A Reckoning in Mayberry

Part 6/3 Villain: Jake the Snake

Jacob DeMarco, called Jake the Snake by young Reuben Cropps and everyone else under the age of ten at Public School 154, was not your typical bully. He would not meet the current profile of a bully because he was neither bullied himself or a witness to violent behavior. He came from a good home with loving and doting parents who gave him whatever he needed, which made it all the more bizarre that he felt the need to shake down 2nd graders on a daily basis. He didn't need their money. He just enjoyed the bullying. He enjoyed the power and the fear of the little ones. He enjoyed being nasty.

Jake was no typical bully, and Reuben Cropps was no typical victim. Reuben was self-confident and self-assured and fearless. He was popular and had many friends, but he was small and bi-racial in a mostly white school and probably the smartest kid in the whole school, which made more than one kid jealous, especially when all the adults in Public School 154 thought Reuben was the next Einstein.

Jake the Snake thought Reuben was a little brown turd. He was the one who gave Reuben the nickname and spent most of Reuben's second grade year and his own fourth grade year tormenting him.

As mentioned, Reuben was popular and he walked to school everyday with an entourage of six and seven year old friends. The first time that Jake approached the group for money, all the group, including Reuben, gave him their change. Reuben, who had not yet encountered a human with aberrant behavior, thought that Jake must need some ice cream money. He changed his mind soon enough when the next day, one of his friends, Wally Wolowitz, had no money to hand over. Jake punched Wally in the stomach.

"That's not nice," said a shocked Reuben.

Jake punched Reuben in the nose. Not yet versed on the dangers of squealing or that snitches get stitches, Reuben, still bleeding from his busted nose, told his teacher what happened.

Normally, a bully who hit two other children would be reprimanded, but Jake's well meaning parents visited the principal and several "boys will be boys" later and a promise to head up the fall festival and build new steps down to the gym later, and Jake was released with a promise to play nice.

Jake did not play nice the next day. He blocked the sidewalk on the way to school and looked straight at Reuben and his friends and said, "Before I am done, you won't have no friends, you little brown turd." He then proceeded to take Mary Jane Jones's lunch box, take a bite out of her sandwich, and lick her apple and and hand it back to her. "Better not tell," he said, and no one told.

By the end of the week, after Wally was punched in the stomach again, and another little girl had bubble gum kneaded into her hair, Reuben was walking to school alone.

"I'm sorry," said Mary Jane the last one to desert Reuben.

Reuben looked at her standing in a mud hole that covered her once white lace socks and shiny black shoes. "I understand," he said.

"Just you and me now, kid," said Jake.

Reuben was somewhat dumbfounded about the whole situation. He was calm natured and a problem solver even when he was only seven years old. He approached the problem of Jake the Snake methodically. I have an adversary, the prolific reader of comic books thought. He is the villain and I am the hero. I must conquer evil using my power. My power is my brain.

Reuben took notes and made lists of solutions. It was his first foray into the criminal mind. It was his first profile of a criminal. His notes said things about Jake like:

Intelligent

Likes hurting people, emotionally and physically, doesn't seem to matter which

Has friends, people like him, young and old

(after the fall festival) Parents appear supportive

Strong

Has other victims, but I appear to be his favorite. Considers me a challenge?

Does not like girls

It did not take Reuben long to understand that it was useless to try to understand why Jake was the way he was. After trying to talk to him and analyze him, Reuben decided that Jake was crazy. Certifiably insane, he concluded, if he had to guess after reading Psychological Diagnoses and Criminality, Volume I. Jake was insane - he was a drug lord, crime boss, assassin in the making. He's just practicing, Reuben concluded, for when he grows up. Reuben came to this conclusion when Jake broke his arm after he told him his diagnosis. He'll break my neck next time, thought Reuben. I need a sidekick to help me. He looked at his broken arm. No, he thought, I need a bodyguard.