Within the cramped corridors of Belle Falls High School few things spread with more virulence or velocity than gossip. It never mattered how clandestine the orders of privacy were stipulated. Common knowledge should have been a fair warning to anyone that few people kept their mouths sealed longer than it took an average kid to scroll through the numbers of a locker combination. Considering Belle Falls High housed a rather small student population, it did not take long to thoroughly sully someone’s reputation. By the morning of the third day since Ryan’s encounter with Hailey, the hallways tittered with rumors of their newly professed status as a couple.
When it came to delving into the veracity of high school lore, the one place where hardly anyone ever bothered to explore for confirmation was a primary source. This egregious lack of judgment was quite methodical in nature. No one really wanted to know the truth more than they sought to spoil as many lives as humanly manageable. Since Ryan did not yet have a social status to tarnish beyond redemption, his version of the facts had little relevancy. Gossip, as any high school student would have unscrupulously concurred, only flourished if its subjected targets were systematically eliminated from all lines of communication. Keeping to this logic, both Ryan and Hailey were yet to be grilled on the legitimacy of their relationship.
In reality, neither Ryan nor Hailey had spoken a syllable to anyone about the rendezvous atop Knoll’s Overlook. In fact, before parting company on that evening, they decided no one needed to know about or approve of their impetuous behavior. Once the moment’s spell had subsided, they both felt a bit guilty about their choices, but even with such natural feelings of awkwardness surfacing, neither simply sought to deny that the consummation occurred. Whether they admitted it or not, Ryan and Hailey were now connected in a way not easily abandoned from their consciences.
Another point on hearsay must now be specified. No one within a high school’s boundaries ever mentioned encouraging events by accident. Contrarily, gossip was circulated to invoke dread and terror among the masses. It seemed inevitable that these two qualifiers eventually shadowed the face of Ryan Hayden. In this instance, Neil Chandler was soon delivered news of the couple’s torrid affair. Since hearing the rumors, Neil spent much of his time in the gymnasium’s weight room, pumping up his already sinewy frame to ridiculous levels. He might have stayed out of the way until the gossip curtailed had it not been for Eric Martin’s fanatical speech about honor and pride, neither of which these two clods knew anything about.
As the rumors now stood, Neil was at a distinct disadvantage. He was being called the jilted boyfriend. This, of course, was a rank he had decidedly avoided in the past. But it no longer mattered to Neil if any of the whispered prattle was factual; it was far more essential to preserve his unblemished reputation as the high school’s most notorious tyrant. Up until now, Neil had been lethargic with any attempt at retaliation, but according to those who gave credence to the initial strands of gossip, he planned to strike down with fury upon his unforeseen rival.
Until such a time occurred, Ryan found himself in a unique position. He was suddenly dodging the limelight of popularity among his peers. People, who had never noticed him before, now offered congratulatory smiles and high-fives in the hallways. Ryan would not have dreamed of such notoriety had he not experienced it firsthand. Did dating Hailey Gardner really have such an influential stranglehold on social cliques? No matter what transpired between Hailey and him, Ryan refused to see himself any differently. But he quickly learned that prestige was not necessarily measured on how he viewed himself as much as it was on how others perceived him.
Ryan’s newfound recognition was not any more agreeably digested than Neil’s current plunge into the ranks of futility. Since Ryan saw no purpose in creating a fuss over his secret courtship with Hailey, he resumed his daily routine in the same perfunctory manner as before. When he entered the library on this morning, however, he immediately recognized that practically everything had indeed changed. Normally, Victor sat alone, working assiduously on his homework while waiting for Ryan to join him. True to form, Victor remained at the same table as always, but every other seat in the library held an occupant who had more than schoolwork on his mind. Upon Ryan’s arrival, they chattered incessantly among themselves.
Ryan slunk into a seat at the table beside his friend as nonchalantly as possible and whispered, “What’s going on?”
Victor knotted his eyebrows suspiciously. No matter how naïve Ryan acted in regard to the circumstances, Victor was not buying his ignorance. “Come on now, Ryan, you don’t have to be modest with me. I heard all about it.”
“Heard all about what?” asked Ryan, trying to preserve his innocence.
Victor leaned across the table so that his voice did not carry to those eager to disseminate additional gossip. “Well, the way I understand it, you’re hotter than the surface of Mercury at the moment.”
