Before we even got home Mikey's mom had seen what I did with my chain to her poor baby's face and had called my mom threatening to sue us for what I had done to her boy. I was terrified and didn't appreciate the irony of the boys-will-be-boys rationalizer losing her mind when her son got some medicine. The good news was after that Mikey and Jose never bothered us again. Except for the odd threat they left us alone. Bullies it turned out hate getting hit in the face with a chain.
Four years later I heard that Shane had died of Leukemia when he was 13, and I was actually glad. I am not glad anymore. He was just as trapped as we were and we could have all used a way out.
When we were in high school Mikey went on to take one of the worst beatings I have ever seen in my life. It was on the lawn just outside the bus stop at my high school while we were waiting to go home. He was a senior when I was a sophomore and that day he finally pushed a kid too far. The kid was a real cool and nice farm boy that Mikey kept pushing and pushing, until all hell broke loose. The farm boy beat him until he was bleeding from his ears, mouth, nose and chin. He was well beaten but too angry to stop and he kept crawling and stumbling back for a little more. It was so brutal, that no matter how much personal animosity I had for him left over from the trailer park, I actually felt sorry for him. I heard that he dropped out before he finished his senior year and died of a drug overdose in his early twenties. I am not sure if that is true.
Jose still lives in Santaquin and has a couple of kids. Deena is a mother of six, 3 of hers and 3 of her husband's. A waitress that aspires to be an artist. She sent a portfolio of her work to an agency in New York but the work was destroyed in the September 11th attacks.
