making my bones

the hammer came crashing near my head a foot away, thudding against the wall, scaring the hell out of me and then this big ex marine came over and picked it up and swaggered back across the floor of the job site. this had been going on for a week and i was getting to the breaking point, and i was afraid of not only getting my ass kicked but losing my job. i went and saw the big boss and told him my problem and he told me " out here you settle your own, don't be bringing me your problems, " just after i told him that Mark didn't like me for some reason and that i hadn't done anything i could think of to piss him off. Mark just didn't like me and i was stuck with that and the flying hammer or i had to do something. i'd tried talking to Mark, a thick, muscular guy, shaved headed, a real jar head and none to b right, but the hammer just kept getting closer to my head on a regular basis. i was on a renovation crew at a VA hosptial as a common laborer but i was making more money than i ever had before , a whole 15 dollars an hour, benefits, sick leave, vacation pay and i wanted to keep my job. I had to keep my job, i had no where to go and i was working hard and doing well even though it was scut work tearing out black iron and plaster walls with a sawzall, and loading the debris in portable dumpsters and then off loading them in a big dumpster outside the hospital. a couple of days later the hammer bounced off a stud bay next to my head and before ole Mark could swagger over i ran over to him and grabbing him by the seat of his pants half dragging him, i launched him off the building, this from the second story. ole mark lay below in the dirt, crumpled on one side, and then I went and got his saw and his tools and threw them off too. the rest of the carpenters and laborers all had their mouths open, no one said a word. mark crawled off to hoots from the crew and told our boss some story and went to the hospital to have his arm put in a sling, but nothing ever happened except my stock on the crew went up, and i noticed everyone treated me differently. i thought i was done with Mark but he was hardheaded and after he came back to work, mopeing around trying to work with one good arm for weeks and then finally healing up, he kicked me from behind in the locker room and proceded to get yet another beating, this time driven into his locker. still not getting the message, he attacked me at the company picnic in the horseshoe pit and got pounded yet again, finally deciding he really liked me and we were the best of friends. strange, I never did learn why he disliked me so much. by this time i had unoffically pretty much taken over the whole engineering departments labor pool, now with ole Mark as a fast ally. you can never figure how things work out. i never ever went looking for trouble but i found out, if it came my way out there, i would be ready. I had problems later with Mark, and should have realized, people don't change. Mark could have been a good enough guy if someone could have kicked his butt everyday. jgk