Darcy Burgess story

VECTOR MARSDEN

by Darcy Burgess

We sat in the luscious green grass of the beautiful Sandam School playground. Sandam was my friend Jimmy’s and my regular destination when we went to his place. Jimmy lived in an apartment just opposite Sandam and we would get a football and go for a kick in the freshly cut grass.

Sandam playground had everything from a smooth road for skating to a wall to play thumbles (a game we used to play). Another thing about this spectacular place was if you walked to the far side of the playground (from Jimmy’s place) there was a mulberry tree. Jimmy and I used to climb right up to the top of the tree to get the ripest and juiciest mulberries. We would come back home with blood red and black stains all over are new school clothes.

As much as we loved Sandam there was only one problem: the park was actually a school ground for the kids of Sandam Public School. This would have been completely fine but the Principal of Sandam was a horror­–just a real nutter.

I had never known this until one day.

Jimmy and I were kicking a football against the school wall when we heard this firecracker-type explosive noise, the hairs on the back of our necks stood up. Out walked a giant of a man with wide shoulders and muscular arms. His head was shaved and he was almost completely bald and had a tattoo of a skull on his right bicep. He started approaching Jimmy and I. We had no idea what do. We froze. It was like our feet were stuck in mud,

I couldn’t move.

I saw the man’s eyes widen and turn an awful murky green. He stepped one inch in front of our faces and bellowed, “Get outta ‘ere. I don’t wanna see youse ever come ‘ere and kick the ball against our wall again,” he shouted. “So go on get out.”

“Yyyyes sir,” we stuttered and then we started scurrying away like mice running away from a human with a broom, until we got to Jimmy’s place. Jimmy was the most innocent kid you have ever met and within a second he had told his mum what had happened. Jimmy’s mum was a bit the same. She knew who this man was and she told us: “Vector Marsden,” she said. “You don’t wanna mess with him boys.”

I called Jimmy over. Although I was scared of Vector Marsden
I wasn’t going to let him get away with what he did. I mean Jimmy and I weren’t doing anything wrong, we never hurt anybody, we were just kicking the ball against the wall like we had been doing for 4 years. “Hey Jimmy you wanna go tick him off again.” I said. “No way,” Jimmy blurted out. “I’m never going near that guy again. He scared the living daylights outta me.” “Oh come on,” I said, “Don’t be such a wimp.”

It took some persuading, but I somehow managed to get Jimmy to come with me.

Disobeying his mum’s orders we ran towards the school with our ball and again started kicking repeatedly against the wall. “Now,” I started saying slowly, “When Mr Bozo comes out and tells us to go away we shall do it, but when we start walking back shake your finger in the air like so (I then showed Jimmy what to do).”

We saw shadows running down the stairwell and then once again out came Vector. He ran towards us and then stopped even closer in front of our faces. I could see his huge nose hairs come curling out of his nostrils as he shouted. “Haven’t I told you rats to go away?” We didn’t say anything. “Take a bloody hint and get the hell outta my school”. We still didn’t say anything and very bravely we started walking away a lot slower than we did before and with great reluctance stuck our hands in the air.

I looked at Jimmy and our nervous face began to twitch. I started to wiggle my finger from side to side. It took less than
a second for the principal to know what we were getting at. We suddenly heard, “I’m gunna get ya you rats.” Jimmy and I bolted, running as fast as our little legs could go. I looked behind and saw Vector getting closer and closer and then the fatal blow happened. BOOM! Jimmy’s face planted onto the soft but sharp grass. Jimmy was my best friend I could not leave him behind. I stuck out a hand and he grabbed it.

Jimmy was of chunky stature and as I pulled with great strength his weight made me fall over as well. There we were, two little helpless boys with a giant of a man sprinting behind us. But we were not about to give up we lifted ourselves up off the turf and jumped the fence with tremendous strength. Our smartest move was that we kept on running. We were faster than this man and we had to lead him to the wrong house which is what we did. We got way ahead and stopped, caught our breaths and ran back to Jimmy’s place. When we got home I was surprised to notice Jimmy didn’t tell his mum what happened, he just shrugged it off. Ever since Jimmy has been a different, more confident person. We still talk about that day a lot now and it’s one of my best adventures with him.