Sacrifice Fly (22 page)

He took a last drag of his cigarette and flicked it into the street. He rolled up
his left sleeve, revealing the name “Zeke,” which had been tattooed into the hairless
part of his arm. It was homemade, probably made with the ink from a ballpoint pen.
The kind of thing you might do when killing time in a juvenile detention center.

I nodded. “Like I said, Zeke. I don’t know your girlfriend.” I started to make my
way around him again. “I really have to—”

He stepped in front of me and grabbed my arm.

“Lisa said you been hasslin’ her. Gettin’ her pops all upset and shit.”

“Lisa?” I said. “Lisa King?”

“Yeah.”

“She’s your … girlfriend?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Lisa’s fourteen.”

“So?”

“So you’re, what? Twenty?”

“What can I say?” He grinned, spreading out his arms. “I like ’em young.”

“Her dad know you like ’em young?”

“Ain’t none of his business,” Zeke said. He took his right index finger and poked
me in the chest. “Yours neither.”

Yeah, I thought, taking a calming breath and waiting for the small circle of pain
to spread out and go away, today would’ve been a real good day to stay in bed. It
was about thirty seconds before I thought of something to say.

“Tell ya what, Zeke. Why don’t we go inside and talk about this?” I made a show of
looking around at the kids and teachers heading into the building. “Too many people
out here minding our business.”

“Nah,” he said. “I ain’t going inside. You think I’m stupid or somethin’?” Before
I could answer, he added, “’Sides, I got things to do and people to see.”

Busy guy, Zeke. “Okay,” I said. “You want me to mind my own business? You got it.
I gotta get to work now.”

I moved around him yet again, and again he grabbed me. This time, one of my fellow
teachers noticed. Josephine from the second floor.

“Everything okay, Mr. Donne?” she asked.

“Yeah, Jo. Fine. Do me a favor, though, will ya? And ask School Safety Officer Jenkins
to come outside? Tell her I need to touch base with her.”

She hurried up the steps into the school.

To Zeke, I said, “You might want to leave now. Officer Jenkins has the power to arrest,
and, what with you trespassing and all … You got people to see, don’tcha?”

“What the fuck, trespassing?” He took his hands off me and held them up in the air.
“I’m just standing outside a public building. ‘School Safety Officer Jenkins,’” he
mimicked. “Fucking wannabe cop.”

“Threatening a public schoolteacher. Guy like you”—I let him notice as I took a long
look again at his tattoo—“on probation. Not going to look too good to your P.O.”

“Fuck you know about my P.O.?” He grabbed my shirt again. I had my umbrella in one
hand and my backpack weighing me down. This would have been a good time for one of
my uncle’s patrol cars to swing by.

“Z!” A voice came from behind us. “
Z!
”

We both turned to see Lisa King entering through the gate.

“Whatchoo think you’re doing, Z?” She stopped a few feet away. “That’s my
teacher
!”

“You said he was bothering you,” he said through gritted teeth. “I’m taking care of
it.”

“You not taking care of nothing, Z. Get your hands off him.”

His grip on my shirt tightened, and he gave it a twist. I looked over my shoulder
at the street. Still no blue-and-white.

“Don’t talk to me like that, Lee. I told you about talking to me like I’m slow.”

“Then why you acting slow, Z?” As Lisa squinted at her boyfriend, he let go of my
shirt. I took the opportunity to lean my umbrella against the wall, freeing up both
hands. “What? You think I’m gonna be impressed? You coming down here, messing with
my teacher?”

“Wasn’t gonna beat him up,” Zeke said. “Gonna scare—ask—him to leave you alone is
all. You said he was—”

“I know what I said, and I’m handling it.” She paused for a few seconds, and then
added, “I’m not a little girl.”

And at that moment, for the first time in the nearly two years I’d known her, Lisa
King, all fourteen years of her, actually looked like a teenaged girl.

“Everything okay out here, Mr. Donne?”

Officer Jenkins was making her way down the steps of the building with purpose.

“I think so, Jenkins.” I turned back to Zeke. “Now that Zeke here has his hands off
of me, I think I’ll be fine.”

As Zeke considered that, he looked at Lisa and then at Officer Jenkins, who was now
within pouncing distance. His breathing grew deeper. The longer he contemplated the
situation, the more I picked up the staleness of his breath. If I listened real closely,
I could probably hear his mind working this over.

