address,” Charlie said, “and I’ll beat the shit out of him.”
Ben put hand on Charlie’s arm, saying, “I’m glad that you’ll stand up for your brother, but that isn’t the way to handle it.”
Moving his arm away from Ben, he asked, “So what is?”
“I think Rodney and I will go to the school tomorrow and have a little chat with the principal.”
Joey was again in tears, saying that he’d never been in trouble at school in his life.
“We know that,” said Rodney, “and as far as we’re concerned you’re not in trouble now, but we have to get this sorted out.”
When the boys went up to bed, Charlie got ready in the bathroom, put on some boxers, and went into Joey’s room.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, he began to rub Joey’s back gently. “We all know this wasn’t your fault,” he said. “Ben and Rodney will take care of it.”
In the morning, the two men drove Joey to school. Charlie wanted to go with them, but they said they could handle it.
When they arrived and went to the office, they learned that somebody was already talking with the principal.
A few moments later, the principal’s office door opened, and a boy stepped out.
“That’s Chad,” Joey whispered.
Chad was followed by a man who looked angry and asked, “Is this the boy who attacked you?”
Chad nodded.
The principal, who had been standing in the doorway, asked the three men and the two boys to go into her office.
At first, Chad’s father protested, saying he had said all he needed to, but she insisted, and he gave in grumpily.
When the five of them were seated, the principal asked Joey to tell her what happened. “I know you told me yesterday, but we all need to be sure we’re hearing the same thing.”
Joey repeated what he’d said the day before while Chad sat shaking his head.
“Are you going to let this son of faggots attack my son and get away with it?” asked Chad’s father angrily.
“Well,” said the principal, “clearly one of the boys isn’t telling the truth. It’s my job to determine who.”
“My boy doesn’t lie!” the man exclaimed.
“Joey doesn’t lie,” said Rodney quietly.
The principal held up her hand for silence. “The playground was full of children at the time, so somebody must have seen what happened. If they didn’t say so yesterday, perhaps they were scared one of the boys would seek revenge. I’ll visit the classes today and see if anybody has anything to say. When I learn something, I’ll contact both families. Thank you, gentlemen, for your time.”
She rose and opened the door. The men went out and the boys tried to follow, but she held them back for a moment and asked them to sit again.
“Boys,” she said. “It’s clear that one of you isn’t telling the truth. Lying is not tolerated in this school and can result in suspension. I want to give each of you one more chance to tell the truth.”
“I already did,” said Chad angrily.
“I told the truth,” said Joey. He too was angry, but he managed not to show it.
The principal looked steadily at both boys, trying to give them every opportunity to speak, but neither of them did.
“Alright boys, “when I come to your classroom to talk with the children, I will ask both of you to leave with your teacher and wait in the hall. Further, neither of you is to have recess outside until we get to the bottom of this. Now go to your classroom.” She asked her secretary to walk with them.
As they walked down the hall, Chad muttered, “Cocksucker!”
Joey didn’t even know what that meant, although he had some idea of what a cock was. “Why don’t you just tell the truth?” he asked.
“None of your damned business.”
“It is,” said Joey. “I’ve never been in trouble in my life.”
“Well welcome to the club. Now you are.”
They walked into the classroom and all the kids looked up from their work.
The two boys went silently to their seats, took out their math books, and began to do the assignment which was posted on the board.
The principal went to the, third, fourth, and fifth grade classrooms because the children from those grades had been on the playground when the fight happened.
When she came to the fifth grade, she asked the teacher to take Joey and Chad into the hall. She spent some time talking with the children, saying that they had nothing to fear if they told her what happened because they would not be identified to the boys or their fathers.
Sophie, a quiet little girl in the front row tentatively put up her hand. When the principal called on her, she said, “Chad knocked Joey down on purpose, and he did it on Monday too.”
“How do you know it was on purpose and not just an accident?” the principal asked.
“Because both times, Chad was looking at Joey’s back and he used his hands to shove him.”
