HERNE BAY
The Little Restaurant on the Prom
A childhood memoir of life before polio, and immediately after, and my magical childhood adventures in and out of a wheelchair
Anger
Between these two buildings
Lay the alley where we had the
Showdown with Michael Lee.
My little sister Melly came home with her hands whipped and sore. She was crying. After my spell at Chailey Heritage at aged nine I had learned how to look after myself in the fight stakes. "Who did this to you?" I demanded. She was so upset and weeping that I could hardly hear her. "M.M.Michael Lee," she stammered, "they held me whilst Michael whipped my hands with a branch." "Who are they? I said. "H-H-He's got a gang of boys." "Where are they now?" I felt blind anger for the first time. I sought revenge and I wanted it now! "T.T.They're in the alley by The Divers Arms," she sobbed, "Right!" I said, grabbing my wheelchair. (My wheelchair was a means of support in those far off days and Melly, on the run up to Guy Fawkes Day, used to dress up as a Guy, remaining perfectly still until somebody saw through our ruse and tickled her.) I pushed the chair as fast as my legs would allow. And there they were in the alley as Melly had said. I pushed my chair up to Michael Lee and punched his lights out. One punch was all that it took. Then the others closed in. With my back to the wall and my wheelchair as a weapon fuelled by my anger, I was a force to be reckoned with. Melly had followed me, even my little brother Kevin. Together we saw them off.
On making our slow way down the alley, puffed up with pride that I had succeeded in my quest for revenge, Michael Lee reappeared. This time he had an iron bar in one hand and two stones in the other. "Right, Bura," he snarled, "nobody does that to me, Nobody!" "I just did", I said, "and what are you going to do about it: an iron bar and stones against these bare hands?" It was like something out of a film. I was taking on the role of John Wayne, or someone like him. It just came out of me. I then turned my back on him and we kept on walking, pushing my wheelchair. The two stones just missed us but we kept on walking. On that day we could have taken on the world!
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