“Oh,” Ryan declared, casually waving his hand. He then glanced around the library to get an eyeful of the sea of bobbing faces. “So that’s what this is all about.”
“I’m assuming things went much better than you expected,” said Ryan.
Ryan smiled with a satisfaction that was impossible to duplicate a few days earlier. “By the way, Victor, I never did thank you for setting up my date with Hailey. I couldn’t have planned it better myself.”
“You mean you wouldn’t have planned it.”
“You really didn’t need to do it. I would’ve asked her out eventually.”
“Yeah—but I was thinking that she might want to go out before the next solar eclipse.”
Ryan still cast a rare smile as he shook his head affirmatively. “I have to admit, I feel a lot better—maybe the best I’ve felt in a long time.”
“Not that I would know,” Victor continued, “but I assume your little tryst with Hailey has a lot to do with it.”
“Tryst? Is that what you’re calling it?”
“Not just me,” whispered Victor. “Practically the whole school knows you two went out.”
Since Ryan had not yet told anyone about his date with Hailey, he presumed she was a bit more liberal with whom she trusted. No matter what the students knew, he certainly was not accustomed to a room full of people hovering over him as if he was about to disclose imperative information. “I’m not used to all this attention,” he admitted.
“You might as well enjoy it while you have it,” Victor advised. “It’s not everyday we draw these kind of numbers in the school’s library.”
“What do they want?”
“What we all want—juicy details.”
The library suddenly became as quiet as one normally should have been, but Ryan guessed that whatever he elected to divulge would have been promptly ushered back to Hailey before the next bell. He decided to refrain from any specific conversation on the subject.
“Let’s just say it was a good night for stargazing,” said Ryan, still grinning mischievously. Victor was the only one sitting close enough to him to catch the subtleness of his statement.
“Rumor has it that you’re going out with her now.”
“You know better than to believe everything you hear, Victor.”
“Maybe,” Victor mused, “but something tells me that you have a lot more to share on this matter.”
As Ryan reflected momentarily on his encounter with Hailey, his features beamed with a blissfulness he had not before imagined possible. Since she represented his first date, he had no other experiences to compare her actions with. Nevertheless, he was perfectly contented to live with this limited range of knowledge.
“It’s safe to say that Hailey and I will be seeing each other again,” Ryan offered proudly.
Perhaps a tinge of envy subdued Victor’s jubilation on this point, but he was generally pleased that his friend had finally found something desirous outside the realm of deep space.
“Well,” Victor confessed, “I’ll be the first to admit that I thought it was a real long shot for you two to hit
it off. But with that said, I’m happy it’s working out for you. Heck, you even look better since I saw you last.”
“Thanks, Victor,” Ryan responded humbly. “You know, I’ve been thinking quite a bit about the last time we spoke.” Ryan paused to monitor the eavesdropping spectators. He surely did not want to be overheard discussing anything related to his family’s disappearance. “I’m not sure where I was heading with my thoughts, but I don’t think it was a good place.”
Victor sensed his friend’s distress and immediately interrupted Ryan’s thought. “Hey, you don’t need to explain yourself to me. Unlike the way most gossip spreads in this school, some things really can be kept just between friends. You have my word.”
The tension eased from Ryan’s face after he sensed Victor’s sincerity. The two boys then exchanged a brief handshake, knowing the observers around them surely concocted a fabricated account of what was truly said by either of them. Before any amount of sustained tranquility had settled into the library, however, two additional students decided that it was time to set the structure of high school protocol back to its conventional framework.
Fresh from the weight room, and still reeking like a soiled sweat sock, Neil Chandler strutted through the library’s double doors with Eric Martin at his side. Veins popped from Neil’s muscles like steel cables, and meandered in a zigzag pattern down the length of his juice-induced torso. Despite it being a rather chilly December morning, Neil sported only a nylon shirt and shorts, both of which he seemed to own since he was twelve-years-old. To his left, appearing especially puny in comparison, Eric guided his buddy like a gladiator into an arena. Together, they targeted one specific corner of the room, and it sent them on a beeline to a table where Ryan Hayden waited like a scrap of meat about to be stuffed down a ravenous wolf’s gullet.
