Knowing that the time has come to take a stand against bullying in school, two brave and compassionate high school students form a gay/straight alliance to protect their friends.

At what point do you stop turning a blind eye when you see someone being bullied?

For Hank, someone who had endured more than his fair share of bullying, that moment was clear. When he sees Edwin, the new kid in town, being confronted on the way home from school, he knows he has to intervene. Putting his own safety aside, he steps up to save Edwin-and in doing so, learns that he has more in common with the other boy than he could have imagined. Edwin, he learns, is being raised by lesbian parents. Hank has two gay men as fathers, so he understands just what Edwin is going through.

In each other, the two new friends find more than just common ground; they find the strength to make a stand, not only against the bullies, but against the belief that harassment, intimidation, and assault is acceptable. Hank and Edwin work tirelessly and creatively to create bridges of understanding and tolerance in their community. Their goal is to not only create a gay/straight alliance at their school, but to get the community behind their ideals as well.

And just as they expect, they encounter resistance, intolerance, and ignorance. The strength of their friendship gives them the courage they need to see their plans realized, so that every student-gay, straight, bisexual, transgendered, and those disenfranchised in any way-can enjoy a safe, caring environment. That is what every student, every person deserves.

And a Child ...

By J. Kelly Poorman

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2011 J. Kelly Poorman
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4620-1076-9

Chapter One

Edwin Troy Harrison could still smell the mustard on the corn dog, even though it was lying on the ground covered in dirt.

He didn't know which was worse, that his only taste of junk food for the week was now inedible or that there were three guys meaning to do him bodily harm.

The corn dog, with mega crap and calories, would have been the first taste of junk food in over a week. He had been dreaming about it since he cleared enough money out of his allowance to buy it.

Edwin had gotten the first bite in his mouth when it was knocked out of his hand. He was so surprised by the attack that the food already in his mouth remained on the stick, sharing the same fate. There was mustard smeared on his upper lip.

The three boys, from his new school, looked ready to rumble.

The good news was that he outweighed all of them.

The bad news, was, it was all fat.

He didn't know how to fight if his life depended on it, and from the look of these guys, it just might.

"Can I help you gentlemen?" Edwin had played this game before. His height, weight and glib tongue had gotten him out of more beatings than he could count.

"Yeah. You can die, faggot!!" said the leader. They all started toward him.

"Wait, wait, wait. I'm not gay." He put his hands up to try and stop them. Their leader was a little on the short side, with a mop of hair that needed a good washing and clothes that looked the same. Mop top's cohorts were not exactly Xerox copies of him but carbon copies that had been used thirty times. Friends for years. Carrying each other's back bones. Edwin stopped worrying about the lost fun food and started worrying if he would ever be able to eat again after these boys were through with him.

He hated new schools.

This was only the second new school in all his academic years. That was two too many. You had to prove yourself all over again. Edwin was sure all he was going to prove was that he was a bleeder.

He closed his eyes and covered his face, slipping his glasses off his nose, and tossed them, he hoped, far enough from what was going to happen that they wouldn't get broken.

He could hear the boys moving forward, egging each other on. "Look at the sissy covering his face."

"Hit him in the gut, Bret."

"I get the money from his back pack." said the ring leader.

Then there was silence.

Edwin thought that his wish for time to stop had been granted until he opened his eyes. The two boys had their hands raised into fists, and the leader had his hand in the back pack.

However, none of them looked at, what was a few seconds ago, their target. They stared past him.

Edwin took a few breaths, then turned around to see what was evil enough to stop his tormentors in their tracks.

There was another boy not unlike his tormentors. He was a lot cleaner but still cut from the same cloth as the other boys.

The five boys remained motionless, a challenge, as to whom would break the ice.

The newcomer stepped into the clearing. "Hey guys, stealing lunch money is so fifth grade. What do you think you are doing"? The two offenders dropped their fists. The other dropped what he had taken from the back pack. The three started talking all at once.

The newcomer stepped between Edwin and his tormentors. "Slow down Einsteins. I can only listen to one moron at a time."

