Billy (standard:romance, 389 words)
Author: Cyrano	Added: Sep 24 2007	Views/Reads: 3613/2	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Billy was a schoolyard bully...always ready to scrap.

Billy Harrison. Never forgot him. 

When I was fifteen I adored a girl called Susan Rafferty, Irish of
course, with red hair and a smile that went straight to the heart. 
Years of schoolyard soccer were about to end, and nothing I'd 
accomplished in the classroom had ever impressed Susan. 

Unless you were a member of Billy's gang you knew that he was indeed a
big bully and therefore it was wise to act accordingly, meaning cede 
all playground rights to him and his cronies. It didn't matter whether 
you were a rich kid, a nerd, the school rockstar, or just a kid who 
didn't fit in anywhere. It paid to stay clear. By fifteen I'd learned a 
lot of lessons in the school yard. The first being that school is a 
broken institution where adults figure all kids should get along, and 
bullying, defined as ‘Spirit', is no less a part of the school yard 
learning curve. It was either your playground or your hell. 

Susan Rafferty most times sat on the steps to classroom 4B. Billy would
seek to impress her by ridiculing boys while she read a book.  I was 
completely in love with Susan and so infatuated was I ( I often dreamed 
of walking her home) that on one day, while Billy Harrison was ripping 
me apart about the pattern on my jumper, knit by my mother, I offered a 
snide retort. Susan smiled wildly at my smart-alec crack. Billy saw it, 
too, and pushed me to the ground before straddling my chest.  I 
remember vividly his whirling fist coming down into my mouth. He did 
this twice. It really hurt bad. Susan Rafferty wept. 

When I got home my father asked why I had blood on my mouth. I told him
I got in a fight over a girl. He sent me to my bedroom, saying that 
fighting was for animals and patriotic men. Sadly he never told me 
about love, only about beer and bread and hard times. 

Billy Harrison fought just about every boy in the school at one time or
another and to my knowledge won every time. Last month it was reported, 
and told to me by a friend, that Billy had been killed in Afghanistan 
fighting British soldiers. 

Susan Rafferty, my wife, was not surprised by the news. 


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