Amber Walls
English 111-03
Professor Clark
3 February, 2015
Beyond Our Back Yard When I was seven and my brother was five, we had just moved into a townhouse on the dangerous side of town. We used to call them ‘chicken coops’, to give you a description of what they were like. It was very bad neighborhood, lots of drug dealers, gang bangers and prostitutes. There were lots of kids whose parents didn’t care about their whereabouts or well being because they just didn’t give a damn. Where we lived before, my brother and I have lived a fairly sheltered life, and we had come from a very nice neighborhood. None of the kids swore, and the adults all had real jobs. Our first week in the townhouse, my brother and I were playing in the backyard. There was a rule that our mom had put in place that we were never to leave the backyard. We never disobeyed her rules. When some older kids come by to see the new family moving in, they ask us to go with them. We refused because we were perfectly content where we were and our mother’s word was law as far as we were concerned. Also because of our previous sheltered life, we were very naïve and never had encountered bullies before of any caliber. These kids kept pressuring and pushing us until finally the oldest one, maybe eleven years old asked if he could come in the yard. Being naïve I opened the gate for him, and we saw him holding this thick sharpened stick. The end of the stick had a wickedly sharpened point, and you could see that he had used a knife to cut it down. There was no telling what else he was concealing. He brandishes the stick in our direction and suddenly out of nowhere my 260 pound dad comes charging out of the backdoor, across the yard to the group of kids. Everyone began to scream and scatter. My dad was only after the eleven year old with the stick (later we found out his name was Randy). He chased Randy across the parking lot and out of sight. My mom came out of the house and ushered my brother and I back inside. Frightened, we both tried explaining to her that the boy was dangerous and we had decided not to go near him or play with him again. Our first encounter with the other kids in the neighborhood quickly reminded us that we were now the new kids on the block. This was going to take some adjusting for both of us. A few