and seeing that the other side were fighting dirt with stone the local kids were outraged and such cowardice they had never encountered and the other side knew nothing of street warfare and escalation was imminent and the local kids invoked their tribal wargods and armed themselves with local rocks and the local rocks whistled and sang in the air as they drew their hypnotised targets nearer and arms were crushed and bones were rattled and chests were flattened and feet were swept and the boy browncoat cried out in feral joy under the hiss of the sun-obscuring volley and picked the biggest loveliest roundest smoothest throwablemost rock he could find and picked the loveliest pinkest handsomest most unblemished intruder boy he could identify within reasonable range and threw his perfect rock at his perfect victim as hard and as accurate as he would ever throw or do anything in his chronological life and the flight of the perfect rock was immaculate and virgin and the victims chest was to have its pretty flesh crushed and snapped and maybe even peeled off and the browncoat grew wild-eyed and tremulous but the throw was not to be for one of the local girls , the daughter of brownbacks closest neighbours and his secret best friend with whom he spoke and played and listened to caruso more than with anyone else any boy any living being no contest , flew across the field of battle chasing one of the younger intruder boys who had still not extracted his hand from his summer shorts and the girl stopped the rock in dead flight and assaulted the perfect flight of the brownbacks perfect rock by interposing her left cheek and the rock met with soft resistance and still hoped it could still overcome this irritant-obstacle so the rock slid upwards and pressed on in scribbling fury up the local girls left cheek and the cheek was not interminable no valley is and the rock ascended to the girls eye and although the girl had closed her eyes glued with instinct as the rock pushed her back the eyes pupil was a thin curtain and the rock feared no flesh for it saw no flesh and it burrowed up into the girls socket and dug deep into the dark and displaced the submissive orb it found there and finally discovered there was to be no more flight and lost its will and slid down from the girls empty socket onto her blue blouse and down her unstockinged foot and the local girl was frozen in marble shock in the middle of the field of battle and luckily for her she was just a girl and not very tall and thus not the proudest scalp but still she was hit in the head and in the blades of her shoulders by a few residual rocks small and utterly without ambition mostly thrown by intruder boys with arms too numb to attempt longer throws across the field and into worthier targets from the native camp .