back and shoved him away. He tried once more and I hit him with a flurry of lefts and rights. He put his hands up to protect his head and I started hooking him in the ribs, left, right, driving off my legs, out of a crouch like they had taught me.
He quit.
He put both hands against the back of his head, and shielded his face with his forearms, and doubled up and dropped to his knees. I thought about kicking him. My heart was pumping, my breath was hard but steady, I could feel the rhythm of the fight in my whole self. I shook my head. Instead I looked around at the circle of boys.
'Anybody else?' I said.
Nobody met my eyes. As I surveyed the circle, I saw Jeannie behind it, near my father's truck.
'She come get you?' I said to my father.
'She did,' he said.
I looked around the circle again. Then I looked at Leo, still crouched on the ground.
'Over,' I said.
With his hand still clasped to his head, Leo nodded.
'You need a ride home?' my father said to Leo.
Leo shook his head.
'Your old man has anything he wants to discuss with me,' my father said, 'or Cash or Patrick, he knows where we live.'
Leo shook his head again. My father stared down at him.
'You're not going to tell him, are you?' my father asked.
With his head still protected, looking at the ground, Leo said, 'No.'
'Why not?' my father said.
'He'd yell at me for losing,' Leo said.
My father reached down and took hold of Leo's arm and helped him stand.
'He's wrong to do that,' my father said. 'Everybody loses sometime. You ever need to talk, come see me.'
Leo nodded.
My uncle Cash looked at the circle of kids still standing around uneasily.
'Time to go home,' Cash said.
Nobody moved for a moment.
'Now,' Cash said. 'Right now.'
The kids sort of came awake and turned and went off in various directions.
Jeannie came over.
'I'll walk you home,' she said to Leo.
I said, 'Thanks, Jeannie.'
She nodded and patted my shoulder. Then she took Leo's arm and led him toward home.
'She feels sorry for him,' Patrick said.
'I do too,' I said.
