Our Friend Steven

By John Douglass

 
The Summer of 1959 was an eventful one for the three young boys about to enter the sixth grade.  All of them were at Jeff Wyman's house enjoying the last day of summer vacation, and all were admiring Jeff's baseball card of Mickey Mantle who was the New York Yankees hot new star.  Jeff stood at the side of his bed as his friends Steven Ellis and David Mahler continued to look at the small image of the New York Yankee.  Steven looked at Jeff and said "okay, I will give you Al Kaline a Norman Cash and a Whitey Ford; a generous offer, especially since Kaline and Cash were Members of the hometown team of the Detroit Tigers. But Jeff could not be swayed to trade Mickey Mantle. Steven viewed Jeff's determination and said: "okay, I know you won't budge."  Dave spoke up: "Hey, guys it's the last day of vacation; let's celebrate."  Jeff replied: "Yeah, I'll go see if dad will take us down to the Avon Dairy."  
Mr. Wyman approved and drove the kids to Downtown Rochester, Michigan, a small rural community about thirty five miles north of Detroit.  The boys sat by Mr. Wyman at the counter of the 1950's ice cream joint with the juke box blasting and the pin ball machines clanking in the background.  The boys talked about going back to school the next day and were a bit apprehensive about entering the sixth grade. 
As the boys continued to talk of tomorrow Mr Wyman noticed the counter girl and a few patrons looking at Steven, who was a bi-racial child: half Black and half Caucasian.  Mr. Wyman returned the stares as if to say "knock it off".   But Steven was used to such stares. Growing up a bi-racial child in a small conservative town in the late 50's it was almost a daily occurrence.

