All For The Little One, Part 3

The Three Bandits and the Golem; part 3 In the meantime, I thought about Jonnie's idea of Mrs Mad-dogs' uh, hobby.. I really couldn't say if I believed in witchcraft or not in the first place. In fact, I couldn't even began to figure out what witchcraft even WAS or IS; and I'd actually been studying it for at least 40 years. Oh, I'm most likely going to get a lot of comments from self confessed 'Witches" that will go into a bunch of this and that about The Great Goddess and Wicca, and how it all arose from thousands of years of works telling how things REALLY worked. Sounds wonderful.. Unfortunately it's just as false as the idiots who thought that since an old woman who's smart and ugly then she must do things for the devil. We can't check any ancient texts on Wicca and such because of the sad reason they don't exist and there doesn't seem to be any proof that they ever did. (Except for some in the Vatican library written by members of the church, which, frankly, would be like researching the history of the Jews in the Nazi party private library (By the way, if you want to do research in the Vatican like I do, it's a heck of a lot easier than 'Angels and Demons" made it out to be. Doing it in the Archives is harder, but not impossible. Read Maria Luisa Ambrosini's book on the Vatican's Archives to find out how.) Time and time again I'll hear someone talk about a 'lost' written work that was in the Library of Alexandra when it burned, or that had been destroyed by the church oh so long ago, but mention of these said works don't actually appear ANYWHERE until the 1920s. And the 1920s was an odd time of great "historical" works that had as much to do with real history as I do winning first prize on American Idiot, uh, I mean American idol (Although I DO play some mean drums..) It was during the 1920s that real history took a nose dive and fake history was made up to sell more books or to give "proof ' to ideas that had no right to be out of the peoples minds who were already out of their minds.Arthur's knight got put into armour (despite it more likely he wore bronze at the most), Scots were written to have kilts in ancient times, despite the fact that they actually didn't wear them until 1700s , great amounts of books were written about Atlantis than ever before, despite the lack of Archaeological, literary, historical and geological evidence (plus Plato being one of the biggest liars in History), the first in history books about "Mu" being written (based on poor and stupid translations of Maya writings) and Druids were given a glowing rep, despite the Romans talking about them being blood thirsty (and considering how bad the Romans were, that's saying a lot). In the 1920s people tried to change History (and the Nazis at the same time trying to "prove" Hitlers mad idea of history didn't help any) and all the things that we "know" about Wicca and Witchcraft come from that time, not way back in history. Besides, the people of Wicca DIDN'T WRITE ANYTHING DOWN!! Any information they had was done by word of mouth, and anyone who has played "telegraph' can tell you that any information that well traveled can change a lot. So please forgive me if I have my doubts about witches being a part of any Wicca belief. More likely they're making it up as they go along, or actually studied under someone like that.. . On the other hand, do not confuse this doubt with the belief on someone having a special power over someone that seems impossible. I'd be a stupid fool to think that . I have been in many places, and seen

many odd things, and I have to admit that the term "witch' or "warlock" just might fit. They did many things I can't explain, some good, some evil. Just because I am a bit of a "Doubting Thomas", it didn't mean I should dismiss something simply because I couldn't explain it. That would be unbelievably stupid, and I like to think I'm smarter than that. So, was Mrs. "Maddog" a witch, or just a one letter difference? Did she cast a spell on the Gnome I was carrying to trip me? (Tripp was going to stay outside and I was going to keep the door locked for awhile by the way). Did she cast a spell on Jonnie's Mom's fiancee (or did she just give him a cup of her wonderful coffee and cookies and couldn't bear to let her go? I could see that..) I really, really didn't know. I would have to ask the Little One when I got back and hear what she thought.. She WAS the expert, after all.. If the above is a lot of reading, I'm sorry. It was a lot of thinking too, and that's what I was doing as I keep walking instead of watching in front of me. To be honest, it probably wouldn't have mattered. I couldn't have avoided him anyway. Actually, I HAD noticed him earlier from about a block away, but only to laugh silently at the sight of him. A black man, somewhere around 5'5 or so, age something between 16 to 25 I guess, wearing a white shirt, gold chains and a pair of jeans pulled down so low you could see most of his ugly underwear. But it wasn't that that made me silently laugh. It was his baseball cap, turned backwards, or rather, the fact that it wasn't used right, for I could see this same man shading his eyes in the bright sunlight with his hand. Talk about not getting the idea.. After a small laugh I forgot about him, and went back to my mental