The two followers deferred to their leader. "We heard this faggot talking to Becky Wilson about living with his two Moms, right Heather"? Edwin started forward but the newcomer blocked his way.

"Hold on Killer." he said in a normal tone of voice, turning to Edwin. Then, under his breath, he said "Play along."

"Killer, right," said the leader. "He's nothing but a fat loser bastard, with two mommies." The other two boys echoed his sentiments.

The new boy fell forward like he had been pushed. He turned around to Edwin, "Yo, Killer, he did not mean anything by it," turning to the leader "right, Marvin?" There was a look of fear in the new kids' eyes, and that gave the other boys pause.

"Why not?" he asked tentatively.

"Well, Killer here is one of the top martial arts experts in the State of Florida and has his third degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do."

"Bull shit" said Marvin's number two. "You call him 'Killer' because you don't know his name and you're just trying to save his ass."

Edwin took a deep breath because this guy did not have a clue as to who he was.

The new kid turned and winked. "This is none other than Edwin Troy Harrison, ET to his friends, and Killer by the five guys at a Tae Kwon Do tournament in Florida that had their right legs and left arms broken when they jumped him after he won the Grand Championship last year." Turning to Edwin he said, "Right, Killer?"

Edwin was almost as much in awe of himself as the three toadies that the new kid was trying to bamboozle. He took a stance that he had seen in the Karate Kid movie. Wax on, wax off, then did a kick that would have been more awkward if he had not practiced in front of the mirror for hours. He loved that movie.

Toady three chimed in, "OK that was cool but that doesn't change the fact that he is a faggot. Growing up with two Lesbos, you have to be a fag, right"? This time the new kid pushed toady number three to the ground. "I live with my Dad and another guy. Does that make me a faggot, gee-ball?" The boy scrambled from the ground and had the same stance as Edwin had earlier, hands covering his face.

"No man. Hell. You're cool"

"Besides, what man in his right mind would not want two Lesbos waiting on him hand and foot." Edwin had been standing there in the crane for a while, and he let out a moan.

"Oh man, he's going to blow."

He turned to Edwin and gave him a look like "Cool it, we are almost home."

"Killer, remember what the sensei said. If you break anyone's limbs out of the ring, you can be arrested," Turning to the guys then back to Edwin "but I guess it's self defense."

Edwin yelled "But I want to kill!!"

The three boys ran past the strangely postured boy, heading into the woods they came from. Edwin kept frozen. The new kid came over to him and checked that the nitwits had gone.

"It's ok, Killer. They split."

Edwin relaxed his arms and lowered his leg, accompanied by groans. "I wasn't sure how much longer I was going to be able to hold that pose."

"You did good, boy." Shaking his hand, "The name is Henry Strickland. My friends call me Hank. 'Ethan Henry Powell Strickland' when my Dad's are pissed off."

Edwin stopped shaking Hand's hand and searched for his glasses. "I don't know where you pulled my name out of, but I am really glad you did."

"Long story. My Dads gets a newsletter telling them about the new arrivals in Springfield and the 'burbs.' Your name came up."

"Newsletter? About what"?

"I call it the COF's Bulletins from the LGTB Center."

"COF?"

"Children of Fags."

Edwin got very quiet and increased the urgency of finding his glasses. Hank made a face, "Sorry. I used that word a lot. Most of the time it's in front of my DADS!! Underline, exclamation point."

Edwin is still puzzled.

"Henry has two Dads." Punctuated with air quotes.

"Oh, you have a special family too?"

"Special if you think that three guys farting and scratching at the dinner table is special."

"Damn." The lost glasses had been found, and they were broken. "Tough beans, Killer. Those cost like an arm and a leg."

"Not for me. My Mom is an optometrist."

"Is that the 'I've seen the inside of her birth canal' Mom, or 'I want you to meet my special friend!' Mom."

Edwin wasn't sure if he liked Hank's way of getting to the point.

"My natural Mother and please stop calling me Killer."

"Whatever. What does your other Mom do"?

"She's a car mechanic."

"Butch alert."

Edwin was trying to stay calm. He decided to change the subject.

"What do your Dads do?"