The next morning on the first day of school the boys met in front of the Saint Ambrose Parking lot talking about how the day would evolve.  Father Garner came out and instructed the students to line up according to the grade they were in and they were all led to their respective classrooms.  
Upon entering their classroom they saw Sister Marie sitting behind the desk. Dave whispered to Steve and Jeff: "Hey! I guess it could be worse, but not by much."  The class was instructed to  find a temporary seat and then to be seated.  The students knew this meant sitting down facing the front of the room without talking and folding their hands on the desk.  Sister Marie dressed in her Dominican Habit, her chubby face and brow protruding from the tight habit around her head appeared menacing to the young sixth graders as she began to speak. "When you hear your name called and I touch the desk you will be sitting in, come take your seat. The person who is sitting in the seat I touch, go to the back of the room until your seat is called." 
Jeff hoped that Steven or David would be seated close to him wherever he was to be seated.  The first row by the windows was filled without any of the three called.  Then David was seated in the next aisle, three desks from the front, and Jeff was seated two seats behind him.  Jeff hoped that Steven would be seated next to him in the third row. Or, if fate would have it, to be assigned to Susan Martin, the blond, blue eyed beauty of the sixth grade.  As the seat next to him was about to be assigned Jeff held his breath and crossed his fingers. Sister Marie then blurted out "Vinnchenso Minchella." 
Jeff thought: "No! No, not Vinnie Minchella!"  Vinnie was actually an eight grader who had been held back twice. He failed the fourth grade and the sixth.  Vinnie was one of the biggest kids in school and considered one of the toughest, his five foot ten inch 170 lb frame and jet black, greasy hair combed back in a D.A. He sat down in the desk to the side of Jeff. His black leather jacket reflected the florescent lights from the ceiling.  Jeff looked at him briefly and said in a shaky low voice " Hi Vinnie".  Vinnie did not speak he just gave Jeff a brief blank stare as if to say "Don't talk to me, you worm." Jeff thought: "I hope this semester goes by quickly."
After a few days, things appeared to be settling in.  One morning, Sister Marie asked the students to clean the erasers during recess. Each student in the class would then smack the small felt erasers together to get the chalk dust out of them.  After Sister Marie passed the erasers all out, she began to teach the math lesson. David, who sat a few seats in front of Jeff, patiently waited for the sister to write the math problem on the huge chalkboard in front of the room. As soon as Sister Marie faced the chalk board and began to write, David turned around and tossed one of his erasers at Jeff's head, striking him in the forehead.  Jeff wiped the chalk from his head and picked the eraser up and, as Sister Marie continued to write, Jeff threw it back at his friend David. But the throw was high and the eraser continued on and hit the nun right in the back of her black veil, leaving a square chalk impression on it.
Within a split second Jeff thought "what am I going to do?" To talk during class was a misdemeanor. To get caught chewing gum was a felony. But to hit Sister with an eraser called for the death sentence.  Jeff frantically searched his mind to find a way out before sister turned around and looked for blood. As she turned around with her fists clenched and her face as red as could be, Jeff opened his mouth, opened his eyes wide and looked over at Vinnie Minchella as if to say: "Vinnie did it." Sister caught Jeff's expression and centered on Vinnie and yelled: "Mr. Minchella, stand up and come with me out in the hallway." Vinnie replied: "Sister, I didn't do it."
Vinnie had witnessed the whole scenario of the eraser throwing and he also saw Jeff looking at him with his "pointing the finger expression".  Sister Marie then replied to Vinnie, "If you did not throw it, then who did?"  Vinnie stood mute. He had a code of not tattling on another kid even if that kid had thrown the blame at him. All the other students said nothing, not daring to interfere in Vinnie's decision. 
As Vinnie walked away with the enraged Nun, Jeff thought, "I am dead, dead, Vinnie is going to kill me the first chance he gets." Jeff knew that he would have to face the music but he thought that taking his lumps would be better than having his parents find out that he caused trouble in the classroom.  At recess Steven and Dave talked about Jeff's predicament and tried to help him find a solution, Jeff told them, "I want to get this over with as soon as possible, I hope by the end of the day."
"I'm sorry," said David. "If I hadn't thrown the eraser in the first place, this wouldn't have happened."
When the boys came back from recess they passed Vinnie in the office, he gave Jeff the death stare as they walked by.  Vinnie was no stranger to the office. However, he usually was in there at least twice a month for not doing his homework.  Vinnie was not a bully or trouble maker in the traditional sense. And he was not ignorant, he just found school boring.  He was a hard worker and helped his father in his grocery store.  The day went by without incident as Vinnie was kept in the office for the rest of the day. 
Jeff would get very little sleep that night and his father noticed his quietness at the dinner table but did not pursue the matter. Steven called him and said: "I talked to Dave, and we are going stay by your side all day tomorrow.  We are not going to let our friend get hurt, he will have to take on all three of us."  Jeff felt a bit better but did not want his friends to get hurt for something he initiated. That night, as Jeff lay in his bed, he knew that the coming day would be the day of reckoning and he hoped he could get through it without dying.  
        The following morning, the boys arrived at school. As they got off the bus, Dave said: "We are not letting you out of our sight." The boys then looked at the bike rack at the end of the parking lot and Vinnie's Schwinn Flyer was not there.  Jeff said " I gotta use the bathroom." So all three went in and Steven said to David: "Stand outside. If you see Vinnie coming, warn us as fast as you can."  Steven and Jeff then went into the lavatory and Jeff used the urinal. Steve stood a few feet from his friend ready to shield his friend if Dave came running through the doorway with the alarm.
Steven looked around the lavatory and thought it strange that no one else was in there, as Jeff zipped up his pants and went to wash his hands Steven noticed that one stall was occupied. As he began to  bend over to peek inside and see who was in there, the door of the stall flew open and out walked Vinnie. 
Vinnie had hidden his bike and told the other students that if Jeff or any of his friends asked whether he had arrived in school that the answer had better be no.  As Vinnie moved toward a startled Jeff, Steven was ready to pounce. Their friend David was still on guard outside, unaware of what was going on inside.  Jeff's face went pale and speechless as Vinnie moved towards him and grabbed Jeff's jacket collar, Steven then jumped on Vinnie trying to hit him as best as he could. Vinnie pulled him off and held him under his right arm as he held onto Jeff's collar with his left hand, then he said "Why did you act as if I threw that eraser?" Jeff replied in a shaky voice, "I don't know, Vinnie. I was afraid that my parents would find out and I would get into trouble." Vinnie replied "and you think you're not in trouble now?" 
