Chapter 3.
The bottle collection had begun. The word got out to all the boys in the neighbourhood that the family in the plain house with the 3D pictures of Jesus Christ on the walls were collecting soft drink bottles. The four brothers scoured the streets of the surrounding neighbouhood looking for lonely drink bottles, who needed a home. It was 1977 and the young boy had started high school. He still had pictures of his beloved Nadia on his wall, right next to Farrah Fawcett Majors. It seemed a match made in heaven. He already knew from the rich kids at school that the reason for his bottle drive had opened a few weeks back. Starwars was playing at the Civic Theatre in Auckland, New Zealand. The boy had not yet saved up enough money to purchase tickets for all his brothers and it would take another month or so before the dream became a reality. He was able though, to pick up a poster that accidently on purposely fell out of a magazine that was promoting the film in Mr Chans corner store. When the boy got the poster home and opened it up he smiled because it was a picture of Princess Leia talking to R2D2. "Help me Obi Wan Kenobi or that young polynesia boy in a country far far away, you're my only hope". He decided that the only appropriate place to put this poster was directly over his bed and that way, when the bunk bed started to undulate, ( with the help of his younger sibling), he would be have the benefit of being closer to his space girl.
The day was friday and the young boy strode around the school junior quadrangle waiting for his brothers and their friends to arrive. He had bad news for them and he grew impatient waiting to get it off his chest. At home he had marked this particular weekend as the weekend they would all travel to the city to watch the movie for the first time. Yes, the movie had been on for a while, but they had to save up the money. Unfortunately the boy had to give his dad some of the money to catch the bus to work and his mother borrowed some for the offering plate at church on Sunday, so they were going to have to collect more bottles and hopefully in a couple more weeks they would have enought to go and see his beloved princess. As he paced backwards and forwards waiting for his brothers to arrive, one of the annoying senior boys happened to pass throught the quad and decided to have some sport with the young boy.
Douglas James was a seventeen year old, who stood about six feet two inches tall and about 100 kilos, ( you guys work it out in pounds ). He liked school so much that he was held back twice and it was because of this he decided to take out his frustrations on any junior boy he could find. The young boy was oblivious to the impending danger as he paced in a circle waiting for his tardy brothers. Just then, Slam!!! A huge frying pan like hand came crashing down on the boys back forcing him to fall hard on the ground. He spun around just in time to avoid a rather large shoe connecting with his head. He looked up to see who was using him as a kicking tee, when his eyes met Douglas's. " What are you look at ,Punk??!!", spat Douglas as the young boy realised that he was in a remote area of the school and THIS could go on all lunchtime. He put his hands up to protect his face as a duffle bag full of unused books came slashing past. The momentum was enough to knock him back onto his feet. He tried to get past the lump of humanity but Douglas was pretty quick for his size and grabbed the boy from behind. Threatening to wedgey him out of exsistance, Douglas forced the boy to hand over everything that was in his pockets, including the bottle money and a folded piece of paper. Douglas let the poor struggling kid fall to the ground before putting his foot firmly on the boys back. The air rushed out of the young man's lungs as the great ox of a boy smiled at his latest haul. He pocketed the money without a second glance and then unfolded the paper. It was a poster of Princess Leia and she looked good. The young man had swapped two peanut butter sandwiches and a drink for this momento and he was not happy that the school bully was ogyling his girl. He tried to get off the ground, but the shoe that was firmly wedged in his back, was there to stay. He felt like a rug and was prepared to stay there until the great ape, that was holding him down,decided to leave. The air was still and it was unusally quiet until the sound of ripping paper could be heard above his head. The boy looked up to see that Douglas was tearing the poster into strips and letting it fall to the ground. "Noooo!!!'' cried the young man. 'That's my princess you're ripping there'. It had been two long months since the film had opened and he felt like a fraud because he was meant to be her saviour, and yet it had taken him two months to save up enough money to go and see her. The FORCE was strong with the young man, as he pushed off the ground like an Apollo mission. This caught Douglas off guard and off balance. He fell backwards and our young hero had enough time to snatch what little there was left of the poster and stuff it back in his pocket. Tears moisened his eyes as he figured out that the only way out was past the now pissed off Douglas. The two faced off and time seem to slow down. The young man had resigned himself to the fact that in the next few minutes he would be wearing the worse case of," G-String underwear over your head", that anyone had ever witnessed. Douglas was saying something, but the young man had already gone to his happy place so that at least his mind wouldn't be wedgied out of his school uniform.
The boy frowned and Douglas smiled.
The boy frowned and Douglas laughed.