"My Dad is a lawyer."

"Would that be your 'seed from his loins' Dad or ... ah ...?

"Keep working on it 'Edwin'. My real Dad is the lawyer. His partner is a Doctor. My Dad was married to my Mom and she died in childbirth. Mine."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"No big deal. I don't remember her."

"What is really weird is I'm named Henry for my Dad, Ethan for my Mom's Dad, and now my Dad's partner's name is Ethan."

"Weird."

"Is there an echo in here"?

"Sorry."

"J/K."

"I'm named for Edwin Moses."

"The track star?"

"Yes."

"Was he your Dad?"

"No, but Mom thought it was a cool name. I am a product of artificial insemination."

"It could be worse, they could have called you Turkey Baster."

Hank had stepped over the line that Edwin never knew existed. Edwin started swinging and caught Hank in the nose on the first try. The blood started flowing and between the shocked bleeder and the soon-to-be nauseous puncher, everything came to a standstill.

Edwin's eyes got as big as saucers, and he turned to his left, throwing up, heaving the tofu soup that he had for lunch.

Hank attempted to stem the flow of blood but was also attempting to help the puking Edwin.

His attempt to do both failed miserably.

Hank would take his hand from his bloody nose to comfort Edwin would see the bloody hand and retch even harder.

The cycle of puking and bleeding lasted for ten minutes. When it was finally controlled Edwin could not look in Hank's direction.

"What are we going to do now?" asked Edwin, weak from voiding his insides.

"The same thing we were going to do if the 'Killer' story had not panned out. We are going to the ER. Ethan's on duty tonight so he can patch me up."

"... and if the 'Killer" story hadn't worked?"

"Then he would be patching you up."

The two boys looked like war vets as they marched out of the woods to the hospital, with Hank helping Edwin. Edwin had his face turned away from the blood-marked Hank.

Hank had lived in Springfield all of his life and knew the hospital like the back of his hand. They made it almost all the way to the ER with only one person seeing the red drenched Hank. The shock in the nurse's eyes was relaxed when she saw it was Hank. "You got this handled, buddy?" she asked as she came to the boy's side to stroke his hair.

"Yeah, Nurse Nanci. Same ole, same ole."

She saw the shock-white Edwin and walked to him.

"How about you, Sweet Pea"?

Hank chortled "Killer will be fine as long as he does not look at my face."

"I told you not to call me that."

Laughing Hank said "After what you did to me, I deserve to call you that."

Nurse Nanci moved between the two boys and moved them toward the ER. "Should I ask what happened?"

"There is the truth and there is what we want the kids at the school to hear."

"The truth is exactly what the kids at school will hear - I kicked your butt, Goober."

"Goober?" Hank went behind the nurse's back and hit Edwin in the back of the head.

Edwin looked over, which made him retch, until he looked away. Nanci stopped the twosome in order to deal with Edwin. "You okay, ... ah ...?"

"Call me Killer." All three of them laughed.

"Well, 'Killer', we're almost at the ER." They took ten more steps to enter a brightly lit room with all kinds of machines and gurneys. There were three nurses at the admitting desk, two with patients, and one doctor reading charts. The doctor looked up at the sound of the door opening.

Ethan looked more like a model than a doctor. He was 6'4", 230 pounds of ebony muscle with a rock hard body that he camouflaged well when he was wearing his lab coat, but in scrubs even the straight male nurses looked at his ass.

Ethan put the chart down and rushed over to the boys. He was halfway there when he saw it was Hank, which made him move even faster.

Ethan had seen Hank through many broken body parts. In fact, that is how he and Henry had met.

At the age of three, Hank liked to swing from the porch.

One day he had made the mistake of eating buttered popcorn just before attempting a world record swing.

That day Henry, his dad, had come rushing into the Springfield Hospital ER with great fear in his eyes. Cradled in his arms was Hank. Henry had trouble turning him over to the nurse until Ethan had stepped into the picture, looking into his eyes. "Your son is in the best of hands. Please trust me." Only then did Henry relax and hand over his beloved son.

