Crotchet equals ten. Chapter Three.

 

At home the Petravac family always spoke in their native tongue. This didn't help their English language development, but the kids got plenty of exposure at school. When Petar was about 9 years old, he asked his father for some fighting advice. Adem was not a violent man, but he had grown up in a country where it was good to know how to defend yourself, it was a place where violence could escalate quite quickly. He advised his son, "I've seen you guys at school. What you do is play fighting. It's very unlikely that someone will get seriously hurt. You don't want to escalate a situation like that. Just be kind to each other. Later in life you might be unfortunate enough to get into a situation that is much more serious. You'll recognise it if it happens to you. Most of us are not trained fighters so, if the situation gets bad, there are a few things that you can do. Remember that these two things I'm going to tell you about will damage the other person, so you must know it is the right time and you must be strong and decisive. You can't afford to be worried about the consequences. I'm talking about a situation where you are seriously threatened and there are no potential weapons close by. Firstly, and remember that you must be quick and decisive, with your first two fingers, poke your opponent in the eyes. Use all your force! Secondly, with your strongest knee, hit him in the balls. Make sure it's hard. You can worry about the consequences when he is obviously out of the fight. Either of these two moves, on its own, should do the trick. If it doesn't work out, run!"

Petar had plenty of time to think about his father's advice. He took time to imagine such a situation and the decisiveness and force he would need to possibly overpower a bigger and stronger opponent.

Now he was nearly thirteen. He didn't really have any close friends at school but most of the students left him alone most of the time. One teacher, a priest named Father Pliss, offered him a chance to become a sacristan. He accepted the offer because it helped him fill in morning break and lunchtime. Soon he was put in charge of looking after the communion hosts. On days when his appetite felt neglected, he was guilty of nibbling the occasional host.  Though, he had heard of earlier boys who had done worse things.

There were two boys who really seemed to have it in for him. They were year ten students. One was big and fat. The other was scrawny and quite quick with his hands. He'd soon got the message to avoid them like the plague.

To be continued.