It was a warm summer night in 1991. Police officer Mac Taylor was standing in the back of a bar. There had been a razzia in this bar in the early evening and it was his job this night to observe the back of the bar. When he heard the sound of broken glass he turned around to see what had happened. For only one moment he could see the body of a young man then the young man started to run. Mac took up pursuit. When he entered a dark alley he saw a body sitting on the ground.
"I want to see your hands." Mac ordered.
The body turned around and Mac looked in the face of a teenage boy. He wanted to say something but in the same moment the boy landed a punch in Mac's chest. For one second Mac was transfixed to the spot. This short time was enough for the boy to scurry off again. Mac followed the teenager and caught him after twenty meters.
"Let me go! Let me go!" the boy started to yell. He struggled around and tried to land another punch on Mac's chest.
Mac had enough. He raised his hand and landed a stinging swat on the boy's jeanscladded backside. "Stop it! Right now" he ordered turning the boy around.
"Ow! Are you crazy!" the teenager started to complain but he was stopped by the angry look Mac gave him.
"I want to know your name. What are you doing out here in the middle of the night. You should be in your bed." Mac asked the boy.
"That's not your problem. I stay out as long as I want to. You can't tell me……….OW" the boy rubbed his rear end.
"I want you to change your attitude. Otherwise I will give you something your father should haven given to you years before." Mac told the boy "What's your name?"
"Danny" the boy answered taking a step backwards to bring his butt out of Mac's reach.
"Danny?"
"Danny Messer."
"How old are you Danny?"
"I'll become sixteen next week."
"You are fifteen. And now it's almost three o'clock in the morning. I think I will guide you home. Do your parents know you are here?"
"I don't know."
Mac guided the boy to his car and called in the station to tell he wanted to bring the boy home. When they arrived in the street the boy had told him, Danny wanted to climb out of the car.
"Not so fast I'll bring you" Mac stopped the boy.
"But………."
"No buts Danny. I think your parents should know you were outside in the middle of the night." Mac took a firm grip on the boys upper arm and guided him into the house.
He rang on the doorbell but I took nearly five minutes till a woman opened the door. Mac could see (and smell) the woman was drunk.
"Are you crazy?" she started to yell "It's late at night. Why did you wake me up?"
"I found your son outside the house in the middle of the night. I thought……."
"My son is nearly sixteen. I don't care if he stays out. The little bastard is old enough to know what ……."
Mac could not hear the rest of the tirade because for the second time this evening Danny landed a punch in his chest. When he turned around he could see the boy running downstairs to the basement. Mac followed the boy ignoring the angry woman upstairs who was still yelling about the bastard of a son and the police who waked her up.
When Mac entered the basement he saw the boy sitting on the ground.
"I told you not to wake her up." Danny complained and Mac could hear the boy was near to tears.
"You are fifteen. You should be in your bed in the middle of the night. And nobody should call you a bastard. It looks to me like you are a smart boy with a bad punch."
Danny gave Mac a sheepish smile. "I learned it from my dad. He told me how to fight to protect myself in the streets. But he left us three years ago."
Mac sat down beneath the boy. "Do you want to go back into your flat?" he asked.
"No I just want to stay here." Danny answered.
"You can't stay here. I mean it's a basement. You need a bed to sleep and…."
Danny jumped up "You can't tell me what to do. I can take care of myself." He raised his hand and wanted to punch Mac for the fourth time this evening but found himself bent over Mac's knee. The cop started to land stinging swats on the boy's butt.
SWAT SWAT "I told you to change your attitude" SWAT SWAT "If you ever try again to punch me I will use more than my hand on your butt" SWAT SWAT "You are fifteen and not old enough to take care of yourself" SWAT SWAT "We will find a way out of your situation" SWAT SWAT "Now you will come with me" SWAT SWAT "You will stop fighting against me right now" SWAT SWAT "Is that understood?"
The boy sobbed "Yes sir!"
Mac helped him to stand up and hugged him.
"Shh. It's over. You will come with me and we will find a way."
It took Mac nearly ten minutes to calm the boy down.
"I'm tired" he sniffled "and my butt hurts."
Mac smirked a little about this childish comment. "You can accompany me. We will find a place on the couch for this night so you will find enough sleep. And for your butt it will be the best if you lay on your stomach."
"That's not funny." The boy sniffed but he gave Mac a little smile.
"Do you have some hot chocolate?" he asked.
"I think my wife Claire will be happy to make a hot chocolate for you" Mac answered while he guided the boy back to his car.
Two hours later Claire and Mac were standing in the doorframe of their living room watching the sleeping boy on their couch.
"His mother was horrible" Mac told his wife "I mean she called her own son a bastard. I think he's a good boy. He has a hard punch but…"
"He remembers me of the younger Mac Taylor who I had met on college."
"You can't tell me I ever punched a cop." Mac replied.
"No but you were in troubles most of the time. And I can't believe you spanked this boy. I mean he's so cute and he's only fifteen."
Mac looked annoyed "He played a tantrum, he punched me two times and I don't care if he's fifteen, ten or twenty. At this moment I wanted him to change his attitude and a spanking was the only way to get threw to him."
Claire smiled "You like this little brat. Do you?"
"I think so." was the short answer.
TBC