The architecture of Parkway Plaza is meant to mirror the arrival of the space age. In 1963, it stands like the one-sided main street of a wild-west town. One end is anchored by a liquor store, the other by a bowling alley. Its storefronts face a pavement desert occupied by station wagons and family sedans during the day and tumbleweed litter when the major stores are closed.

The plaza has two identities. The first is as a regular community shopping centre in a primarily working-class area. The second is as local club, car show, fight ring, centre for criminal activity ranging from petty crime and shoplifting to grand larceny, and an often-toxic place for those who hang out there. Unless you are a monumental wuss, the kind of guy who has his top shirt button done up, wears round-toed, brown shoes, and carries a suck-sack to school, one way or another you are going to find yourself hanging out at Parkway Plaza. You can have a Coke and eat fries and gravy in the restaurant next to the liquor store if you are flush with cash, drink bad coffee from pink Melmac cups and flirt with the acned waitresses working at the Kresge’s lunch counter, hang out by the snack bar in the bowling alley until told to leave, or just hang out in front of the smoke shop waiting for someone to come up with something to do, most likely something dangerous, illegal, or both.

Fourteen-year-old Daniel often finds himself at Parkway Plaza. However, he does not have full membership in the plaza community. He goes to a Catholic high school and none of the other students who go there hangout at the plaza. That puts him at disadvantage. It means he has no core of friends who will stand up for him. But there is nowhere else to go to be with guys his own age. Daniel cannot skate or hit a baseball; he doesn’t know how to play any sports; his parents have no money for sports equipment, and he has no hobbies. The one thing he does know how to do is hang out.

Parkway Plaza is a dangerous place for someone like Daniel. When you are walking through it and someone calls out your name, it’s not because they are glad to see you. It’s likely it is your turn to be used for sport. Daniel has seen this happen several times. A guy will be walking with his girlfriend when someone calls him out. He will find himself facing four or five guys. The guy with the girlfriend knows even if he could take one of them, the others will step in. He will be given the choice of being emasculated in front of his girlfriend by being told to ask forgiveness for something he hasn’t done, or to fight his challenger. The guy who has called him out will often make sure the person he is challenging is completely humiliated.

“I think you should ask for my forgiveness. But I think you should get on your knees and ask me to forgive you.”

The guy who actually kneels and gets kicked in the head for his trouble loses whatever standing in the plaza group he might have had. Even if he doesn’t get kicked, he will never feel the same about himself again, ever. And neither will his girlfriend. As ugly as all this kind of stuff is, there are valuable life lessons Daniel can learn. That’s what happened by watching David Trask.

Daniel and a bunch of guys were standing around looking at somebody’s new Camaro when Trask walked by. With no warning or any indication that something was going to happen, Jimmy Carwin called Trask out. Carwin was not a big guy. He was about five foot eight and wiry. Trask was about the same size but a wrestler and solidly built. Carwin gets in Trask’s way and challenges him by getting right up in his face.

“So, I hear you have been calling me a stupid prick,” is his opening salvo.

Trask looks confused. “I never called you anything.”

“So, you are calling me a liar,” Carwin responds.

Trask knows how this is going to go, “I never called you anything.”

“Well, I know you did, but I’m in a good mood today, so I will let it go,” says Carwin as he turns away from Trask.

Trask relaxes, but Carwin spins around and sucker punches Trask who immediately crumples. Carwin straddles Trask and drives his fist into Trask’s mouth. You can hear Carwin’s fingers break. Trask’s teeth popcorn out of his mouth. Carwin moves back to survey what he has done and Trask looks up at him and says, “My sister can hit harder than that.”

“Pay attention,” says the voice in Daniel’s head. “Look at what went on here. Who actually won this exchange? Trask is hurt, not defeated. See that. Understand that. It is you who decides if and when you are defeated. The world if filled with Carwins and Trasks. Who do you want to be?”