gandering.. I was unaware of him until he suddenly popped up in from of me, blocking my way and demanding "Whats in the pack @#$&*/? Something for me?" He was quickly joined by two other black youths from around the nearby corner and all three of them blocked my path. Uh-oh.. Now, I'm not what you would call a weakling, despite being a bookworm all my life. After all, books can sometimes be heavy and I used to carry a lot of them most of the time. Was I bothered by bullys that saw only the bookworm and not the heavy books when I was a school kid? Of course I was.. but never more than once..never more than once. Not only did those same books build up my muscles enough to make a lot of black and blue areas on my "partner" I was also going by a saying my father taught me early; "Kat, just remember, always, THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A "FAIR FIGHT!! OR AS A FIGHT FOR FUN!! You do your best to kill the person attacking you (and he'd had better be attacking or I'll kill YOU) or you try to make him hurt so bad that he NEVER even thinks of trying that again. Use everything and anything. Use your hands, use your feet, your teeth use the stones under your feet, Anything. And at anywhere. If you want to be a gentleman, help him up before you throw him in the river.." Nasty, but it saved my life in a lot of places. Didn't help in Nam, since we were all mostly shooting at people from a distance and liked it better that way, but I used the same basic idea to stay alive in that mad place. Now I had to figure out how it would help me here.. The idiot who had first come up was the least of my worries. Chains around neck are so great to grab and choke with I could almost feel guilty doing it. Or I could grab them down and force his head on my knee real hard. Or, just for fun, since his pants were already halfway down I may as well pull them down all the way then do a nice kick between the legs and a good double hand blow to the back of the head. Naw.. he wasn't the problem. The younger thin black teen on the right might not be a problem at all also. He already looked like he

didn't want to be here, and if I did manage to get the first one down quick then there was just as much chance that he would run the other way, but the young rarely act as they should, so I didn't think I could count on it as much as I wanted to. Besides I was a little more worried about the pack disappearing with him if it fell off during the fight, and to be honest, I was a little more worried about that than getting hurt. I knew how to bleed. Didn't like it, but I was going to be damned if I was going to lose that pack. I'd rather hurt myself, than the little one waiting for me at home. It was the guy on the left that bothered me a lot more of all the three. For one thing , he was wearing a coat. On a very hot day. Now, if I saw him going into a store I wouldn't worry, although I would feel sorry for the store owner he was about to shop lift from. That coat was for taking away things that wasn't his, or for carrying things around that he didn't want to be seen with, and that I sure didn't want to see. It was going to be very sharp, or very loud, and no matter how good you are fighting (unless you were trained by Bruce Lee maybe) when it's one against 3 and weapons, you're in deep trouble. The smart thing to do at that time is forget your pride, throw all the money in your pockets down on the ground and run like Hell. If you really need to save your pride, come back better armed later when YOU can call the shots. Don't be an idiot; just keep telling yourself "I am not Custer, I am not Custer, I am not Custer". This is the wisest advice I can give you. This is the advice that will save your life. This is, however, advice that I could not follow at that time, even thought I knew I was being an idiot. I wasn't being a hero, nor was I really being an idiot. I just couldn't do it, not only because I didn't want to hurt the Little One, but because I didn't HAVE any money to throw down to slow them down (or else I would have taken a cab instead of walking in the first place) and frankly, after all that walking, being thrown by a horse and being tripped by a gnome, my legs were already screaming just being upright. Running was just impossible.. "ok' I told myself "Time to bled" And that's when I saw the Fourth person coming out of the dark shadows of the trees that lined the street. A big black dark man, about 6'8, who looked like he was made out of cold black stone (with lots of muscles.) Him.. The Golem.. In case you haven't figured out yet, I have a very odd mind (yeah, yeah, same to you). Other people, especially those of us who were in Nam, sometimes have "flashbacks' . I have "flash odd history', not too different from those old comic books where they would suddenly have a flashback to the hero's origin. It happens to me sometimes when I see certain people, places or things. It's like I'm in a history classroom in the dark while someone who sounds like Ben Stien is showing slides. Hit it, Ben.. 'click" 'Okay class, today we're going to talk about the Golem..Yes Mr. Timms?' "You mean that little nasty guy from Lord of the Rings?" 'click" "No, that's Gollum. This is Supernatural history 01, not English lit. Please pay attention.. and get rid of your chewing gum.." "Yes sir.."

