I'm going to jump around a bit until something catches my attention. Gymnastics camp laid the foundation for my last year in High School. Unc and Abbey joined us on our last trip to Europe . Lori was still in the slammer. We still wrote each other 2-3 times a week. I became very close friends with Steve Scandale and John became jealous. John sabotaged both his car and our friendship. Before the season started we were all training at Dave Veit’s gymnastics school called Gymnastics Spectrum. There was a visiting gymnast named Richie Hawthorne who competed for Southern Illinois University helping out at the gym. Steve was performing a new complex dismount off of high bar and smashed the bar with his shins stopping his rotation. Ritchie Hawthorne had been drinking and didn't do his job spotting. Steve fell forwards after the collision with the steel bar. He landed on his throat with his legs continuing forward with the momentum of the crash breaking his neck. The ambulance arrived and immediately performed a tracheotomy so he could breath. They stabilized him and then rushed him to the hospital. He lived a week before he died. I didn't get to say goodbye. The one thing I did do was before all of this happened I wrote him a very long letter apologizing for not warning him about John tampering with his car. I explained my part in all of what happened and understood that it doesn't change the fact that it happened. I have only the expressed desire that it didn't, because I valued his friendship and would miss it greatly. If I had known these prophetic words were in reality final I pray I might have done something different. At his eulogy he left a message for all of us. "To the gymnasts, please don't stop your quest for excellence because of what happened to me. Find out what is inside of each and every one of you and then you shall all be free in the knowledge that you followed your dream, our dream to its final dismount. I will miss you all. Love, Your teammate, Steve Scandale. The days leading up to his funereal were a waking tragic dream. Merdardt gave both the boys and girls’ gymnastics team permission to leave class and come to his office whenever we wanted or needed to. For this next part I need to backtrack to the summer when I received a failing grade from Dr. Dicker. I appealed to the Regents board and was given a second chance to take it. This was under the condition that it be graded by several regents certified faculty members including Dr. Dicker. Having no choice if I wanted to go to college, I accepted. Following the exam I discovered I passed with a grade of 85. A few teachers felt it was low, but not unreasonable. It sure beat the 55 he gave me on the first one. During fall registration I saw an English elective course called “Crime and Fiction”. I registered for it only to find out the original teacher at the last minute trade with Dr. Dicker. I pleaded and begged only to have my requests ignored because all the other classes were full. So here I was having lost a close friend and being badgered by Dr. Dicker for not paying attention in class. I raised my hand only to be ignored and then decided to stand up and leave. I was walking to the door when he yells “Shultz god dammit I didn’t give you permission to leave Get back here and sit down, now. I keep walking and am through the door walking to Mergardt's office when I am grabbed from behind and smashed into the lockers. My face is pressed up against the metal vents of a locker. I can smell Love’s Baby Soft perfume and know that it’s a girls locker. I slowly crawl my hands up the side of the lockers. When I’m in a push up position I push off hard jamming my upper back into his chest. He stumbles backwards as I turn to face him. His face is just like it was that day last year. I can feel a quiet resolute anger burning in my chest and starting to consume me. Dicker’s bad comb over is in a mad fray as he charges me. My left arm and leg start my turn as I push off of the metal with the palm of my right. I leave my right leg behind me as I brace myself for his attack. His arms are out and almost touching me as I push off of my right leg and spin to my right. As he goes by I reach up with my left arm and grab his left arm just below the elbow and pull. I quickly place my right hand in the center of his back and push him as hard as I can. He slams into the locker with a loud bang. Holding and squeezing on to his left arm I twist it down and behind him. I pull up on the trapped arm and lean in to his hairy left ear which is facing me and say “How does it feel you greasy squirming maggot?” All I hear is “Unh” “Bit off a little more than you can chew. I’d say. If I so much as hear a fucking peep out of you, you’re going to be drinking your dinner through a straw and pissing blood for a month.” I turn around to his right leg and knee him as hard as I can in his thigh. I hear “Ahh!!” as I push him to slide down the lockers to the tile floor. Without looking back I walk to join my teammates in Mergardt’s office. There’s Debbie Amuso, Tracy Hamlin and Laura Rosen sitting with their heads bowed and crying. I walk around Mergardt’s desk and ask “I need to speak to you in private. It’s important.’ Mergardt gets up and says “Ladies stay here as long as you want. I need to go with Jody to see about something.” They sniffle and gesture with a nod they understand. We go into his back file room and close the door. He looks at me and says” Well what is it?” I tell him the scene exactly as it went down. Then I start to cry and say ”I’m sorry coach I know this year meant a lot to you , it means a lot to me as well. I tried to leave, but when he grabbed me and shoved me into the lockers I lost it." Mergardt places his hand on my shoulder and says "You know if we keep going to the well like this it's going to be dry one day. Let's go see the Colonel. I look up at him wiping my face and say in a broken voice "Dr. Lamonica?" Mergardt snickers and says "Cute. Let's get your ass out of this jam before you start getting into the next one. O.k.?" I smirk and give a tiny nod. As we come out of the file room together we hear arguing "Listen Marlene don't bother trying covering for that bastard I know he's here." Marlene says "You'll keep a civil tongue in your head if you know whats good for you Saul." Mergardt steps into the waiting area with Marlene and says " Any trouble here Marlene?" She smiles " No, just the usual adolescent complaints." Dicker starts to talk as Mergardt takes a quick step forward and says "Don't Saul, save it until we're at Dale's office. Jody come with us." Dicker yells " That little miscreant is here Marlene call the cops I want this psycho arrested." Marlene smiles and says "Why I'd be glad to, but which miscreant and which psycho are you referring to?" Dicker has spittle coming from his mouth and points saying with enough saliva to make Daffy Duck envious "That fucker right there." Marlene slaps her desk and stands up pushing her roll chair skidding into the wall knocking off papers from the shelves it hits. Then she says " That's it. I warned you about your language. Now get out of my office right now before I throw you out." Dicker leaves followed by Mergardt and trailing them is me. Before I can leave Marlene grabs me in her abundant busom and squeezes me saying "I know child. It hurts like the dickens but please believe me it does get better. I lost one husband to the war and another to the bottle. Believe me it gets better. Now just sit here for a minute before you go face them. It's going to be some show." She's patting my back and I can literally feel the love and concern she has flowing into me. I stop crying and she lets go and holds me at arms length saying " You have any problem with any of those men you come to old Marlene and I promise you I'll straighten them out right quick." She kisses me on my forehead and says "You sure do have some green eyes don't you." I just look up at the ceiling and shrug. Marlene says "Go on. You ready and remember what I told you." I say " I will and thanks I feel better" I turn and jog to catch up to Mergardt who is alone. I say " Where's my buddy?" Mergardt says "He wanted to get an early start on digging hiss own grave." We walk over to the administration building and go into the office to find the secretary waving us in to Lamonicas office. Dicker is sitting on a chair rubbing his leg. Mr Lamonca nods to Mergardt and says to me "So back for a reup for janitorial duty?" I say "It would seem that way I suppose." Dicker is still just sitting grinding his teeth. Mr. Lamonica starts "Let me see if I got this correct. Jody you just got up and walked out of class when Saul here followed you and you viciously attacked him for no reason. Then took it upon yourself to bring my good friend Rod here to bail your ass out. Is that what happened? Now's your chance boy speak your peace." I go over exactly what happened, how it happened and why it happened. Then I said "Mr. Lamonica since I'm leaving school I would like to say one thing." The principal nods and I say "This guy is like the kid who got beat up in grade school and now wants to take his revenge out on any kid he doesn't like. Except this time someone stopped him dead in his tracks. That someone was me. I'm not going to apologize to him after all the crap he's put me through. I am sorry we won't get a chance to beat Yorktown ." Lamonica stares at me and says "Jody please take a seat." Then he says "Saul I'm not going to pretend I like you , because I don't. But I'll bet my job that if I call an emergency meeting in the gymnasium right now I 'll find at least 30 witnesses who saw you attack a