Damage Control: Stories by Dermont Amber

Author:Dermont, Amber [Dermont, Amber]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2013-03-26T00:00:00+00:00

ASSEMBLING THE TROOPS

THE SIDEKICK

The playground is where you cultivate your future. Stake out the boy crouching in the shade far away from the monkey bars. The one drawing in the mud with a stick. His name is Bobby Mopes, and though there is nothing wrong with him a Kleenex couldn’t fix, he is a target. Watch the Monkey Bar Boys circle. Let them tower over Bobby. Let Arnold Talon break the boy’s stick. Intervene moments before the first fist threatens to strike Bobby’s runny nose. You are a grade older, three inches taller. You hold the school’s Presidential Fitness Record for chin-ups. All you need to say is, “Hey,” and the would-be attackers scatter. This is how you breed loyalty, accountability, fear. Bobby won’t say thank you. He’ll hand you half of his remaining stick. In the wet dirt, sketch a rough map of France. Point to Omaha Beach. Say, “I’m enlisting you for Operation Overlord.” On the morning of June 6, 1944, while Nazi soldiers scanned the horizon, the full moon guided your grandfather’s transport ashore. The tide so low and the waves so clear your grandfather could see the German bombs hidden underwater. Bobby will nod. He’ll clutch the butt end of his rotting twig. Holding the trigger of kindling in his left hand, he will point to the swing set, the giant metal slide, the roundabout, cocking his thumb and firing. You are Danny Riley, World War II historian/schoolyard diplomat.

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