"Thank you.. no, the Golem, although to be more precise, the Golems." "More than one sir?" "An excellent and yet stupid question Mr. Timms. An "s' at the end of the word usually implies that there is more than one.." "Or a possession.." "Yes, Mr.Timms, but again, this is not an English class. Please remain quiet so that others can ask questions.." "Uh, sir? There are no others, remember? It's just me imagining you and me together in a class room.." "Oh yes.. Well, please be quiet then. Unless you want to go back to your fight instead?" "No sir. Thank you sir. I'll be quiet as Hell sir.." "Thank you Mr. Timms, but please watch your tongue. Anyway, yes there was more than one Golem. according to the Beitrage zur Judischen Altertumskunde, printed in 1887-" "Can you spell that please sir?" "Certainly.. T-H-A-T.. Anyway, according to it, sometime in the 4th century B.C.E the first Golem was made by a ben Sira and the prophet Jeremiah. They took a being made out of clay, did a bunch of things unwritten about for 3 years with it, then brought it to life by writing the word "emes' ( truth) on the forehead. Unfortunately, the first thing the Golem did was ask his creators to please wipe out the 'e' at the beginning of the word, forming the word 'mes" or "death" and he turned into dust, thus wasting three years of life and work.." "Sir?" "Yes, Mr. Timms?" "If Jeremiah was a prophet, how come he didn't know that's what would happen anyway?" ( Long Silence..) "To go on.. One thousand years later (Put your fingers down Mr. Timms. You're adding a negative number. That's 600 A.D.) a brilliant student named Rava, using a book called the Sefer Yetzirah or "Book of Formation" creates a Golem to impress his Rabbi. The rabbi, named Zeira, is not impressed, and orders the golem to return to dust. There is no record of the homework assigned afterwards" "In the 11th century one Ibn gabirol is said to have made " a few" Golems, and in the 12th century one Ibn Ezra made one just to prove some point and then quickly changed it back into dust. Also in the 12th century one Samuel Hatzadik had one made for him and used it as a servant as he traveled across Europe and then.." 'Click"

"Ah, sir, I'm sorry, but MY Golem is getting closer, and as much as I hate to say it, I have to get to the real world. Can you please get to the point and tell me something that might help?" "Well, one thing that MIGHT make it easier on you is that if you see something or someone who looks like a Golem, then most likely it ISN'T a Golem." "Huh?' "I'm afraid that almost all the movies and pictures have it wrong. A golem NEVER looked like it was made out of clay or stone. It always looked human. In fact, in the famous story about the Golem of Prague (the one most of the legends, stories and movies are based on) there's a funny part of the story where the bad guys are discussing how to defeat the Golem and don't realize that the golem is sitting at the next table in full sight, listening to them!" "That's what I need! If this IS a Golem, how do I defeat it? what do I do?" "Well, you're not Jewish, so I doubt if you can run to your local rabbi who might be able to just say 'return to dust' like rabbi Zeira did. There were different ways, it just depends on how the golem was made. If it was made by the word "emes' marked on the forehead, then just rub out the first letter of the word.If on the other hand, it's because of the name of God (YHWH) being on a parchment fastened to the head (ow..) be careful. That's what rabbi Eliyahu had to to remove and the Golem kept getting bigger and bigger while they fought. When Eliyahu finally got the parchment off, all that falling clay nearly killed him.." "Oh, ok. Thanks. I've got to go. Real world calling.." "Fine. Be that way..Class dismissed.." One nice thing about being a little crazy (read eccentric) is that sometimes that little trip into your mind can make you a little more relaxed, and less panicked about your current surroundings. It also makes your foes a little nervous when they notice you ignoring them. Makes them think you're up to

