For students walking back and forth to school, there were occasional houses that had a sign in the window of a large red circle. About once a month, all of the students who walked were reminded of this, in case they suffered an emergency of some sort.  Whether it be a problem with a person, a medical issue or the student needed to contact their family or school.  This year, the students were reminded more then usual, because they changed the sign of the red dot, to that of a green hand, saying that the program is new and improved.

This year, it was a bigger deal than normal, it was no longer the red dot in the window, but a new sign of a green hand. They called changing a sign, a new program? It didn't make sense to me, but they said it was better one.

For a couple of days, Jean wasn't at school and I found out that she had been sick. I decided that maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to knock on her door to make sure she was alright. I asked to do things with her and the answer was always, "No!" I made the suggestion that I would like to meet her parents and I am sure that they would want to meet me; Jean bristled at the suggestion and had a panic attack, putting her foot down with her saying, "I am not allowing that!"

Still it made sense for me to knock on the door; it was a great opportunity to do what I wanted to do in the first place, show that I cared for Jean and to meet her parents. The secondary reasons were,  I missed the walks and genuinely did care. I wanted to make sure everything was alright, so I made the decision to do that.

At the intersection where I always turned off from Jean to go to my house, Jean's brother and one of his friends were standing. Jean's brother, Terry said something to his friend who pulled out a .22 caliber pellet gun and took aim, shooting me in the balls. I remained standing out of defiance, but realized that I wasn't going to be walking past them to go to Jean's house. Luckily, they missed my balls, but did catch the scrotum. Both my Scrotum and inner thigh had the tell tale, red dot of being hit by a pellet.


In early spring, there was a boy named Doug who lived a couple of houses down from Jean, on the other side of the street. He wanted to befriend me and we palled around a couple of times, first to the farm store and the second, we walked around his neighborhood. It was then he said that he hoped, I wasn't friends with Jean. I said I was and he told me that I should then be having sex with her.

I said Jean wouldn't want that and he told me that if you were Jean's friend, you would because half of the class is already fucking her. They're over at the house all the time and he suggested maybe that is the reason she doesn't want me to know where she lives, "Maybe you're the one guy that she doesn't want to have sex with."

I mentioned, I didn't see people coming in and out of her house very often, so he informed me, "That's because this neighborhood has a secret tunnel system that goes to everybody's house." Admittedly, I was a bit cynical over this one. "No, no shit Mike; all of our basements are attached to the tunnels and we have doors in them with combination locks."

"Well we're right by your house so let's check it out."

"No, I can't show you because I will get in trouble with my parents. It's supposed to be a secret and I know that if Jean isn't fucking you, that she wouldn't want you to have the combination."

"Well then, how do I know if you are telling me the truth?"

"Mike, there is another way in that I can show you." He took me further down Wilson Avenue and showed me a culvert, which totally amazed me as I had been walking over it every day of months. We climbed down and it had a large long tunnel and off to the side, two smaller ones seemingly going in the direction of Jean's house.

I immediately wanted to explore, but he said that will take too long and refused. He wanted me to go in, check it out and go straight to Jean's house. I stuck my head in, but didn't think it was too good an idea to take off in a small tunnel with him standing outside. Yet, he kept insisting and wasn't happy till I said. "I really got to get home, but I tell you what! My parents check up on me a 9:00pm and I will slip out at 9:30 and explore. That way, I have all night to work out what Jean's combination is!"

We both walked away happy! I couldn't believe that I missed this set of tunnels, as I thought I had explored all of the storm drains and even my older friend Tim, didn't know about these. During the summer before, a friend and I were in one and sneaked up on a couple workers doing maintenance; when we handed them a tool, they blew a nut and yelled at us, lectured us about how unsafe an activity tunnel ratting is and then put us out with a warning not to be in them anymore.

Once home, I was immediately on the phone organizing an exploration group; the secrets that the tunnels held was going to be found out. Did I believe Doug? No way, not about the secret passages or that Jean was having sex with anyone. The next day, I was back walking Jean home and didn't feel any need to burden Jean with what Doug told me. I also made the decision that Doug is no friend either and decided not to do anything with him again. But the day after...

