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The next morning, Jax and Gary came over about ten thirty, and we sat down in my living room and spent nearly an hour pondering how to fill the boring day. Our color TV only had three channels, and we weren’t rich enough to own a VCR or video game console like Atari, so anything we did to pass the time involved an outdoor activity.
“You know what we should do?” I had what I thought was a brilliant idea.
“What?” Gary rolled his eyes and yawned.
“We need to start our own gang.”
My parents had recently taken me to see the Clint Eastwood movie Any Which Way You Can, a sequel to Every Which Way but Loose, and it had become one of my favorites. It had lots of action and laugh-out-loud funny moments, especially all of the parts that included a bumbling biker gang called the Black Widows.
“Do you guys have a white T-shirt?”
Gary and Jax nodded.
“Go home and get your T-shirts, and we’re going to make our own biker gang.”
They came back within the hour, rumpled white T-shirts in hand. Jax’s had yellowed with age, and Gary’s had a shoe store logo in the top right.
“It’s all I could find.” Gary shrugged.
We used black and red markers to draw a black widow with a red hourglass on its back and write the words Black Widows above them on each of our shirts.
“I brought my dad’s leather jacket!” Jax put it on over his new T-shirt. It was a classier style of jacket, like the one my grandpa wore, and it completely drowned him.
“That’s not exactly a biker jacket,” Gary said, and it wasn’t.
“No big deal. I’ll just roll up the sleeves.”
“What should we do now?” Gary asked.
We all exchanged silent glances. It was one o’clock in the afternoon. The skies were clear blue, and the temperature had risen to the mid-eighties. We couldn’t have asked for a better day.
“Let’s finish building the Millennium Falcon,” Jax suggested, and I sighed.
“All we have done is the boarding ramp,” Gary said.
“Yeah, but it’s an awesome boarding ramp.”
“Jax, we don’t have any more wood to build the rest of it. Plus, you always get to be Han Solo and make me Chewbacca.”
“You are a good Chewbacca.” Gary chuckled with a sly grin.
“Easy for you to say. You get to be Luke Skywalker.”
“We could build a fort over at the Moguls,” Jax said.
“What’s with you and all the building? Last time, we spent three days building that thing, and then it fell apart,” Gary said.
“Let’s ride to the Moguls and practice our tricks,” I said, and Gary nodded agreement.
Jax merely surrendered to the idea with a shrug of his shoulders.
We’d just stepped outside in the hot sun to get on our bikes when Devin, who was two years younger than us, rode up to my house on his bike. Fretful panic was written all over Devin’s wide-eyed face.
“Guys, guys!” He jumped off his bike and let it fall to the ground as he ran over to us.
“What do you want, pipsqueak?” Gary called out to him, but Devin ignored his comment and turned to me.
“He took my bike pads! He stole them, took ’em right out from under me. I saw him. I was just washing my bike and—” Devin gestured with his hands madly.
I interrupted him to stop his words from coming at me like a speedball. “Easy, buddy, I can’t understand a word. Someone stole your bike pads?”
“It was Fernando.”
Fernando? I asked myself. He’d been my friend at one time, but we’d stopped hanging out together about a year ago. He was a decent guy, but we didn’t have much in common.
“I just got brand-new pads for my bike,” Devin continued. “They were sitting on my driveway while I washed my bike. I wanted it cleaned before I put the pads on. Then Fernando showed up and started making fun of me.”
I thought of how long I’d scrimped and saved for my own pads. Sure, they were just decorative tubing that made the bike look classier and tougher, but they were like gold to us.
“Yeah, he was swearing and calling me names and things.” Devin scowled.
“And that was it. I went to turn the hose off and get a towel to dry off my bike, and when I came back, Fernando was gone, and so were my bike pads. They’re worth a lot of money, and my mom’s gonna kill me. I know he took ’em. He was the only one that could’ve.”