student. Then I'm calling the district attorney and ask that you be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law for abusing a minor. Saul look at me when I'm talking to you. Do you see where this is going?" Dicker says " So you just want to let him walk? I think I'll take this up with my union rep and then call his parents. After that I'll go to the New York Times and give them a story about the abuses of power that are going on in this school district and how the tax payers money is being embezzled by the principle. What do you think of that Mr. War veteran principal?" Lamonica picks up the phone and calls his secretary to come in. Then he says "Claudia would you be a sweetheart and take my car to get us some lunch . I think we're going to be here for a while." Claudia replies " Sure Mr. Lamonica do you want me to fill it up for you?" Lamonica smiles and says "What would I do without you Claudia?" Claudia says "Not much if you ask me. High test right?" Lamonica reaches in his coat pocket and hands her the keys with $40 for lunch. As Claudia leaves and locks the door Lamonica closes the door and calmly walks back inside saying "Saul do you know how many bones there are in the human hand?" As Saul is turning to look at him Lamonica has got his wrist and is pushing on something because Saul drops to floor yelling " Oww Oww you're going to break it stop." Lamonica say " You're right about that. I am going to break it. But what's really interesting is how I'm going to break it. You see by squeezing my index and middle finger into your thumb I create the proper fulcrum necessary to snap the bones in your hand. That not only break it, but sever the ligaments attatched to your arm virtually leaving the hand useless without extensive surgery. Can you feel that? I'm just bein silly, of course you can. That's my thumb on your malleolus bone. After your hand breaks I just have to push gently in the right direction and that baby will pop right through your skin. Can you feel the bone starting to bow?" Saul is screaming now on the floor, writhing on his back begging " Please I won't do any of what I said please just let me go I promise it stops here." Completly ignoring what was said he continue "Interestingly enough it's actually a combination of 2 moves one from Aikido and another from jujitsu blended into one motion for maximum results. I learned from the man in the black pajamas who took so many bright flowering young men at Khe Sanh, at Langdok, at Hill 364. These young men gave their lives Saul. What have you given? Why do you get to live?" Saul crying "I give up I will do or sign anything you like, just please just let me go, pahuleezze." Lamonica drops him and goes back to his chair and sits down. Mergardt goes over to Saul and helps him into his chair. Saul is holding his wrist.Finally Lamonica looks at me and says "What do you think I should do Jody?" I say "Without a doubt I think you should follow your conscience sir." Lamonica turns and asks "Rod we haven't had your input yet. What are your thoughts on the subject?" Rod says "It's hard to say on an empty stomach Dale. Why don't we wait for lunch and then I 'll give my opinion" Lamonica says "Quite right Rod never decide on an empty stomach. Costly mistakes are made that way.You see Saul how thoughtful Rod is? He doesn't make hasty comments or decisions for that matter until he has clearly thought them out. A lesson your gymnast here could sure use. Isn't that right jody?" I say "Yes sir message received loud and clear sir" We all sit in silence until Claudia returns with subs from Little John's Deli.. Lamonica says "Thank you so much Claudia. Please write a receipt for the record." He passes the subs out and then goes to his fridge and hands us all cans of Coke. We sit and eat our meatball heros and wait for Lamonica to talk again. He says "I'll be dammed I was down right peckish. How were your subs gentlemen?" Everyone mumbles good because they're still chewing. Then he says "Saul I want you to write up an agreement that will protect all of us. My lawyer will come to witness it and that should be that as they say. Are we all in agreement? Saul leads with "Absolutely I am doing it as we speak sir. Lamonica says " Splendid, I just knew we could come to an agreement if we laid our cards on the table and talked it out like men. I commend you Saul you took it better than most.I am proud of you. There maybe hope for you yet, seeing that now I find myself in your debt for demonstrating such a sense of fair play and justice. God dammit you're a good American sir. I'm proud to serve with you." Saul writes the agreement, the lawyer comes to witness and we all go back to our lives just a little more grateful than when we arrived. That's it for tonight good night. Jody
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