PUNCH ME: PART ONE

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“I’ll pay you five dollars to punch me in the face.”

Colin looked at me like I was insane. Honestly, I expected him to take the offer right away and swing at me. That’s why I went to him first.

Ask him again.

“I’ll pay you five dollars to punch me in the face.”

Colin shook his head and shoved past me, making his way back into the graffiti-covered recreation building. It had once been the gym for a middle school, but now it was the only building left. Everything else was replaced with a big warehouse.

I was disappointed he didn't take the deal, but I didn’t mind. There were plenty of other kids that might take the offer right away. Everyone likes money.

There were four boys playing basketball by the half-court with the penis graffiti on the backboard.

Go and ask them.

“I’ll pay each of you five dollars to hit me in the face.”

I got their attention right away. The five guys, all tall boys a year or older than me, stared in my direction.

The tallest of them had to be over six feet. He walked over to me slowly, looked down and scratched his head, glancing at his friends and trying to figure out what I was up to.

“Why?” he asked.

Don't tell him.

“Five dollars.”

One of his friends, a heavy, muscular boy who I thought might have the beginnings of a mustache, looked at the tall boy. “I think he's mental.”

I didn't care what he thought.

"Five dollars," I said again.

“Why?” the tall boy repeated.

“Five dollars."

He thought about it a moment and nodded.

“Okay.”

I stepped up closer to him.

"Money first."

I gave him his five dollars.

I was ready for a real hard punch, but he hit my left cheek so lightly that my head hardly moved.

The boy with the mustache did the same thing as the other two kids. I’d been hit by four kids and spent twenty dollars, and I hardly felt anything. I was sure it wouldn’t even bruise.

It needs to be harder.

"I know," I said out loud as the boys walked away.

Grandma Sophie had given me sixty dollars total for my birthday, so I still had forty dollars left. Eight hits.  

Continue to Part Two

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