It was a normal summer day, as normal as it can be in Brownsville Brooklyn. Kids toiling about,
taking their makeshift cardboard club house a bit too seriously. Before it could be fully erected,
an overly anxious ten-year-old disrupted the construction with some excited news. Although
Sassee’s younger brother could not make it out from a distance, it was too good to be ignored as
it prompted the entire group of kids to stop what they were doing and take flight around the back
of the building. He followed behind in a slight jog, curious. In his head, it was most likely a fight
or something dead or dying. Only something leaning towards the gruesome side would get that
type of rise out of these kids. As he approached the heart of the mayhem, he was not at all
shocked, but deeply saddened, by an all-too-common occurrence, kids trying to kill a helpless
animal, for thrills.
At first, he thought it was a squirrel, usually they would through rocks up at the nests, causing a
squirrel to vacate, then off with the chase, but he took notice of the quick dashing black and
white figure. It was a cat. A beauty, strong and very quick, Pete’s mother. They were hunting her
down, this marvel, this beautiful cat, attempting to brutalize then kill her. It was unexplainable
the behavior of these kids, he could only watch on, praying that the cat would escape somehow.
He kept his distance as the chase continued. He flopped on the side of the wall where the chase
first began. Suddenly, his face went white, shocked, flushed with anguish. It was a pile of kittens
all brutalized, all dead. He’d seen it all, young squirrels pummeled to death with rocks, he even
witnessed a shot man falling to his death, killed by the police, no more than three feet from him.
But this, this garnered a dark anger, one he desperately wanted to explore, but couldn’t. The
motely pack of wild kids were naturally populated with the most hardened bullies of the
neighborhood. He stood there helpless.
Although the site was gruesome, his eyes remained fixed on them, looking for hope perhaps. He
seemed to be simply staring out into space still in shock and saddened. Suddenly, he jumped
back, startled. One of the dead kittens had moved. The kitten was clearly dead, but the body was
moving somehow. Then he realized what was going on as a small black and white head emerged
from the pile. There he was, Pete, covered in his sibling’s blood yet unscathed. In their haste they
missed him. With no time to be squeamish, he cleared the way for Pete and scoped him up. He
was all set to take off but turned right into his worst nightmare. The worst of the worst of the
bullies stood right behind him and witnessed the entire thing. Sassee’s brother was all ready to
fight and take his beating from the bully, but he was sure they would kill Pete in the process.
Desperate, he thought quickly, “Money, Money, Candy” anything that a twelve year old might
want he promised to the waiting bully. It worked. The bully cleared the path for him as he took a
fast walk around the front of the building and upstairs to his apartment. Although payments to
the oversize tormentor seemed endless over the next several months, it was worth it, Pete was
saved and growing nicely.
