Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Confused (08/16/07)
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TITLE: The Bad, The Innocent, and The Good | Previous Challenge Entry
By Stephen Watkins
08/23/07 -
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"Why should I? Do you think you can scare me, you little pip squeak?" It was a good come back. He had called my bluff and now I was searching for a clever come back of my own. Except none was forthcoming.
In an instant and with a swiftness that caught even myself by surprise, I acted. My arm jutted forwards. My open hand reached out and upon feeling his hot, clammy skin it instinctually spasmed shut. In an instant I had his neck in a vise-like clench. His eyes said it all. Wide, suddenly confused and terrified eyes. His mouth opened to scream, but all that escaped were the guttural sounds of a man whose larynx was about to be removed.
“I don’t know punk? Why don’t you tell me? Can I scare you?” He struggled briefly to free himself but every move he made was met with a tighter grip on his neck.
“How does it feel creep? Huh?” There was no answer, how could there be?
“Now…let her go!” To my surprise and also great relief, he let her go. She fell to the ground gasping for air.
“Run! Run!” I screamed. “Get help! Call 911!” She sat there breathing hard and just looking up at me.
“Run!” I yelled again. She struggled to her feet and finally began to move away. I turned my attention back to the man whose life was now in my hand. With twenty years of service as a Navy seal, I was more than capable of ending this pathetic degenerates life.
She couldn’t have been more than 12 years old. I guessed his age to be around 30. It didn’t take a lot of gray matter to imagine what this guy had in mind for that little girl. It was the one area where my beliefs had always been challenged. I had no patience for creeps like this. Take away a child’s innocence and you have the battle for their soul half won.
I knocked his legs out from underneath him, forcing him to the ground. Releasing my grip on his neck I pushed his head to the ground then pulled his arms up behind him. Then I just sat on him. He wasn’t going anywhere.
“I should kill you, maybe I still will, I haven’t made up my mind yet,” I said. He started to say something, but all that came out was a gravely, unintelligible sound. Kind of like a really bad Tom Waits imitation, if you can imagine such a thing.
“Just as well,” I said, “You’d probably just tick me off more.” I sat on him and waited. He’d squirm every now and then, and I’d give him a punch to the kidneys to remind him I was still there. In the distance, I heard sirens.
The police arrived quickly and relieved me of my burden. After answering their questions and giving them my personal information, I started back for home. As I stepped out of the alley, onto the main street, I spotted the little girl just being put into the back of an ambulance. She smiled at me and I walked over.
“Thank you mister,” she said.
“Just glad I came along when I did. You ok?” I asked.
“My throat hurts, they’re taking me to the hospital, just to make sure everything’s alright.”
“Good, you’ll be fine, I’m sure. Have they called your parents?”
“No. Well, they can’t, I don’t have any. I was staying with this foster family, but I kind of ran away from there. That’s how I ended up out here.”
“I see. The street is no place for a girl, I hope you have learned that.”
“I have. I know it was stupid.” The attendants began lifting her into the ambulance. “I have to go, thanks again,” she said.
“Your welcome, take care.”
The next morning I felt compelled to go the hospital to check on her. I walked into her room and her face lit up when she saw me. We talked for several hours that day. We have talked for many more hours since. She now calls me dad, and I call her my daughter. I continue to be confused about the how and why, but I now rest in the knowledge that God truly does work all things together for our good.
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A few minor edits in punctuation and mechanics would shine this up a bit.
Nice ending.