I told Jonathan to hit the brakes and stay in the car. He had nothing to do with that fight, and I never liked getting my friends in trouble, anyway.

I ran towards the whole scene, and noticed that the one doing the choke-holding was Alan, an old friend of the family. He recently landed a job as a janitor at the local high school and left the camp. And the cops were also familiar faces. I had absolutely no grudge against any of those people.

"Yo, what the hell is going on here?" I shouted. "Let go of him, goddammit'!"

Dad looked at me and tried to say something. I could definetively see Alan relieving the pressure on his neck so it would be easier for him to do so.

"Laura, stay back! Don't you come any closer!"

The city Mayor, this chubby middle-age man called João Nadir, stood in front of me with a sneer.

"Calm down, young lady," he said while slightly raising his hands. "I assume that's your father."

"Of course he is, you piece of shit! You know that! There are a five hundred people in this town!"

"Ok," he continued with the very same tone. "There's no need for that kind of language. Your father broke the law, we are just reacting a..."

"Well, what the hell did he do?"

"If you must know, he attacked me and my assistant."

"Oh, yeah, sure he did. 'Cause it would be so hard to resist the temptation of kicking your buck teeth in."

"It's true, Laura," Alan said. "I was here, I saw it. I think he's been drinking again."

"You've been drinking again, you prick," dad replied. "And you, Nadir, are just a spineless thief, and everybody knows it. You're just doing a last bit of "saving" before your term ends... The minute you rebuild that gas station, I'm gonna blow it up myself!"

"Please, take this man to the precint", said the Mayor. "Let him sober up before he ends up embarassing himself ever more."

"Yeah, you better lock me up, you greasy son of a bitch..."

"Dad, please, shut up!" I turned to the cops and said "Please, officers, he has just fell of the wagon again. You all know how that stuff is hard to get rid of. Believe me, he is doing his best."

One of the cops holstered his gun and said:

"Miss, I'm afraid your father did something far too serious to just walk away with a slap on the wrist."

"He is just passionate, sir," I replied. "We've been going through a hell of a lot of stress with the jaguars up on the hill, and no one is moving a finger to help. You can't blame him for flying off the handle."

The cops looked at each other with a tiny smidge of doubt in their eyes. I was starting to turn things around.

"There, you already have his gun. Keep it. He's harmless without it." I pointed at the .45 on the ground.

"Sure," the mayor shrieked. "You want us to believe that there aren't any extra guns on your little fantasy camp?"

"Yes, in fact there are," I said. "But we usually work on one weapon per family. No one is going to borrow theirs while the woods are not safe. And the only thing they absolutely need right now is their leader."

A few seconds of silence later, they all finally put their guns down, to the mayor's clear objection.

"Oh, God, I hope I don't regret this..." said the lawman. "You can let go of him now."

When Alan finally did let go of dad's neck, he fell on his knees for a few seconds, trying to catch his breath.

"I'm really sorry, Roger," said Alan.

"Screw you, man," dad howled at him. "You were suppose to be my friend. To hell with all of you people! I wish I was never associated with the likes of you ignorant sheep!"

I grabbed dad by the jacket and placed his arm around my neck. We stumbled towards Jonathan's parked car, while a few silent tears streamed down his hardened face.