by Lori Saigeon
“Yeah,” Justice agreed absentmindedly.
“Chare! Jus!” Shaunie’s voice cut off Charity’s analysis. Shaunie was breathless as she caught up with the twins. “Hey, you guys, goin’ home?”
“Yeah, I was just talking to Justice about my presentation,” Charity responded.
“Charity, we were both there,” Shaunie chuckled, shaking her head.
“I know, but could you tell that –” Charity’s question was cut off by a rough voice.
“Well, look who it is.”
Trey. He and the blond boy were suddenly right behind them. Justice’s heart began to race.
Justice, Charity and Shaunie glanced at each other. “Let’s just go home,” Justice said quietly. All three turned to walk away.
“Whaddya think you’re doing, Pretty Boy?” Trey obviously wasn’t going to let them go. “Taking those two with you, eh?”
His already racing heart began to gallop and Justice felt his face burn. He knew Trey was trying to make him mad. What had Mushum said about people who were unhappy inside? He knew Trey was one of those people, but he had no business bugging them!
“Look, Pretty Boy, I’m talkin’ to you!” Trey shoved Justice from behind, pushing him off balance. He stumbled but stayed on his feet.
“Just leave us alone, Trey.” Justice tried to sound final as he backed away, but his voice came out weak and unsure.
“I don’t think so, Pretty Boy,” Trey snapped, keeping up with Justice and cutting him off from the others. “You and your little girlfriend bug me,” he continued, his teeth clenched, “and there’s no Ms. Fayant here to save your hide this time!”
Justice couldn’t think what to do. Trey was right – there were no adults around now. It was just Trey and his friend, and Justice and the girls. Trey moved in even closer.
“You better keep outta my way from now on,” Trey was saying.
Justice hid his fear with a scoff. “Whatever,” he shrugged, trying once again to step around Trey.
That set Trey off and he shoved Justice again, hard this time. Justice flew backwards off his feet and landed on his back with a jarring thump. For a few seconds he saw Trey through a kind of red haze as he struggled to get his wind back. Trey was saying something, but Justice couldn’t quite make it out. Charity and Shaunie were yelling, but he couldn’t tell what they were saying either.
No sooner was Justice on his feet than Trey was rushing at him, fire in his eyes. Before he could get away, Trey had his collar and threw him down again. Justice tried to keep his wits about him, and as Trey swung a fist at him, Justice instinctively snapped his foot forward, catching Trey in the stomach.
Taken by surprise, Trey doubled over in pain. Using this chance to stand up, Justice made no move to leave now, but stepped toward Trey, fingers clenched into fists. Suddenly he was grabbed from behind. Trey’s friend! Justice had forgotten he was there. As Justice struggled to free himself from the other boy’s grasp, Trey straightened up and, seeing Justice held captive, regained his sneer and swagger.
Justice tore free just as Trey came at him, fists flying. Justice tried to block the blows, but Trey was bigger and Justice wasn’t used to fighting. Several times Trey’s heavy fist plowed Justice hard in the head and stomach. With his arms shielding his face, Justice never really had the chance to make any solid hits of his own.
Finally, Trey took one last swing at Justice, striking him full on the side of his head. Justice dropped to the ground, his ear ringing. By this time, Charity and Shaunie’s cries had brought a couple of neighbours out of their homes. Trey glanced around as a few adults began to gather and quickly motioned to his friend. In an instant they had disappeared down an alley.
Justice lay motionless on the sidewalk.
Chapter 16
Charity and Shaunie hurried over to Justice. Charity was crying.
“Justice, are you okay? You’re bleeding!”
Justice got up slowly, muttering under his breath. He felt dizzy and confused. Blood dripped from his nose onto his jacket. He wiped at his nose with his hand, spitting blood out into the dirt by the sidewalk.
“Come on, we better get home,” his sister said as she and Shaunie helped him up.
