Note to readers -- There are no sexual situations in this story where the participants are under eighteen.
Also, I am well aware that the National Guard the way I describe it here is not the way that it really is at this time. The way I have described it is the way that it was in my time and that is the way it works best for the story. If it bothers you just think of this story as taking place in an alternate universe.
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I don't know where I should start. There are several places where I could begin. The place where things started to go bad would be one, the place where the whole story started would be another and there were several places in between the two that could be a jumping off point. The day we met, the day I proposed, the day I deployed to Afghanistan or the day I returned are but a few. Then there would be the day we were married or the day she went to work at Cutter and Sons. Maybe even the day I went to work for XYZ and my subsequent promotions. But the more I think on it I guess that in order to grasp the full picture I need to start at the beginning.
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I was six years old at the time. A new family had moved in next door to us during the summer vacation and my parents went over the day they moved in and introduced themselves. They invited the newcomers to dinner since they probably had not unpacked their pots and pans yet.
The new couple came over for dinner and they had a five year old daughter with them. Allison was introduced to me and my mother said:
"Isn't it great Frankie? Now you have a playmate right next door."
Being a typical six year old boy I grimaced and thought to myself, "But she's a girl." Allison was shy and spent most of her time looking at me while hiding behind her parents.
We never did play together that summer although we did get thrown together several times. Our parents became the best of friends and one Saturday at a cookout Allison's parents asked if my parents knew a good babysitter. It seemed that they had something to go to the next evening and my mom said:
"You can leave her here with us. She and Frankie can keep each other company."
"Oh no; we couldn't ask you to do that."
"Sure you can. Some day you can do the same for us."
After that the only time I saw a babysitter was when both sets of parents went out together and then of course the sitter watched both me and Allison.
Allison and I were at odds from the start. She played with dolls and I played with toy cars and trucks. She wanted to move furniture around in her dollhouse and I wanted to build things with my erector set. She couldn't understand why I wouldn't help her dress her dolls or play "Mommy and Daddy" and move things around in her dumb old doll house. Like I said earlier, "she was girl." Girls didn't know nothing about trucks, cars and plastic soldiers. She wouldn't play "Cops and Robbers" or "Cowboys and Indians" with me. She was just a dumb old girl.
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Summer ended and school started and I was told that I had to walk Allison to school. She was starting kindergarten and hadn't been to any kind of pre-school so she was scared and the closer we got to the school the more scared she got and somewhere along the way she grabbed my hand for comfort. I tried to shake it loose, but she held on for dear life. As a result we arrived at school holding hands and all the guys saw it.
"Stay away from Frankie. He's holding hands with a girl so he probably caught cooties" and other stuff like that filled the air.
After school I had to wait for her so she could walk home with me and again it started. "Frankie's gonna get cooties" and the dreaded "Frankie's got a girlfriend, Frankie's got a girlfriend." I was red with shame as we walked home.
The next day Allison wasn't scared so she didn't try to hold my hand, but our parents were firm in their insistence that we should walk to school together and walk home together so I was stuck with it. Stuck with it maybe, but I didn't have to arrive with her next to me. As soon as school was in sight I picked up the pace and was a good ten feet in front of her when I went up the school steps. After school I waited for her and when she came out the door I started walking and I didn't slow down and let her catch up until we were out of sight of the school.
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As we got older I was relieved of the duty of being Allison's escort to school and by the time she was seven she was walking alone or with some girlfriends. Since we left our houses about the same time each morning I sometimes walked with her and her girlfriends. Our arriving at school that first day was in the past and forgotten by the kids who had tormented me over it.
Things were normal until one day she wore her hair in pigtails to school. As I remember it she was ten at the time and I was eleven, almost twelve. School let out for the day and as I came down the front steps I saw Allison and two of her friends surrounded by four or five guys. At first I thought nothing of it, but then I heard Allison yelp and it sounded like she was in pain. I headed over and I saw that Bert Ellsworth had his hands on Allison's pigtails and he was jerking her head back and forth. He was laughing and saying "Gee" and Haw" as he pulled her head this way and that. "Good little horsey" he said as he jerked her head to the right and Allison yelped again. I walked up to Bert and told him to leave Allison alone and he sneered at me and said:
"And if I don't?"
I hit him and he dropped Allison's pigtails, took a step back and I stepped forward, put both hands against his chest and pushed. He staggered backwards and fell on his ass. He started crying, got up and ran off. While that was going on Allison and her two friends hurried off toward home.
When I got home my mom was waiting for me and she was pissed.
"I just had a phone call from Sally Ellsworth and she told me that you had beaten up her son and she wanted to know what I was going to do about it. Did you? Did you get in a fight with him?"
I started to tell her what had happened, but she cut me off and said, "I won't have it Franklin! I just will not tolerate it. No child of mine is going to be a bully. You hear me? I won't have it! Get up to your room and stay there until your father comes home!"
I ran to my room crying and whining that it wasn't fair; that all I did was what they told me to do which was watch out for Allison. I went to my room, slammed the door behind me and threw myself don't on the bed. "It isn't fair, it isn't fair" I kept saying over and over to myself.
I'd been in my room maybe five minutes when I heard Mrs. Ames (Allison's mom) come in the house.
"Where is he? Where is that young man?" and I thought "Now what did I do?" I'd only ever heard "young man" when I was in trouble for something like the time I tripped and stumbled and tried to catch myself by grabbing the table. The lamp fell off the table and broke on the floor and my mother came into the room, saw the broken lamp and said:
"And what do you have to say for yourself young man?"
Apparently mom told Mrs. Ames I was in my room because I heard feet running up the steps. My door flew open and Mrs. Ames said, "There you are" and she walked over to me and hugged me. Then she kissed me on the cheek and said:
"Thank you Frankie. Thank you for being Allison's protector."
My mom was standing in the door watching and I was thinking, "What the fuck?" (Yes -- I knew the word -- I was eleven you know). I have one adult hugging me and kissing me and one yelling at me and sending me to my room and for doing the same thing. Grown ups didn't make sense.
My dad came home and asked me what happened and after I told him he and Mr. Ames went to see Mr. and Mrs. Ellsworth and I never heard another word about it, but Bert stayed clear of me for the next couple of years.