It was not necessary for Ryan to even pivot his chair to face the combater. He already distinguished an ursine-sized shadow lingering over his shoulder, and a pungent odor that testified to every exaggerated inch of Neil’s presence. The other students hastily assembled in a crescent-shape around the table, preventing a view from a less-than-vigilant librarian. Neil intended to take full advantage of this librarian’s apathetic disposition.
Victor had not forgotten his friend’s courageous behavior that spared him a beating earlier in the week, and he was fully prepared to return the favor at this juncture. But Ryan displayed no visible panic toward what was a precarious circumstance. With a single glance, he assured Victor that handling Neil was well within his capabilities. Of course no one within the library assumed Ryan had a chance to survive an assault from Neil, but these were the same individuals who doubted his capacity to impress the prettiest girl in Belle Falls.
No matter what Ryan intended to do, Neil was not about to relinquish his claim on Hailey or let rumors tarnish his image as the most formidable specimen to ever saunter through the corridors of Belle Falls High School. But adding to the puzzlement of the onlookers, Neil initially refrained from speaking out right away. Eric, however, seemed more than anxious to fill the void of verbosity.
“Get on your feet,” Eric hissed at Ryan, while swatting the boy’s chair with his foot. “We’ve got a big problem to discuss.”
Ryan casually repositioned his chair so that he faced both Neil and Eric, but he did not yet rise from his seat as instructed. Victor was once again amazed by his friend’s composure under the threat of imminent annihilation at the clutches of these schoolyard assassins. Eric did not anticipate such a reserved reaction from Ryan either, so it left him stuttering over the thoughts he wished to convey.
Ryan eventually assisted Eric by simply stating, “I know why you’re both here, but I believe you’re wasting your time and mine.”
An immediate hush fell over the library’s occupants, and an unmitigated shock swelled from face-to-face more briskly than the gossip that instigated their assembly. Eric barely managed to contain his anger as Ryan’s defiance jelled in his mind. When appropriate words failed him, as they so often did, Eric resorted to a brutal retaliation.
“The only thing that’s going to get wasted is your face, geek boy,” Eric sneered. “I’d split your head open myself right now if I didn’t know Neil wanted to do it.”
The library’s floor now belonged to Neil, and Eric offered his buddy all the encouragement necessary by patting his back and shouting obligatory calls for justice. As Neil flexed his arms, his muscles rippled like currents on a windswept sea. Girls stood close enough to swoon at Neil’s massiveness, while others made certain they afforded him with ample room to administer a thorough mutilation of his prey.
Without being commanded to do so for a second time, Ryan stood up from his chair slowly. The brute then instinctually lurched another inch closer to Ryan, but a reservation accompanied Neil’s glare that no one had witnessed other than his newfound nemesis. “I think we both know this is pointless, Neil,” said Ryan, adjusting his eyeglasses firmly against his nose. “Why don’t you just leave now with your friend and we’ll forget this ever happened.”
Eric found the proposal insulting and was sure Neil would have leveled the meeker boy by now. “Come on,” Eric goaded his buddy. “Show this freak of nature you’re not messing around.” Neil’s fists clenched as if he wanted to hit anything within his range, but he had not yet lifted either hand from his sides. “He’s trying to steal your girl,” Eric hollered. “You can’t let him get away with that.”
“Is it true?” asked Neil, but he sounded conspicuously timed. “Are you really going out with Hailey?”
Ryan answered Neil as frankly as possible. “Yes—I’ve been out with her.”
“On a real date?” Neil asked, nearly gnashing his teeth.
“Yes,” Ryan replied without flinching.
“Hit him now!” Eric bellowed. “Bash his teeth down his throat!”
Neil’s hands still did not budge, and everyone within the room wondered how much more information he needed before he lost total control. Strangely, Ryan decided to help the situation along. “You can hit me if you want, Neil,” he said, “but it’s not going to change anything. If Hailey wants to go out with me again—and I’m sure she will— then I plan to be with her.”
Another prolonged lull washed over the room’s occupants like a wave. The only audible sound above the muted turbulence was Neil’s breathing. No one within the library expected the suspense to last a moment longer. They anticipated Neil’s mallet-sized fists raining down upon his victim in a torrent of rage, but Ryan never blinked his eyes. It was as though he had already calculated his confronter’s inability to do him any physical harm whatsoever.
Eric proved to be more volatile than anyone else, and he demonstrated his rage by being unable to keep his mouth shut since entering the library. Yet no matter how Eric tried to coax his buddy into a similar frenzy, Neil neglected to make any aggressive movements.
