A Scripta

He ran. That was the only thing he knew how to do, and he couldn’t even do that well.

He glanced behind him for half a second. They were still on him, screaming like banshees. He whipped around a corner into an alleyway. He tried to jump over a bag of trash but tripped over it, and fell on his shoulder, skidding a good ten feet on the concrete. He struggled up, but felt someone grab him by the back of his backpack and pick him up, and throw him into the fence.

He stared into the maniacal eyes of Joey Tebow, captain of the local track team, baseball team, and all around jock.

“You can’t run,” he said, grinning. His posse behind him were all laughing and grinning at him.

Joey raised a hand to punch him, and someone yelled, “HEY!”

The group turned to the entrance to the alley. A man in a black biker jacket stood there, glaring at the group.

“Leave that kid alone,” he said, advancing into the alley.

When Joey was in this kind of a mood, he was insolent and uncaring. “What’re you gonna do about it, old man? You can’t touch us, we’re kids.”

The man gave him a cold smile. “Hm, you know, that’s right.” He casually lifted a hand and slowly opened his fingers wide.

Joey’s eyes went wide, and he dropped the boy. The rest of the group stared at something in the air, and then the man made a pushing motion. The boys screamed and ran down the other end of the alley.

The man nodded, turned his attention to the boy. “You okay, kid?”

“Yeah,” he said, standing up and rubbing his shoulder. “Thanks.”

“Sure. This happen to you a lot?”

He shrugged. “I suppose.”

The man’s gaze softened. “You should do something about it.”

He humphed. “Too fat to take karate, too much of a klutz.”

The man smiled, this was a lot warmer than the one he gave Joey. “I know that feeling. By the way, my name’s Nathan.”

“Rob.” He took the offered hand.

“I think I should walk you home to make sure they don’t change their minds and come after you.”

“Eh, well, okay.”

They walked for a little while in silence, and then Nathan said, “You know, I was in your shoes once.”

“Really?” Rob looked over the handsome man. He looked very strong and not that easy to push around.

“Got beat up every night after school for four years. Same kids. I still remember their names.”

“What did you do? Did you tell anybody?”

“Heh, like anyone believed me.” He fell silent, glanced in his direction. “Nobody wanted to help a fat nerd.”

“Oh,” Rob looked down at the sidewalk as they walked.

“So that’s why I want to help you.”

“Me?” He stopped. He was only a block away from his house.

“Sure.” Nathan stopped with him. “One of the things you need to learn is how to defend yourself, and I can help you with that.”

“I’m too fat.”

“We can take care of that.”

“I have asthma.”

“We can take care of that, too.”

“I don’t know.”

He made an encompassing motion. “I’m not going to be around all the time to save your ass. I can help you. If you don’t want to take the help, then you’re going to grow up to be a bitter, angry man.”

“I’ll think about it, okay? Will you be around tomorrow?”

“I’ll make a point of it if you want.”

If he could get this guy to walk him home all the time, it would be well worth it. “Yeah, okay.”

“Good. I’ll see you tomorrow, then.” He started to walk away.

“Hey, Nathan, what did you do to them to make them run away?”

He turned around and had a slightly sad look on his face. “I showed them things nobody should ever see.”


“They did it again?”

He looked up at his mother. “Yeah.”

“What do you do to get them mad at you?”

“I don’t know, mom.” Breathe?

“You must be doing something. Want an éclair?”

“Sure.”

He sat at the kitchen table and munched on his éclair. His sister came downstairs, Tara the toothpick.

“Eating again?” He always seemed to be eating when she came around. Tara made a disgusted noise and walked out of the kitchen, grabbing her uniform for Drenched Donuts down the street. His mother sighed and started pulling out supper.

After a hearty chicken parmesan with tons of macaroni and cheese, he went upstairs and flicked on his computer. His shoulder was still sore, but it hadn’t been scraped as badly as he thought. He had no real friends, nobody he could even email or IM. He played a few shoot-em-up games, and shut it off half an hour before he had to go bed.

He went to the bathroom, looked in the mirror. He had brown eyes, brown hair, was fat and unremarkable. He didn’t know what caused the posse to come after him night after night. Maybe he was smarter than they were, maybe he did have something they didn’t.

Rob took out his scrapbook of heroes he adored. Tons of heroes he had read about, and almost all their escapades…he had been lax in his collection, so his scrapbook was about a year old. Some of the heroes in it had retired, disappeared, or died. Sometimes, when he looked at it, he wished he could be a hero, too.

Nobody wants a fat kid, he said to himself, as he got ready for bed.


