WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.520 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.520 --> 00:00:03.190 align:middle line:90% Sixth grade. 00:00:03.190 --> 00:00:07.090 align:middle line:84% The afternoon the neighborhood boys tied me and Mary Lou Mather 00:00:07.090 --> 00:00:11.800 align:middle line:84% to Donny Ralph's father's garage doors, spread eagled, 00:00:11.800 --> 00:00:15.880 align:middle line:84% it was the summer they chased us almost every day. 00:00:15.880 --> 00:00:19.360 align:middle line:84% Careening across the lawns they mowed for money and bikes 00:00:19.360 --> 00:00:23.530 align:middle line:84% they threw down, they'd catch us, lie on top of us, 00:00:23.530 --> 00:00:27.520 align:middle line:90% and then get up and walk away. 00:00:27.520 --> 00:00:30.490 align:middle line:84% That afternoon, Donny's mother wasn't home. 00:00:30.490 --> 00:00:33.640 align:middle line:84% His nine sisters and brothers gone. 00:00:33.640 --> 00:00:37.150 align:middle line:84% Even Gramps, who lived with them, gone somewhere. 00:00:37.150 --> 00:00:38.590 align:middle line:90% The backyard, empty. 00:00:38.590 --> 00:00:40.930 align:middle line:90% The big house, quiet. 00:00:40.930 --> 00:00:42.640 align:middle line:90% A gang of boys. 00:00:42.640 --> 00:00:47.290 align:middle line:84% They pulled the two heavy garage doors down and tied us to them 00:00:47.290 --> 00:00:49.150 align:middle line:90% with clothesline. 00:00:49.150 --> 00:00:52.210 align:middle line:84% And Donny got the deer's leg, severed 00:00:52.210 --> 00:00:55.540 align:middle line:84% from the buck his dad had killed the year before, 00:00:55.540 --> 00:00:59.650 align:middle line:84% dried up and still fur-covered, and sort of poked it 00:00:59.650 --> 00:01:02.830 align:middle line:84% at us, dancing around the blacktop in his sneakers, 00:01:02.830 --> 00:01:03.580 align:middle line:90% laughing. 00:01:03.580 --> 00:01:06.140 align:middle line:84% And then somebody took it from Donny and did it. 00:01:06.140 --> 00:01:09.160 align:middle line:84% And then somebody else, and somebody after him. 00:01:09.160 --> 00:01:12.910 align:middle line:84% And then Donny pulled up Mary Lou's dress and held it up. 00:01:12.910 --> 00:01:14.470 align:middle line:90% And she began to cry. 00:01:14.470 --> 00:01:18.490 align:middle line:84% And I became a boy again, and shouted stop. 00:01:18.490 --> 00:01:19.840 align:middle line:90% And they wouldn't. 00:01:19.840 --> 00:01:22.360 align:middle line:84% And then a girl boy, calling out to Charlie, 00:01:22.360 --> 00:01:25.360 align:middle line:84% my best friend's brother, who wouldn't look. 00:01:25.360 --> 00:01:28.750 align:middle line:84% Charlie, to my brother's friend who knew me, stop them. 00:01:28.750 --> 00:01:30.400 align:middle line:90% And he wouldn't. 00:01:30.400 --> 00:01:32.140 align:middle line:90% And then more softly. 00:01:32.140 --> 00:01:36.370 align:middle line:84% And looking directly at him, I said, Charlie. 00:01:36.370 --> 00:01:38.170 align:middle line:90% And he said, stop. 00:01:38.170 --> 00:01:39.880 align:middle line:90% And they said, what? 00:01:39.880 --> 00:01:41.860 align:middle line:90% And he said, stop it. 00:01:41.860 --> 00:01:43.570 align:middle line:90% And they did. 00:01:43.570 --> 00:01:47.080 align:middle line:84% Quickly, untying the ropes, weirdly quiet, 00:01:47.080 --> 00:01:52.620 align:middle line:84% Mary Lou still weeping, and Charlie already gone. 00:01:52.620 --> 00:01:54.000 align:middle line:90%