Years later, during pillow talk, both men confessed to feeling that they had looked into each others' soul that first day, which caused the pillow to be moved to a different position.

Now Hank was once again in the ER covered in blood. At least he was walking in on his own power.

Ethan glanced at the other boy but with a trained eye could see that he was in a lot better shape than Hank so he went directly to Hank.

"I thought it was about time for you to add to your frequent bleeder miles, buddy." That made everybody laugh. Hank's laugh was like a machine gun which caused Edwin to look over at him which caused him to retch.

Nanci took Edwin and walked him to a seat as Ethan ushered Hank over to the gurney.

While Nanci was administering orange juice to Edwin, Ethan had a nasal speculum up Hank's nose to see the damage. He packed Hank's nose while quizzing the injured party.

"What caused his?"

"My mouth."

"That's a given."

"See that kid over there?" Ethan had kept his eye on the other boy as he worked on Hank.

"Yeah."

"I saved his life, and he punched me."

"Did you deserve it?"

"Duh."

"What's the kid's story?"

"New kid in school, has two Moms, kids of cousins that marry tried to take him on. I helped stop the massacre."

"Two Moms, huh? At least one of them is starting to worry about him. Sit tight." He walked toward the now less-pale boy. Sitting down he said "I'm Dr. Powell-Strickland."

"Hank's Dad?" Nanci was amazed at how easily that rolled off the young boy's tongue.

"That's' right. How are you feeling?"

"Not bad, as long as I don't see any blood. How's Hank"?

"He's doing fine. We need to call your home to make sure no one is worried about you."

"Crap." Edwin jumped up at the memory of being late. The blood rushed from his head and he started feeling faint.

"Hold on, Killer" said Nanci catching him before he fell. Ethan and Nanci picked him up and laid him on a gurney. He tried to get up. Ethan held him down gently yet firmly.

"Don't worry, young man. We'll call your Moms."

"I have the information, Doctor." Nanci offered "Since he's not injured, do you want me to call. It might not freak his Mom out so much if a nurse called."

"Always thinking, Nanci. What would I do without you?" She just smiled as she made her way to the telephone.

Hank, never taking directions well, came rolling up in a wheelchair to check on his new friend. "What's up, Doc?" using his laughter to help diffuse the situation. Edwin kept his face away from looking at Hank.

Hank jibed, "Don't worry, Killer. I'm all cleaned up." Ethan could see that "Killer" was not trusting that statement.

"It's true ... ah ... Killer. I cleaned him up myself."

Edwin turned to Hank. "I have known you less than two hours and in that time I have drawn blood and gotten a nickname that I hate."

"I'm sorry. What is your name"? Ethan asked.

Before Edwin could say a thing, Hank, who was doing a wheelchair trick, said "ET"!!

"Stop that, Goober."

"Make me, Killer." They were snipping at each other like they had been friends for all of their fifteen years.

"I do not care what your names are. Hold it down. This is an emergency room, remember."

"Sorry Dr. Powell-Strickland."

"Whatever, Doc."

"Are you feeling any better, what's your name"?

"E ..." Hank got a look from Edwin that stopped him in mid joke. "My name is Edwin Troy," he paused to look at Hank. "But my friends call me ET. NOT!!!" They all laughed.

Springfield's ER was not disturbed at all by the sound. Very rarely were there more than two or three patients at a time in there. Edwin and Hank were the only ones being treated.

"I'm feeling much better. Thank you, Doctor."

Ethan smiled "Hank, you need to take lessons from ET on etiquette."

"As if ..."

"Yes, Henry. You could use a little decorum," said Edwin using a hand gesture of holding a tea cup with his pinky raised.

"And I'll teach you how to fight." said Hank.

Edwin got very serious. ""Would you do that?"

"Sure. I have a black belt in Tai Kwon Do."

By this time, Edwin was sitting up with his feet dangling over the side of the gurney.

"I think you need to hold off on any teaching of Tai Kwon Do classes for a few weeks until your nose heals."

(Continues...)

Excerpted from And a Child ...by J. Kelly Poorman Copyright © 2011 by J. Kelly Poorman. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse, Inc.. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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