He had put himself in an unwinnable situation. Hit me, and his girlfriend was going
to give him a world of shit. And he’d face an altercation with a school safety officer.
A female school safety officer. Let it go, and he’d be backing down. In front of his
girlfriend. I didn’t believe old Zeke here had the brainpower to ease himself out
of this one. I tried to help him out.

“Just let it go, Zeke. Officer Jenkins and I’ll go inside, and you and Lisa can talk
about this. You showed her you’re looking out for her. Leave it there.”

His eyes glazed over as he looked me in the eyes. I’m not sure he heard me.

WHOOP! WHOOP!

The four of us turned toward the street where a blue-and-white squad car was making
a U-turn in front of the building.

Zeke grabbed my shirt again and twisted hard. “Fucking mother fucker!”

“I didn’t call them, Zeke,” I said. “I’m out here with you.”

Over Zeke’s shoulder, I saw two cops getting out of the car. They were about ten seconds
away. Too far.

Zeke pulled me toward him. The pressure was too much for my already overworked knees,
and I fell. It took all I could to not scream out loud. With his hand still grabbing
my shirt, he looked down and grinned. I slipped my left arm through the book-bag strap
so that it was hanging only on the right shoulder. Zeke cocked back his free arm and
made a fist. He looked up to make sure he was being watched.

“Hold it!” one of the cops yelled.

“Z!” screamed Lisa. “Don’t!”

Zeke wasn’t listening. As he turned his eyes to me again, I let the book bag slip
down, and with all the strength I could summon, swung it up as hard as I could. It
hit him square on the left side of his head, spinning him around, and knocking him
down to my level. The momentum threw me the rest of the way to the ground, where again
I found myself looking up at Zeke. This time he was stunned, ignoring the blood oozing
from his nose, and as he brought his arm back again, he was grabbed and wrestled to
the ground by Officer Jenkins. One of the cops came up behind her and took over, while
the other cop placed a knee on Zeke’s back and reached behind his own back to get
a pair of handcuffs.

“Holy fucking shit, Hector,” the other cop said.
Holy fucking shit
was right. Jack Knight. “Did I tell ya it might be my old buddy, Ray, or what?”

“Yeah, Jack,” Hector said, doing the work of getting Zeke to his feet. “You told me.”

“Damn, Ray,” Jack said. “Three times in one week. What’re the odds of that?” He shook
his head and smirked. “The call came in, said it was the school, I thought, ‘Hot damn!
Wouldn’t it be great if it were Raymond?’ And here we pull up just in time to see
you cold cock that son of a bitch. Man!” He lowered his voice so only I could hear
him. “Kinda like that cheap shot you gave me the other night, huh?”

“Not quite, Jack,” I said.

Jenkins came over and offered me her hand.

“You okay, Mr. Donne?”

“Yeah,” I lied, getting to my feet. “Nothing a new pair of knees won’t fix.”

“You fucking asshole!” Lisa screamed. She was in Zeke’s face now, tears streaming
down her cheeks, spit flying from her mouth. “You goddamn stupid fucking asshole!”

“Get her inside,” I said to Jenkins. “Call her folks.”

Jenkins went over to Lisa, and put her arm around the scared kid. After struggling
a bit and letting out a few more screams, Lisa allowed Jenkins to lead her up the
stairs and into the building. Right past my boss.

“Officers!” he yelled. “Ron Thomas. Principal.” He stopped a few feet in front of
Jack and his partner. Thomas looked at me like I was becoming an inconvenience. “Officers,
I’m sure your report will clearly mention that this incident occurred outside the
school building and was therefore not school-related.”

As Officer Hector took Zeke over to the squad car, Jack took his notebook out of his
back pocket and flipped it open. He rested the tip of his pen on the blank sheet of
paper, looked at my boss, and said, “And you are?”

“Ron Thomas,” Ron Thomas said. “Principal.”

“You called in the complaint?”

“Yes. I was hoping to avoid it happening on school grounds.” He took a loud, deep
sigh. “Looks like we were just in time.”

“Yes,” Jack said. “
We
were.” Jack bent over and picked up my umbrella. I reached for it, and he pulled
me closer. “Feels good to hit one of the street monkeys, don’t it, Ray?”

I ignored the question and turned away from Jack. My boss saw the way I was moving
and asked, “Do you need medical attention, Mr. Donne?”