The next day, Joey accosted him in the hall. “We didn’t get a chance to finish our little talk,” he said to Rob, as he grinned with the same maniacal look he had the day before. “We’ll be waiting.”

Rob bolted out of the school and started running. He didn’t know where he’d meet Nathan, if at all –

He ran into what seemed like a soft brick wall. “Hey,” said Nathan, “what’s the rush?”

“They’re after—“

“Like I said, I’m not going to be around all the time. Time to start your training.”

“Training?”

“If you can’t fight, run. If you can’t run, hide.”

Rob looked around frantically.

“Stop. Calm down. Look at your environment. You’re small enough to hide here – “ he motioned to a small alcove behind him. “If you’re desperate, you can hide in that dumpster over there.”

“In the dumpster?!”

“Trust me, nobody looks there.”

“And how long am I supposed to stay there?”

“You’ll know. You might be wrong at first, but you’ll learn.” He put his hands in his pockets. “Personally, I’d rather stand and fight.”

“You can do that.”

“Like I said, I didn’t always. C’mon, I’ll teach you basic brawling techniques. I don’t know judo or akido or anything like that…though I can ask someone I know.”

In the park two blocks from his house, Nathan taught him basic punching and blocking moves. Nathan was an encouraging teacher, helping Rob perfect his form and strength. Nathan often stood still while Rob punched at him. Then one morning, about three weeks later, he pulled on his pants and they fell off. He hadn’t realized he was tightening his belt throughout his time with Nathan.

Nathan was usually at the school to get him, but this afternoon he wasn’t there. This wasn’t like him. Rob walked home, and when he got home, he realized he hadn’t been ambushed. He went upstairs to his room, skipping his mother’s brownies, and practiced the moves Nathan taught him.

Nathan returned a few days later. He looked tired. “I had some business to take care of,” he said. “I’m sorry. I should have a way to contact you.”

“You can leave a message with my mom.”

“Got a phone number?”

“She doesn’t like phone calls. You can go to our house.” He had known this guy for a month. If he was a pervert, he would have come on to him by now. “C’mon, I’ll bring you over.”

Rob brought him over to the house. Nathan stayed at the foot of the townhouse and looked up the stairs. “You can meet my mom.”

Nathan raised an eyebrow and mounted the steps. “Where’s your dad?”

“They’re divorced.”

“Ah.” He followed Rob to the door. Rob announced himself, and his mother came into the hallway.

She looked up and up at the tall, handsome man and just stared at him. She didn’t hear Rob talking to her, so smitten she was by him. She did manage to catch his name.

“Oh, so nice to meet you –“ His hand was huge around hers. “Would you like some cookies?”

“No thank you, ma’am.”

She blushed and giggled like a schoolgirl. “Oh, call me Annie.”

“All right.” He smiled, and she wanted to melt.

“C’mon up to my room,” Rob said excitedly. This was the first time he had invited a friend to his house, and he wanted to show him everything. Nathan followed him up the stairs to his room.

Nathan entered the small room and looked around, his smile growing. “Reminds me of my room when I was your age.” Nathan walked around a little and saw the scrapbook on his desk. “You like heroes?”

“Yeah, I used to read a lot about them. But there’s so many of them now, it’s hard to keep up.”

“Yeah, I know.” Nathan opened the scrap book and paged through it. “I remember some of these.”

“It’s a little out of date.”

Nathan stopped paging, and looked down at one of the pictures. It was a white-haired man, bathed in white light. Rob came and looked around Nathan’s elbow to see who he was looking at. “Oh, that’s Masonry. He died last year.”

Nathan swallowed and set the book down. He looked at the book, took a deep breath and glanced around the room again. Rob started showing him other things that he owned, and Nathan made non committal noises over them.

“Rob, dinner!”

Nathan put a hand on the door. “Guess I’d better be going.”

“No, maybe she’s made enough for you, too.”

“I wouldn’t want to impose –“

“It’s okay, really! Mom, mom, can Nathan stay?”

“Well, uh –“

Nathan put his hands up. “Really, I can go—“

But Rob was already pulling Nathan by his jacket into the kitchen. Rob looked at all the food piled on his plate. “I don’t need all that.” He got another plate, and he poured some of the shepherd’s pie into it. “Here, you can have some of mine.”

“I don’t want to be accused of taking food out of your mouth,” Nathan said, looking at the setting at the table.

“It’s okay. Time for me to go on a diet, anyways.”

“Okay, then.” Nathan shrugged out of his jacket. He wore short sleeves, and his arms were huge, muscular and built. Rob’s mother sat across from him, and they all ate, Rob chattering constantly. When dinner was done, he got up and went to the bathroom.

