Low Blow
‘Blow! Blow! Blow! Blow!’
There was nothing like the merciless chanting of a classful of gloating children - thought Little Billy Marsden, as he stood in the middle of the circle of his so called mates on the schoolyard. He just did not understand the reason behind the bullying. His brown bowl cut was exactly the same as the other eight-year-old’s. He knew his ears were somewhat large and his grin was a bit toothy – not that he had so much reason to show it nowadays – but for him, these insignificant differences should not have mattered too much. He wasn’t even that small, though he was immediately nicknamed ‘Little’ from the very start. The only thing he could think of as a cause of his torment and misery was that he was the new boy.
‘Blow! Blow! Blow! Blow!’
Ever since Little Billy moved here, he was singled out and picked on. He desperately tried to make friends but all of his overtures had been brushed off. This is why, in another attempt to get others to talk to him, he admitted shyly to Charlie “The Boss” Brown that he had never blew a bubble with a bubblegum. On hindsight, he should have known that this particular piece of information might not be the best conversation starter, but Little Billy was just out of ideas. As he stood in the circle of his tormentors, chewing so slowly that the nauseatingly sweet gum was nearly frozen in motion, he knew with utmost certainty that by the time the next class started, he would be sporting a pink gooey slob all over his face. Humiliation seemed inevitable. As the insistent chanting went from gleeful to impatient, Little Billy knew that he had run out of time. With tightly shut eyes and tense, squared shoulders, he slightly opened his mouth and tongued the offending gum into the gap of his lips. In the minds of gathering some air into his lungs as well as some much needed courage, Little Billy heard a blissful sound which broke through the seemingly deafening noise of his classmates.
As the siren song of the school bell carried around the yard, the much disappointed crowd started to disperse, leaving Little Billy alone in the place of the no longer existing circle. As he cautiously followed the others, he knew that the bell cannot save him always. Among the chattering students hurrying towards their class, he could still hear the chanting.
‘Blow! Blow! Blow! Blow!’