Strange Birds of a Feather - Chapter 3

cw: abusive parent

Oswald's POV

It was a very long time ago, I just started middle school, when I met Lili. Of course a short, fat, awkward little boy with weird hands would have been a target of mockery. I couldn't have asked the help of my parents, since my father didn't have a high opinion of me already, and the teachers weren't helpful either. So I decided that I had to take matters into my own hands. I had noticed an announcement of an after school kung fu class so I thought I would give it a try.

When I arrived at the class I was nervous. All I could see were the big boys sparring with each other. What would they think if they would notice me, this pathetic little creature?

'Hey, tadpole, what are you doing here?' I heard it from behind me. I turned around only to see a tiny girl with pigtails.

'Excuse me, what did you call me?'

'I called you tadpole, since you are so teeny tiny.'

I was dumfounded by her audicity, considering she was way shorter than me.

'I was joking. My name is Lili. Did you come to the kung fu class? Let me introduce you to the others.' then she grabbed my hand and dragged me to the other students. 'Hey guys, there's a new meat. Be nice to him, he is with me. What did you say, what's your name?'

I didn't mention my name to her, but I decided I would just go with her. 'Uhm… Oswald Cobblepot.'

'Hi, Oswald.' the boys greeted me albeit skittishly. Then the coach arrived.

'Good afternoon.'

'Good afternoon, Master Wang.'

'We have a new student I see.' he noted, looking at me.

'Uhm… yes Sir, I want to join the class.'

'But you didn't bring your training outfit with yourself, did you?'

'Uh... No, Sir.' considering I went there on a whim I didn't really have it in mind.

'Alright, since you are here the first time you can sit down, and watch the class but the next time if you come here like that I'm going to send you home.' then he paused for a moment. 'What happened to your hands?'

I looked at my fused fingers that used to be the cause of many mockery. 'They are like this since I was born.'

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So I at first I was only there as an observer. I watched Lili fighting with those big boys and how she humbled all of them. I was in awe! She was amazing. I was thinking if I could stand up for myself like she did, the bullies would have left me alone finally.

'Lili, you were so cool.' I told her after the class.

'Well, thank you.' she said proudly.

'I wish I could fight like you.'

She started giggling. 'That's unlikely to happen, but you could give it a try, who knows.' Then she turned more serious. 'You came here because of the bullies, right?'

'Yes.' I admitted.

'Then perhaps I should teach you some tricks so you could defend yourself.' she started winking. I didn't have any idea what she meant by that, and probably she noticed it, so she continued. 'You know, like tripping them or punching them in their you-know-what.'

'But that's not fair.'

'Not fair? Why, do you think them mocking us because we look funny to them is fair?' I had to admit, that she had a point.

So I started attending to the kung fu classes. I was paired with Lili, she sent me to the ground a couple of times. But still, I enjoyed my time there. I felt like I belonged to somewhere and I liked the companionship, especially Lili's. I learned that her full name was Lili Kwan, she was a year older than me, and her parents came from China. She also had a fascination with amphibians, especially with frogs so she was very keen on sharing her knowledge about them with me, as I shared mine about birds with her.

One day as we were hanging out after school I offered her to show her my pidgeons.

'Do you really have pet pidgeons?' she asked.

'Not really, they actually belong to an old lady, but I visit them occasionally.'

So we entered an apartment building nearby and climbed to the roof on a ladder where the cage of the birds could be found.

'Did you know that the ancestors of these pidgeons were used to carry messages during World War I and World War II?' I started to tell Lili meanwhile I opened the cage to feed them.

'Really?'

'Yes. And when they weren't useful anymore they were discarded as pests.'

'Man, humans really suck.'

'Yeah, they do.'

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'Hey, Penguin!' I heard the dreadful voice. I turned around and it was one of my tormentors, Stephen Vanderesch.

'Get lost, Stephen!' I told him angrily.

'Or what? What are you going to do?' he asked mockingly. I figured that was the perfect moment to show off what have I learned. I walked in front of Stephen, with him looking at me curiously. Then I stabbed him into his eyes with my fingers, which distracted him, and also temporarlily blinded him. Then I punched him in his crotch which made him to yell out in pain and when he crouched down I kicked him in the head. He fell to the ground crying and even his friends started laughing at him. It was truely a pathetic sight. But what was the most important is that it gave me confidence. I felt like from that moment nobody would dare to mock me and everything would be alright.

Or at least I thought. My parents were called into the school. Stephen's parents were fuming, demanding to know how my parents raised their son for me to became this violent. I could have asked them the same question as well.

When this whole meet up ended my father stood up. He was infuriated from what he heard. At that moment I was terrified of him like never before. Later I learned, that I had a good reason for that.

'Don't worry Mr. and Mrs. Vanderesch.' he said meanwhile looking at me with anger. 'I will teach this boy to never do such a thing again.'

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'Father, please. Please, don't hurt me. I'm not going to do this again, I swear.' no matter how much I pleaded, I was dragged home by my enraged father. He then walked into my brother's room, and came back with a baseball bat.

'Yes, and I make sure you won't be able to.'

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I woke up in the hospital. I felt numb, probably because of the morphine and I was alone in the room. Noone, not even my mother was at the side of my bed. When a nurse looked into my room, noticed that I am awake and quickly run to a nearby phone. Later she told me that she called my parents and also a girl, who was begging to her before to call her when I woke up. This put a smile on my face. This must be Lili.

Soon my first visitor arrived, and to my surprise, it was Lili. She was panting.

'Huh... Oswald... finally… you're awake… huh... huh...'

'Lili. What are you doing here? You should be in school.'

'I came as soon as I could when they called me. I gave them the phone number of my home and the school's number so they could reach me anytime. Anyway, how do you feel?'

'Uhm… I'm a bit dizzy. And I don't feel my right foot.' then I looked down. My legs were fully covered by the bedsheet. 'Could you please lift that up? I want to see it.'

Lili gave me a concerned look. 'Oswald, maybe you should rest a little bit more.'

'Lili, please.'

'No.'

'Then I'll do it.'

'No! Wait!'

I lifted the cover before she could stop me. The sight was gruesome. My right foot was bent in an unnatural way and my toes were basically reorganized. The pain became stronger when I found out how bad it was. I'm sure my scream woke up everyone in the building.

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I was in the hospital for days before they released me. They didn't even make an attempt to save my foot, they just gave me a heavy brace, which took me weeks to learn to walk with. I could barely go up on stairs. It was frustrating. But what hurt me the most is that I couldn't attend kung fu classes anymore. I still visited the classes though, mostly sat on the side and cheered for Lili.

'I think we should go and see your pidgeons. Maybe that would cheer you up.' she said after one of the classes.

'Yeah. sure.'

So we went to the building, up to the highest floor. It took me an annoyingly long time. Then we reached the ladder which would bring us to the roof. I tried to step on it. Then I tried again. The metal on metal were slipping and I could put my weight on my foot. After many attepts I gave up.

'Oswald.' Lili said with a worried voice. I started crying. Not because of the pain but because of the helplessness that I felt at that time. Lili came to me and hugged me. 'It's okay. Everything will be okay.'

END

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