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long, long night.
It lasted a week.
It lasted a week, and she got bored with me, and told me very nicely to stop coming around. It hurt,
and hurt bad but what else could I expect, with a face that would make a very handsome chimpanzee,
but not much of a human male? Ever since then, I've listened to that little voice inside me that says,
"Hold back!"
So I listened to it this time, too. I knew I might regret it, but I wouldn't be sorry.
Then I turned the corner, and I was sorry.
There were four of them, and they were all tall, scowling, and thick with muscle.
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I stopped, every nerve thrilling with adrenaline.
They just stood there glaring at me, their hands balled into fists. They were young their beards
weren't very thick. Their heads probably were, but not their beards.
I gave them my friendly, loose smile, the one that makes me look like a chump who can be beaten
up without any risk, and waited.
Emboldened by it, the one in front said, "We do not want strangers about our womenfolk!"
"I was just giving her an escort home," I said, "and from the look of you, she needed it."
"We would not turn on one of our own!" one of the boys in back protested.
"No, unless you thought she was encouraging a stranger," I said, "and you could jump to that
conclusion as soon as you wanted a fight."
The kid turned red in the face and lunged forward, bringing up his fists but the one in front
stopped him with a hand across his chest, never taking his eyes from me. "Nay, Jeremiah. Do not let him
taunt you. Let us seek to make him see reason first."
"Oh, I'm very reasonable," I assured him.
"And when you were standing so close to Prudence, just now?" Jeremiah bawled. "Did you seek to
'reason' with her? Or to corrupt her? Let me smite him, Nahum!"
"Nay, Jeremiah," the leader said, still holding him back. "Stranger, will you undertake to stay away
from our women?"
"Sure," I said, "if they stay away from me."
"You must send them away!" another ranker shouted. "We will not have them near you!"
I shook my head. "No. That would be very rude."
"Rude!" the fourth kid bawled. "We shall be rude to you, and worse, if you go near them! If they
come, send them away!"
"They'll get mad at me, boys unless you want me to tell them, 'Sorry, can't talk now. Your young
men told me not to.' "
"He mocks us," the third one snarled, and started for me.
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"Nay, Hezekiah!" Nahum put out his other arm. "Stranger, give us your promise, or I shall loose
them!"
"Who gave you the authority?" I countered. "You don't look like police."
"The Lord has given us authority! We must act in defense of our sisters, as He wishes!"
"It seems more likely to me that He'd want them to be able to do as they thought right," I pointed
out. "After all, He gave them free will, too."
"He debases holy doctrine by using it to excuse vice!" Jeremiah cried.
"He does indeed." Nahum's face went hard as he dropped his arm. "Teach him the fear of the Lord,
brothers."
10
I was glad Merlo wasn't there. He would have found a way to stop me.
They came for me with fists windmilling, about as scientific as an avalanche. I ducked under
Nahum's first punch; his second caught me a glancing blow on the head painful, and justifying what I
wanted to do, but not enough to slow me down. I came up inside his guard with a quick combination of
punches. He stumbled back, looking surprised, and I took off running.
I made about fifty meters with shocked silence behind me. Then they shouted and came pelting
after.
I ran about half my ordinary speed, and they galloped flat out. I glanced behind and saw that
Hezekiah was way out in front of the other two good. I waited a few seconds longer, until I could hear
his feet pounding close behind me, then stopped and pivoted, ducking and swinging a roundhouse right.
I caught him right in the belly, with all his own momentum. It damn near shoved my arm back into
my shoulder socket, but he folded over my fist and went down, way down. He sank to his knees, hands
pressed to his middle, making strangling, gargling noises.
"Hey, are you hurt?" I meant it; it was scary. I dropped down beside him and started massaging his
lower back, though I didn't think it would do much good. Nothing really to worry about but there was
always the chance that I had damaged something inside him. He wasn't going to be able to breathe for a
few minutes, though, and that's very, very scary indeed. He'd need some moral support at least.
His friends came pounding up and hovered, at a loss, not knowing what to do. They could see I
wasn't hurting him, was even trying to help. I looked up at them, nodding. "That's right nothing we can
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do, except wait till it passes. It will, though and he'll have a sore stomach for a couple of days."
They looked a little reassured, but very puzzled I wasn't following their script.
I was following my own just fine, though. Oh, I wouldn't have tried this in New York, or Detroit,
where I came from, or even the rougher neighborhoods of some of me smaller cities but these boys
were nice kids, really, and they were basically moral, though I wouldn't have agreed with their mores. So
with them, it worked.
Nahum came galumphing up behind them, a bit on the woozy side. He saw what I was doing and
frowned. Here was the dangerous part it was his pride against his innate decency. He might decide I
was evil just to save his own face.
Fortunately, just then, Hezekiah gave a rattling gasp, and I knew his diaphragm had unkinked.
"There you go!" I slapped his back gently. "Just takes a little while. You'll be breathing fine in a
minute or two."
He proved I was right by drawing another breath.
"He'll be okay now." I stood up. "Hurting, but okay." I stepped into the middle of the street,
bringing up my fists clenched Korean style. "Who's next?'
There was a startling lack of interest, Jeremiah and Number Four glancing covertly at each other.
Before they could toss a coin, though, Nahum stepped out and said, " 'Tis me. You have only scored me
once, after all."
"And you scored me." I nodded. "Ready when you are."
That easily, I had turned a gang into four single combats because they were basically decent. And
from my helping Hezekiah, little though it may have been, they knew I was, too.
Nahum's fist came fast and hard, a low left I was expecting, the high right I was expecting to follow
it, but the next left came in high, when I had expected low. It caught me off guard; I blocked it, but not
too well, and his fist clipped me on the jaw. Pain shot through the side of my head, and I skipped back,
to give it a little time to clear, and Nahum followed in fast. For a few seconds, it was all I could do to
block his punches, and some of them got througli pain seared my ribs, shot through my belly. I ached
to jump and kick, but I knew they'd count it cheating I had to stick to boxing. That was all they'd
understand, since I had cut it down to single combat.
Then my head cleared, and I blocked the next punch, then feinted. Nahum moved to cover the feint [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] - zanotowane.pl
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