something they hadn't noticed yet. They react by making mistakes, or like the idiot in front of me, putting his face in front of me and saying many things I can't write here (what the hell do these guys do when they're angry and can only use the same words they use every three words anyway? They don't get any outlet then. Stupid. So I enjoyed myself a little more by ignoring him still and taking a good look at the fourth person coming up behind. Ok, I'll admit it. For one belief moment I was back in the class room and panicked when I realized that the 'golem' actually didn't LOOK like a Golem and so by "Mr. Stien's" odd logic WAS proof of him being a golem..huh? Never mind.. (Nurse! Coffee!) ok, so he wasn't a Golem..No, not that.. But he WAS something VERY interesting I realized, and suddenly, everything had changed.. The thin black teen had finally noticed the fourth black man coming up and waved at him. Hey, black, no uniform, no gang member from another gang by what he was wearing, safe right? He gave the newcomer a smile and said "Hey brother, gotten have fun with the whitey.. want to play too? We'll share what in his pack with you.." The newcomer looked at him, then smiled down on him, then turned around and looked at me, in a completely different way with a completely different smile. Uh-oh, I thought to myself. There's going to be some major 'fun" here and someone is going to get into some major pain. Before that was going to happen, I thought it would be a good idea to do a little "shock treatment" first to the idiot in front of me. What did I do? Why, what else do you do when you start a major fight? I gave him a great big kiss! Lip to lip, his eyes as big as tires, he was, believe me, in total shock. The shock was so bad it was almost enough that maybe he didn't feel me trying to bite his lower lip off, but I doubt it.. he was screaming a hell of a lot more than he would have for just being embarrassed. Gee, I guess the poor guy was in pain.. Poor thing.. let me and my knee make it all better.. As I had planned before, I grabbed the stupid chains around his neck, pulled down while my knee went up. Yank chains! Bend down! Lift knee up! Hit! Scream like Hell! No, it wasn't him screaming (he just laid on the ground, holding his head moaning after the 'Thud"), It was me. And I didn't scream because I was releasing my "ka" as they teach you in karate to do when you hit something. No, i screamed because I was an idiot. I had totally forgotten my terrible IRA family members who used damage to the knee as the worse form of torture against turncoats. Usually they put a bullet into them. The knee is actually one of the most sensitive parts of the human body. And here I was hitting something hard against it! Idiot! I deserved to be on the ground screaming with the other idiot. I honestly didn't give a damn what the other two were doing in reaction. Hell, I hurt so bad I almost welcomed anything they might of done. Great defence Kat.. You hurt yourself more than you hurt them.. Brilliant!.. Maybe I could hope that they were too busy laughing to attack. Luckily, they WERE a little busy..with the "Golem" No matter how many times you see it in cartoons, it's really hard to believe or take seriously. I mean, c'mon, holding a man by the neck and lifting him up high by that same neck. But that's what the big black man was doing with the thin teen. No problem, no effort, no strain. You'd think he was holding up a kitten instead. Show-off.. I wish I could have seen more, but I was too busy closing my eyes, bitting my lip, and not giving a damn if I cried. It hurt, damn it! And to make it worse, not only was the guy with the coat starting to reach in a pocket for something, my kissing pardner was starting to get up before me. I tried to give a warning, but it was barely above a whisper

