Free Chasing the Bear by Robert B. Parker

said.
    “Yes.”
    “How you gonna go about it?” Patrick said.
    “I’ll walk with him to school and back home and see what happens,” I said.
    We were in the kitchen, at the table, except my father, who was at the stove with a chicken stew.
    “One thing,” my father said from the stove. “No weapons.”
    I nodded.
    “Anybody flashes a weapon, you get the hell out of there and come tell us.”
    I nodded.
    “Your word?” my father said.
    “My word,” I said.
    “Okay,” my father said.
    “Sounds like the kid’s gonna be outnumbered, Sam,” Cash said.
    “He wanted us to help him, he’d a asked us,” my father said. “He knows how to fight. He don’t seem to scare easy.”
    “And we can’t be going out and beating the hell out of fifteen-year-old kids,” Patrick said.
    Cash nodded.
    My father brought the pot from the stove and began to serve the stew.
    “And this Aurelio kid shouldn’t have to fear for his life every day at school,” my father said.
    “No,” Cash said. “He shouldn’t.”
    We all ate some of the stew. Pearl sat close by my leg staring at my plate, just in case.
    Patrick put down his fork and drank some beer from the bottle and put the beer down and wiped his mouth with his napkin.
    “You won’t have much trouble with one-on-one,” he said, and grinned. “You been well trained.”
    I nodded.
    “But if you gotta go up against a bunch of guys, there’s some tactics to think about.”
    “You’ve all taught me how to fight more than one guy,” I said. “How to punch and pivot and punch and slide. You been drilling me for years.”
    “That’s fighting two people,” Cash said. “Maybe even three.”
    “But with a bunch of people,” Patrick said, “you gotta pick out the leader.”
    “And separate him from the others,” Cash said.
    “So it’s just you and him, one-on-one,” Patrick said. “Not you against ten.”
    I nodded. Pearl rested her head on my thigh.
    “Any kind of confrontation,” my father said, “you need to manage it. Don’t let the other guy manage it.”
    “If I can,” I said.
    “If you can,” my father said.
    “And if I can’t?”
    “You run,” my father said.
    “Run?”
    “Sure, running is part of managing the situation. You’re outnumbered or outmanned, run, come back to it when you can manage it.”
    “I can’t just run,” I said.
    My father looked at my uncles, then back at me.
    “We been teaching you how to fight,” my father said. “We have not been teaching you how to be a fool.”
    Cash and Patrick nodded. All three of them looked at me. I nodded.
    “You’re a tough kid,” my father said. “It’s probably in your bloodlines. You’re going to be a tough man.”
    “And pretty soon,” Patrick said. “You’ve grown up a lot since you went down the river with Jeannie.”
    “Where,” Cash said, “you were brave enough, but you also had to run away from Luke in order to manage the situation.”
    “Same with the black bear,” Patrick said.
    It all suddenly seemed to kick in.
    “Yes,” I said. “That’s right.”
    “So do what you need to do,” my father said. “And know that you got a place to run to and backup if you need it.”
    I looked around the table at the three of them.
    “Yes,” I said. “I’ve always known that.”

Chapter 37
    I met Aurelio at the head of his street and walked the ten blocks to school with him. He was pale and swallowed often.
    “Scared?” I said.
    “They hate me,” he said.
    “I bet they don’t,” I said. “It’s just that they can pick on you, so they do.”
    “But why?”
    “Some kids are like that,” I said.
    “Why don’t they leave other kids alone?” Aurelio said.
    “I don’t know,” I said. “I suppose it makes them feel important.”
    As we reached the school yard, a kid named Turk Ferris, that I played football with, yelled, “Hey, maricón !”
    “What’s ‘maricón’ mean?” I said to Aurelio.
    “Pansy,” he said.
    Another guy I knew, Carl