Up and down

“He killed a man.” 

“Oh, come on, that was years ago!!”

“Okay, and? It still happened,” said the first man on one end of the purple, rusted seesaw, as he forced his body down, propelling the second man into the air, his legs dangling. “And pretty serious that it did…”

“But it was out of self-defense,” said the second man, pushing himself downward, as the first gave way some of his resistance and went up. 

This continued as they continued. Although they’ve played this many times before, it somehow is still just as exhilarating and intense as the first time.

“Was it?” the first man shot back. “The other man, Sam, had turned to retreat.”

“Yes, after Sam had already tried to attack Fred!”

The first man rolled his eyes. “Attack Fred with a water jug. Fred pulled out a knife.”

“The water jug was big, though — the kind you put on a water cooler!” The second man exclaimed with great confidence.

The first man calmly replied, “But it was empty. And this Fred guy used a knife. A big knife."

“Ehh, it was a butter knife,” said the second man.

“Still, it was a knife.”

“How do you even kill someone with a butter knife?” the second man asked, half-rhetorically.

The first man eagerly answered, “He stabbed him a bunch of times. Hit a few arteries.”

“Still was protecting himself, though,” the second man reiterated, although this time a little less-confidently.

The first man became a bit exasperated. “How was he protecting himself? Sam had begun to run way!!”

The second man stopped seesawing for a moment, thought about that question, and answered.

“Sam had come into his Fred’s home.”

He dropped his weight down to pull the seesaw down in his direction.

The first man quickly responded, “It was Sam’s guesthouse, where Fred had been living and rent-free for too long, which hadn’t been the agreement, so Sam evicted him. And Fred knew he was supposed to move out that day.”

“That still was no reason for Sam to attack him!” the second man shouted in exasperation.

The first man nodded his head slightly. “True. But this wasn’t the first time Fred had been asked to leave.”

“One or two failed evictions don’t warrant physically assaulting someone,” said the second man.

“It wasn’t even the second or third time. He was supposed to leave months before!! Maybe a year!”

“Okay, so Sam was a little frustrated. I still am not hearing why it was okay to physically attack anyone over that. Take it to the police! For crying out loud.”

“Sam tried,” again calmly said the first man. “Nothing was working. No one was responding. The legal system was dragging to get Fred out. And Fred knew and took advantage of that.”

“Okay, so even if Sam was at his wit’s end with Fred’s freeloading.. Why let it escalate the way it did?” the second man asked again, with increasing impatience. 

There were a few moments of silence, as the seesaw again sat still. Behind them, the skies often alternated between a blinding white, with the magnificent sun shining big and closely, and sudden darkness — mostly black, with red hues and streaks scattered throughout. No moon or stars. The alternating continued as they continued.

After the few moments, suddenly, there was movement again in the first man’s direction.

“Remember, Fred had also blurted out that he’d slept with Sam’s wife,” he said.

“Oh, yes,” the second man slightly smirked. “That.”

“Yes, that.”

“But wait, wasn’t Sam also beating on his wife?” asked the second man. 

“Well yes, but… What does that have to do with—”

“It has everything to do with it!” the second man interrupted. “Sam beat on his wife and is a  jerk and his wife turned to another man — Fred — for comfort, so as far as I’m concerned, those two events cancel each other out.”

The first man’s face contorted into a look of puzzlement. “Do they really, though?”

“Why, yes. Yes, they do,” the second man returned to his more confident stance. His lips stretched in a wide grin, his eyes closed, and his held tilted high. His body was weighted even more than normal on his end of the seesaw. The first man didn’t say anything and reluctantly let the second man have his moment. After enjoying those brief moments of believing he might’ve gotten them closer to settling things, the second man soon popped his eyes back open and eased his weight on the seesaw so it could resume. “And that takes us back to, why would Sam attack Fred?”

“Wait, wait, wait,” said the first man. “You can’t just negate that Fred slept with the man’s wife!!”

“I can. That was just cancelled out by the fact that—-”

“And you can’t factor in Sam beating on his wife. As sad as that is, it doesn’t have anything to do with Fred. But you know what does have to do with Fred? Him sleeping with Sam’s wife. I believe that would make many men angry, maybe enough to become violent — then you tack on Fred living in Sam’s guest house well-beyond his permitted stay, despite many warnings, and with no luck with the police or law! Sam was at his wit’s end!!”

The two go up and down on the seesaw for several minutes, not exchanging words but still locked in eye contact with one another. Both are thinking — the second man, about his next response; the first man, wondering what will be the second man’s next response.

“Okay,” the second man suddenly blurts into the silence. “So, what about the kids?”

“What about the kids?”

"Fred’s kids. The five of them, and his life since that incident. He’s an amazing father. Has been there for them from birth and for every doctor’s appointment, every baseball practice and game, every school play and graduation.”

“He had each kid with a different woman,” the first man said, without missing a beat.

“Each woman who left him,” inserted the second man.

“After he cheated on most of them with the next,” said the first.

The second man sighed. After a few moments, “But he was a better and more present parent than all of those mothers put together!! Took care of them, helped them with their homework, put them to bed at night…”

“When he was around,” interrupted the first man. “Most of the time, they lived with their mothers.”

“But when he could be around… when the mothers allowed him to be around… he was there, and he was great.”

“How many times when they visited him did he pass them off to his parents to watch them?” asked the first man.

“But they loved their grandparents,” the second man immediately chimed in. “And Fred was working a few different jobs at the time, to try and keep up with the child support and help his parents out when he could.”

“Helped out his parents when he could, but was never nice to them,” the first man said. “Often cussed them out, barely called — unless he needed something, and a few times, even stole from them. He stole from a few people, actually.”

“He pretty much always had good reason.”

“Good reason?” the first man let out a guffaw. “Ha! Like what?”

“Like that time as a teenager,” the second man starts, “That group of teenage boys took the ball of that little girl across the street, leaving her sad and crying. They began playing with it and did over the next few weeks. Then one day, when they were sitting, eating snacks, not paying attention, and the ball was sitting idly nearby, Fred snuck, took it, and gave it back to the little girl, whispering to her to try not to play with it outside while those boys were around. And she smiled brightly. That made her day.”

“Okay,” the first man began, “But then, what about that time, that same year, he was at his supposed best friend Jeremy’s house and saw sitting on his dresser that nice sports watch Jeremy had gotten from his parents for his birthday. As soon as Jeremy went to the bathroom, Fred swiped it.”

The second man sighs again. “Alright, alright… If you want to bring up random old things…”

“Random old things?!?” the first man looked at his contemporary in bewilderment. “Like you just did? But alright, what about more recently, when he stuffed some food in his pants at the grocery store and walked out without paying??”

“And went outside and gave half of it to the homeless lady he’d seen on the street? You mean that time?!”

The first man looked hard at the second as they each went up and down a few more times.

“He killed a man,” said the first man.

“Out of self-defense,” said the second.

“He stabbed a man…multiple times!! When the man was running off. And after that man had only, barely hit him…with an empty water-cooler jug.”

The second man sighed a final time. “Okay, I guess off to Hell, Fred goes. But wait, remind me where we sent Sam?”