THE SMILEY FACE MAN

CHAPTER ONE

Donny and the girl rounded the corner on their way home from school. Donny had started first grade a few weeks before, and his mom had told him to walk his neighbor home after school “like a gentleman”. He liked the idea of taking on such a responsibility. He was told to hold the girl’s hand and carry her books, which did prove tiresome, having to maneuver both their books around from one hand to the other.

Rounding the corner, Donny noticed a kid standing on the sidewalk, staring at him. Something seemed out of the ordinary about the kid’s demeanor.

Out of nowhere, the kid grabbed hold of Donny and began to shake him real hard.

“You’re a sissy!” the kid exclaimed. “Are you carrying her books for her?!” he shouted, as he shook Donny violently.

Donny held onto the books for dear life, because the one and only thing he received praise for from his first-grade teacher, Ms. Baker, was for keeping his textbooks in immaculate condition. But try as he might, he was unable to prevent the kid from flinging him down onto the street, causing the books to go flying every which way.

Donny yelped out in pain as his knees scraped against the rough surface of the road. He stood back up, and the kid smashed his right knee into Donny’s face, causing him to momentarily black out. Donny regained his bearings and fled home, noticing, as he ran, that the girl was nowhere to be seen, and her books were gone.

Donny flung open the front door and ran to his dad’s side with a tear-streaked face, blurting out a confusing babble of the events that had taken place, sending alarm through the house. Donny’s dad was a drunkard, who had only arrived home from work moments before.

“He hurt me, he hurt me!” Donny stuttered to his inebriated dad.

“Who hurt you, boy?” his father asked, but Donny, being young and introverted, was unable to describe the kid in detail.

“Daddy, what does ‘sissy’ mean?” Donny asked, having never heard the word before.

Donny’s father’s eyes filled with contempt, as it dawned on him that a child of his had been labeled such a thing. He pushed Donny away and drunkenly slurred, “It means like a girl. Get away from me. I don’t love you anymore!”

Donny’s mom and dad bickered back and forth, taking their hostilities out on one another, as Donny and his two brothers, who stood nearby watching, took it all in.

Donny was hurt and confused. He was hurt because he saw the contempt in his dad’s eyes, and he was confused because his mom had told him that walking the girl home in such a manner was the gentlemanly thing to do. He couldn’t fathom how being a ‘gentle man’ could be considered girlish. Donny had never felt so broken-hearted, and he was willing to do anything to make amends and win back his fatheer’s love. Donny liked to play Cowboys and Indians and act out military battle scenes with his brothers and the neighborhood kids, but he’d never been in a real fight before, so he begged his dad to show him how to do it, before he would have to head back out to fight the kid, as his dad intended. But to no avail. So as the row between his parents raged on, Donny left the house to fight the kid.

Donny found the boy waiting for him. Not knowing what to do, Donny latched onto the kid’s right knee. The boy was sixteen, and he could easily knock Donny around, due to his overwhelming size advantage. He had no trouble knocking Donny’s brothers around too, when they were sent, begrudgingly, one after the other, to help Donny. Donny’s older brother Ronny was a talkative third grader, so upon returning home, he was able to explain to their father that the kid was of high school age. Realizing how much older and bigger the kid was compared to his kids, Donny’s dad forgave him and apologized for the misunderstanding.

Donny’s books had gotten badly scraped up during the incident, so he would never again experience the feeling of praise from his teacher, Ms. Baker, nor would he ever trust his mother’s guidance from that point forward.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: James Robertson was born in Orlando in 1963. As a child, he had a natural talent for playing pool and was a very good singer. During his adolescence, his experience with alcohol and drugs intensified.

James was arrested in 1980, a few days before he turned 17, while attempting to steal a speaker from a store. Initially, his sentence was ten years in prison. However, a series of turbulent events inside the correctional facility dramatically increased his time served, and James remains incarcerated to this day, more than 40 years later.

In 2018, James Robertson became known for having his story featured in the first episode (Season 1) of the documentary series 'I Am A Killer,' which was shown on Netflix. In 2008, as a means of escaping solitary confinement, where he had been held for nearly 20 years, James killed his cellmate to be transferred to death row. The peculiarities of his life story may lead us to reflect on important issues.

This text offers a preview of James' book in which he chronicles in the third person his own childhood and adolescence before going to prison, a journey from which he has never returned. To protect the identities of those involved, James has changed the names of the characters, although all the facts are true. In the story, he is referred to as Donny.

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