They begin to move closer to Ron, a street light illuminating one of them for a moment; everything else was in darkness. He realized these were some of the kids from the shelter he used to be in. They had a fire in them, maybe it was jealousy that he got out and got on his feet. How did they know that much about Michael? He knew that they could hurt Michael, at his age that could kill him. They could hurt Carol, badly. They might have a knife. He knew how much danger they were in now.

Ron made a move towards the one he recognized, when suddenly all five pounced on Ron, beating on him, taking no break in their punches. One of them picked up Rhonda and threw her against a brick wall. Ron spit blood and, in between blows, tried to move to protect Rhonda. Carol ran to grab Rhonda. She tried to pick her up and saw she was hurt. Ron looked at the young men, spit blood at the closest of them, and screamed, “Fuck you! I hope you all die for what you did to her! Fuck you!”

The noise of this was so loud, a group of people leaving a bar saw the commotion. One of them yelled “Hey! What’s going on there? Hey!” Another woman was dialing for help on her phone. The young men ran away as quickly as possible, disappearing down a dark side street and into the blackness of the night.

They were nearing the back door of the house, Carol carrying Rhonda, with Ron limping on his own. As they approached the door, two of the young men were behind them again, taunting them. He asked Ron if he could meet his boyfriend. Ron lunged at one of them and fell to the ground. They began to kick him. Carol screamed for help.