The Seer (Chapter 04) Poem by Kim Barney

"She's too young for you, " Rex told me.

"No, she's not. Women like older men, " I replied.

We were arguing about a girl named Arlene, who lived partway between us. None of us were old enough to date, and Arlene had no clue that Rex and I both liked her. Rex and Arlene were the same age, and I was two years older, but I was small for my age, and Rex was probably ten or fifteen pounds heavier than I.

This silly argument escalated until suddenly fists were flying. We both ended up with bloody noses and raw knuckles.

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A few weeks earlier or later, we were playing marbles in the dirt near his house, and he had placed a beautiful white marble in the ring. (The game began by drawing a ring in the dirt, and each player placing the same number of marbles in the circle. Each player then took turns using a larger marble called a "taw" trying to knock other marbles out of the ring. A player could then keep any marbles he knocked out of the ring.)

I really wanted that pretty white marble, and just happened to knock it out of the ring! Before I could grab it, however, Rex snatched it up and ran toward his house, crying out: "You can't have it! It goes to my Run Sheepie Run game! "

I actually followed him into his house and tried to get the marble back. If he was afraid to lose it, why did he put it in the ring in the first place? Just to tantalize me, because he didn't think I would be able to knock it out! His mother even tried to convince him to give it to me, when she found out what had happened, but he would not.

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Another time, my little brother was riding his bicycle past Rex's house, when Rex came out and knocked him off the bike and started trying to ride it himself. I just happened to witness this, as I was a half-block away near Arlene's house, trying to get a glimpse of her.

Within a couple of minutes, we were engaged in fisticuffs again, and once again we both ended up bruised and bloody, but my brother got on his bike and rode back home.

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"What am I going to do about Rex? " I asked Charlie one day. "He's such a pest, and a bully,
and we keep getting into fights."

Charlie thought for a moment. "Rex is going to change, " he said. "Right now he's having a hard time because of some family problems, but you're never going to have to fight him again."

Charlie knew things that nobody else knew. I didn't believe it then, but he was right.

(to be continued...)