BB guns, blackmail and beatings

The BB gun incident is one of the most memorable of all the things that happened in Denison. Not the most memorable but I've never forgotten it. I also learned something very important about myself.

I loved guns when I was a kid and I've owned them most of my life. I also hunted for most of my life and I ate what I killed. Finally gave it up and now all I shoot at is targets. Lol, I still own an air rifle too but it's way more powerful than any BB gun around.

Lol, getting off the track again. I was a good shot and I practiced a lot because I wanted to be the best around. I really hate coming in second. I could hit what I was aiming at or come damn close.
We had a rear exit from the second floor apt and it had a little balcony on the back where the stairs were. Not really a balcony but a large landing with railings around it. I used to go out there and shoot at the sparrows and blackbirds sitting on the wires.

There was also parking back there for the two apts. It was just your normal average graveled parking lot where my stepfather used to park his car. At the time of the incident it was also very hot outside and particularly in the parking lot.

Me and the neighbor kids were out back shooting at birds at other things like beer bottles and junk from the landing. I was shooting at a sparrow on the ground about 20 feet from the car.

Got it lined up in the sights and pulled the trigger. About 1 second later the back window of my stepfathers car shattered. Now you know that the 3 neighbors out there thought I had shot the back window out. I wasn't even aiming anywhere close and I'd never miss by 20 feet. Nor was the car in the line of fire.

Of course a ricochet was possible but it wasn't likely to me that you could shatter the back window of a car with a BB gun. It just didn't have the power to do that but I couldn't think of any other reason for it to happen.

We all hurried back inside and never said a word to anyone. My stepfather discovered it the next morning and he was pissed. He thought someone threw a rock through his rear window but there was no rock in the car. Because I didn't believe I'd done it I never said a word.

He got the rear window replaced and that was supposedly the end of it. I thought so too. Then about a week later the neighbor kids told me if I didn't give them 5 bucks they were going to tell my parents I'd done it. Told them they'd have to wait for me to get the money and they gave me a week.

Blackmailed at 12. I thought about it for awhile and could see that being blackmailed would continue to be an ongoing process and that wasn't going to happen as I wasn't going to let anyone else control me or what I did.

With the deadline coming up fast I had to decide what to do. I didn't have anything good on the neighbor kids so it was either pay or confess and take my beating.

Now not being totally dumb I decided to tell my stepfather so I went to where he worked and told him what had happened and what the neighbor kids were trying to do to me. Hey, at least he couldn't beat me at his job.

That's when he told me the body shop had told him the heat buildup in the car from all the windows and vents being closed was what had caused the window to shatter and that they'd seen it happen on other cars. He'd even asked them if it could have been done by me with my BB gun and they'd told him it wasn't very likely.

Then he told me he was going to talk to the neighbor kids dad about what they'd tried to do to me. He did and they got the beating they thought I was going to get. Nice.

So I learned I'd rather face a beating than be blackmailed and live in fear forever. Really it was a control question and I wasn't going to let anyone be in control of me except for me. One beating and grounded for some time or pay them off every week at least until we moved again.

No brainer to me.