Henry's Lesson, Part 1
I know this is getting to be routine but.. The following is the sole property of me SwiftWindSpirit. All characters and their players are mine. They were made by me so obviously they are owned by me. Any failure to get this bold print will result in a legal battle I doubt you little pirates want your parents to find out about!
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Henry's Lesson, Part 1
By,
SWSP
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For several more days Henry laid there in his bed drifting in and out of consciousness until he was strong enough to have another operation done to get the wires out of his jaw and have two new front and bottom prosthetic teeth put into his mouth. Once all of the operations to repair his face were complete the tiger was finally wheeled out of the trauma area of the hospital into a recovery room where he slowly started regaining his consciousness and slowly started to recover from his operations.
Several weeks later the tiger was finally allowed to leave the hospital as he rose from his bed making his way towards the mirror by the closet where his clothes hung. The weary eyed skinny tiger stared at himself in the mirror frowning as he looked his face over.
The bridge of his nose still had stitches popping out of it and his jaw was still a little swollen. When he opened his mouth he looked over his two new front and bottom prosthetic teeth frowning and clutching his forehead's temples as the intense pain rocked his head making it throb.
Henry dropped his head in shame as he went into the closet putting on a pair of jeans, a polo shirt, and a baseball cap. Before he left the room the nurses shot him up with numbing agent to quell the pain until he had to come back to get the stitches out in a couple of weeks.
He wearily walked out of his room going down to the front desk checking himself out. He walked out into a chilly mostly cloudy late fall day. The cool bite of the wind briefly snapped the tiger out of his haze and the brief rays of sun cracking themselves through the clouds felt really good to Henry as he only for a few seconds smiled. He aimlessly walked down the pathway along a busy city street until he found a spot in a small park near the center of town where he sat down on a bench looking at the ground in a deep depression.
He sat there watching the rows of ants crawling along it forcing his eyes follow them. He watched them dart off in different directions wishing he was them as the haze of his depression tunneled his vision turning his head into a heavy bowling ball as he sat there in his own dimension of darkness not bothering to look up at passersby who quickly went by the tiger not even noticing he was there.
He felt bad about what he had done to Antone and it seemed the experience of his best friend Matilda not cutting him any slack plus the experience of breaking his face on railroad tracks and nearly dying of hypothermia had given him a wake up call as he slouched down staring up at the clouds whizzing by in the sky squinting his eyes.
The images of Antone staring at him in pain and Matilda giving him a piece of her mind wracked the tiger's mind as he felt a painful lump sit itself in the middle of his throat when the images stopped on those deep blue eyes of Antone and the unspeakable pain they held. Henry could only whimper at the monster he had become and the number of people he had hurt because of it. This was all the tiger's fault and he finally for the first time in his life had remorse as the emotions of it took over his mind as tears welled up in his eyes forcing him to sit up and bend forward burying his face into his hands.
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The blustery Northern Indiana wind made his stubble twinge as the old cat walked down the street. He walked with a noticeable limp forcing him to use a cane. The tufts of grey mixing in with the brownness of the cat's hair showed well over forty years of hard earned patina as he put on a brown derby hat to go along with his long jacket open facing his black suit with white buttoned down shirt and red tie.
He whistled a cheerful hum to himself as he walked down the block in town smiling at people as they passed by him returning his gaze. He could feel the twinge of his back popping as a small city park came into view. His home was only a few blocks from where he was but the day was too nice to just go home as he made his way across the street into the park.
He took a few minutes to silently walk around it as he let his gaze focus on the trail in front of him. He recounted all of his years as a service man in the army being cut short by a career ending blast which almost severed his spine and left him with a permanent limp. If only he had watched where he stepped he probably would still be in active service but after what he had seen overseas it was a blessing in disguise making the cat appreciate the life he was given away from it as a traveling antique dealer salesman.
After several minutes the cat came to the center of the park where a huge statue of the city's French Poodle founder dominated it. The canine was dressed in pre colony wear and held a huge cognac glass above his head paying homage to the French heritage who founded the city back in the late 1600s. The cat took a minute to read the muriel which dedicated the statue when the park was opened back in the early 1900s.
Encircled around the statue was a half mile worth of benches which gave various views of the city, the statue, and the park around it. The cat gingerly made his way over to one of them stopping at it taking a seat on the bench watching the various cars, trucks, and people walk by on the busy city street across from it.
He rested his cane in his lap slouching down closing his eyes letting the sounds and the smells of a busy South Bend take over his thoughts.