“That’s right,” chimed in Larry. “He did it on purpose.”
After the dam broke, about half the class agreed that was what had happened. The principal hadn’t been surprised because she’d been told the same thing in the third and fourth grades.
When she left the room, she said to the waiting boys, “Come with me.” They followed her back to her office.
When they were seated, she said, “Chad, about half of each class said that you deliberately knocked over Joey. I will be calling your father in a few minutes, and you will be suspended for a week.”
Chad was crying. “Please don’t do that,” he sobbed. “My dad will give me a whipping.”
She turned to Joey. “I understand why you reacted the way you did, Joey, but striking back was probably the worst thing you could have done. You need to think through with your uncles what you could have done differently.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Joey replied quietly.
“Joey, you may return to your class. Chad, you will wait here for your father.”
When Joey reentered the classroom, the children smiled at him and one or two patted his back. Later, at recess, Larry said to Joey, “It’s about time Chad got caught. He’s been a pain in the ass forever.”
The afternoon passed quietly, but as Joey headed to the front doors, he heard a man shouting in the office. The principal’s door opened, and Chad and his very angry father burst through it. They pushed ahead of the departing children, and Joey heard Chad’s father saying, “You just wait till I get you home. You won’t be able to sit down for the full week of your suspension.”
Chad was bawling, and Joey felt badly for him. After all, he thought, no kid should get whipped.
At home, he talked with his uncles and Charlie. The men had received a call from the school, so they knew what had happened. Joey told them that Chad was going to be whipped by his father.
“He probably just said that to get sympathy,” said Charlie.
“Let’s hope so,” added Rodney.
Over supper they talked about how Joey could have reacted differently.
“Well, if I’d gone to the teacher, probably nothing would have happened unless they saw it,” said Joey.
“Perhaps,” said Ben, “but that might have been the best action. If the school got enough complaints about Chad, they’d eventually have to begin to know the complaints were true.”
“So, in the meantime I get hit every day?”
“I know it’s a tough one,” said Rodney. “Justice on the playground is always hard to get because the teachers can’t be watching every kid all the time. But if you went to a teacher, then they might keep an extra eye on Chad and might see him being aggressive to another kid. I doubt if you’re the only one he’s picked on.”
Charlie added, “Sometimes the best thing to do is to just get up and walk away. If he sees that you’re not bothered by what he’s done, he’ll probably stop.”
They talked some more before the boys went up to do their homework and get ready for bed.
When they were gone, Rodney said, “We’ll have to keep an eye on this you know.” Ben nodded.
The next week was peaceful for Joey at school. When Chad returned, he was very subdued. Joey tried to talk with him, but Chad would have none of it.
In the afternoon recess, Chad was accidentally hit in the back with a kickball. He screamed and fell to the ground. A teacher hurried over and asked him what had happened. All Chad would say was, “My back! My back!”
The teacher started to pull up Chad’s shirt but the boy wouldn’t let her, so she helped him up and took him in to see the nurse.
The nurse told Chad to remove his shirt. She had been around the school for years, and nobody ever refused her.
Chad started to refuse and then gave up. He peeled off the shirt, wincing as he did so. His back was covered with welts from a belt or a whip.
“Lie face down on the cot, Chad, and I’ll put something on that which will help take the pain away.” Turning to the teacher, she said, “Get the principal.”
The Websters never heard exactly what happened, but they knew that Chad’s father was arrested and no longer had custody of his son, while Chad lived only with his mother.
Joey was sad that evening, saying that if he had reacted differently maybe Chad wouldn’t have gotten beaten.
“You didn’t do anything wrong, Joey,” said Charlie as they sat in Joey’s room. “Maybe he’ll be better off being away from his dad.”
Chad’s back slowly mended, and by Christmas time he had become much more outgoing and friendly. He even gave Joey a little Christmas present, saying it was his way of telling Joey he was sorry about what happened.