A Boy’s Life

Greg and Bower were such jerks. Twice they’d been questioned about break-ins at the school. Turning over desks, drawing obscene pictures on the blackboards, spilling the contents of the teacher’s desks around the room. All kinds of moronic shit. But no one could ever prove anything. On the way to school they’d catch you and steal your lunch money. Never picked on little kids who might spill the beans to their parents. Only us older kids who were silenced by the code. Never rat out a kid to an adult. One time they chased me and David. I raced across the traffic on Kipling Avenue to safety. I almost got hit by a truck but it was worth the risk. I watched as they grabbed David by the feet and turned him over, shaking his change out of his pockets. They didn’t have to do that. David would have given it up but it pleased them to no end to humiliate him.