Suddenly the cat's ears perked up when he heard crying on the other side of the park as a brief lull in the traffic on the busy street gave him a chance to hone in on where it was coming from. He opened his eyes to look around for the source and discovered it was coming from the other side of the statue out of his sight more towards where its back would be. The cat instinctively got up and made his way over to see if the person whoever they were needed his help.
He rounded the corner and came upon a young weeping tiger in baggy jeans, a loose fit polo shirt and baseball cap. The cat looked at the tiger and his heart sank when the weeping tiger took his hands off his face briefly to rub the tears from his eyes. It looked like this tiger had been through a war as the stitches protruded out of the bridge of his nose and his swollen jaw made his beautiful striped face seem out of proportion. His eyes when they briefly opened showed the pain of loss as the cat silently made his way to the bench sitting down beside the tiger resting his paw on his shoulder.
..
Henry felt a warm paw on his shoulder and suddenly snapped up looking at an aging grey tabby cat silently looking back at him. The cat rubbed the tiger's shoulders making his eyes fill up with more tears as they gushed out of his eyes.
"I fucked up man, I fucked up" Henry choked as his tears streamed down his cheeks. "I feel like a jerk for what I did to him" Henry admitted letting all of his thoughts go to the cat who just sat there with his paw rubbing the tiger's shoulder listening to him.
"It's ok son, we've all been there with mistakes we regret" the cat said softly.
"Yeah well you aren't me who's lost a loved one, friends, and his freedom" Henry cried wiping tears from his eyes with his arms.
"Listen son when you calm down I'll tell you a story about an incident which happened to me when I was over in Iraq" the cat said softly.
Henry immediately looked up at the cat whose light smile and deep brown eyes forced a smile from the tiger who sniffled for a few minutes before he finally calmed down.
"First *sniff sniff* before you start what is your name stranger?" Henry asked looking at the cat.
"Name's Jay or Jaybird as they used to call me in the service" Jay said extending his paw to the tiger who shook it.
"You can call me Henry, everybody does" Henry said shaking Jay's hand.
For a half an hour Henry listened to Jay's story about what happened to him in Iraq in 1975 when the cat accidentally stepped on a land mine nearly severing his spine and leaving him with a permanent limp.
"So what does that have to do with me Jay?" Henry asked with a quizzical look on his face.
"It has everything to do with how lucky you are you have the things you have here in the States. Where I was you had to constantly look out for yourself and those around you above and below" Jay said looking Henry in the eyes.
"Listen old man what you went through ain't nothing next to what I have gone through" Henry countered looking down at the ground.
"I can tell just by the way you act son that you don't get what I mean" Jay said sternly. "I can tell just by looking at you that no bully did those injuries to you, you did them yourself am I right or am I not?" Jay asked sternly as the tiger flattened his ears in shame.
"Yes I admit these were my own ignorance but what do you care old man?" Henry spat. "They've torn open my jaw to repair it and rebuilt the bridge of my nose and then put two new bottom and front teeth in my mouth. I don't thnk you understand what pain feels like" Herny said staring a hole in Jay.
"Actually Henry I do because like you I was a young ignorant kid who thought I was king of the world until I joined the service" Jay said making Henry immediately close his mouth. "I was about your age when they sent me on my first tour of the Middle East. The horrors I saw in that first year mixed with brutal training taught me to grow up really fast. I think you would benefit from joining the service" Jay said resting a paw on Henry's shoulder.
"What the fuck is joining the armed forces going to do for me?" Henry said in an annoyed tone. "I'm already facing up to the stupid things I've done in life to my friends and my loved one. I don't think waving a gun around killing other people is going to solve my issues." Henry said clenching his fists.
"Well number one Henry I think you have the right idea but I sense you won't learn from it until you get a taste of true hardship and seeing what other people in this world go through" Jay said strongly looking at the now speechless tiger.
"Wait a sec, you think I'm not going to learn from the fuck ups I've done?" Henry asked confused.
"No Henry I don't and I can see in your eyes you are denying even yourself because you've never in your life had to face up to the realities of your actions. I know in my heart just by speaking with you in this brief time that you can't even look at yourself in the mirror without bobbing your head in shame" Jay said watching Henry's ears flatten once again.
"So fucking what? Why does it matter to you?" Henry asked gritting his teeth.
"It matters everything to me because like I told you I was the same kind of young kid you were until I joined the armed forces and realized just how lucky I was to live where I do and have the things I do" Jay said smiling.
