The Bully and Buddy

Almost everyone has had a bully. Bullies are unfortunately everywhere. They are most often hiding in plain sight and only reveal the dark side of their nature when no one they value is watching. Bullies can deceive and decimate anywhere. Bullies are always searching for victims, but the bullies who dominate the delicate ages of the preteens are the worst bullies of all. On special occasions, however, an unexpected champion can rise and offer the ultimate rescue, and a rescue from a bully can come from a most unexpected place.

Our first episode in the New Year begins with a ten-year-old Marco Beach Boy atop the freezing and snowy mountains of East Tennessee. As with most American youngsters, the Christmastime holidays offer a fun-filled break from the monotony of education, but during one unforgettable return to school, a terrifying and wide-awake nightmare began in the form of a bully.

Jimmy Lyles moved into the neighborhood during the Christmas break and made his first dreaded appearance under a low, woolly sky, snow flurries, and a biting wind so cold it was a miserable walk to the bus stop. Most of the kids huddling and waiting for the bus knew each other and were steadfast friends from the long summer vacations. The hot weather days exploring Crawdad Creek in the rocky hollow beneath neighborhood homes were almost as good as the summer bicycle routes that were often bordering on something forbidden. When Jimmy Lyles trudged up through the snow to the bus stop, the magic of the summer memories was truly over. The new big kid was like a marauding invader in a scary movie.

Jimmy Lyles was a head taller than anyone else was, and when he approached without a pause and shoved the only other boy who was near his height down into the snow and ice, the early morning laughter at the bus stop was over.

From that first morning of the freezing wind and the snow flurries, Jimmy Lyles was a terror. He soon recruited the other big kid that he shoved to the ground as a sidekick, and after his first appearance with his oversized boots, ratty hat with the earmuffs, and big red hands without gloves, he was a 12-year-old monster.

If anyone had food, Jimmy Lyles took it. If anyone had money, the bully demanded daily tribute. The daily disruptor of everything normal was quick to learn everyone’s fears and was even quicker to exploit every youthful anxiety.

One frosty morning, Jimmy Lyles confiscated the Marco Beach Boy’s genuine rabbit fur gloves that were a Christmas present, and the bully explained with a sneer that if the “Skinny Rich Kid” with the new gloves wanted to survive the morning bus stop, he should tell his “Mama” that he lost the gloves.

Because the fancy mittens, the lunch money, and the Ludden’s Cherry Cough Drops were so easily stolen from the Skinny Rich Kid, every other child at the bus stop began to turn their backs and avoid the morning turmoil between Jimmy Lyles and the most obvious victim, who was the Skinny Rich Kid.

As the New Year and January continued to march into a daily misery of Jimmy Lyles' calculated abuse, all the kids dreaded the inevitable confrontations and implied violence at the bus stop. After the children boarded the bus and walked into school, Jimmy Lyles and his sidekick were harmless. They were afraid of the bus driver and the teachers.

Meanwhile, before and after the morning and afternoon routine, Buddy began to notice the Skinny Kid was in some kind of trouble. The Skinny Kid was preoccupied. He was worried about something. He did not want to play with the ball, and he did not want to play fetch. Instead, he only wanted to go inside and stay there. Even when Buddy scratched at the door and barked to come inside, it seemed to take forever for his kid to offer a hug.

Buddy was born with five brothers and sisters. His mom was a Collie, and his dad was a German Shepard. The Skinny Kid picked him out of all the others, and when he went to the home above the rocky creek and the hilltop neighborhood houses, he was in puppy heaven. Long before Buddy’s home became big dog heaven, the Skinny Kid and the whole family began to call him Buddy—because that was what he was.

On the first day, Buddy decided to follow the Skinny Kid to the bus stop. The Kid tried to chase him away and told his dog with the white and brown patches, “Leave me alone! Go home!”

Buddy ignored the directive, and after The Kid became preoccupied and was walking with his head down and searching the path, Buddy began to follow, but at a discreet distance. The Kid was fun to follow because Buddy loved him.

On the last frosty morning of Jimmy Lyle’s terrible tyranny, the Skinny Kid began to approach the bus stop, hoping the bully would not notice. Jimmy Lyles and his sidekick did notice. They had been waiting, and despite the Kid’s best efforts at delay and timing, the school bus was nowhere in sight.

Without pause, Jimmy Lyles shoved the Skinny Kid hard. The bully was trying to push him down in front of everyone when Buddy came out of nowhere, growling and showing his teeth like a hero dog on TV. After Buddy made it clear that the bully’s days were over, Jimmy Lyles and his sidekick fled in terror toward the salty yellow bus that was slogging along in the dirty snow and crunching ice.

Every day afterward, Buddy walked the Skinny Kid to the bus stop and was always waiting when the bus and The Kid came home after school.