And they killed him

When we were young we tended to make friends with the workers who were kind to us. And throughout my childhood there have been many workers in Camperdown and Manderston who I had come to call my friends.
Camperdown is where my dad is from and my mum from Manderston.
There was one guy by the name of John if I am not mistaken he was the "go to" guy at the shop.
He worked for the Vankers my maternal grandparents and he was funny.
One day however we kids were exposed to something that no kids should ever see.
John got into a fight with some of the rough crowd. Apparently he had a few too many and insulted them earlier that day at the station.
They came for him, into our yard, and there were two of them.
After much hurling of abuses and lots of hall baloo they reached a stalemate. Each of the camps occupied a different corner of the building and they hurled bricks at each other.
We were inside the house and could see both sides of the fight and we were terrified.
I wished my grandfather the would intervene and use his gun to chase away the attackers but I was young and naive and didn't understand the fear that ruled the lives of people living in the farms.
While one of them kept John pinned in position the other went around the house and came at him from the back.
We screamed at him to be careful but he didn't hear us through the glass. And the guy snuck up behind him and hit him over the head with a brick.
They dragged him to a spot just in front of the window.
And they stabbed him to death right in front of us.
The wall behind him was covered in his blood.
And when they were done they left.
The cops came later and much more later they took him away
Nobody ever cleaned the wall and the spot was black with our shame. And horror.
Looking back now, no child should ever have to see the things that I have seen.
I hated my Nana for letting this horrible thing happen. And lost faith in him. And that was almost as bad as the killing itself for it killed the dreams of a child.
As a grown up I can understand that they were afraid of getting in the middle of something that involved really bad people.
And I realise now that I might act the same way today to preserve our way of life.
And I prey that I am never tested like that and that I always keep the respect of my grandchild.