Everyone considered him the coward of the county.
I watched as the young boy knelt before the man chained to the chair. The boy held his tears until the man started to speak.
"Son, my life is over, but yours has just begun," The man said. I stood to the back of the pair and watched as the realization hit Alfred like freight train. His father had given up on life.
His father told him to stay away from the fights, they don't make you any better than those who start them. God won't think you're weak if you look the other way and stay out of bad things. "I hope you are old enough to understand, son you don't have to fight to be a man." It chilled me to the bone to see my brother say this to his son before his execution.
Alfred F. Jones was only ten years old when his father was executed at the local jail, Alfie's mother was killed in a bar fight when Alfie was very young. I looked after Alfie, he is my brother's only child. The kids around town think its okay to laugh and poke fun at Alfie because his father was a robber, and that he now has no parents. The town now calls him "Yellow" short for yellow belly, a coward, but I know that Alfie is just following his father's wishes and staying out of all the trouble he can. Everyone considered him the coward of the county.
*Fast forward ten years*
Alfie finally found a girl who loved him for who he was, not scared away by the names and pranks. Her name was Alice; her long blonde hair matched his, she kept hers tied up in a tall pony tail with a blue ribbon. Her powder blue dress was of proper length and her apron was always covered in flour from some pastry she was trying to make. Her piercing green eyes shone with a light only few had seen and when she and Alfie were together no one could tell that he had bullied for twenty years.
Alfie worked on the farm behind he Alice's house, the one he grew up on. He had come back to the house for a cold glass of water and a hot kiss, as he reached the porch he heard her screams. Instead of his usual lazy pace on his trip to his lady he ran like the wind and skipped half of the stairs up to the front door. He whipped into the house and saw his father's picture on the fireplace mantle. He heard the grunts and screams from the next room while he grabbed the picture on his way by. Hot tears streamed down his dirty face while he recognized the voices, the Bad Touch Trio were in his house, raping his darling Alice.
He heard his father's last words ring loud and clear through his head. "Promise me, son, not to do the things I've done. Walk away from trouble if you can." He entered the barroom and saw his Alice crying, her new dress was torn beyond repair, the look of torture on her face was more than he could ever bear. He slammed the picture face down onto the table just inside the door and took a step forward then turned back to the door.
"Hey look old Yellow's leaving!" Antonio cackled and smacked his friends Gilbert and Francis so that they looked up from raping the poor woman to watch him saunter up behind Alfie.
Alfie whispered towards the picture, "Now please don't think I'm weak, I didn't turn the other cheek. And Papa, I sure hope you understand, sometimes you gotta fight when you're a man." He locked the door to the bar room with one loud click, you could heard a pin drop until Alfie swung around and caught Antonio in a surprise punch right to the face, with blood pouring out from his nose he went down like a ton of bricks and left his two buddies to fend for themselves.
Francis took a more abrupt approach and immediately went after the lad; no one noticed how much he worked on the farm, his muscles were rock hard and warmed up from a morning of throwing hay, moving livestock, and plowing. It took mere minutes for Francis to go down, much like Antonio, blood flowed equally from his mouth and nose. Gilbert on the other hand had been quietly watching, learning his fighting style and planning on using his weaknesses against him. They stood toe to toe and eye to eye, until Gilbert's military training appeared and so did a little blood out of Alfie's mouth when a left hook caught his jaw square on.
Soon enough Alfie wore Gilbert out and one swift punch to the nose knocked the Albino out cold.
"And this one's for Alice," he said while he watched Gilbert fall to the floor. He rushed over to his wife and held her close.
Everyone considered him the coward of the county.
Author's Notes: Happy Birthday Alfie! Sorry about all the Feels with this one, but it just kinda fit in my head. Sorry it's so short!
Okay to those of you who hate me - I based this off of the song "Coward of the County" By Kenny Rogers. Yes a lot of the Spoken words are actually lines out of the song. It Works. Stop trying to get me booted off here!
To those of you who love me - Review please! I am open to suggestions and I am looking for a longer story Idea, I will give you a shout out when I start it, if I don't think I can make it work I won't try, Sorry!
To those of you who were curious - See above.^^