Childhood memory #2563

One time when I was a young lad of maybe 5, I had gotten all gussied up for some reason. Hair combed, a nice red and white jacket on. Clean. We were going somewhere. The destination has been lost from my memory. Anyway, it may have had something to do with a movie theater my Dad used to work at. The point is I looked like a dapper little fellow. While waiting to depart, I was outside in my backyard "messing around" wasting time, being careful not to get dirty or mess up my hair. My neighbors, the Lotts, had relatives visiting them. One of them was a boy who was about 4 years older than me. He was a lanky kid of questionable sanity. The proof of which was soon to be presented to me in spades. He was in the back yard of the Lott house. He called to me. Hey, he said, come over here. So, with deft agility I scaled the low chainlink fence that separated the Lott backyard from ours. I walked up to this wild-eyed, messy haired individual (David?) and asked him what he wanted and he delivered, without the slightest warning, a vigorous and powerful punch straight in my gut. Next thing I knew I was on one knee holding my stomach trying to get that next elusive breath. I was that way for approximately 3 days. Or at least it felt that way. It was actually a couple seconds. Finally my air rushed back into my lungs and along with it, a gentle weeping voice, with which I expressed unbridled bafflement as to why he would deliver such a devastating blow to a smaller and gentler child. I think he ran off after that, and maybe went back inside. Anyway, he exited the stage of this small drama quite suddenly. I climbed back over the fence while simultaneously wondering why this all had happened. In fact, that is the primary question I have about the whole episode. "Why?" I can't recall if my hair got messed up. I used to know more details about this story (the things we actually said to each other, where I was waiting to go to that day, etc.) but time has erased this minutiae from my memory banks. Anyway, I never interacted with this kid again after that.