It is late afternoon and the kids are heading home from school. The dusty heat of the day is nearly unbearable as they stump in quiet groups of girls and boys along the dirt country road. Then a group of four boys laugh and one peels off and heads for a group of girls. He ambles in a nonchalant way staring straight at the largest girl. She is undaunted as he approaches. The boy looks at her and kicks a fine coat of the red dusty dirt up and onto her shoes. The fine powder is so dislodges that there is a cloud of dust that quickly fills the air making the group of girls cough and choke. The largest girl looks at the boy and tells him, “You KNOW I just got new shoes and there you go making ’em all dirty—I ain’t gonna let you get my goat by dirtying my shoes but you kicking up that dust is makin’ everyone choke and I ain’t gonna put up with that.”
“You better stop it now,” she continued.
“You gonna make me?” he asked tauntingly acting all tough.
“You bet I will,” she replied.
His prompt response was to kick up a new cloud of the fine red dirt up and into the group of girls. New coughing erupted. The large girl looked at him dead in the eye and said, “You better leave that dirt down on the road where it belongs or you’re gonna taste some of it yourself.”
The boy insolently kicked another large cloud up and the girl burst into action. She was so quick that she was on him before he had time to reset his arrogant smirk on his face. Her large muscles flexed as she used one leg to sweep his feet from beneath him. As he toppled onto the road, she got atop him and he attempted to hit her and that was it. That was all she needed—she’ d suffered enough from this boy all year long. All the girls had enough of him and now he’d asked for it and she was gonna fix his wagon. She hit him in the eye as hard as she could and was gratified to see his angry face turn to one of fear. She hit him again and then turned his head to shove it into the red loam of the road. “You see that?!” she yelled as her adrenaline took over. The other kids had stopped stumping homeward and had come up to watch the fight.