Annie smiled at Nathan. “I’ve never seen him so excited.”

“That’s good. He’s a good kid.”

She nodded. “I just wish he’d stop bothering the boys at school. They keep beating him up.”

“I doubt he’s bothering them. Sometimes bullies don’t need a reason.”

Anne shook her head. “I don’t understand. He gets good grades. They still beat him up.”

Nathan looked at her. He opened his mouth to say something, snapped it shut. He glanced at the clock. “I really have to go.”

Rob came back into the room, and Nathan repeated himself. “Thank you very much for dinner, Annie.” He shook her hand again. He left the apartment with the promise to see him tomorrow.

Rob fell asleep that night, the happiest boy alive.


“Hey, Rob.”

Rob turned to see Joey coming up to him. Again, the grin that boded ill was plastered to his face. “Hey, that guy that’s teaching you how to fight? Know who he is?”

“He’s my friend,” Rob said defensively.

“He’s a dead man tonight.” Joey laughed and walked away.

Rob had to warn Nathan. For all he knew, Joey had arranged for a drive-by to happen. Again, he bolted out of school and saw Nathan across the street. He dove into the street, and ran to him. Nathan watched him, concern in his eyes.

“What’s wrong?”

“Joey…said….you’re…a dead man…”

“At one time I was.”

Rob didn’t have time to register that until he heard a man yell, “Hey, you! Perv!”

Nathan rolled his eyes. “Oh, brother. Rednecks.”

Sure enough, a pack of men, similar in looks and even attitude to Joey’s posse started coming up the street. The kids across the street in the schoolyard were gathered at the fence or on the sidewalk. Nathan put a hand on Rob’s shoulder and shoved him behind him. “Back up.”

Rob did as he was told, backing up about twenty feet. Nathan stood, his legs spread just a little, his hands behind his back.

“Who are you calling perv?”

“You, hanging around the school and picking up little boys.”

“I’m his mentor.”

The man was balding but had a beard, and had a beer belly. He looked like he hadn’t seen the inside of a shower in a week. The rest of them didn’t look that much better. “I’ll bet,” the man said, and suddenly punched Nathan in the side.

It was like he slammed his fist into a brick wall. Nathan didn’t move, and the man went down on his knees, howling and holding his hand. “Care to do that again?!” Nathan yelled at him.

Rob saw another man moving, a bat in his hand. “NAY—“

Nathan lifted his arm to block. Rob could hear the crack of the bat as it connected with Nathan’s arm. The arm didn’t waver. Nathan moved his arm down, wrapped his hand around the bat and yanked it out of the man’s hand. The man fell forward, and Nathan gave him a push with the bat so he fell onto the ground. Then he snapped the bat over his knee as if it was a twig.

“Anybody else?” Nathan demanded, dropping the remnants of the bat. The group of rednecks suddenly realized they needed to be somewhere else, as they bolted, leaving their two compatriots writhing on the ground.

“Thought not.” He turned to Rob, who was staring at him in almost adoration.

“You’re a hero,” he said quietly.

Nathan put a finger to his lips. “Shhh. Don’t spread it around.”

“Wow…”

“This doesn’t mean I’m going to stop training you. In fact, it’s time to start working on building muscles. You’re going on a diet.”

“Aw, man…”

Nathan didn’t show up every day, but when he did, his training was relentless. Rob started losing weight faster than he could buy clothes. Kids didn’t bother him, after seeing him work out in the school’s gymnasium.

Then, one day, he saw Joey accosting another boy. Rob went up to Joey. “Leave him alone.”

“Yeah? What’re you gonna do about it?”

The fight was quick but brutal. Rob punched him solidly in the nose. Joey yelled and stumbled away, banging against the lockers as he dashed down the hall to the school nurse. Rob checked on the boy, and smiled a little as he escorted him to his next class.

Nathan was waiting for him outside. Rob told him proudly what he had done, and Nathan put a hand on Rob’s shoulder. “You don’t need me, then.”

“What?”

“I’ll still come around, but I think you’re doing fine on your own. You can use the school’s gym, right?”

He nodded. He looked up at Nathan. “But I don’t want you to leave.”

“Remember what I said the first day I met you. I can’t always be here to save your ass.”

He looked down, sad. Nathan tilted his head and looked down at him. “There’s only one thing I ask.”

Rob wiped his nose. He was trying not to cry.

Nathan met Rob's eyes. “Just pay it forward.”

Inspiration: "The Headmaster's Ritual," The Smiths.