"Guess what old man I'm gay and a whipping boy for any one of them soldiers. If they were to find out about me I would be in worse shape then I am now" Henry said looking at a perplexed Jay.
"Well Henry I don't know what to say for you then because at some point it doesn't matter what you are because once you do the training and take the tour it will take the immature brat out of you and make you understand how much life really means to you" Jay countered.
"Guess what old man it's not happening because I know unlike you I don't need a silly bunch of green fatigues on me to make me grow up" Henry said giving a sarcastic look to Jay.
Within seconds the back of Jay's cane connected with the back of Henry's skull catching the tiger off guard sending him face first into the cement.
Henry got up on his knees with blood dripping out of his throbbing nose gripping it as the intense pain knifed through his entire face threatening to split it in half.
"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT FOR OLD MAN?" Henry yelled as he lunged at Jay who rose to his feet and buried the back of his cane once more into the skull of the tiger who blacked out.
Several minutes later Henry regained consciousness and was met by searing pain as he got up to his feet wobbling around trying to get his balance. He looked over and saw Jay still sitting there humming to himself staring a hole in the tiger who quickly got into another battle stance.
"WHAT THE FUCK OLD MAN, I OUGHT TO FUCKING KICK YOUR ASS FOR THAT" Henry yelled as he looked at the blood stains caking his shirt and jeans.
"Do that again son and you're going to go back to where you came from. That was all you and your ignorance" Jay said sternly as Henry suddenly thought better of his actions. "You see I don't need this cane to put a huge hurting on you because of my training in the armed forces I'm able to deal with punks like you who don't learn a lesson if it was looking straight at them" Jay said calmly looking at Henry who was about to blow a gasket.
"Why the fuck did you do that?" Henry seethed.
"The answer is very simple Henry, when I gave my drill sergeant that same sarcastic look he put me in the hospital for a month with injuries to my body so bad that when I got out he made sure to be extra harsh to me and made me do triple of what everyone else did" Jay said sternly. "After that day I never again smart mouthed my superiors because I knew what the consequences were if I did" Jay said in a serious tone looking at the dumbfounded Henry.
"I'm.." Henry said in a shaky voice.
"You're an ignorant little punk who if I could I would gladly sign you up for the service so they could beat the punk out of you and turn you into a decent man who society would at least tolerate" Jay growled.
"So why haven't you called the cops on me old man and fucking put me in jail?" Henry spat.
"Because punks like you are better served in a boot camp then a jail. The police around here don't even bother with brats like you. They immediately take you to the boot camp where you are signed up whether you like it or not" Jay growled. "As a matter of fact Henry while you were out I did actually call them and in a few minutes they will be here and they will escort you to the boot camp sign in place and sign you up whether you come in with them or not" Jay said smiling happily.
"You fucking old bag of shit.." Henry spat as he took another lunge at Jay who rose to his feet and cracked the tiger straight in his jaw with his fist and followed it up with a big right hand in the side of the head of the tiger who collapsed on the ground out cold in a pool of his own blood.
A couple minutes later a paddy wagon belonging to the South Bend police department showed up coming to a stop on the street across from the park.
Two big Doberman Pincher cops came walking up to the scene. The sight of Henry made even them cringe as they turned to Jay who was sitting there as if nothing happened.
"Are you ok Mr. Jay?" one of them asked looking at the cat.
"Yes sir I'm fine but my friend here is another story" Jay said pointing to the fallen bloody tiger.
"I really think this boy needs to get stitched up and cleaned up before you take him in to get signed up for the boot camp" Jay said as the two officers cringed at the number the old cat did on the tiger.
They picked up the fallen Henry and drug him to the paddy wagon as his blood from his nose and his jaw dripped onto the ground making a trail behind it.
"ONE MORE THING OFFICERS" Jay shouted at the Dobermans who stopped looking at him.
"Please get a hose and clean this up because we don't want our nice city park being a blood bath now do we?" Jay said calmly as people on the street walked by covering their mouths and in some cases holding back the urge to puke as they looked at the wrecked bloody broken face of Henry who was quickly loaded up into the back of the paddy wagon.
"Sure thing Mr. Jay, we will get someone here as soon as possible" one of them said slamming both the back doors shut of the paddy wagon.
"Good, now be warned he is a lively one so you may have to sign him up without him being there" Jay said as the Dobermans nodded getting into the paddy wagon driving off.
Jay calmly got up and made his way out of the park humming a happy tune as he made his way home.
To be continued..