For a split second, I saw several holes in his story and things that needed more explanation. I knew Fernando, and he wasn’t that kind of guy... at least he hadn’t been when we were friends. Fernando came over to yell at him? He must have done something to start it. As my dad always said, it took two to tango. But I was a twelve-year-old kid with my new gang. We were suddenly being idolized by a younger kid who needed our protection, and our bravado took over. I’d heard enough to believe Devin and his story.
“Tell you what, Devin. We’ll get those pads back for you. This is a job for the Black Widows.”
Devin looked at me quizzically.
“You want to be part of our gang?” I asked him.
Jax opened the flaps of his jacket to show his T-shirt beneath, and Gary turned his back to him so he could see the spider and words written on his back.
“Cool!” Devin exclaimed. “Yeah, I want to be in your gang.”
“All right, let’s go! We’ll make your T-shirt later.”
I jumped on my bike, feeling tough and taller than my four feet and ten inches. We were heroes riding off to save the day for a victim younger and weaker than us. We rode side by side, our line of bikes stretched the width of the road. If we’d been in a movie, music would build behind us to add intensity. We were cowboys marching down the main street of town, shoulder to shoulder.
There was strength in numbers, and we felt it as we rode up to the front of Fernando’s home. He was outside, watering their trees in the flowerbeds with a hose, and I realized I didn’t have a plan. I had nothing.
Devin started yelling, the tension rose, and I went with it.
“Where are my bike pads, Fernando?” Devin shouted, braver now that we stood next to him.
“How should I know?” Fernando frowned and shrugged while holding the hose ready at his side.
“You stole ’em. After I washed my bike, you took them.”
“No, I didn’t!” He gestured wildly with his free hand.
“Don’t mess with the Black Widows!” Jax said.
“Who’s the Black Widows?” Fernando asked.
“We are.” Chin held high, chest puffed out, I stared him down.
Why are you glaring at me? Fernando’s face seemed to say. What are you doing here?
Gary turned his back to Fernando, so he could see the spider and the lettering to prove who we were.
“You’re a gang?” He cocked his head to the side with an unbelieving sneer.
“That’s right, and we’re here to get Pat’s bike pads back!” Jax said. “Where are they?”
“I don’t have them.” Fernando’s voice cracked, and his body shook.
“Just give them back, Fernando. Don’t make us have to come get them!” I said.
“You guys better get outta here!” Fernando warned.
“Or what?” Jax demanded.
Gary hung back and stayed silent throughout the entire conversation.
“I’m going to call the cops!”
“Oooh,” Jax mocked.
Devin jumped off his bike and marched across the lawn toward Fernando. Fernando turned, hose in hand, and sprayed Devin. The nozzle blasted Devin with a powerful burst of water, and he turned and ran back to his bike.
Fernando targeted all of us with the hose, swiping the nozzle back and forth. “I’m going to call the cops!”
Gary had to take his glasses off and wipe them clean. Then we rode our bikes out of the range of the shooting water and circled back and forth.
“Did you take the bike pads?” I demanded of Fernando.
“I told you I didn’t!”
“Yes, you did!” Devin shouted.
I motioned for him to calm down then turned to Fernando again. “Let’s see your bike then.”
“No! You get outta here, or I’ll call the cops!”
He shot water at me, and I kicked my bike forward out of the way.
“Just let us see for ourselves. If your bike doesn’t have his pads on it, then we’ll leave you alone!”
“No! Get outta here!” His voice cracked, and I noticed his hands shaking. “I’m calling the cops!”
I was upset. I had come up with a brilliant solution, but he wouldn’t let us see his bike, and that made me wonder what he had to hide.
Jax inched closer, and Fernando saw him. A jet of water hit Jax square in the chest, turning him back.
“Look, Fernando, we gotta go eat lunch. When we’re done with lunch, we’re coming back, and you better be ready to show us your bike, or give us Devin’s bike pads!” I said.
“Or what?”