“Take this,” said an older woman, thrusting a dishtowel into Justice’s hand.
“Thanks,” he mumbled. He held it up to his nose and slowly began walking in the direction of home.
Shaunie had been silent until now. “I’m scared of Trey!” she burst out. “Jus, he could’ve killed you!” Her voice shook and her eyes were filled with tears. “What are we gonna do?”
“Nothing,” Justice spat. “We can’t do a thing.”
“Jus,” argued Charity, “this is getting serious. You better tell Mr. Baker or at least tell Mom what’s going on.”
“No way! If we tell, it’ll only be worse the next time. They’ll get Trey into trouble and then he’ll come after me again. I don’t want him to have another reason to hate me.”
They walked along in silence. Justice still held the towel to his face, although the nosebleed had mostly stopped. He hadn’t realized how dangerous Trey really was. So much for ignoring unhappy people, he thought. I guess they can make me pretty unhappy, too. Justice had tried to do the right thing, but it sure hadn’t turned out right for him.
“Jus,” Charity turned to him again, “couldn’t you tell Mom what happened but ask her to promise not to tell Mr. Baker who it was?” she suggested. “’Cause if he finds out it was Trey and Trey gets in trouble, then yeah, Trey’s gonna get you worse next time!” Her voice rose in fear at that last thought.
“I dunno,” Justice mumbled, “maybe.”
Justice and Charity turned down the street before theirs to walk Shaunie home. As they said goodbye at her front walk, Shaunie gave Justice a wan smile and lifted her fingers in a half-hearted wave. “I hope you’re okay, Jus.”
“Yeah, thanks,” he muttered as he watched her run up to her house.
“Justice, what are we gonna do about Trey?” Charity began again as soon as Shaunie was out of sight.
“I gotta think about it,” Justice replied. “Mushum said to ignore him, but that doesn’t work.”
“You can’t fight him again, Jus, he’s too big and strong!”
Justice didn’t reply. He knew Charity was right but he had no answer.
•••
As Charity helped Justice clean up his face from the nosebleed and cut cheek, they discussed what they might do about Trey.
“You’ve gotta tell Mom something, Jus,” Charity pointed out. “For one thing, she’s gonna want to know what happened to you!”
“I know, I know,” said Justice, as though stopping Charity from saying it would make it false. “I just don’t know if she’ll get it that she can’t tell Mr. Baker.”
“Mom will understand, Justice,” reasoned Charity. “She knows what it’s like.”
“No, she doesn’t,” Justice argued. “She’s a grown-up and they think they can talk kids out of anything.” Even as Justice said this, though, he remembered the conversation he had overheard between his mom and that person on the phone after swimming that time. She cared and was trying to get the other person to talk to someone but she didn’t force it when that person was another adult. Would she be the same with me? he wondered.
While Justice and Charity got out the last of the bannock and some juice to snack on, they continued arguing about their dilemma. At first Justice was annoyed that Charity seemed to be interfering. Finally, though, he began to relax enough to realize that his family was there to help him and probably wouldn’t do things to make it worse. At least, they’d try hard not to.
•••
As Mom entered the house after work, Justice met her at the door. “Justice, what happened to you? Are you all right?” she exclaimed, dropping her purse instantly.
“Mom, I have to talk to you,” Justice said. He walked over to the couch. Mom was right behind him and sat down with him. Char
ity’s concerned face hovered beside Mom’s.
Mom waited for Justice to start. She wrung her hands and looked from one child to the other.
“Mom, I haven’t told you everything that’s been going on,” Justice began. He met his mom’s worried look with a quick glance. “There’s been someone bugging us at school. He beat me up today.” Mom started to say something, but Justice interrupted. “I can’t tell you who it is, Mom, so don’t even ask.
“I know you’re gonna be mad at me, but there’s nothing we can do about it. I just wanted to tell you the truth.” Just saying that lifted a weight from Jus-tice’s shoulders that he hadn’t even known he’d been carrying.
