Capture and Rumble

All my life I was never a fighter. My family knows me as the hugger, random hugs from me always makes their days. I was always taught to walk away from conflicts, even if the best scenario seems to be a knuckle sandwich. Yet there was one time, and one time only when all these thoughts of being a lover and not a fighter just turned off. My best friends neighbor found this out the hard way.

It was another one of those summer nights. The air was crisp, the campfire was roaring in the front of the house. All the parents sat around the fire, while the kids played in the backyard. It was a capture the flag kind of night and the game was intense. The teams were a combination of neighbor kids, and kids of family friends. The house sat on a hill, and the back yard went to a gentle slope down the hill. The hill is were the line was set for our sides. Our team was winning and only needing one more point to score. It was as intense as a game of capture the flag gets when you are twelve years old. My best friend was on my team, he was the fastest kid playing. We developed a plan to get the flag. My distraction worked, he grabbed the flag and ran across the line. This is were everything went down hill, literally.

He ran across the line yelling "we won, we won." This is exactly when the hot tempered neighbor kid ran out of nowhere. He tackled my friend down the hill. My friend by no means was a big kid, and was defiantly in the situation of being picked on by someone much bigger. The whole thing reminds me now of a cartoon when you see them fighting and its just a cloud of dust. I stopped and my heart began to race, and I was enraged with anger.I didn't know how to control this feeling. Before I knew it I was flying down the hill and tackled the neighbor kid off his feet. The fight didn't last long. After the initial hit I had complete control and gave him a few swift blows to the noggin, and a bloody lip. Eventually human nature told me to stop and he ran home crying.

I made sure my friend was alright. He said very little due to the fact I was the last person he would expect to hit someone. We walked into our house trying to play it off cool, but our parents already knew something was up. We told them them the story and despite a little anger they took it well. Eventually we went back outside and enjoyed our night. The neighbor boy eventually moved away not due to the fact I laid the beat down on him, but we never had to deal with him again. We never were really sure why he why he got so angry at our victory in a small game of capture the flag. My friend and I sometimes still look back on it and wonder. I don't provoke fighting, but sometimes it is needed for the arrogant people who just don't understand.