THE BULLY
“It was the strangest place to meet him” I mumbled to myself, whilst looking at the school photograph. It had everyone on it, included the bully Shouel Miah. I remember when I met him after a long time. He used to be the bully in my year and I met him after 15 years, it all happened in a takeaway couple of days back.
I walked into Abduls takeaway in Rusholme, Manchester and sat down at the counter as all of the tables were taken. I picked up a menu and I began to look at the various items trying to decide if I wanted to order a Donner kebab or an “Aloo Paratha”. "Excuse me," said someone, as they touched me on my shoulder.
I looked up and saw a rather nice looking woman standing in front of me.
"Is your name Asim by any chance?" she asked me.
"Yes." I replied, I was rather confused, as I had never seen this woman before.
"My name is Rija and my husband is Shouel," she said, she then pointed to a table near the door.
I looked in the direction that she was pointing at but I did not recognize the man who was sitting, alone at the table.
"I'm sorry. I'm confused. I don't think that I know you or your husband. But my name is Asim, Asim Mahmood" I told the lady.
The lady then looked at me at the strangest way and said "Shouel Miah. Shouel from Burnage High School in Burnage?".
"I'm really sorry. The name doesn't ring a bell." I said.
She turned and walked back to her table and sat down. She and her husband immediately began talking and when I looked back at them once in a while I would see her turn around in her seat and look straight at me.
I finally decided to order a Donner Kebab and a can of coke. Whilst I started to eat I thought to myself, who is this Shouel guy and what does he want.
"I must know him," I thought to myself. "He recognizes me”. I picked up my Donner and took a bite. All of a sudden it came to me like a flash of lighting.
"Shouel, Shouel the dog." I mumbled to myself, I then turned myself around on my stool and faced in his direction.
"The bully of my geography class," I thought.
This guy had made fun of me in every lesson. He used to call me names like “loner” and “two-faced”. He used to embarrass me in front of everyone. I remember when we were studying about Star Trek, he used to say that phrase to me that was used in the series, “Beam me up spotty!”. This was because I had too many spots on my face. How many times that guy had made fun of my spots in front of the girls in my class? How many times did he laugh at me just to humiliate me? How many times that big bully slammed me up against the lockers just to make himself look like a big man to all the other students?