The boy frowned and Douglas reached out and stepped forward. In the distance a dog barked and then the boy SMILED. Douglas was in mid stride when he was stopped by this change of emotion. The bully seemed puzzled as to why his latest victim seemed to have accepted his fate with a positive attitude. Douglas decide to give the boy his famous, " What chew talkin 'bout Willis" , glare. The boy seemed to have acknowlege the stare and returned it with a toothy grin. The bully decided enough was enough and that the only way to get rid of the smiling coconut boy, was to slap him up side his head. His frying pan size hand flew through the air towards the grinning junior school student. It was swinging fast and hard and as it rounded the corner towards the boys left ear Douglas braced himself for the impact...... but it never happened. The bully opened his eyes to find that his hand had not made contact with the boys face. In fact , the hand was still in mid flight. It hovered strangely between the two boys and it was not until Douglas noticed that the weight of his arm was not supported by him, but was in fact supported by, what could only be described as a tree trunk of an arm. Douglas followed the arm to a grassy knoll like shoulder that was connected to an Afro with Muscles. Six foot four and 115 kilos. The boy spoke," Douglas meet my brothers, Boys he's a bad, bad man". Douglas felt an uneasy tightening in his lower body as he looked pass the Afro with muscles to find that it was like a wookie gathering. Lots of brown faces shaded by mushroom like ,"Fro's", and he felt like he was in one of those Sesame Street games, you know. "One of these things in not like the others".
Before any of the festivities could take place, the boy reached out his hand and emptied the bullies pockets. The hard earned bottle money came out along with a gold watch that was reported missing from one of the student teachers desk. The boy told his brothers and their friends what has happened and that Douglas tore up his picture of the Princess . They were not happy about this news. The boy left the quadrangle with the instructions that after they taught Douglas the values of using his powers for good and not evil, they were to meet him at home because he was going to give them some bad news.
Later on......
The bell rang for the end of the day and as the boy gathered his books readying himself for the homeward journey, a notice came over the school PA system. The boy only caught the last bit of it, but everyone else must have heard the begining because they all stared at him. Teacher looked throught the forest of stacked chairs on desks and informed the boy that he was to take his bag and go and see the principal in his office. Everyone knew he was probably in trouble and as he left he swore he heard someone humming the Darth Vader theme. The corridors clicked with every step the boy took. It was nice to be out of the class room, but the destination was not a comfort to him. He rounded the corner and there was Douglas James sitting in the sick bay. Apparently in his eagerness to escape my brothers Cann and Abel sunday school lessons, he ran blindly into the girls toilets only to be escorted out by one of my other cousins. She also is a six four samoan girl. New Zealand Junior Shot Putt and Discus record holder. The nurse said that they were letting Douglas rest before trying to retrieve the rest of his underwear. Heaven knows where it had gone. The conversation was ended when the principal ushered the young man into his office. The boy sat down and waited for the principal to speak. But just then the door opened and a young lady entered the room. He imediately recognised her as the student teacher who had lost her watch. The two teachers spoke quietly in the corner and then the prinicipal approached. " I was told today that you had handed in Miss Thomas's watch and that you had not waited as the office staff had told you to". The boy was uneasy and he quickly spoke. " I was going to be late for class sir". The principal smiled and boy was still on edge. " I didn't steal it sir". "we know who took it son", said the principal. "The boy is incapacitated at the moment, but rest assured that as soon as the nurse finishes with him, so will the school". Then the student teacher spoke. " The watch was my mothers and she gave it to me before she died. I would have been beside myself if I had lost it for good" The young man smiled and then she spoke again. " The reason why the office staff wanted you to wait was because there was a reward for finding the watch." The boy seemed shocked. "That's okay Miss, you keep your money". "No," the principal butted in," it is YOUR money and I would hope that you don't offend Miss Thomas by not accepting it". The young man felt silly for not accepting the money, so he simply thanked both the teachers and took the envelope from the desk. He closed the door to the principals office and then quickly clicked his way out of the office area. His mind was still occupied with the fact that he was still two weeks AT LEAST away from seeing the movie. He saw his brothers crossing the school field and he raced to catch up. They all shared a laugh about what had happened to Douglas as the boy found the envelope in his pocket. He pulled it out and realised that it was the reward money for finding the watch and he didn't even ask how much it was. The group rounded the corner of the simple street that lead to their plain house and as the began to pile up onto the make shift veranda one of the brothers turn to the boy and asked him what was the news. The boy had dreaded this moment. You see, At the begining of the bottle drive,. the boys hadn't shared in his passion. They just liked the idea of accumulating money that they didn't have to give to the folks or to the church, but over time and evening discussions about who would whip who's butt, the boys began to really look forward to going into town to watch this movie. The waiting eyes and the held breaths signaled their impatience and so the junior school student took a deep breath and at the same time opened the envelope. " Boys, I am sorry to say that ", he glanced down at the open envelope and there inside, accompanied by what he could only guess as a thank you note,was FIFTY DOLLARS. Remember it was 1977 and they had just won the jackpot!! "What are you sorry about", cried one of the afros. The boy looked up at the eager faces and said," I am sorry to have to inform you that tomorrow morning, WE ARE GOING TO A MOVIE THEATRE, FAR , FAR , AWAY!!! High fives smacked the air as the realisation hit . Princess I'm on my way..To Be Continued.....