'Stan.. The guy with the coat.. he's got something in it.. watch out!" Stan ether heard me, or saw the guy himself, and with the words 'YOU ain't my brother!" Threw the fellow he was holding at the guy in the coat, and both of them went down in a pile like, well, clay. As for my kissing pardner, he really should have kept his eyes on Stan instead of coming up and looking down at me. He didn't see Stan come up behind him, but he certainly felt it when Stan reached for the underwear and gave him a wedgie so bad that the idiot could have gone legally into the women's bathroom for a month. Back to the ground he went screaming. Meanwhile, I dragged myself up painfully and checked that damn pocket in the coat. A bowie knife, dirty as hell. The guy with the coat was awake, but not moving, and didn't give me any fight when I reached into his pocket and took his wallet. He eyed me and I answered his unasked question 'Oh, I'm not robbing you, although I AM tempted to take cabfare from you. But I can't. I want to do this as legal as possible. I'm going to give Stan here your I.D. and the knife, and he's going to give them to his brother, who's a police chief in Oakland. If you've been good little boys, then I'm sure that you'll get both back.. Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot to introduce my friend. This is Stan. We serived together in Nam, and been friends for 20 years. I'm his son's godfather. Oh, by the way, you guys were lucky. If it had been his WIFE here instand of Stan, you wouldn't be alive enough to listen. Stan, you don't think she be mad at me for saying that , do you" Stan snored like an angry bull 'Are you kidding? After I tell her what you said I bet she'll give you a great big kiss for it.." i smiled at that wonderful thought. Stan's wife, Hosee, was a beautiful black asian that would have made half the women of victoria's secrets quit thier job out of fear of losing them if she went to work there. But she was as deadly as a viper. her job in Nam when we met her was protecting the people in her village against Viet Cong, Asian Mafia, and anyone else who were a problem. She knew fighting moves that would have made Bruce Lee cry . She saved our lives, we saved her life, and she and Stan fell in love. Remind me to tell you the story one day (If I can ever finish this one..) By this time all three of them were Almost standing and looking at us, and it was easy to see that despite all the signs of pain they were actually playing with the idea of trying again. But then came Stans chilling almost whisper 'Don't even think about it.. just turn around and get out of here... NOW.' It always chills me to the bone when I hear him talk like that, and I'm his oldest friend. I was half a block away before I remembered he was talking to them (Just joking. Almost) ' Well, I said as I sat on the curb trying to rub my knee without going into shock 'You think we'll ever see them again?' 'Nope. One way or another, never again' 'You seem awful sure of yourself" "Not me, them. Take a look.." I got up painfully to look at what Stan was looking at 'Oh" "Yeah.." Now, as I said before. Hayward has such a live and let live policy, gangs sometime come down from Oakland for what they think are easy pickings. But Hayward doesn't need to import them; they have

thier own. Mostly hispanic, but some asian and a small amount of blacks. For the most time they're quiet, since frankly, there's nothing in Hayward worth killing for, but there have been some real bad falling outs sometimes. Last year there was a hit on two kids who were shot dead across the street from me. But most of the time the gangs keep to themselves in thier own nighorhoods, and stayed in thier own nieghorhoods. Unless they thought someone else was trying to horn in from out-of-town... Like those three .. Stan and I watched as at least 30 to 40 gang members from different nighborhoods started to follow the 3. The 3 at first walked as if not the least thing was the matter. But as the numbers keep getting higher and higher, they stared walking faster and faster. The last Stan and I saw of them they were running like mad, with the gang members only a few feet behind them as they ran over the overpass crossing. A moment later one of the gang members came back over the overpass, stood at the highest part of it. He was a block away and he looked towards us and waved right at us. Then he made the movement of a hand across the throat, waved again, put a fist up in the air, then turned around and walked back over the overpass. Stan and I just looked at each other, and then and there just decided to go on our way without saying a word. Better not to guess at that time, and better still not to say a word..