An Incident on the North Fringes

During our high school years, we were tough and the whole world belonged to us. We would hit on girls, play with knifes, get on fights and go home in the late afternoon with a bleeding nose and bruises all over our body. That’s the kind of adolescence that we, the children of the north fringes, would have. Everybody would try to set up their own reputation. I was hanging around with Mickey and George during those times and we were a hell of a set. We would sit on the park drinking beer and smoking cigarettes, while the other kids our age, would play football or go to the computer games and spent their money there. We didn’t have money to spend so we would just settle with a couple of cans of cheap beer and smoke our parent’s cigarettes. If someone picked up on us we would beat up the crap out of him and then go back to our business. Most of the time it was all the way around and we would end up with missing teeth and huge bruises on our faces, but it was working anyway. The kids from the park would never mess with us and if they did, they knew that we wouldn’t give up.

            One day Mickey and George got into a fight with some guys from another neighborhood and Mickey got stabbed. They transported him to the hospital and the doctor said that he’s pretty bad and decided that he needs an operation. We were all shocked by what happened to our friend and for the next few days we wouldn’t go out that often. George suggested that we don’t meet for a few days. We were afraid that they might come for us. One morning, a week after the incident, Mickey’s brother came to visit me. Billy was 25 and he was never messing up with us. Sometimes he would see us somewhere and he would just wave at us and call us over for an advice or something.
- You kids stay out of trouble ok?

- Yeah Billy, sure.
Everybody liked him and nobody dared to challenge him into a fight. Billy, from his side, wouldn’t annoy anyone without a reason. He was always keeping himself out of trouble.

            When I saw him on my doorsteps, I knew that he came for his brother. I didn’t know what to tell him, or how to talk to him.
- Hi Billy. How is Mickey?

- He’s getting better. Were you doing something kid?

- Well, no. Just woke up.

- Then you might wanna come for a ride with me? What do you think?

- Yeah sure Billy. Just let me put a shirt on.

I ran upstairs, got my shirt and then back. Billy was waiting my in his car, an old, white Skoda Forman. We drove like two miles away from my place and we stopped on some traffic lights. On my side across the boulevard there was an old building, looked like a cafeteria to me, and two men were working on it. Billy showed me the one of them. It was a bold guy, really fat, with some ugly tattoos in his right arm and half naked.

- You see that guy Sal? He’s the one who stabbed Mickey.
- Really? Ugly piece of shit.

- You wanna know what’s gonna happen to that ugly piece of shit? Check under you seat.
My hand grabbed a gun. I looked at it carefully and pried with it for a few seconds. I had never held a gun in my life before. Billy grabbed it from my hands and he hided it back.

- Careful you idiot. This is not a toy.

- I don’t think that’s a good idea Billy.

- Sal, he stabbed Mickey. He can’t get away with that.

- So what? Are you just going to kill the guy? I mean, that’s too much now Billy.

- Sal, Mickey is your friend.

- Yes, but we can’t just kill a man. Beat him or something, but don’t kill him. Besides, here it’s very crowded. They will see us.
- That’s why you’re here kid. Can you drive?

- Yes I can. My dad taught me when we were for holidays. It was the only cool activity and….

- Ok, ok Sal. I got it.

    He stepped out of the car so suddenly, as if not to give me anymore time to argue. He walked towards the guy, shot him three times, in cold blood and run back to the car.

- Billy, what the hell did you do?

- Drive.

I hit the gas so hard, that the car would spin for a few seconds and after that start so suddenly that I thought I’ll loose control.

            We managed to hide in some streets, in another neighborhood, but I was freaked out. I couldn’t believe I would get involved in something that big. An hour after the incident, while we were driving away from our territories, two police cars stopped right in front of us and an officer went out with his speaker.

- Get out of the car. Put your hands on your heads and don’t do anything stupid. You can’t escape.

- Damn it, Billy.

I went out of the car first and I did exactly what I was told to do. They took us to the police station and the next day Billy took the entire fault on him. The policemen would let me go but they said that they would keep an eye on me. Now I was marked. I would have to face my parents who came and pick me up from the police station. They never said anything about it. They just kept silent there on the living room, doing whatever it was they were doing.
            A week later, Mickey came out of the hospital and me and George went to visit him. When I saw him standing there, on the door I remembered his brother. He screwed up his whole life. God knows what they did to him and for how many years they convicted him. I took a look at Mickey.

-Hey Sal.

- Hey Mickey. You feel any better?

- Yeah man, definitely. Everything went fine. Hey George.

- Hey Mickey. Good to have you back. So what do you guys wanna do tonight huh? Did you miss the park Mickey? Wanna hang around?

- Hmm actually, no man. For tonight, let’s just go and check out the computer games, what do you think?