Free What I Did by Christopher Wakling Page A

he was about to catch me by a wall, and because he was about to catch me and I was trying to escape, the wall bit me.
    â€” The wall bit you?
    â€” Yes, because of him.
    â€” Because of him?
    â€” They used the railings from the wall to kill people with in the war. He told me that ages ago. Did you know that there’s a banister on the stairs you can hit people with if you like?
    â€” Right. A banister. No. Has somebody hit you with a banister?
    â€” No, I say. — But if they did I’d run away.
    â€” Have you ever done that? Run away?
    â€” Oh yes but he caught up with me, like today. He always does.
    â€” I see. What are these marks here, on the backs of your legs?
    â€” I don’t know. It might be because of always getting hurt on the stairs.
    â€” You get hurt on the stairs. How?
    â€” There’s not enough friction in them. I could push you down them easily. Anybody could. And when you get pushed down them it hurts! Did you know a wolf’s jaw muscles are strong enough to bite your thighbone in half?
    â€” I . . . no. I didn’t. But Billy, how did you get these bruises here?
    â€” They don’t hurt. They’re just normal bruises.
    â€” And these ones on your back here?
    â€” Normal.
    â€” I see, she says, handing me my T-shirt. — Thank you. Good boy. Thank you.
    â€” I am a good boy, I say, getting dressed. — I hardly ever retaliate.
    Â 
    There are three boys at school who do ganging-up. Mostly it’s against me but I don’t mind and only two of them are in my class. The other one isn’t but he is in my playground at break time. They are called Rufus and Joe and Eddy and they live in a close which is actually quite far away which they don’t realize is a joke. Eddy is not in my class. He is the ringmaster and he has curly hair. He sends the others in to hit me first. Sometimes they will say something first like, — Hey you idiot you are a wildlife freak, but mostly they won’t say anything at all. They just run up and push me over and that will be the first thing I know about it.
    Retaliation is very interesting because mostly it’s wrong, except when it’s right, and then it can actually be your duty to stand up for yourself and let them have it, Son: don’t let anyone push you around. Duty is called compulsory. But at other times it is very important that you don’t fight back at all and instead use Jesus’s weapon of choice which was his cheek, which he kept turning, which wasn’t at all pathetic. Luke Skywalker has a light saver.
    School is the place where the rules are very easy. Everyone knows them. You mustn’t hit anyone or do aggression. Absolutely not! Not even rough-and-tumbling. If you kids must fight why not join the judo club? The teachers are in charge at school so you do have to do what they say, although this can be extremely tricky because sometimes they aren’t looking and at the end of the day you have to stand up for yourself, Son, or bullies will keep doing it for ever.
    Did you know that there is an extra sense some animals have for checking whether prey is in fear? I think Eddy is one of those animals. There’s Billy sitting playing with his Tiddlos, just let me check whether he’s in fear. No. Well he should be. Attack!
    When it last happened I jumped up very fast and the nearest one was Joe so I grabbed him very noisily to show that I was up and he was down because he was. I tripped him over very easily using judo. But Eddy and Rufus got me from the back and I realized that they were working as a pack. I made a tremendous roaring racket to show I wasn’t afraid and it wasn’t camouflage, I really wasn’t. It was quite good fun actually. I spun around but one of them had a finger in my ear and that hurt so I sat down on him and there was a crunchy feeling of the gravel through him. Then something hit me on the cheek but I don’t know what