Redemption by Danny Dufour Read Free Book Online Page B

face shiny with tears. She didn’t try to catch him; she didn’t have the will. She arranged the Namara’s funerals and organized a modest burial as had been requested in Mr. Namara’s will. All that they had, which wasn’t much, went to Danny. Few people attended the burial: principally, the work colleagues of both parents. Danny was dressed properly and he watched his parent’s caskets descent to the bottom of the hole. He threw a rose on each coffin, ready to be buried forever. Lucie, who had never seen Danny but smiling and in a good mood, never saw him laugh again. Something in him disappeared forever. This pained her even more, knowing that the Namaras were good people. They had had difficulties, they’d worked hard their whole life to attain the modest comfort they had and they adored Danny. They didn’t deserve what had hit them. Life wasn’t fair. She watched little Danny dressed in black before the two tombs that were being covered with earth.
    The time came again for Danny to change families. It was the fourth this year. Again this time, he had to gather up his personal possessions and move them. He wasn’t upset to leave. They were nice, but he didn’t feel at home. He missed his parents, a sadness accompanied him all his days.
    More than hating his family situation, he had begun to be bullied by a band of youths his age who chased him for the fun of drawing out fear. At the end of the school day, they were waiting for him to shove him. The four kids laughed at him and called him names because they saw that he was always alone. For them, he was different. They had it in their heads that Danny was a studious pupil and that merited his being the butt of their jokes. A kid who was popular was in all evidence one who didn’t like to learn. When they laughed at him, Danny didn’t respond. He told himself that they were imbeciles and they would eventually get tired and leave him alone. However, ignoring them increased his problems. The jokes transformed to hatred toward him and words changed to pushes over time. For a while, he was followed at the end of the day and again, beaten up by the quartet.
    “Take it, Namara!” shouted a kid throwing a right hook across his jaw.
    “Come on, wimp, show us what you can do!” said another, giving him a shove.
    “Leave me alone,” said Danny, trying to put distance between them.
    The other kids held him to stop him from leaving. Another kid sent him a punch directly on the nose, throwing him to the ground. All burst out laughing.
    “Awwww… poor baby. He’s going to call his mama to help him!”
    “Look, he’s going to cry like a baby!”
    Everyone laughed, happy with their result. They left, leaving Danny on the ground with a bloody nose and with a black eye. But he wasn’t crying. He stood, gathering up his backpack and he headed home, blood on his sweater. He changed at home and camouflaged the shiner as much as possible without saying anything. They asked him about his black eye, but he responded only that he had fallen off his bike. No one pressed to know more.
    *     *     *
    Danny didn’t really know how to fix the situation until the day he passed in front of a kung fu school several blocks from where he stayed. He read the sign: “Wing Chun Kung Fu”. Not knowing anything about martial arts, he decided to enter out of curiosity. Inside, it was an atmosphere of peace with the aroma of incense coming upon his nose. He gazed at the Chinese scrolled hung on the walls which he couldn’t read. He looked at the walls and saw there were weapons of all kinds, mostly staffs and knives. The place was vast and surrounded by mirrors. What attracted the most attention was the wooden dummy at the back of the space. One might have called it a wooden torso attached to the floor. However, the torso appeared to have four pieces of wood jutting out, three symbolizing arms, and the other, legs. Danny found the implement curious. Must be training equipment .