Doug walked up to me during recess and said, "Don't walk Jean home anymore, she doesn't like you anymore and I'll, beat you up." I didn't believe him and the walk with Jean continued as normal that day, but Doug caught up and stood beside her, walking her home. After that happened, Jean was looking at me and I was busy trying to figure this switch out. Just before the turn off, Doug chased me down and punched me in the face. I ran away.

Jean was looking at me all throughout the next day and I tried, once again, to walk her home. This time, Doug once again chased me down and punched me in the face and I punched back, but he over powered me and got enough punches in, I had to once again run. I was blistering as I was trying figure out, if Jean didn't want to walk me home, then why isn't she telling me.

I figured to see once more and if Doug is walking her home, than I would stop. At recess, Doug walked up to me and said, "If I see you around Jean today, I will kill you! Got it!" I decided to hang back and saw Jean at the base of the steps, then Doug was there and they started walking. Jean was looking around and when she found me, kept glancing over, which I didn't understand.

I remained behind them and suddenly, Doug ran after me and punched me in my face. I know I caught him with a good clip; but he knocked me down, jumped on me and punched me several times. He then grabbed me by the neck and choking me, started pounding my head into the ground. After several times, I managed to get my legs under him and almost threw him off. He then punched me several more times in the face and pounded my head in the ground.

Somehow, I managed to slip him off of me and started running. Not home, but back to the house with the green hands. I banged on the door and was let in and I explained things. She said that I should forget about Jean and walk home a different route for now on.  I wanted the lady to call the police, but she refused saying, "I want you to go home by Harford Road, if there is any more problem today, then you can come back and I will call the police. I don't think that Jean is worth the beating that you're getting."

Jean was now standing outside of the woman's house, but the woman told her to go home and leave me alone.  This had me even more upset, as I wanted to see if Jean was really up to this.  I wondered why, if a house with a green hand is where you go to for help, they would do something that hindered.  I wanted the truth from Jean's mouth and that was prevented when she was told to leave.

I was now, both heartbroken and upset, I couldn't figure out why Jean didn't want me to walk her home anymore. Was it something that I had done? Is there anything I could do to change her mind? Why didn't she tell me, instead of having Doug beat me up. If she was having it done, she sure didn't look like she enjoyed it, like the girls who do that do that kind of stuff. One thing was for sure, I couldn't walk Jean home anymore.

After several days, it was the end of recess and we were filing back into the school, I felt a girl's hand slip into mine and I liked it so much, I was afraid to look back.  All of a sudden, that nice feeling turned into a vise like grip putting me on my knees. I quickly ripped her hand from mine and looked back, "Jean!"

She was very sad, to the point of tears and asked, "Why don't you love me anymore?"

"I still do Jean!"

She blushed and then gasped, "But you're not walking me home anymore?"

"Jean, I didn't think that you wanted me to. Doug told me you didn't and even if you do, I can't fight a person twice as big as me. God knows, I've tried."

"Mike, I want you to walk me home tomorrow. You'll see that things will have changed and Doug won't bother us anymore. Ok, it's you that I love, I mean... Ah ... Like." The next day in class, Jean glanced at me and smiled.

On the walk home that day, I was trying to figure out how Jean is going to fix things and get Doug off the case. It didn't make any sense to me, but for whatever reason, I somehow had enough faith in her to give it a try.

Still not totally believing in Jean, I sort of dawdled and slowly approached the steps leading down to the hill. At the bottom, there she was, nervously pacing back and forth. I was not only happy she cared that much, I thought, perhaps I will finally score and be able to carry her books home. But the very second she saw me; one hand went on the hip, while the other pointed across the street!

Not being allowed to walk beside her, carrying her books, was an insult to me, getting the hell beaten out of my being and made it even more demeaning to me than before. But I loved her and assumed my position in her life.

Totally frustrated with Jean, I asked her, "Jean, why won't you let me carry you books home for you."

Jean put her trembling hand on her head and with a disparaging moan, replied, "Oh, Mike... You don't want to know, it's a woman's thing."

I honestly hoped she wasn't so naive to think carrying someone's books would make them pregnant... I read all the books, so I knew it all starts with a kiss. Yet, I was more than happy to please Jean the way she wanted me to...