The Peacekeepers

Part One; Chapter Two

Birth of a Warrior

His knuckles raked across my jaw. The flat solid impact knocked me onto my sandbox. I hear the crying of my three year old sister. I'm eight years old and living in Compton with my mother, father and baby sister. We moved because of my dad's job with the military and given the state of the world at the time there was a military base in almost every major city. But being as young as I was I didn't know what was going on just that we moved a lot.

I was playing in the sandbox with my little sister, Alice when the neighborhood bullies from across the street came over looking for trouble. Two ten year olds and an eleven year old. To me they seemed like giants. They came across into our yard. They called me a "retard" and a "faggot". I had no idea what those words meant at the time but I knew they were insults directed toward me.

I saw them hop the fence and come in and I stood up.

"What are you guys doing here?"

Their pants were sagging and they were walking like idiots, holding their crotches and swaying their shoulders.

I chuckled slightly and said, "You look funny."

"Wha'd you say faggot?" The older one said to me.

I repeated my previous sentence. "You're funny looking."

He bent down and got in my face.

"You a retard or something kid?"

Then he used one hand to "barely" push me and I fell to the ground.

I got mad. I scrambled up and punched him in the face as hard as my little arms possibly could. I had no idea what I just did, but I did know two things for certain:

1: My entire arm felt like it exploded.

2: He was angry. Very, very angry.

He laughed, turned around and looked at his friends, looked back at me and punched me. I spun around and went face first into the sand and started crying. Blood poured from my mouth and I saw my loose tooth knocked out of my head.

He lifted my head up by my hair. Tears were streaming down my face.

"Aww, look at the little baby crying." He mocked me. "Ya now what sand tastes like baby?"

I shook my head "no".

"Well guess what? You're about to find out!"

He shoved my face into the sandbox and put his foot on top of my head to keep it in the sand.

After about a minute of eating sand they left the yard. I got up, grabbed Alice and stumbled into the house to my mother.

My memory of this is a bit sketchy but I remember what happened after my dad came home. Mom explained everything to him.

He looked at me, then at my mother, then back at me again. He knelt down to my level.

"Did you try to fight back Drake?"

I was pressing a bag of ice to my mouth where a nasty bruise had already formed. I told him that I tried my hardest to fight them but they were just too strong for me to beat.

He stood up, patted me on the head and looked me in the eyes with a serious yet oddly comforting face.

"I promise this will never happen again, son."

He walked over to the telephone and punched in some numbers.

"Who are you calling?" My mother asked him, still concerned about me and the beating I took.

"I'm calling my brother."

That's all he said to her. "Uncle Tybult's coming here?" I popped up and said excitedly. I hadn't seen him in years. He was literally the coolest person I knew.

My dad nodded his head. He told me that he was coming down from his farm in Tennessee and I was gonna stay there for a full year. I was so excited!

Two days later Tybult arrived in his black, mud splattered jeep. He stepped out and knocked on the door. It was a warm Sunday afternoon when he came. This man was gigantic. He and my dad both looked like the result of a bear having a kid with a bulldozer.

I remember the last time I saw him was three years ago at a family reunion in Tampa Bay, Florida. Our cousin had a flat tire and forgot the jack at home. He cussed and practically kicked the passenger side car door in. My dad and uncle were just standing there laughing at his tantrum.

"What the hell's so funny Tybult?"

My dad and uncle look at each other and just smiled. They stuck their hands under the car and and with a solid grunt they jacked the car up off the ground. Our cousin's jaw dropped and all he could do was shake his head.

"Paris, Tybult, you never cease to amaze me. You really don't."

It took him about ten minutes to change the tire and my dad and uncle had a full conversation while they had it jacked.

He came down to my level and looked at the bruise on my face.

"They gotcha perty god didn't they Drake?" He said in his deep southern accent. I nodded my head.

His eyes shift to my hands and he lifted one up. He rubbed my palm with his hard thumb and chuckled.

"Poor boy's hands are silk soft. What have you been doing to the poor boy Paris?"

My dad was standing right behind me with his arms casually crossed. He shrugged his shoulders.

"Not working. Same exact thing I promised not to do."

He looked at my and said,

"Drake, you're gonna be living with your uncle on his farm for a while. He's gonna take care of you until you come home."

Tybult looked at me, smiled and said,

"You'll be glad you came with me little buddy. Trust me kiddo."

My mom helped to load my bags in his jeep. Before I left I hugged Alice, mom and dad goodbye. I stepped inside the passenger side of the jeep, sat down and buckled up. Tybult started the engine. After we left he pulled a large red packet from the glove box, opened it up and put a large wad of tobacco in his mouth.

"Don't tell your mom I did this in front of you. She'd whup my ass." He started laughing a little. I didn't see the humor.

We drove for about an hour listening to country and rock music on the radio then for what seemed like no reason he turned it off. All emotion left his face.

"Hey, Tybult what's up? I like that song!"

"Do you understand why you're gonna be living on the farm for a while?"

I shrugged my shoulders. I didn't know and if I did I didn't remember. I was just a little kid. I has no clue what was going on.

"I'm gonna get you stronger and teach you how to fight. With what's going on in the east you'll need to know how to protect yourself and your sister if the worst case scenario happens like me and your dad think it will." This totally confused the hell outta me.

I just shot him an odd look because I was confused. He sighed and hung his head down. I recognize this look. My dad had the same look...

"Look kid, I'm not supposed to tell anyone this but there's a chance that me and your dad may be getting deployed again. D'ya understand what that means?" I knew it meant my dad was probably getting deployed again.

My Dad was a Green Barrett and Tybult was a Navy S.E.A.L. if something happened overseas they were more than likely in the middle of it all.

"With what's going on with Korea, China, India AND Russia I have absolutely no clue what's gonna happen anymore."

This was the harbinger of my fate. I didn't know what it meant at the time or the weight of those words but I did know it was bad news. Deep in my gut I knew that I wasn't gonna see my dad in a while even after I came home...