Before black hoodie could finish his threat,Wallace whipped his belt, buckle first, at the kid, connecting with his hand, causing him to drop the knife instantly.
Both the second tallest kid and I scrambled to pick it up, with me beating him by mere milliseconds.
“You stay right there,” I instructed, pointing the knife at him.
I then saw Wallace wrap his leather belt around his knuckles before delivering an absolute haymaker to the jaw of punk number one, whose feet actually left the ground before his limp body dropped the ground like a sack of wet mice.
Wallace quickly turned around to face the other two hooligans. “Am I gonna get trouble from either of you?” he growled.
Both kids shook their heads violently, in unison, back and forth.
“What’s his name?” Wallace asked, pointing at the lump lying face down on the pavement.
“Boris. He’s our big brother.”
“And what about you?”
“I’m Lev and he’s Pavel,” he said, pointing to the youngest brother.
“So… what?” Wallace asked. “Are you two trying to be tough guys like your brother? You think it’s okay to pull knives on people and steal from them?”
Lev shook his head. “We just come to the park to play basketball. Our mom works late so this is the only time we can play here.”
“Where’s your father?”
“Prison,” Lev said.
“What about Boris? You think he’s cool?”
“Boris is an idiot but he’s our older brother. We have to do what he says, or he’ll kick our asses and make us do all his chores,” Lev said.
“Is that true?” Wallace asked the youngest boy.
He nodded. “He pretty much makes us do his chores anyway.”
“You know, I have three older brothers,” Wallace said. “So, I think I get a little bit of what you guys are going through. Let me have a little chat with your big bro here.”
Wallace squatted down next to Boris, who was just starting to regain consciousness.
“Good morning, princess,” he said before grabbing Boris by his hair and pulling him to a seated position. Blood poured from the swollen left side of his mouth. “I’m glad you’re awake cause I’m gonna need you to do a couple of things for me,” Wallace continued. “First of all, you need to apologize to the lady for the nasty remarks you made earlier.”
“Fucshhh yewww,” Boris slurred.
“Nope, that’s not it.” Wallace said, before grabbing Boris’ nose, squeezing it almost to point of breaking it, just as we were trained to do.
Boris screamed in muted agony as Wallace maintained control over his subject. “Apologize to the lady.”
Boris relented. “I’m shorry hlady… show shorreee.”
“Now to your brothers,” Wallace said. “Tell them you’re sorry for being a shit brother and promise youwon’t make them to your chores anymore.”
“I promishhh.”
“Swear to them.”
“I shwear, I fushing shwear.”
“Most of all, you’re gonna stop pulling knives of people and taking shit that doesn’t belong to you. You understand? Or do I have to knock some more sense into you?”