“I don’t think so.” My knees disagreed, but I blocked out their screaming by gripping
the handle of my umbrella as tightly as I could. “Thanks.”

“That was quite a shot you gave old Zeke there, Teach,” Jack said. “Working out some
anger issues, are we?” When I didn’t answer, he went on. “Just out of curiosity, what
you got in the bag?” He reached into the bag and pulled out the Whitman book, all
four hundred pages of him. Jack grinned. “Yeah. Pussy shit used to kick my ass, too.”

“So,” Ron Thomas said, clearly not comfortable in Jack’s presence, “we are done here?”

Jack Knight made a smooth gesture out of flipping his notebook closed.

“Yes, sir.” All professional now. “You’ll get a copy of our report. Make sure you
fill out one of your own. You can fax a copy to the precinct.”

“But—”

“It’s a school-related incident, sir. This here is school property and”—he gave me
a dismissive, fuck-you look—“school personnel were involved. Have a good one. Sirs.”
Jack crossed the street and joined his partner in the squad car. My boss and I watched
as they did another U-turn and headed off.

“Jesus, Ray. I don’t need another incident report heading off to the D.O. And what
the hell was that? You know that guy?”

“We used to work together,” I said. “A long time ago.”

I looked at my watch and started hobbling toward the steps.

“Where do you think you’re going?” he asked.

“I work here,” I answered. “I’m going to my classroom.”

“No, no. You’re taking the day off. You’re hurt.”

“I’m fine, Ron.”

“I’m not asking, Mr. Donne. I’m telling you. Go home. I’ll cover you for the day.”
I was about to argue when he raised his hand. “The last thing I need is you getting
injured
inside
school. Besides … you look like shit.”

“Can I at least sit for a while?”

“
Outside
the building. On the steps.” And with that, Ron Thomas, Principal, entered the building
he was in charge of.

I took a seat on the bottom step and closed my eyes. Inside, the first bell of the
day rang, signaling to all it was eight twenty, and homeroom had officially started.
A minute later, a blue, battered pickup truck pulled to the curb. Lisa’s father came
out and ran right at me.

“Where’s Lisa?” he said.

“Inside,” I said. “With school safety.”

He took the steps two at a time and vanished through the front door. With the side
doors now closed, a few late students made their way past me up the steps, some in
more of a hurry than others. A delivery truck pulled up, and a guy in a brown shirt
and matching shorts filled a hand truck with boxes of copy paper and eased them up
the steps, one loud crash at a time. Fifteen minutes went by before Mr. King exited
the building, his arm around Lisa.

“Go on,” he said. “Wait for me in the truck.”

Lisa walked down the steps and headed toward her dad’s truck. She got to the gate
and turned. “You okay, Mr. Donne?”

“Yeah, Lise,” I said. “I’m fine.”

Even from twenty feet away, I could see the tears in her eyes as she said, “Sorry.”

“Not your fault, kiddo. I’ll see ya tomorrow.”

She turned away, went over to the truck, and slipped into the passenger seat. Mr.
King stood above me. “You really okay?”

“Yeah.” I got to my feet to prove it to him. And myself. “Fine.”

“That … boy they were talking about. Zeke?”

“Cops took him to the precinct. I got a feeling he won’t be around Lisa anymore.”
Or anybody else for the next three to five years, I hoped.

“He really her boyfriend?”

“I think you need to talk to Lisa about that.”

“He…” The father’s eyes teared up. “He responsible for those bruises on my girl?”

“I don’t know, Mr. King. Take your daughter home. You and your wife talk to her. I’ll
ask Ms. Stiles to give you guys a call later.”

“You think he…”

I watched his mouth twitch as those words came out. He was squeezing his keys so hard,
I wouldn’t have been surprised to see them melt.

“Take Lisa home, Mr. King.” He turned his head in the direction of the precinct, five
blocks away. “And stay away from Zeke. The cops’ll handle it. That’s their job. Yours
is to take care of your own.”

“If he hurt Lisa…”

“Let her make out a complaint. Along with mine, it’ll help put him away for a while.
Lisa could be in college before he gets out.”

That brought a small smile to his face that disappeared as quickly as it had showed
up. He reached down and grabbed my hand.

“Thank you, Mr. Donne,” he said. “For keeping an eye out for Lisa.”

“You’re welcome,” I said. “And I’m sorry.”

“For what?”