We had about 5 cars in front
of the house but only three of them ran. I was on summer vacation from school and spent all day with Oggie, the Mexican babysitter who did not speak English to well. My mom had a new job working at a car dealership and was gone every day and Rodger was always working at the machine shop. Oggie had been Trisha's gradmother and had agreed to watch us whenever it had been needed. Rodger had been off on the weekends and he would watch me on his days off and did not care where I went. I remember how he used to work on the Trans-Am while he drank and blared country music on the carport stereo. (I used to ride my bike far from the house, it was fun to get out and explore.) Sometimes, he would let me hang out with him. When he did this we had an understanding, I would get him another beer whenever the can that he was drinking out of had became empty and he would let me open the can's for him and drink the foam. (I had so much fun being his helper.) Rodger was an incredibly racist guy which made it difficult because we were honestly 1 of the only 3 white families on the block. He would drink and then go out and stare down the neighbors. He used to get in arguments with big mama often and no, I am not talking about Martin Lawrence. An obese black woman lived across the street from us and all the neighbor kids would refer to her as Mama cause she always gave us snacks. When I played there I would hang out in the backyard so he would not see me at her house. Rodger would accuse her of allowing the kids to play to close to the two cars that he parked in the street in front of the house. He seldom fought with her whenever the teenagers were hanging out there. I can remember when we all were out driving somewhere and these two black guys in a Buick had cut us off. Rodger had been drinking, (as usual) and sped up and forced the Buick onto the shoulder, I remember that my mom had started to cry and was shouting at him to stop before he had gotten us killed but he seemed to be ignoring her. He backed our car up in front of theirs and snatched the key out of the ignition before he had thrown the car door open and had gotten out. I turned around in my seat and witnessed him slap clap his right hand down on the top of the Buick, the driver had their window up and the door locked because Rodger was trying to force their door open. The Buick went around our car in the grass and then back on the road as it sped away. Rodger calmly got back into our car and started driving while my mom was sitting in the passenger seat yelling at him for taking the keys and picking a fight that could have gotten us killed. My mom was at work and Rodger was home watching me. I was in the house playing a racing game on the Atari , (Racing against a bunch of rectangles, does it get any better?) while Rodger was outside working on one of the cars I went in the kitchen and grabbed a beer and a bottle of DR. PEPPER and then went outside to give Rodger the beer and see if I was allowed to have the soda. (It was the late 80's and they used to have those glass bottles of soda, remember?) When I had gone outside I had seen that Rodger was talking to the creepy white guy from down the street. I thought that this guy was creepy because he had like a million guns and, he had all kinds of dead animals in his living room. Rodger had seen me holding the beer and motioned me over to take it as well as the bottle of soda, then he told me to go back into the house and get a beer for the other guy. When I brought the beer out they took it and Rodger handed me the then opened bottle of soda. (Rodger could be a nice guy sometimes and his mood towards me was always better when there was another adult around.) I took the drink and sat down on my big wheel which had been right by them, there was some noise from the children playing at Big Mama's. The two turned in the direction of the noise and then began to bitch and throw the N'word in the direction of the kids. They figured that the kids would harm one of the cars, I finished my soda and stood up to get off the big wheel and head back inside so that I could continue playing with the Atari. I heard a voice arguing with Rodger and his friend and when I turned in the direction of the voice I had seen a tiny black boy standing in the street. I did not recognize that boy but noticed that he was the only one remaining in the street and even though he was not standing right in the front of Rodger, I admired how the boy did not back down to him. Rodger and his friend were edging closer to the street but I knew that they were just trying to scare the boy who could not have been older than six. I think back to him and say that he had one hell of a mouth on him for being that young. I was between 7 or 8 and I remember being taller than he even though I was a scrawny kid. Rodger had locked eyes with mine and motioned me over to where he was standing, he said a few racial things to the boy stopping long enough to tell me to go around our car's and knock the boy down. I did not have a second thought about doing that for him because we had been getting along and I knew by doing that he would be proud of me. Plus, the weird guy was cheering me on and had really liked Rodger's idea of me knocking the kid down. I ducked down by the car and noticed that the kid did not even know that I was there, I ran at him and pushed him down hard. He fell but I was able to catch my balance and steady myself, I have no idea where the other kid had came from but when I turned around he jabbed me in the mouth with the handle end of a whiffle ball bat. My mouth was all bloody and some of my teeth had been knocked loose (and apparently some were my adult teeth,) my mouth hurt so bad and I remember that when I saw the blood I began to cry louder than the kid I had knocked down. Rodger was so mad at me and ended up sending me to my room and came in before my mom had gotten home and told me that it was to be a secret between the three of us guys because he did not want to embarrass me by telling my mom I had gotten beat up and cried. My mom found out the next day when I got home from school, I could feel that they were loose so I did not play with them but I was eating something at lunch and one of my teeth had fell out. I cried and one of the teachers said something to my mom. Teeth are bones too and do to my disease my teeth are not very strong. I have always been and am to this day very conscious about my teeth, I have lost a few and I have gaps. Leading up to that day was the last time that I was welcomed at Big Mama's.
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