Protect Your Own

When I was 10 years old the neighborhood newspaper man tried to smother me. I walked my friend to the gate of the playground near my home, when this adult appeared after my friend was near her house. He told me that there was a snake nearby and for me to be careful. When I looked, he forcefully picked me up. He managed to take out the shoe laces from my sneakers and tied my hands and feet. He then carried me past the playground fence and down a hill, where i was placed on a long stretched rock. He then got on top of me and placed his hand over my mouth. He told me about the way a girl in my neighborhood was killed a few months prior and the details. He told me if I screamed he would do the same thing to me. I would have smothered, if I some how did not get loose on my right wrist. I twisted his face around his mouth with my hand and told him that God would never forgive him for killing a child. I stared at him in such a way that scared him and he ran off. There was no way that I could have gotten lose on my own. My oldest brother who was overseas at the time told me years later that he viewed the entire incident and got me out of the ties. I am glad I fought in that fight or flight moment and it made me stronger. If it was not for my brother, I would have been dead like the nine year old girl. The newspaper man who was about 18 always acted odd but no one paid attention. Perhaps, he overheard the details of that little girl's death and used it to scare me. Perhaps, someone who knew my brother was in Intelligence paid him (the paper man) since they go after the women and sisters. I was the only one who sent my brother letters through my dad to an undisclosed location. That is why men have to protect their own.