“Oh Jus, how long has this been going on? I wish you’d told me sooner!” Mom’s face was pinched with worry and she had tears in her eyes when she put her arm around him.
Justice felt his mom’s concern and care. “It’s been going on a while, but I never told you before because I was afraid you would tell somebody.”
Mom hugged Justice and they leaned back into the couch. Charity cuddled in next to them. Mom seemed to be thinking about something.
“Jus, I can understand that you don’t want me to know who this is but I think we should let Mr. Baker know what’s going on,” Mom began. “He needs to put a stop to this, starting at school.”
“But Mom, that’s the whole problem, it’s not just at school! And Mr. Baker getting after this kid will just make him madder at me.” Justice’s voice went up with the panic he was beginning to feel at Mom’s suggestion.
“Won’t you at least let me tell Mr. Baker what’s happened? He should know this is a problem at school, too.”
“No, I don’t want this kid to get madder at me!”
“Well, Jus, I can’t promise that I won’t at least talk to Mr. Baker. Let me think it over, okay?”
Chapter 17
By the next morning, Justice’s head hurt in many places, he had bruises on his cheeks and his nose was too sensitive to touch. Just great! Today was the day Justice was supposed to give his presentation! How am I gonna stand up in front of everyone looking like this? He wanted to escape but headed for the shower anyway.
As the warm water ran over him, he remembered his mom’s reaction to his injuries. She had been very upset, but although he had told her in the end that it was Trey he had fought, he made her promise not to tell Mr. Baker. He made Charity promise not to tell either. If his mom phoned the school about Trey, Trey’s anger and fighting would only get worse.
As he sat down at the table, Mom sat down with him, which was unusual for her. Most days she was busy making lunches while he and Charity ate breakfast.
“You know, Justice, what happened to you reminds me of something that happened to me when I was in school. There was this girl – Cynthia – and she was always angry. She was mad at the teachers, she had fights on the playground – just mad. One day she and her two mean friends started bugging me after school. They called me names and put down my friends.”
“Why?” Justice interrupted, unable to help himself.
“I thought Cynthia hated me but I never knew why. They did it again a few days later and then again. Pretty soon I was always on the watch for Cynthia. Sometimes I didn’t see her after school but I never knew when I would.”
By this time, Justice had stopped eating to listen.
“Some days I didn’t want to go to school. Kokum and Mushum didn’t know what was wrong. I had always loved school! They even took me to a doctor in Monarch City once because they thought I was sick too much!”
Justice nodded his head. He sometimes felt like missing school to avoid Trey, too.
“Then this one day I tried to play sick, but Kokum wouldn’t let me. She said she was sure I was fine, no fever, no throwing up, and she kinda pushed me out the door to school. I had to run ’cause I was almost late by then. When I got close to school, I saw this Cynthia girl and she was bugging someone else! A younger girl! I couldn’t believe it! I didn’t know there was anyone else having the same problem as me!”
Just like Shaunie! Justice thought.
“Well, this other kid kinda took it for a while, then she did the strangest thing. She just stood right up to Cynthia and said, ‘Cynthia, you’re not bugging me anymore.’ Then she spotted me and said, ‘Me and Margaret want you to leave us alone. Now beat it!’
“And you know what? Cynthia did leave the two of us alone after that. Oh, she was always in trouble as long as I knew her but she stopped coming after me. That’s when I realized that Cynthia always picked on someone younger than her, or someone scared. She never came after anyone older, or someone who could fight.
“Justice,” she tried again, “please let me tell Mr. Baker who was fighting you.”
Charity squirmed in her chair. She didn’t like conflict with Mom either but she understood how Justice felt; she hadn’t told Mom that it was Trey and his friends who had pushed her around on the way back to school from Open Kitchen.
“Mom,” Justice groaned, “don’t ask me anymore.”
“But honey, we should report this to Mr. Baker. The school should know what’s going on!”
