Chapters (56)
- Cover
- Dedication
- 1.1 [close to the bone]
- 1.2 [and introducing...]
- 1.3 [half-split]
- 1.4 [the Semple challenge]
- 1.5 [Brickpower]
- 2.1 [shaker up]
- 2.2 [heavyweight]
- 2.3 [♀]
- 2.4 [hired hand]
- 3.1 [wheels and deals]
- 3.2 [don’t cry over spilled ...]
- 3.3 [three’s a crowd]
- 3.4 [“If You Want Blood (You’ve Got It)” or “Night of the Long Knives,” take your pick]
- 4.1 [all the comforts of home]
- 4.2 [white knight]
- 4.3 [pay dirt]
- 4.4 [book learning]
- 5.1 [AQ]
- 5.2 [kihon, kata, kumite]
- 5.3 [pride and prejudice]
- 5.4 [hurt and humiliation]
- 5.5 [“King of the Road”]
- 6.1 [“Father and Son”]
- 6.2 [nothing succeeds like success]
- 6.3 [naked]
- 6.4 [nakeder (I know, there’s no such word)]
- 7.1 [42 km/hr]
- 7.2 [first aid]
- 7.3 [interest is mounting daily]
- 8.1 [kiai]
- 8.2 [kumite (sparring)]
- 8.3 [white knight II]
- 8.4 [Hope is the thing with feathers—that perches in the soul ... Emily Dickinson. American poet, 1830–86. I’m showing off.]
- 9.1 [white knight III]
- 9.2 [“Dead Man Walking”]
- 9.3 [tattletale]
- 9.4 [scat]
- 9.5 [painstaking]
- 10.1 [buzzed]
- 10.2 [amethyst: spiritual calm and healing]
- 10.3 [self-defense]
- 10.4 [self-disclosure]
- 11.1 [self-respect]
- 11.2 [guerrilla warfare]
- 11.3 [Sensei (teacher)]
- 11.4 [“The Razor’s Edge”]
- 12.1 [man to man]
- 12.2 [Tully]
- 12.3 [Hockey Night in Hilchey Bay]
- 12.4 [“If You Want Blood (You’ve Got It)”]
- 12.5 [rerun]
- 12.6 [“the end is the beginning ...” Japanese koan composed by Brickson MacAvoy]
- [author’s note]
- [acknowledgements]
“Your face, when you had the black eye and all those bruises—was it really Snyder and his gang?”
“No.” Now I’m chewing my lip. “Apart from Opal and Cassie, you’re the only person who knows about Floyd. Docker might have guessed ... I’m not sure.”
“What’s Docker got to do with it?”
“For a while I was taking karate lessons from him.”
“Self-defense,” she says slowly.
“That was the general idea.” I step away from her, letting my arms fall to my sides. “Tully, you won’t tell anyone about Floyd. Promise?”
“No! That’s the whole problem—no one ever says anything.”
“I only found out a week ago that Floyd hits Cassie. I was so frigging blind. Ignored all the signals.”
“You have to go to the authorities.”
“I can’t. They’ll take Cassie away—put her in a foster home. I’m her big brother, the guy who looks after her. She needs me. She’d miss me, I know she would.”
“They’d put you in the same home,” she says, sounding doubtful.
“I dunno how it works and I’m scared to find out. I mean, lots of people would want a cute little kid like Cassie. But a semi-reformed bully? I’m no bargain.”
“So what are you going to do?”
“I’m too young to take off with her. I’d have to be at least sixteen, and even then I’m not sure I’d get away with it. All I can do is go back to karate, if Docker will have me. I should never have quit. But if I can beat Floyd at his own game, then —”
“That’s guy-talk,” Tully snaps. “Solve violence with violence.”
“It’s the only language he understands. I’ve got to get his attention so he’ll stop knocking us around—me and Cassie. Somehow I have to make him respect me, make him understand that I’ll turn him in if I have to.” AQ zooms up the chimney and out of sight. “I’m not a total idiot. If things get too rough, I’ll take Cassie and run.”
“If you can.”
“Yesterday I held off Snyder McIsaac behind Shoppers. Just me and him, and I came out on top. I gotta do this, Tully. All my life I’ve felt like a coward—why else do you think I pick on kids smaller than me? If I put the cops onto Floyd now, I’ll always be afraid of him.”
She sighs, a sigh that comes all the way from her toes. “If I see the smallest bruise on you or Cassie, I’m telling Rolf.”
“I wish you’d try and understand where I’m coming from!”
“I do understand—you don’t have many choices and they all suck. Brick, if you’re in trouble, night or day, our place is just up the road.”
“Right. Like Rolf would agree to that.”