Bully

By Jack Curl

Bully is about a young boy who was raised in an abusive home. He was also abused at school, and he was ignored at every turn when he looked for help. So he decided on revenge to make things even. He liked killing and torturing small animals, and he transferred his skill to his tormentors.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Nov 10, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543464580

Jack Curl

I am a 60 year young, happily married man, with three grown children and two grown step children. My wife and I have 10 grandchildren and one great-grandchild between us.  I am a new author and started my writing career with a book called Sugar Mill Road. I hope you enjoy it.

Book preview

Chapter 1

He was dead and Vinnie was glad—happier than he can remember. The heart attack had done its job in a fantastic manor. Vinnie was impressed. Daddy’s death meant no more beatings, no more continuous work. No one screaming continuous obscenities and being called terrible names a fifteen-year-old boy should not hear. Vinnie wiped the largest smile he ever had from his freckled face and went downstairs to comfort Momma.

The coffin was gone from the living room, and Momma was sitting in Daddy’s chair, sobbing uncontrollably. He walked across the room and sat down on the arm of the chair and put his arm around Momma. Momma slowly turned her head to Vinnie and buried her head in his lap and sobbed even harder. Vinnie stroked her head and looked at the sunset on the horizon. They stayed in that position for the next hour and a half. Then Momma raised her head and gave a weak smile to Vinnie and rose and walked to the kitchen and started to prepare supper.

Vinnie got up from the chair arm. I’m going outside till supper, okay?

Supper will be ready in about an hour. I’ll call you.

The screen door slammed loudly as Vinnie left the house. They lived a little ways out in the country, not far from town. Vinnie was going to check the live traps. He liked small animals, liked to play with them before he killed them. He usually caught rabbits, cats, rats, and an occasional opossum. Then he would take them to his fort. There he would restrain them and start his experiments. He always started by tearing their eyeballs out of their sockets. He loved to hear them scream in terror and pain. After he tore the eyeballs out and saved them in his eyeball jar, he would turn whatever victim that was still living on its back and begin to slowly slice open the body.

Vinnie found a rabbit and a cat in his traps this evening, so it almost took up the whole hour Momma had given him to do his experiments and clean up the blood. He washed up in the pond out in the pasture and then went to the house. He could smell the ham and beans and corn bread way out by the pond. Vinnie was almost by the barn when Momma started to call. He hurried and washed in the sink in the bathroom. He had to keep up appearances after all. He could hear her setting the table. The newly baked corn bread smelled like heaven as he walked to his mom’s side of the table and pulled out the chair for his momma to sit.

Momma served the ham, beans, and corn bread. Vinnie poured the milk, all the while absorbing the smells of home. No one really said much at dinner, so it didn’t take long to finish. Momma was very sad and still upset at the death of her husband that she loved so very much. Vinnie didn’t want to upset his momma, so he kept his joy inside.

What are we going to do now? Vinnie sincerely asked.

I don’t know right now. I have to go to the bank and the insurance agency in the morning. I’ll figure out something after that. The farm is paid off, so we’re set that way. Don’t worry, we will be fine. We’re going to stay right here.

Momma tried to look confident and reassuring, but she was failing. Vinnie hated it here, hated his school—everyone bullied him, and the teachers and principal ignored it. He wanted to be anywhere but here.

They worked together to clean up supper and the kitchen. Then they went to the living room, and Momma sat in Daddy’s chair and immediately covered her face with her handkerchief and started crying. Vinnie rolled his eyes and went over to her and put his arms around her and listened to her cry for what seemed like forever. Then, slowly, she got silent and started softly snoring. He gently shook her awake and made the suggestion for her to go to bed. She stared into his eyes for a couple of minutes and rose and stumbled off to her bedroom.

Vinnie sat down in his daddy’s chair and couldn’t contain it any longer and quietly started laughing. After a moment, he stopped laughing and stood and turned off the light, and he too went to bed.

Chapter 2

Vinnie had to get up especially early today to feed the animals. He had twenty dairy cows and thirteen dairy calves to milk and bottle-feed before his momma called him for breakfast and to get ready for school. He had almost finished when he heard Momma call him for breakfast.

I’m almost done, just a minute, he called back.

Vinnie waited at the corner of his shale driveway and the gravel secondary road. He had his history book and his mathematics book under his arm. He was dreading his day, knowing that soon he would be the target of the high school kid that rode the same bus he did and took the same Future Farmers of America class he did. The bully would hit him and shove him around in the hall and the locker room, call him names—and he knew it would be an especially hard day because everyone would know his daddy had died over the weekend. They would use that piece of information to torment Vinnie very hard. No one seemed to care about what was happening to him on a daily basis. Not the teachers, not the principal—no one. And Vinnie was tired of it. He hated everyone and assumed everyone hated him.