Jeff gasped, figuring he was taking his last breath, as Steven struggled to loosen himself from Vinnie's grasp to no avail.  Vinnie continued. "I sat in that office with sister Marie yelling at me, calling me a delinquent and worse, and I didn't tell her that it was you. Now I have thought of pounding your hide into the ground, but that wouldn't give me any satisfaction. This is what you're going to do. You are going to come down to the grocery store at 10:00 am this coming Saturday. My Dad says he wants me to clean and scrub the whole back room. He said that I could even get someone to help me and he would pay them ten dollars for the day. So you are going to do all the scrubbing and cleaning and when you get your ten bucks, you give to me. Do you understand, you little weasel?"  Jeff replied in a blubbering voice "I understand." "And don't you ever mess with me again." Vinnie then let go of Jeff and Steven and left the Lav.
Steven ran into one of the stalls to get some toilet paper so his friend could dry his eyes. David who was still standing ath the door of the lav. He was shocked to see Vinnie leave. He ran into the lav yelling: "What happened?"  Steven then told David the whole story and David said ""He's going to work your butt off but it's better than taking a beating."  All the boys were glad that it was over and glad that Vinnie valued the money more that beating Jeff up.  David and Steven told Jeff to tell his parents that he would be with them Saturday so he could have a cover story for what he really had to do.  That Saturday Jeff arrived at Minchella's Grocery Store and, true to his promise, Vinnie made Jeff scrub the walls the sinks and every nook and cranny in the back of the old building.  Mr. Minchella came to the back room to do the final inspection he couldn't believe his eyes. He said: "Hey, Vinnie, you and your friend did a good job here." He paid Jeff his ten dollars and went back out to the front of the store. As soon as he was out of sight, Vinnie turned his palm up in front of Jeff's nose and Jeff put the ten dollars in Vinnie's hand.  Vinnie said: "Now that we're even, you can go."
During the rest of the school year Jeff avoided any contact with Vinnie.  The three friends  spent the rest of the school year doing what most eleven year olds do: going to the monster movies, carnivals, and playing combat on weekends. 
One warm spring Saturday, Dave rode his bike over to Jeff's house, then they both rode over to Steven's. When they got to Steven's driveway, they heard yelling coming from the house. As they listened they heard Steven's stepFather say: "Everything would be fine if it wasn't for that half-animal bastard of yours."  Jeff and David looked at each other and knew that Steven was going through hell. Steven's stepfather was tolerant of him when he was sober, but when he drank it was another story, and today he had been drinking heavily. The two boys never felt so helpless as they sat on their bikes waiting for Steven to come out.  Within a few minutes the stepfather staggered out of the house. He saw the two boys on their bikes and gave them a brief glazed stare before he got in his yellow and white 1957 Chevy and sped away.  Both of the boys knew that the man was abusive when he drank, but this was the worst incident they had seen.  They heard Steven's mother cry and then heard Steven trying to console her.
The two tried to regroup their emotions as Steven finally came out. David noticed a red mark on Steven's left cheek, yet Steven acted as if nothing had happened. He went and got his bike, rode over to the two and said: "You guys ready?" They rode over to David's house to play combat, as his yard was the biggest of the three boys. His parents owned an eight acre parcel on the south side of Rural Rochester next to a square mile of open fields and woods.
David and Jeff initiated the play of combat where the boys would play soldier, trying to build forts. Each would invade the forts of the others. They would make believe machine gun each other.
As the boys played the earlier traumatic episode was temporarily put aside, but would indeed burn a dark memory into their young minds.   Steven's stepfather sobered up and was even apologetic. He would stay that way until his next episodic drinking binge. 
The rest of the school year was pretty uneventful until the second to the last day of school.  It was then June and the three boys were running around the huge fifteen acre schoolyard during lunch break. They walked to the side of the of the school to take a breather when an eighth grader named Tim Murray, a tall, mature-looking fourteen year old, and his two buddies came up to the three.   Tim stood directly in front of the three while his buddies stood on each of his sides forcing the three younger boys against the wall of the school.  Tim said: "Hey, Steve how are you doing?" He did not give Steven time to answer when he said "Steve, I always wanted to ask you something. You are a pretty dark kid. I just want to ask you before I graduate: just what in the hell are you?" Jeff and David caught the drift of that Tim was trying to do, and that was to humiliate their friend. Tim continued as he stood towering over the three. His piercing hazel eyes and crew cut looked intimidating  to the younger boys. 
"You know what you three look like with Steven in the middle, sort of a reverse oreo cookie, vanila outside and chocolate inside." Tim's friends chuckled.  Tim spoke again: "You know, Stevie, I gotta come right out and ask the sixty four thousand dollar question: are you a Nigger?" Again Tim's friends snickered.  Jeff spoke up and said: "Leave him alone," then attempted to push Tim. He was quickly punched in the stomach and doubled over on the ground.  Steven tried to help his friend but was also punched in the mid section and collapsed on the ground. Tim then said "You are gonna tell me, boy. I've seen your mom and dad, and they are both white. I want to know where in the hell you came from." Steve and Jeff were still on the ground doubled over gasping for air. Their friend David was held by the neck against the school wall by Tim's buddy on his left. 
As the boys continued to gasp for air  on the ground, they heard a loud WHACK, then a huge thud. They looked in front of themselves. To their amazement lay Tim Murray knocked out on the ground, his mouth open and his eyes set in a unconscious stare.  The boys, wide eyed and in disbelief, looked up and there in all his glory stood Vinnie Minchella with a blank expression on his face, rubbing his knuckles of his right hand with his left palm. Vinnie looked at Steven for a brief second and then looked at Jeff and gave him a brief cockeyed smile and then walked away. 
David, who saw the whole thing, told Steven and Jeff what happened.
"While you two were on the ground bent over, Vinnie was at the side of the building sneaking a cigarette and peeking once in a while to make sure Sister wasn't around.  He saw us over here and came over to see what was going on. When he heard Tim say that stuff, he pushed Tim's buddy Ryan, the guy that had me pinned against the wall, out of the way.  Then he smacked Tim on the right side of his head and as soon as Tim was hit, he hit the ground.  Ryan and Ed (Tim's buddies) ran back to the front of the school when Tim was hit." 
The rest of elementary school passed quickly for the three friends as did high school and college.  The world changed dramatically during that time and eventually the three friends had to part.

                                          

Jeff, now over fifty, still calls his friends Steven and David once in a while. He also remembers  when they were kids and that it was one of the happiest times of his life.  And to this day, when Jeff sees on the news or reads in the newspapers about an isolated incident of racism, he remembers that time, many decades ago, in that school yard in Rochester, Michigan, when he and David stood by their friend Steven and experienced the disgusting evil hand of racism. Then he remembers Vinnie Minchella and he smiles.
Comments for John Douglass? Email him:BYAP29A@prodigy.com