“I told you she’s my girl,” said Neil to Ryan, but even he did not believe his own lie anymore.
“We’ve been through this already,” Ryan returned, still refusing to recede one centimeter from beneath Neil’s hot breath. “Hailey is a grown girl. She can decide for herself who she wants to date.”
Eric sneered vehemently, while snapping his balled fist into an open palm. “I can’t believe you just don’t deck this dork,” he said to Neil. “You could kill him where he stands.” Eric’s observation seemed straightforward enough, but Neil’s procrastination had little to do with whether or not Ryan actually presented a challenge. If Victor had computed the odds of Ryan winning a fight against Neil, he would have concluded his friend’s chances to be dismally nonexistent. But nevertheless, the demonstration of courage on Ryan’s part had stunned everyone within the library, including the librarian. Perhaps the one person perplexed to the greatest degree by all of this was Ryan himself, who subconsciously envisioned Neil’s inability to inflict abuse. By merely imagining such an occurrence in his mind, Ryan seemed to manipulate Neil’s in
tentions.
Neil’s apparent ineptness, however, did not persuade Eric to back away. He pursued the issue with a vigor that even caused his friend to wince. After several insults continued to spout forth from Eric’s mouth, Ryan decided that he had ignored Eric’s tantrum long enough.
“Your friend needs to learn some discipline,” said Ryan to Neil. “I’m beginning to find him slightly irritating—aren’t you?”
Neil’s knuckles turned whiter than bone as he squeezed his fists. Eric chuckled obnoxiously and stood behind his long-time protector as if he was a steel barrier. “You make me sick,” Eric shouted at Ryan. “Ever since you came to this town, I thought you were messed up in the head.” Eric then shifted to Neil’s left side; he still appeared almost petrified. Eric then directed his hostility toward his buddy. “What’s wrong with you, Neil? Why don’t you hit this kid and be done with it?”
“You’ve said more than enough,” Ryan admonished Eric. “Neil and I can handle this our own way. Please stay out of our business.”
“Neil’s business is my business too,” exclaimed Eric.
Ryan’s attention automatically returned to Neil. He peered intensely into Neil’s eyes and commanded, “Go back to the gym, and bring Eric with you. We have nothing more to talk about.”
Despite Ryan’s rather polite solution to this predicament, Eric had already committed himself to ending the confrontation in a way befitting of Neil’s damaged pride, even if Neil no longer seemed incensed about it. When Neil seemed content to comply with Ryan’s suggestion, Eric jumped in front of his buddy in an effort to initiate his own attack. “If Neil won’t do what needs to be done, then I’ll do it for him,” he said, cracking his knuckles in succession.
Although Eric was not nearly as intimidating as Neil in stature, he still packed enough brawn to handily overpower Ryan. The crowd of teenagers, who were still eager for a fight, grew tighter around the opponents. At this moment, Victor sidled through a wedge that had formed between him and Ryan.
“Let’s get out of here,” Victor advised Ryan, while tugging at his shirtsleeve. Ryan refused to shift his position to acknowledge Victor. Instead, he continued to lock his eyes on Neil, even as Eric encroached upon his space.
“I think I’ll enjoy hitting you more than Neil would anyway,” said Eric bitterly.
“This is your last chance, Eric,” Ryan warned, but still concentrated his gaze on Neil’s unblinking eyes. “Leave now and everything will be fine.”
Eric wanted to laugh aloud. It seemed as though he could not trust his own ears. He continued to mock Ryan with his fiendish giggling before saying, “And what if I decide to stay—what’s going to happen to me then, punk?”
“Nothing you’ll want to remember,” replied Ryan dispassionately.
No further bickering satisfied Eric’s unquenched hostility. He lunged forward at Ryan with his fists aiming to riddle the boy’s body with multiple blows. Yet, even while within range of such a savage assault, Ryan revealed no fear. What happened next registered as a blur to the numerous eyewitnesses. As Eric’s fists were about to collide with Ryan’s face, Neil stepped between them. Eric’s hands connected with a deadened thud against the mortar-like surface of Neil’s shoulders. In another fleeting moment, Neil pivoted his weight and swung his arm in a roundhouse motion. His gargantuan fist smashed into Eric’s mouth, sending fragments of teeth and blood spewing throughout the crowd.
