I was relieved that the school day was over. I had just taken a 2 hour long science exam. And now have to walk a couple miles just to the border of the reservation. Luckily someone had picked me up and brought me as far as the gym. Where I saw a man boxing. The speed of his punches were incredible. Then I heard a man say, “Hey Alfred, its closing time. Wrap it up. You can come back tomorrow.” As he was packing up, there was a name on his gym bag. It said, “Alfred.” As he was walking out you could see that he was dripping with sweat. And yet he started running to the bus stop. And when you got to it, he didn’t even look out of breath. I just shook my head and went home.

            Had just reached my drive way when a group of kids ran up from the bushes and had knocked me to the ground. They had started punching and kicking me. And the worst part is they had taken all of my books that were in my backpack. They were all wearing hooded sweatshirts. But I could see a face. I said, “Rowdy?” Then the kid said, “we should get out of here.”  I knew it because that voice was exactly like Rowdy’s. I just crawled up the driveway, through my house to my bed were I had passed out.

The next day, I went down to the gym, where I saw Alfred training. I was nervous. I thought for a second, and wondered what he would do to me. But I was tired of being a coward and getting beat up. ‘Your names Alfred right?” He turned and said, “Yeah and who’s asking?” “My names Arnold, as you can probably guess, I was beat up last night. And I was wondering if you could teach me how to fight like you do, or at least how to defend myself.” “Sure thing, I had been in a situation much like yours when I was younger. That’s why I moved. I wanted to get away from thing like this” said Alfred. “ Come by tomorrow and ill teach you a thing or two about defending yourself so something like this never happens again to you or your family.” “Ok” I said.

            That night I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to defend myself. And not have to worry about getting beat up anymore. The other reason I couldn’t sleep was because I kept seeing Rowdy’s face looking down on me. He looked like he couldn’t believe what he had just done. I could have died if I didn’t block one of them trying to kick me in the head.

            The next day I was walking down the street to the gym. Where I say Rowdy walking toward me. None of us made eye contact with each other. But by the look on his face, he look like he wanted to apologize but he didn’t know how to. He just bumped into me and we both kept walking our separate ways.

            When I got into the room. Alfred told me to only use what he is going to teach me for self defense and only for self defense. He had me run laps around the gym. After that I had started to watch what he was doing on the punching bag.

            One week later, Alfred said, “Arnold, I think you’re ready. The only thing is, do you think you’re ready.” “I’m ready to defend myself and my family if needed. I can’t thank you enough. And you really have to move again.” “It’s time for me to move back home. I’ll try to come back here and visit you.” said Arnold. “Maybe we’ll see each other again someday” I said. And then I walked out.

            With my luck I knew they would be back at my house waiting for me. But what they didn’t know was that was ready for them this time. But this time Rowdy was missing. Could he have changed his mind about beating me up or was he in detention again. But I was surprised when he walked up behind me. “I am really sorry. They threatened to kill me if I hadn’t helped them.” I knew Rowdy was telling the truth. Rowdy isn’t smart enough to make something up like that. And the people he was talking about were gang members from another tribe. But another person had walked up behind me and tapped me on the shoulder. It was Alfred. “I couldn’t leave without saying a proper goodbye.”

One of the gang members had thrown a rock and it had hit Alfred in the chest. “I’ll give you a proper goodbye after we deal with these clowns.” The fight had only lasted 5 minutes because two were knocked out and the other 3 had run off because the cops had shown up. Alfred had left after saying goodbye to me. But Rowdy had walked up to e looking at the ground. I knew he was truly sorry. But it would take some time for me to accept his apology.

The Absolute true diary of a part time Indian – Arnold

The Contender – Alfred