My Father's Advice17:59 Jun 19 2011
Times Read: 547
Jackie Jan Jackson lived next door to us in Ft. Worth, Texas. We had a mostly unfriendly rivalry, but we were the only two girls on a street full of younger boys. She was Baptist. I was Catholic. We argued about whose god was the real god. She was blond and her hair was short. My dark hair was long. This is important because it's how she regularly won our wrestling matches. She'd wrap my hair around her fists and pull, dragging me along the grass.
I guess my dad got tired of my tears. "Pick up a brick and hit her on the head with it," he said.
Now, there weren't bricks just lying around the yard, but even at six I knew a metaphor when I heard one.
Even so, I was out walking our dog, Mickey, one night who decided to pee on the telephone pole closest to Jackie Jan's house. For some reason, I'd attached a long metal leash to her collar.
Jackie Jan and I were already engaged in a heated religious argument. We'd moved from whose god is the real god to whose god was the best. She ended the argument by kicking my dog. "Keep your nasty dog away from our yard," she screamed, and then just turned prissy as you please and walked toward her house.
Without even thinking I swung the metal leash at her. It wrapped around her neck and she fell backwards, screaming and crying.
I ran home and sat in my little red-upholstered rocking chair between my mom and dad in front of the t.v. There was a knock on the door. My mom got up to answer it and I could hear Mrs. Jackson.
"Bill," mom said, and my daddy got up and went to talk to Mrs. Jackson. I was so scared, I peed in my chair.
"Sandra Mae," he calls to me, and I go and stand next to him. There's Mrs. Jackson, all huffy, and Jackie Jan standing there, still crying. She's got a great big red welt around her neck.
"Did you do that to Jackie Jan?" he asks me.
"Yes, sir," I say, knowing I'm probably going to get spanked bad.
"I'll take care of it," daddy says to Mrs. Jackson.
He shuts the door and walks with me back to our chairs, where my mom is cleaning up my pee. He's got his hand on my shoulder, all soft and affectionate. He says nothing, does nothing to me.
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