Ryan still did not shift his stance from his original position. He stood motionless as Neil’s rage unbound itself upon his stunned victim. A flurry of bone-busting blows followed in sequence from Neil’s hands. When the skirmish ceased, Eric found himself sprawled out on the floor bleeding profusely from his mouth. The injured boy displayed only shock and confusion. Blood and tears mixed upon his battered cheeks and dribbled through his shredded lips. The others in company stood around as equally as confused as Eric, not really sure how to process what they just observed. Most held their breath in anticipation of what might occur next, but Neil never uttered a word to Eric. Instead, he turned back toward Ryan and peered directly in his eyes.
“You tried to warn him,” said Neil to Ryan. The jock’s expression appeared cold and vacant in these seconds. “He just wouldn’t listen.”
Immediately upon seeing the gobs of blood oozing from Eric’s wounds, Ryan became squeamish. He found himself retreating from the scene with little encouragement from Victor. By the time Neil realized what had happened, two security guards burst through a wall of teenagers and grabbed his meaty arms. Neil did not resist their authority. He was promptly ushered out of the library before realizing what damage he had done. Meanwhile, the librarian tended to Eric, who at this point had coiled up into a fetal position with his palms covering his disfigured face. Despite the brutal aftermath, no one but the librarian wept for Eric. They left him quivering on the floor.
By utilizing a side exit, Ryan managed to escape from the library unscathed. Victor followed in his footsteps, but as they entered another corridor, Ryan began to sprint. He did not even know where he was running, and Victor nearly exhausted himself trying to keep pace. At the corridor’s end, Ryan stopped and jammed his hands up against a row of lockers. Victor angled next to him, hoping for an explanation without having to ask for it.
“I don’t know what’s happening to me,” Ryan panted. He was obviously upset with himself for reasons Victor did not quite comprehend. “Did you see what I did? Am I losing my mind?”
“Just calm down,” said Victor, still trying to process the sequence of events. He then checked the hallway behind a corner where they presently stood. For now, they had avoided a larger crowd. “You didn’t do anything, Ryan,” he assured his friend. “Everything is okay.”
Ryan appeared noticeably befuddled as he paced in front of the lockers. Victor had never seen his friend act so animated before. “You just saw it all,” Ryan exclaimed. “You saw it with your own eyes—didn’t you?”
“Yes,” answered Victor. “I watched Neil knock the crap out of Eric.”
“No,” Ryan insisted. “That’s not what really happened! Neil didn’t hit that kid—I did!”
Victor’s own expression twisted in puzzlement upon hearing his friend’s confession. “I was standing right next to you,” Victor told him, trying to refrain from hollering. “I, along with at least twenty others, watched the whole thing. Don’t you remember?”
Truthfully, Ryan was not certain what he recalled, but he continued to claim responsibility for whatever occurred. “I…I controlled him,” he muttered. “I don’t know how I did it, but Neil would’ve done anything I wanted.”
“You’re not making any sense, Ryan.”
“I…I wanted Neil to punch Eric, and that’s exactly what he did.”
Rather than upset his friend anymore than necessary, Victor waited a few minutes for Ryan’s nerves to calm. After they had both recollected the events with no degree of satisfaction, Victor escorted Ryan into a classroom for more privacy. He then ordered Ryan to sit at the closest desk to the classroom’s door.
“Listen to me,” Victor started. “You have to settle down and think about the facts.” Victor whispered his words now, although no one other than Ryan occupied the room. “I’m not sure why Neil acted so strangely, but I do know that he was the one who beat up Eric. You never raised your hands. No one can tell me otherwise.”
“Neil might’ve hit him technically,” said Ryan, “but I made him do it—with my mind!”
“Are you completely bonkers?” Victor retaliated. His tone was not tempered any longer. “If you start telling people that craziness they’ll have you committed to an asylum.”
Ryan leaned backwards and tilted his head toward the ceiling’s fluorescent lights. One of the bulbs flickered momentarily as he stared upon it. “Maybe I am crazy,” he sighed. “You may believe your own eyes, Victor, but we both know that Neil didn’t come to the library to pulverize Eric. They both wanted to kill me.”