“We’ll beat you up.” My own words shocked me. I’ve never said those words to anyone. I saw the hurt in his eyes. Why?
I turned and led my gang away. Everyone headed to their own houses for lunch, and we planned to meet back up in an hour. Stepping inside my house, I felt the swamp cooler moisten my heated body.
I made a bologna sandwich and sat down to eat it in front of the TV, where Scott was watching cartoons. I told him the story of our gang, Fernando, and the stolen bike pads. He couldn’t believe it.
Shortly after I finished my sandwich and chips, a knock banged on our front door. I walked to the door and opened it. Standing on the front step was the last person I expected to see.
Pressed pants, leather utility belt, gun holstered on the hip, and a sheriff’s badge on his breast, the tall man looked down at me. “You Ret McCoy?”
“Y-yes,” I stammered. Oh, my hell. He actually called the cops!
“Is your mom or dad home?”
Scott stared from the couch, jaw dropped and eyes wide.
I shook my head. “No.”
“Can you step outside, please? I need to have a word with you.”
Me? In trouble with the law? It was too incredible. If the cop had come and asked for Tadd or Jeff, that would have been no surprise, but me?
I walked outside and saw his police car parked at the curb. Several of our neighbors were standing on their front lawns to get a look. Mrs. Crawford from across the street walked out in her blue robe, which dragged on the ground. Tadd and Jeff had a reputation of getting into trouble, and I could hear the neighbors now. “It’s those McCoy boys again. What did they do now?”
Sheriff Orrin Packard looked down at me. He was broad shouldered, with black hair cut short and clean, a square jaw, and ice-blue eyes. He looked tough, like he wasn’t going to take any bullshit, so I shouldn’t even try.
“Tell me what happened,” he demanded.
I answered like any idiot would. “About what?”
He stabbed me with a look, and I spilled it. “My friend, Devin, had his bike pads stolen, and we went to get them back. That’s all.”
“Devin Mullins?”
I nodded agreement.
“He knows they were stolen?”
“H-he thinks so.”
“And he saw who stole them?”
“No, he just... I don’t know.”
“What do you think he should have done if he thought they were stolen?”
I shrugged while looking at the ground in shame.
He hooked a thumb at his chest then at his car.
“Called the cops?” I asked.
“Called the cops! Brilliant idea! Maybe he could have talked to his parents first. Think that would be smart?”
I nodded.
“Fernando Gonzales said you and some other boys showed up at his house and threatened him.”
A lead weight dropped in my stomach.
“He said you were going to beat him up.”
I looked at the ground shamefully.
“Look at me, son.”
I moved my eyes back up.
“What do you call your gang?”
“The Black Widows,” I said, my voice barely a whisper.
“Turn around.”
I did.
He looked at the design on my shirt and shook his head in disappointment. “Do you know what happens in a gang?”
I shook my head.
“Nothing good ever comes from a gang. You start getting into lots of trouble. Stealing, fighting, drugs, and alcohol. What do you think your parents would say?”
I gulped, imagining a scolding from my parents.
“There was how many of you?”
“Four.”
“Four of you? And how many Fernandos?”
“J-just one.”
“Do you think that’s fair?”
I shook my head again.
“I went to visit him. He’s shaking like a wet dog and crying. He is frightened that you and your gang are coming back to hurt him. Is that what you want to do?”
“No.”
Sheriff Packard looked up at the sky then looked down the street in the direction of Fernando’s home.
“I came to arrest you.”
Hairs all over my body stood up straight.
“You’re in some real trouble here,” he said, laying it on thick.
I know now he had no intention of arresting me. He was putting the fear in me.
“I got a scared boy with no friends and a gang who wants to hurt him.”
“No, I don’t want to hurt him. I really don’t.”
“What should I do? What do you think you should do?”
I shoved my hands into my pockets and looked down the street toward his house like that would give me my answer. “I’ll leave him alone. We won’t bother him anymore.” I looked back at Packard. “I promise. I’m sorry.”
