CHOOSE RANT

Title:   Beating of a Lifetime Day:    June 15th, 1998 Author:  Ruiner Song Playing:   'Sex Type Thing', by Stone Temple Pilots. Always loved that album. And I had it playing on the infmaous car ride there. Always neat how I can relate certain songs to traumatic events in my life.				Play it again, sam. You know, I was relaxing over at a friend's house the other day and realized what the date was. April 17th, and the year was 1998. Wow, a five-year anniversary of sorts... This is a story that I tell everyone sooner or later. It's important because it really shaped my life. At one point in my life I was fairly idealistic. I thought that everything was cool, and I really had no problems. Most people either like me or don't understand me enough to try. But I didn't really think there were any out there who'd hate me, or at least want to do violence to me. If you haven't figured it out by now, I was wrong. Some friends of mine, a couple, were out on a camping trip and wouldn't be back until late that Friday night, or possibly Saturday morning. The lady in the relationship had a daughter of a previous marriage, a troublesome girl who was kind of fun to mess around with. I had been talking to her recently, flirting (something we did exceptionally well), but nothing really past that. I knew she was home alone, since she was out of school, and had no car. I had called that night, planning to stop by and keep her company. Sure I had nefarious schemes in my head, but that cannot be helped. So I finished up work at my second shift job and made my way to their house. After a fun little drive, I arrived to find a dark house. She had no car, so it was impossible to tell if she was around or not. We had spoken on the phone, and she knew I was coming. As I got out of the car, I noticed that the sliding glass door was open. Not your usual thing for this house, especially with all the lights out. So, concerned I went up to the house. Heck, there was always the chance that she was playing with my head in an interesting way, seeing what I'd do. At the house, there was no one home. I called out, no answer. Turned some lights on and looked around, but no sign of her. Well, being a concerned kind of guy, I figured I would lock up. Any malcontent could slide up and just start taking things. So I found some paper and began to write a note to her, her parents, whomever, letting them know that I was locking up. Tough luck to her if she left the house like this without a key. While I'm doing this there was a visitor at the door. A tall male that I didn't recognize, but I had heard descriptions and knew him to be Orlando, the girl's former boyfriend. To give you a short background on my buddy Orlando, let's just call him a troublemaker to the nth degree. Always getting into fights, suspected of worse crimes, even though he's only eighteen. Had got into some scuffles with a friend of mine, but this friend was former airborne ranger, so he had no problems with the conflict. So this guy is there, and he asks if I can come outside, cos' he wants to ask me something. Now, for the most part, I'm no dummy. I know this guy is trouble, but hey, I'm not concerned. Who would want to mess with me. I outweighed him by probably fifty pounds anyway. So I go outside. I go outside and the guy is ballistic! He's ranting and raving about his girlfriend and did I upset her, and what did I do. Dude really didn't make much sense, and I wasn't trying hard anyway. So I kind of don't worry about him, and still plan to lock the house up and leave the place. This fool attacks me! Raps me in the head a couple of times, gets me disoriented. Yes, I'll have to confess that although I am a strapping guy, I grew up solo, so I didn't get all that wonderful experience fighting with brothers. Hell, I can vaguely remember any fights, so this guy definitely had that advantage. So there I am, beginning to get the hell beat out of me. Didn't have a clue how to defend myself. I figure that I could take a simple ass-whipping, that's no problem, even if it is undeserved. But this guy pushed the envelope. He reaches over and grabs out a brand new shovel from the porch. While I was down, he whacked me in the head several times. I came to find out later that this actually broke the shovel in two... oww, me head. At another point in the conflict, he had me down on my back. He was overtop of me, choking the life out of me. A pleasant experience I can assure you, realizing that this is it, you're gonna die, and this fool is the one who killed you. Anyway, for some reason or another, he decides to leave me be. Maybe, even though he has the advantage for once in his life, he doesn't want to kill me. He leaves me there, and walks away. Even though the beating, shovel and all, I was still conscious. I rose up and told him he's a dead man, knowing that my friends would avenge me. So, he promptly turned around and came back to beat my ass some more. I think this was where he broke the shovel. He eventually hauled me up and towards my car, cursing me all the way. Told me to never come around here again or he'd kill me next time. I was delirious, but still fairly sharp. I reached under the seat of my car and pulled out a .45 pistol that I had been carrying around for emergencies. It was sweet, because I pointed it at him after he said he'd kill me, and I asked, 'like this?'. But no, I did not shoot him. He turned at high speed and ran away, slipping and falling as he did. I got a big insane laugh out of that. So, all bloody, I figured I shouldn't wash up there, in case he came back. Time to drive. I looked at the small finger on my left hand and noticed it was broken at an odd angle, so I snapped it back into place. And I began to drive. Ever see Bad Moon Rising, where Tommy Lee Jones is driving around after such a beating? I thought it was neat, but I made it to a friends and wound up at the hospital. 17 stitches in the head, broken finger, multiple bruises. The couple whose house it was at sad that my blood was all over the porch. A harrowing experience to say the least. To wrap this story up, since I've talked for so long, we did go to court over this. Even though he had a previous record, he had recently turned eighteen, so all that was locked away. With a 'pristine' record, he only got probation, and to pay my hospital bills. Great. Me, I actually gained something from it. Even though I think violence in stories and the movies is cool, I am utterly non-violent (except on the highway ;). I wish harm upon no one, and have become fairly adept at talking problems out. If I ever do get in another scuffle, I hope I'll have the sense to run... B.Mooney