When Ryan ex
plained the situation in this form, Victor could not deny the illogical way in which the events unfolded. Of course, Victor wanted to construct a more plausible rationalization for his friend. “You have to remember the person we’re dealing with,” he said. “Neil Chandler doesn’t often follow the rules, does he?”
“I never asked for any of this,” Ryan continued, ignoring his friend’s question. “I’m ashamed of how I behaved. I could’ve stopped it at any time.”
“I swear, Ryan, you have to get a grip. It’s not possible for one person to manipulate another’s thoughts and make him act upon his wishes.” Victor suddenly sounded as though he was trying to convince himself.
“Haven’t you heard of hypnotic suggestion?” Ryan countered.
“Yes—and that’s all I see it as—a mere suggestion.”
“There’s documented cases showing where hypnosis works. You can’t deny the science behind that research.”
“I should’ve known,” Victor huffed defensively. “You’re still being influenced by the garbage your psychiatrist has been feeding you. He’s not only got you believing in alien abductions, but now he’s making you believe you can control other’s actions telepathically.”
“I don’t expect you to understand, Victor.”
“Oh, I understand more than you think. Look, I’m not going to stand here and tell you I’m an expert on hypnotism, but I think it’s important for you to remember that it’s all conjecture. No one can make you believe what you don’t want to.”
Ryan did not want to expel the energy required to inform his friend that Doctor Evans’s opinion of extraterrestrial encounters was on par with Victor’s viewpoint. It was an equally tiresome task for him to tell Victor that he no longer conversed with his psychiatrist. At any rate, Ryan certainly had much to consider, and he realized that he would not be able to do so while under the scrutiny of Victor’s gaze. After several seconds of contemplative debate, Ryan decided that he needed solitude in order to sort through his feelings on this matter.
“I’m going to stay out of school for a few days,” said Ryan. His head now gradually drooped forward. Under the circumstances, Victor found no fault with his friend’s suggestion.
“Maybe that’s best,” said Victor. “Things should’ve settled down around here by then. But I don’t think Neil or Eric will be bothering you again.”
“I’m not worried about that.”
“Well, Hailey is sure to hear about what happened.”
This probability did not ease Ryan’s lamentations as much as he hoped. From their conversation, one fact was uncontestable. Ryan needed a refuge from his own thoughts. How did he expect Victor to accept his claims unconditionally? Had the situation been reversed, Ryan undoubtedly would have been as equally skeptical. Before leaving the classroom, Ryan apologized for his behavior and promised Victor to silence himself on the matter from this point forward.
After the boys reentered the hallway, a throng of cheering teenagers awaited Ryan. Such adulation seemed poorly timed and placed, but the gossip had already pervaded through the school’s corridors like a contagious virus. At first, Ryan wanted no part of the celebration orchestrated in his honor, although he was struck by one gratifying observation. Standing among the crowd, at least a dozen teenagers whom no one had ever heard from before assembled in parallel form along the lockers. These were kids much like Ryan, ones who were humiliated or ignored by the likes of Neil and Eric for most of their adolescent lives.
Ryan had never advocated violence as a way of achieving a goal before, but the joy sparking into this congregation of forgotten students filled him with a fleeting sense of dignity. They at last experienced a sort of vindication, and Ryan—whether directly or indirectly—accepted the accolades.
“You’re a hero now,” said Victor as they maneuvered through the crowd. “First a date with Hailey Gardner, and now this. What a week you’re having!”
Although Victor apparently uttered such words in tribute, Ryan suspected that his life was accelerating at a speed in which he had no skill to navigate properly. The best option now, he presumed, was to proceed with his hasty retreat.
“Tell Hailey that I’ll be out of school for awhile,” Ryan told Victor.
“Don’t you think it’s best if you tell her yourself?”
“Please, Victor—just do this for me.”
After resigning himself as a second-rate courier once again, Victor conceded to his friend’s request, if only to salvage the sanity of both of them. As Ryan scurried off into the crowd amid a series of encouraging ovations, Victor imagined how it might have thrilled him to be noticed by someone whom he admired. Becoming lost in his peers’ shadows was never easy for Victor, but the loneliness was more tolerable when he counted on Ryan to stand beside him. But such moments no longer remained. Even if he desired it to be so, Ryan could never return to the humbling ranks of obscurity. His life had been forever altered, and Victor’s sole sense of achievement resided in the fact that he protected his friend for as long as humanly possible.
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