Part Four - Dead-eye Sam

     During her first year with the Dudley’s, Samantha had very limited contact with anybody outside of Slim, Mama Dolly, and Millie. She sometimes wondered about that, because she could often hear other children playing outside. But many of those children were not as nice as Millie. She could tell by the mean way they talked to each other.

     As time went on, Millie and Samantha began to take long walks. The other children who were close to Millie’s age were acting somewhat standoffish toward Millie, Samantha thought. But one day, they were walking along near their house. A larger boy, even larger than Millie, started saying mean things to Millie. Samantha had never seen him before, and he didn’t seem to know Millie. Other kids started trying to warn him, to get him away from Millie, but he was brash, and would just not listen. Millie smiled at Samantha, and said, “Sam, I guess it’s time to start your education.”

     Millie had never called her Sam before.

     Millie walked up to the boy, smiling, and kicked him in the crotch. Hard. As the boy screamed and lay crying on the ground, Millie kicked him again. Harder. And a hard kick to the head. When the boy was able, he got up and left. And Samantha never saw him again.

     Samantha was shocked. She burst into tears.

     As Millie and Sam walked on, Millie smiled again and said, “Sam, There are lots of bad people in this world. I know you are a gentle, kind person who does not like conflict. But you must protect yourself. For the time being, I will show you how to talk and handle mean people who want to hurt you. Just act mean enough, and they will usually leave you alone. Then, if that don’t work, I’ll show you tricks that will make them leave you alone. After they get scared of you, as they are me, you won’t have any problems.”

     As the years passed, memory of Samantha’s real family faded. Early on, she often wondered why they never came to get her, like Mama had told her they would. But she never totally forgot her sweet, kind sister. Though she was often told Millie was her sister, she was not the same. Her real sister, she faintly remembered, was kind and gentle toward everybody, not like Millie. But she knew Millie loved her, and Mama Dolly did too.

     Millie occasionally showed Samantha how to wrestle against larger boys.  But she noticed it was hard for Millie to find a Dudley boy who would wrestle her. Tales around the compound of Millie gouging an eye, breaking a finger, or biting off a chunk of an ear just meant, The boys, larger or no, just mostly liked to steer clear of Millie. But some of the older boys who did not yet know much about Millie would sometimes arise to her challenge, rather than be embarrassed in front of their friends. She could out-wrestle any of the boys, even without dirty tricks.

     But Samantha was not a mean-spirited and tough girl like Millie. However, she soon realized that Millie had set the pace for red-haired Dudley girls in the compound. And she noticed there were a lot of red-haired Dudley girls. Samantha soon realized, she could bluff and bluster and bigger boys would leave her alone, too. But, if necessary to protect herself, she knew all of Millie’s tricks. But she never used the dirty ones. She was just too kind and gentle.