Everyone but Theresa, that was. She was perfect in every way. She laughed all the time and was smart: a 4-point student. Not that she knew who Vinnie was, because she didn’t. She was older (a junior), and she was beautiful. Vinnie, on the other hand, was not beautiful or handsome. He had greasy dirty blond hair and acne, and he was short and wore ugly glasses. He was too afraid to say a word to her, and God forbid if she noticed him looking at her. He would die from embarrassment.

The day went just as Vinnie knew it would. Kevin Caylor, the bully, and his friends came in the restroom as Vinnie was washing his hands. Kevin shoved him against the mirror on the wall as hard as he could and feigned an apology. Sorry. Then he and his group all laughed and gathered around Vinnie and started the tease routine.

So your old man died. What are you going to do now?

I guess we’ll have to pick up the slack and beat you from now on. Don’t worry about crying. We want you to.

You are going to have to pick up the slack and sleep with your mommy and take care of her now?

Vinnie couldn’t stand it anymore and screamed, Stop it! He broke through the gang and ran out into the hall and ran straight into Principal Sanders.

Hold it, where are you going?

Vinnie knew it wouldn’t do any good to tell the principal what had happened, so he said to class and walked on.

He walked into English class just as the bell rang and took the dangerous seat right behind Teresa. It was a dangerous seat because Theresa was Kevin’s girlfriend, and he wouldn’t like it if he saw Vinnie so close to her. But Vinnie loved Theresa so much he would risk it. So he took his life in his hands and sat down and was immediately overtaken by the enticing scent of her cologne. It drove him crazy with desire.

It was the end of the day, and everyone was waiting next to the driveway to get on the bus to go home. Vinnie was at the head of the line to avoid Kevin and Teresa, and when the bus arrived, he took the seat two rows back from the driver. Kevin slapped Vinnie on the back of the head and said freak and continued to the back of the bus with Theresa and sat down. It took about forty-five minutes to get home, and no one sat with Vinnie on any of his bus trips, so he was glad when the bus slowed and stopped at his driveway. The door opened, and he was able to escape his dungeon.

Vinnie immediately hurried to the house to change clothes and get started on the chores. The cows were already lined up at the gate, waiting to get to their milking stalls. The calves were always hungry but were crying out even louder tonight. Vinnie got the mixture ready for them and divided it up into the bottles. Then he fed the cows and got them hooked up to the milking machines. Then he went back to the calves and put the bottles in the holders so they could eat. After the animals were fed and the milk was taken care of and the calves’ stall was cleaned and fresh straw was put down and the cows were released to the pasture, Vinnie was free to go to the house and get ready to eat.

Just as he was walking into the house, he heard his momma say, I didn’t even have to call you. Are you sure you got everything done?

Yes, Momma, I got everything done.

Supper wasn’t even close to being done yet, and as much as Vinnie needed to go to the live traps and release his frustration, he had to do homework, which he hated. How did the bank and the insurance office work out this morning?

Momma said, It went well. We’re pretty well set, thanks to your dad, and we have nothing to worry about.

Yeah, thanks to him, Vinnie thought. He was a great guy, Vinnie thought sarcastically. He got on his homework, badly needing to play with some animals.

Dinner was soon ready, and Vinnie finished his homework. They ate in silence and worked to clean up together. Vinnie headed to bed early as his momma took turns dozing and crying in Daddy’s chair.

Chapter 3

Vinnie got up very early the next morning. He had waited long enough; he had to go check the live traps. He couldn’t stand it any longer; he had to release the frustration. But he had to get the chores done first, so he hurried to the barn and let the dairy cows in their stalls. He got the milk mixture ready for the calves and started feeding them. The dairy cows had found their individual stalls and were waiting to eat, so he gave them the corn and supplements and got them all hooked up to the milking machines. He went back to the calves’ stalls and cleaned the manure and old straw up and put it in the spreader. When he had gotten done with the calves, the milking was finished, and he released the cows back to the pasture and let the calves out to their lot.

It was all he could do not to run to the live traps; but unfortunately for him, they were empty. There was this bird nest he had been keeping an eye on and had heard some chirping, so he climbed up the tree and found three baby birds. He took two and placed them in his jacket pocket and climbed down the tree. He went to his fort and took care of his frustrations and added the eyeballs to his collection. Then he threw the remains in the bushes and hurried back