“I can handle it,” Justice replied, trying to convince himself. I wonder if she believes me?
•••
Justice’s question was answered later that morning when Mr. Baker called several classes together in the gym. He talked about bullying and fighting in the schoolyard, as well as on the way to and from school. Mr. Baker mentioned some of the things that Mom had said. Had Mom called Mr. Baker after all? What had she told him?
“Bullies hurt your mind and feelings as well as your body. Everyone should feel safe at school and be able to tell me or any of the school staff about bullying that might be going on.
“Bullies hurt us all, even if we’re not the ones being bullied. They make our school and our neighbourhood a scary place when it should be safe. They stop us from being ourselves, and learning and doing what we need to do.”
Justice could feel his ears burning during this lecture, and he tried to look unconcerned and detached from the message.
“Bullies are usually people who are hurting inside.” The room grew very quiet at this point. “It’s hard to feel good about yourself when people don’t like you, isn’t it?
“It is up to the adults in your life to help you if you are in any kind of trouble. Bullying is one of the kinds of trouble you might experience,” Mr. Baker explained.
Justice stole a glance back at Trey, only to be met by a furious glare. That seemed like a bad sign to Justice and he had trouble concentrating on Mr. Baker after that.
•••
Right after lunch, it was time for the kids’ presentations. Justice’s name was drawn to go fourth. How am I gonna wait that long? he wondered. He hardly heard a word anyone else said in their presentations, even though he was supposed to be writing down questions to ask them.
Too soon, it was Justice’s turn. The front of the classroom seemed miles away as he walked up to it, retrieved his model of the reserve from where it was on display on the side counter of the classroom and prepared to talk. The kids were a bit restless as he was about to begin and Mr. Wilson made Justice wait a moment while he settled them down. As he looked over his model before beginning, Justice was glad he’d spent a lot of time on it because of how realistic it looked now. He had even managed to cover up the damage Trey’s buddy had done. He could almost see Kokum and Mushum working around their tiny yard beside their tiny painted box house.
Finally Mr. Wilson gave Justice the signal to start. As Justice began to tell about his reserve, Jimmy, who was wiggling around in his back row seat as usual, called out, “Hey, that’s near my reserve!”
“Yes, Jimmy, it is, but it’s Justice’s turn to talk now,” reprimanded Mr. Wilson. Jimmy settled back into his desk somewhat, but Justice was encouraged by Jimmy’s interest.
“How many of you have a special place where you love to go, and you really do
get to go there?” Justice asked the group. He glanced around, ignoring Trey’s menacing scowl as best he could. Many of the other children had raised their hands, a few offering their ideas out loud.
Justice spoke over them. “Well, my reserve is my special place and here’s why. When I go there, I can run free outside. Me and my friends – I mean, my friends and I – even build hideouts in the bushes. I’ve hunted rabbits there and I’ve been fishing,” Justice said proudly. He stood a little taller and spoke in a strong, clear voice about the place he loved.
The kids were all listening now, and Mr. Wilson was nodding his head and taking notes. “The best thing about my reserve is that my kokum and mushum live there,” Justice continued.
There was a sneer from Trey. “Kokum and Mushum, who says that?” Several kids around Trey shushed him loudly.
Justice pushed Trey out of his mind and concentrated on the interested children. “My mushum lets me help him fix his snowmobile and he lets me drive it, too.” A few of the students oohed in an impressed way.
Justice realized that a lot of them didn’t get to do that, so he added, “I’ve even made my own rabbit snare and it worked.” Everyone looked impressed at this, even Mr. Wilson.
The rest of Justice’s talk breezed by – he hardly remembered what he said. It felt as though he was sailing on a cloud, once he realized that the kids were interested. I never even forgot what to say. He couldn’t believe he could actually do this. Maybe other kids did want to hear about the reserve. He couldn’t wait to tell Mom, Mushum and Kokum how well he had done.