When I looked over, who did I see but little Zoli sitting there on top of the Big Tree, and that's when they came out from behind the bushes, they were all there, Lupu and the gang, and they surrounded me without a word, even little Zoli climbed off the tree, and then Lupu stepped up and said they caught me, and now I'd find out what happens to cheating rats, and I said I hadn't cheated and they should leave me alone, but Lupu and the rest only laughed. Mariusz spoke next, he said there would be no mercy, that they were going to kill me, they were going to knock my skull to smithereens, and that's when I saw that he had a plastic bag with him, a bag with a brick in it, but he wasn't the only one who had one, everyone did, Lupu even spun his around his head, and the bag swished so loud I got really scared because I knew that if one of those brick war clubs hit me only once, my skull would crack just like that, and Mariusz said I must think I'm pretty smart, huh, for taking this detour, but I should get it through my skull that by doing so I'd signed my own death warrant because if they'd met me on the street, then at most they would have beaten the shit out of me and taken their money back, but out here there was no one around, so they could do with me whatever they wanted, so I should prepare myself for the worst. While he was busy talking I slipped a hand into the pocket of my school jacket nice and easy and then yanked my hand out and flung a whole bunch of coins at their faces, but it didn't turn out too good, the change went all over the place and didn't smack any of them square in the face. I was hoping they'd at least start snapping up the coins so I could somehow fight my way out of the circle around me and try running home, but not only did not a single one of them bend down to pick up the money, Lupu was already swinging his bag toward me, I was barely able to lean out of the way, the brick buzzed right by my head, and I knew that this was it, I was done for, they weren't kidding around, they really did want to beat me to smithereens. I cried out for help as loud as I could, "Help, help!" I shouted, and meanwhile I reached in my pocket again, but this time not to fling the money all over the place but because I knew that if my fist was full of coins I'd be able to punch harder, and then I socked Mariusz right in the belly before someone kicked me from behind, which made me fall forward, but it was lucky I did because by then two of them were swinging their plastic bags toward me at the same time, but only one of the bags hit me, and it only grazed my side. As soon as I fell over I turned and pulled up my knees because I knew they'd be giving me boot kicks in the belly in no time, and I brought my arms in front of my face just the way Zsolt had taught me to do, but without shutting my eyes, and then Lupu swung his bag, and I knew he'd hit me in a second, and from between my arms I could see him baring his teeth, but then all of a sudden I heard this loud shouting and I saw, as if in slow motion, a brown bottle of beer smack Lupu on the side of the head just above the right ear. Lupu staggered and the bag fell out of his hand, and maybe he would have fallen down if Mariusz hadn't grabbed his arm, the skin on Lupu's temple was torn open and he was bleeding a lot, but the bottle wasn't broken, and as it fell to the ground I could tell it was still at least a third full, the beer was all foamy as it trickled out onto the path, and meanwhile I heard someone yelling, "What are you all doing? For God's sake, leave him alone or else I'll beat the brains out of every last one of you!" The voice was one I'd heard just once before, then it was a laugh, but now I recognized it all the same, it was Pickax. I looked up and saw him running toward us on the path, he had a long crowbar in one hand and a sledgehammer in the other, and while running he knocked the two of them together so hard that the whole hillside echoed, and he was shouting, "Victory, victory!" There was a miner's helmet on his head, and from where I was lying on the ground I could see its lamp sparkling in the sunshine just as if it was really lit. He ran right up to me, and Lupu and the others all pulled back, you could tell they were scared, I didn't want to look at the man's face, but I couldn't turn away, his face was really ugly, true, but not as awful as I remembered, and then Pickax stopped above me and shouted at all of them to get themselves home while they could, because in a second he'd show them what beating brains out really means, what was this, what were they thinking, nine of them ganging up on one, and with bricks no less, like gypsies? He'd show them what honor's all about, and while he was at it, what the wrath of God really means. On account of all the pockmarks, his face looked like boiling hot, bubbling yellow wax while he was shouting, but it was more strange than scary, so anyway, Pickax then thrust the crowbar into the ground like it was a spear and told them to come get him if they wanted, but he'd have them know he wasn't just anyone, no, he'd learned to fight among the Lipovans across the country down in the Danube Delta, but by then Lupu and the gang were running already, Mariusz, Zolika, Pustyu, every single one of them was racing as fast as his legs would take him, and then Pickax threw the sledgehammer on the ground by the crowbar and looked down at me and said he just couldn't understand what the world was coming to, back in his day kids still knew what a fair fight was all about, "One on one, with bare hands, just like decency demands, but these days they come in hordes, with weapons worthy of thugs, like rats, terrible," he said, "just terrible," and then he asked me how I was, how much of a beating I'd got, and if I was able to stand up.
Slowly I staggered to my feet and said, "Luckily nothing really bad happened, all in all I got only one kick and I banged my knee and one of the bricks got me in the ribs just a little, it was nothing, I've survived worse." But, I added, an arm of my school jacket got torn half off and my pants got scuffed up, and when Mother saw that, she'd know I'd been fighting again even though I'd promised her I would never ever fight again. Pickax replied that in today's world you shouldn't go making such promises, and he told me to take off my jacket. Only then did I notice that the laborer's jacket he had on was all covered with bird feathers, feathers sewed on next to each other and on top of each other in thick rows, so much so that the jacket was more like a strange sort of scaly armor, the plumes were mainly grayish, from sparrows and pigeons and crows, but there were also colorful songbird feathers here and there, and this surprised me so much that my hand froze as I was pulling it out of my torn school jacket, but for a moment only, before the jacket finally came off. As Pickax now took it from me without a word, the remaining change jingled in its pocket. After inspecting the tear by pulling on the sleeve and putting his hand inside and turning it half inside out and tapping the lining, Pickax pronounced that it wasn't such a big deal, it would take just five minutes to fix it up, plus of course two able hands, a little needle, and some thread. Then he gave me back the jacket and waved a hand toward the beer bottle and told me to go get it for him, because as far as he could tell, there was a little left on the bottom, which was really lucky, it would be a shame to just leave it there. Not wanting to smear my hand with Lupu's blood, I picked up the bottle carefully, by the neck. Pickax drank down the remaining beer in one gulp and flung away the bottle before wiping his hand on his pants and saying, "Let's go." I thanked him for the help but said I had to go home because I had a geography exam the next day. Pickax then grabbed my shoulders, turned me toward him, looked me in the eye, and asked if I was scared of him, and I said, "No," and meanwhile I was looking at his eyes, they were really blue, almost as blue as water. "No," I said again, "I'm not scared," and then Pickax let go of my shoulders and said he was glad to hear that because lots of folks were scared of him on account of his face, though there really wasn't any reason to be frightened because he was a very good person, and more important, he was honest through and through. Then he told me to walk back with him to his hut because he'd been wanting to show me something for a while now, and anyway, it would be best if I brushed myself off a bit before going home. He picked up the crowbar and the sledgehammer and he gave a kick at Lupu's plastic bag, which was on the ground with the brick still in it, and the bag whirled rustling through the air maybe twenty feet before plopping in the mud between clumps of grass, and then Pickax pointed the crowbar toward the old soccer field and said, "Let's go."