“You’re sorry? Who else might you think needs to hear that?”
“He does.” I nodded in his direction.
Sheriff Packard nodded. “That’s right. You need to go down there and apologize to him. After that, you need to get rid of those T-shirts. No more Black Widows. Don’t let me hear that your gang is riding the streets anymore. I’ll be watching.”
I nodded. “Are you going to talk to my mom and dad?”
Nothing frightened me more than my parents finding out.
Sheriff Packard paused, then he looked directly into my eyes. “I think it will be all right this time. I won’t tell them, but you have to promise me no more Black Widows. And you have to go and tell Fernando you’re sorry.”
Bottom lip trembling, I said, “Yes. I will.”
“He could use a friend.” Packard’s eyes grew softer, and a warm smile crept up. “Summer’s too short not to have friends.”
Sheriff Packard was wrong. The summer was too long without friends. I had spent those summers before, right after moving to a new town. They were long, boring, and hot.
The sheriff placed a pair of dark sunglasses on his face and looked around. Most of the neighbors had gone back inside once they’d realized no one was getting cuffed or dragged away. It was just a young boy learning a tough lesson. Only Mrs. Crawford lingered outside, pretending to water her lawn with a hose. She wasn’t fooling anyone, though. She was the gossip queen of the neighborhood. Anyone who wanted to know what was going on with a certain somebody just had to go to Mrs. Crawford, and she would know about it. Well, at least she knew the rumors and half-truths.
“Be good, Ret.” Sheriff Packard marched to his car.
“You too,” I called after him, sounding like an idiot again. “I mean, have a good day!”
I turned back to my house and saw the drapes in our front room window ruffle. Scott had been spying the whole time. I couldn’t blame him.
***
I DIDN’T CALL GARY, Jax, or Devin. They could do their own thing. I was doing mine.
As I rode my bike down the street to Fernando’s house, I saw Sheriff Packard driving away, and Fernando sat on his front steps, head down.
I parked my bike on the sidewalk, slowly dismounted, and kicked the kickstand.
“Hey, Fernando,” I called out with a friendly tone.
He barely glanced up and didn’t say a word.
“Sorry about everything.” I stood ten feet away, feeling awkward. “I just got carried away. You know Devin... so much drama.”
Still silence. I waited for a response or a look... anything. I was about to turn away when he finally lifted his head and spoke.
“I thought we were friends,” he said.
I wanted to cry. I felt like crap. “Well... yeah. Of course we are. I mean, we don’t hang out anymore, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t friends.”
“Why did you do that?”
“I don’t know. Honestly, I don’t. I’m stupid.” I shook my head, frustrated. I had no answers for him or myself.
“I would never steal anything,” he said.
“I know.” I shrugged. “I know.”
The look in his eyes said he was telling the truth. A million other things could have happened to Devin’s bike pads. Several times, I’d accused my brother of stealing my toys, only to find out later I had misplaced them myself. I was sure Devin’s bike pads were the same.
We shared an awkward moment of silence. The right thing to do was invite him to ride bikes with me and my friends, but I didn’t want to. I wasn’t that close to him, and I didn’t know how he would fit in. I approached him and poked my hand out.
“Friends?” I asked.
He took my hand and shook it. “Friends.”
“You know, you can come play with us. We’re just going to ride our bikes over at the Moguls and mess around.” I did it anyway. I’d invited him, but he didn’t seem interested.
“Nah, I gotta do some chores around the house, and I told my sister I’d play with her.”
“Okay. Well, if you change your mind, you know where we’re at.”
He nodded. We said goodbyes, and I mounted my steed and rode away. I’d done the right thing, and it felt good. I’d grown up some, I thought. Looking at the situation through Fernando’s eyes, I knew I never wanted to hurt anyone again. I wouldn’t want to be treated that way, and no one else did, either. I was glad Sheriff Packard had come to my house and scared the shit out of me. Sometimes, a kid needs it.