The E True Hollywood Story of PCV E. Plewa

The day of the 25th of August started out like it would be just like any other day in the site of PCV and Van Morrison enthusiast E. Plewa.

“I remember I’d received some word that it might rain and I was thrilled when it did-it really helps to cool stuff off,” E. Plewa related in an August interview.

But cool off it would not. No, things were about to get quite hot in the town where she lived.
“I was scheduled to give a talk to my youth group about violence. I had no intentions of giving them a live demonstration.”

But despite her best intentions, at the end of the meeting, a civilized, very well-organized activity to keep the teens busy and having fun went terribly wrong. Some teens began the activity indoors while others waited outside. Some of the ones inside were circling the room stopping every once in a while to go down the “Love Train” (the name of the activity) passing a kiss on the cheek to the next participant until they reached the last person who simply got a little slap on the cheek. The activity was meant to be funny; a person leans in for a kiss and unexpectedly gets a quick slap to the face.

“What I didn’t realize before trying the activity in my town was that the whole reason the activity worked when I saw it performed quite successfully at a youth conference a few months earlier was because the kids there hardly knew one another and as a result weren’t about to slap one another with any force.”

But as the activity continued, the teens really started to get into it. One girl slapped a teen we’ll call Alfie to protect his identity, with a bit of force which this PCV took as a just one more example of Alfie’s tendency to get picked on. But she wasn’t too worried-

“When *** slapped Alfie with so much force I was of course startled a bit, but since *** is such good friends with Alfie and he tends to be the one to get lovingly made fun of, I didn’t take it too seriously.”

That, she would later look back on, as her biggest mistake of this ordeal.

“I should have told *** she shouldn’t have slapped Alfie so hard and told Alfie not to do the same to the next participant.”

Meanwhile, an unsuspecting teen girl waited in the doorway to be called in to participate. She assumed her position at the end of the line and when it came time for her “kiss” she leaned in and got an extremely powerful slap from the hand of a friend of hers, Alfie.

“I couldn’t believe what had just happened in front of my eyes, under my supervision.”
The teen girl bent over in pain, putting her hand to her face, covering her eye very delicately.
“In a situation like that, when fire just breaks out, and no one knows what to do, and you’re the one in charge, it can take a minute to react. I went to her side and started to stroke her back and head, asking if she was alright. I was obviously concerned for her, turning my back momentarily to Alfie and the rest of the group.”

With her back turned, the situation soon turned chaotic. Teens went off to different places all around the meeting room, some concerned for the girl, others reacting to themselves or with their friends, and a few even chasing after Alfie with hands waving wildly, some even began striking him.

“I left her side as soon as I saw what was happening to him. My worst nightmares of what could happen to him because of his sexuality and other differences came to mind and I flew to his side immediately.”

If things hadn’t steamed up enough, the PCV then screamed at everyone to sit down, trying to get a hold on the group.

“I just wanted everyone to sit down and give me their attention. I was sure she was going to be fine; it was probably more shock at being hit so hard by her friend than pain that she was feeling. I just knew if I could get everyone to sit, I’d come up with some way to handle this.”
While she thought it over, eventually the group settled down. Finally she knew what she was going to do.

“I told them that I was guilty for something and needed a chance to explain myself. I explained to the teenagers why I thought the activity worked at the conference and not here was because people were too shy to really make the slap hurt at all. Then I explained that it was my fault that I let the slaps escalate among the participants to get to be so strong to where it hurt. I apologized to her and turned to Alfie saying, obviously she is one of Alfie’s best friends and this was just an accident.”

But then the night took a very interesting turn. Alfie didn’t respond to the comment when PCV Plewa addressed him.

“I couldn’t believe he wasn’t saying anything. He is one of my closest friends here and I was standing there taking the heat for that and he wasn’t agreeing with me that she is one of his closest friends! Before I could even contemplate that maybe they aren’t as good friends as I thought, I turned again to the group and assured them that he’d agreed with what I’d said. I apologized once again and moved on to another topic. Then I gave her a huge handful of candy.”
Luckily, Alfie later approached the girl to apologize and she forgave him.



So, seriously now, this was a shocking night. I couldn’t believe he did it and spent a lot of time thinking over what could have motivated him to do something so reckless in front of a crowd of his peers, any one of whom could kick his ass, and most importantly, to one of his closest friends. The fact that this is “Alfie” I’m talking about here I decided has everything do with it. He gets hassled by everyone here, all the time, even his close friends for being different. No one has come out and said it, but I’m pretty sure Alfie is gay, and I think that most of the community thinks so too. In another activity I did with them a few weeks ago where everyone had to sit on each other’s laps to form a big, seated circle, no one would stand next to him so they didn’t have to have him on their lap or sit on his. That was when it first became blaringly obvious to me how badly they mistreat him.

After this whole incident with the slapping, my project partner, at whose home we hang out a lot (and were at last night) told me another story. Apparently after I went home last night all of the kids still there left Alfie laying sound asleep on a bed outside of the house, removing the light bulb from the socket above the bed. When my project partner came home later that evening she couldn’t see over to the bed (because the light was out) and so went to bed not knowing he was there. He apparently woke up around 3AM and went home getting into an extreme amount of trouble.

So, was he just fed up and saw a chance to blow off some steam and took it with a vengeance? I think so. So, what do I do.