Unexpected Days

Chapter 7- The Replay

"Thank you, Alex,"  I said "I had fun, say hi to Bob from me"

"Sure.."

*beep* beep*
The sound of the celphone hanging up.

I parked my car in my garage let's say, a special garage for exotic cars 300 meters away from home, nobody noticed the garage, infact nobody knows there is a garage here. For I made it looked like an empty lot that looks like a jungle. Anyways, as I was walking my way home I encountered a homeless man, I was about to give something but as he lifted his face to me I was suprised, it was Todd, Todd was a rich kid, his dad was a banker when I was still a kid, but I didn't heard anything from him for almost 3 years, he's been in the streets after he graduated college I think. I wonder what happened.
"Todd? What the hell are you doing here at the streets?"

"It was a long story my friend, I'm so hungry I need some food, I know this is weird but, do you got something in your pockets Mark?"
He lowered his head because of embarrassment. I was to about hang with him a little bit

But..

there was this, I remembered something

FLASHBACK

I was walking down my way to my locker when I saw Todd Newman, and three of his friends pointing at my feet. Todd was the only child of Isabel and Reese Newman and he moved in that self-conscious manner so common among only children. Everything about him seemed overindulged and fussed over. He stood in the middle of a squirrelly though articulate group of boys. Paul Anderson and Jester Gray were the sons of bankers, both employed by Reese Newman. Mounier Grant was the son of the Lawyer who represented the bank. I had known them my whole life.
"Nice shoes, Mark" Todd said as I walked by them, and the others laughed.
As you can see Our Family wasn't rich until I've graduated college and worked as the rank of "Master" of the ship. But this was a flashback from my childhood.

After Todd said that, I looked down and saw the same tennis shoes I had put on the morning. They were neither new or old ; they were simply broken in well.
"Glad you liked 'em Todd," I said, and the other three boys laughed even harder.
"It looked like you stole 'em off a dead nigger's feet," said Todd. "I can smell 'em from here. Don't you have a pair of loafers?,"
"Yeah," I answered, "but they're are home."
"You're a liar, Mark," Todd said. "I've never known a river rat who wasn't a complete liar in my whole life. I heard my mama say the other day that your family was the lowest form of white man on the face of the earth, and I tend to agree with my mama."
He took a five-dollar bill out of his wallet and threw it in the floor in front of me.

"Here, Mark. This won't buy you a pair of loafers but you already got a pair at home, don't you, liar? Just get a new pair of sneakers so I don't have to go around smelling your stinking feet".
I knelt down and picked up the five-dollar bill and held it out to Todd, saying "No thanks, Todd. Just put this back in your bill fold. I don't need your money."
"I'm just trying to be a good Christian, Mark. I just want to clothe the poor."
"Please put it back, Todd. Put it in your wallet. I'm asking you nicely."

"Not after you touched it, river shit. It's got your germs on it now," Todd said, his bravado matched by the laughter of his pals.

"If you don't put it in back in your wallet, Todd, I'm going to make you eat it," I said, and by the reaction of Todd Newman I knew for the first time in my life I was big.
"You can't lick four of us , Mark,"Todd said confidently.
"Yes, I can," I disagreed.
I hit Todd, silenced him with three strong blows to the face, each one of them drawing blood. He slid down a wall and sat crying, looking at his friends with a wounded disbelief.
"Get him, he hurt me," he cried out, but the other three boys moved away from us.
"Eat the money, Todd," I said, "or I'll hit you again."
"You can't make me you, river shit," he shouted and I hit him again. He swallowed the money when a teacher grabbed me from behind and escorted me to the principal's office.
There was pandemonium loose in the hallways as the news of the fight spread through the students body. Todd's blood stained my white T-shirt and I stood facing the principal, Mr. Carlton Roe, with the proof of my guilt embossed on my chest.
Mr. Roe was a lean blond man who had been a college athlete. He was normally good-humored but had a volatile temper when aroused. He was one of those rare educators whose whole life revolved around his school, and he did not tolerate fisticuffs in the hallway. I had never been in trouble with the principal in my life.
"Okay, Mark," he said easily when the teacher had gone.
"Tell me what happened."
"Todd said something about my shoes," I said, my eyes resting on the floor.
"So you beat him up."
"No, sir. He called my family river shit. He gave me five bucks and told me to go buy a new pair of shoes."
"Then you hit him."
"Yes, sir. Then I hit him."
There was a noise by the door way and Todd Newman stormed into the room, holding a bloody handkerchief to his lip.
"You better whip him good, Mr. Roe. I mean whip him within an inch of his life. I just called my daddy and he's thinking of calling the cops."