“I shall do no such thing. If there is any more of this, I’ll dismiss you from school.”
“Hah!” Rad said. “You’ll do no such thing. Pa paid for the term, and you try dismissing me. Pa would be down here to see you. He’d be down mighty quick!” Meanwhile, I opened my books, getting out my slate. Mr. Fraser looked at me but said nothing. His face was pale and he was angry. Perhaps he was frightened, too. His existence depended on the school, and I suspected he hadn’t the money to return to Rad’s father if he dismissed him.
Rad glared at me, but subsided. He opened his books; then he whispered, “You wait until school’s out! You just wait!”
Something fell from my lips to the slate. It was a drop of blood. I wiped it off, staring bitterly at the place where it had fallen. What was I to do? He would beat me and kick me again when school was out. Nobody would stop him. Still dazed, I hung my head over my slate and felt like crying, but I did not cry. I would not give him the satisfaction. Somehow, I would… He could hit very hard. He would hit me again and again. He would kick me. “Hit them in the stomach,” my fatter had advised, but Rad’s arms were too long. I knew so little about fistfighting, but I had wrestled with the Indian boys. I could throw them all, except Francisco, and once in a while I could throw him. When Mr. Fraser called on me to read from the story of William Tell, I almost did not hear him. Then I stood up and read. Slowly, because of my swollen lips, but I read well.
“Very good, Johannes,” Mr. Fraser said.
“Hah!” Rad sneered.
Seated again, I scarcely listened to what was happening. I was thinking, thinking hard, and I was scared. I didn’t want to be hit again. I did not want to take a beating and have them all seeing me lying in the dust. I had to do something.
One thing I knew. I was not going to move. I did not know Meghan. I did not care to know Meghan, but I was not going to move. He could kill me, but I would stay right where I was.
Yet, what could I do? Something … My father used to say there was always a way. There was an answer to everything. If I could only … Maybe…
Soon the class would break up and I must go outside again. Thomas Fraser might protect me here, but away from the school he could do nothing. There was movement at the door, and I looked up.
She stood just inside, the sunlight touching her hair. It was red-gold. She was slender, graceful as a willow, and beautiful. This was Meghan … and I was in love.
Twenty-two
She paused for a moment in the doorway, the sunlight on her red-gold hair. Then she crossed the room and sat down beside me. Automatically I arose, stepping back for her. She gave me a quick smile and I trembled. She seated herself and I sat down beside her. The edge of her dress brushed my trouser leg. “Miss Laurel,” Fraser said, “our new student, Mr. Vickery, has just read a part of William Tell. You might read the conclusion, up as far as the shooting of the apple.”
She read easily, beautifully, in a low, well-modulated tone, but I did not look up. My eyes remained riveted to the lines, although scarcely seeing them. I was conscious of a faint perfume, fresh, flowerlike. When I did look up, Rad was glaring at me, and I felt myself go sick and empty. He would attack me again, as he had threatened. He would beat me, and I would go down in the dust again, as before. Only now it would be different. She would be there. She would see it. She would think me contemptible. In fear and agony I waited for the class to be over. Jacob Finney was coming by for me with my horse. We were riding out to the tar pits along the old Indian trail.
As I started to rise, I turned toward Meghan and she gasped. “Oh, your poor face! What happened?”
“It was a fight. I think there will be another now.”
“Rad! It was Rad, wasn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“He should be ashamed of himself! Picking on someone smaller than himself!”
“He’s not so big.”
We had started toward the door, but as I stepped back to allow her to go through the door ahead of me, a hand grasped my shoulder and I was shoved aside. Rad stepped into my place and moved up beside her.
Now I was angry. Out in the yard he started walking away beside her. He had brushed me aside as if I were nothing. Inside me there was cold fury. I fought it down.
“What’s the matter?” I called after him. “Are you scared?” He stopped abruptly and turned around. They all did, even Mr. Fraser, who stopped in the doorway as he started back inside. “Scared? Scared of you?” He put down his books and started toward me.
Now you’re in for it, I told myself. Don’t let him hit you. Wrestle! He was larger in every way, and much heavier, but how much did he know? He had his fists up ready to strike, and mine were up too; then suddenly I dove, grasping his ankle with both hands and throwing my weight against his knee as I jerked up on the ankle. He toppled over on his back. Instantly, holding his ankle in my right armpit, I stepped across his body, half-turning him toward the ground. Then I dropped to a sitting position on his buttocks, facing the opposite way. The Indians had taught me this, and I knew I had only to put more pressure on his ankle and his hip would be dislocated. I leaned back a little, and he cried out. Fraser had turned and was coming toward us. Out on the street Jacob Finney had come up with my horse and his. He sat his saddle, watching.
Meghan stood with the other girls, their faces showing excitement and shock.
“Let him up!” Mr. Fraser ordered.
“Ask him first if he will let me alone. I want no more trouble.”
“Will you let him alone, Rad?” Fraser asked.
“I’ll kill him!”
I leaned back again, and this time he screamed. Then he said, “No! No! Get off me! I won’t do nothin’!”
Letting go, I got up. Rad lay still for a moment, then got up painfully. Wary, I backed off.
“Now, that’s quite enough!” Fraser spoke sharply. “We’ll have no more of this!
Any more trouble between you, and I shall dismiss you both, do you understand?”
“I never wanted trouble,” I said.
Rad glowered but said nothing. Meghan glanced at me, then turned her back and walked away with the other girls, Delia and Kelda. Turning to Mr. Fraser, I said, “I am sorry, sir. I wanted no trouble.” When I reached my horse, Jacob looked at my face. “Looks like you taken a few,” he said.
“That was earlier. His arms are too long.”
“You done all right, seemed to me. Where’d you learn that fancy stuff?”
“From the Indian boys. They wrestle all the time.” “Feller downtown. Man I know. He’s pretty good with his mitts. He’s boxed in New Orleans, New York, an’ London. We got to get you with him. You fight that boy again an’ he mayn’t let you get hold of him. Not if he’s smart. He’ll just stand off an’ punch your lights out.”
We rode in silence for a few minutes and then he said, “This place we’re goin’. They call it the tar pits. Comes right up out of the ground. The water has oil in it, too, seems like. An’ gas. It bubbles right up through the water, the bubble floats a minute or two, then busts. Animals get stuck in it. Other animals an’ buzzards come there to feed on the ones that get trapped. “Folks hereabout, Injuns, Californios an’ such, they use the tar on their roofs. Use it to watertight their boats, too. The Chumash Injuns who live along the coast, they used it first.
“The Chumash make mighty fine boats. Some carry eight to ten people, maybe more. They use tar along the seams to make the boats watertight. They used to go out to the islands off the coast, to Catalina, Santa Barbara, an’ the like. The Chumash were right handy with boats, but they’re gettin’ fewer and fewer all the time.”
He pointed off to his left. “Off down there’s a big cienaga. Sort of swamplike. The river used to run down there and just spread out. Then about fifteen years ago she broke through to the sea an’ drained most of that. Still mighty good grazing land. Green grass and some water down there most of the time. The Californios have some of their roundups down thataway. “This trail runs all the way to the sea. There’s a bay along there, Santa Monica Bay. Not much protection, though, in bad weather. She’s too open. “Miss Nesselrode, she wants you to know the country around, and the folks.”