Excerpt from “One Day at Recess:”

IMAGE: thumbnail of One Day at Recess

“At recess,” he said, through clenched teeth, “at recess, I will kill you all.”

And he did. They say he was as wild as Keith Moon playing a solo. He ripped out my right leg and beat Skinny with it. That I know for sure happened. The rest of recess was black. Bimbo said I cried like a little girl when the new kid crushed my skull with Baby’s booted foot. I could see my skull getting crushed cos Baby’s a big boy, and his boot must weigh at least eight pounds, but I couldn’t see myself crying cos it was just a fight. Jim-Jim never said much. After it was all over he’d lost a tooth, a baby tooth, and he had a fat lip and two black eyes, not that you’d of noticed unless you were looking for damage. No one knew what had happened to Jim-Jim, not even Bimbo, who saw everything.

I guess I woke up cos it was so quiet. My legs and left arm were scattered around the covered play area, and my guts lay like a landslide outside my belly. As I pulled myself together, a raven hopped from the sky and snatched my liver. It jumped backward, barely clearing the pavement, and looked me square in the eyes. I stuffed the rest of my guts in as best I could and lunged at the bird. It squawked and flapped out my reach, dragging my liver like a bleeding anchor. I landed on my chin and tasted the tongue’s blood. I spat and struggled to my knees. The raven was too fast for me.

“Your grandfather was big and strong enough to fly off with the sun in his beak,” I said. The raven cocked its head to one side and blinked at me. “But you, you are not strong enough to fly off with a small boy’s liver in your beak.”

The raven hopped, flapped its wings madly and shouted, “Caw.” My liver splatted onto the pavement and I scooped it up, quick as I could, with my good right arm. I laughed at the bird.