Flipped

Uncle Raymond loved to tease me, all the time!  Maybe because I was a good sport about it most of the time.  Except this one night!!  He would often tickle me and take one of my shoes off.  He would teases me by holding it just high enough, when I jumped up to get it back he would jerk it higher.  Uncle Raymond was 6 feet tall and this usually occurred in the driveway as we were leaving.  His driveway was nothing but sharp stones that hurt your bare feet.  My family were huggers, when we arrived we gave everyone a hug, and when we left we gave another hug.  My mothers side of the family were like that so it was the norm, but my dad's side of the family never hugged each other let alone visitors.  The cousins on that side thought we were strange, they didn't get hugs from their own dad's, why did Diane and I hug them coming and going.  They all seemed to look forward to the hug and happily welcomed the embrace.  Anyway, back to the memory!  This particular night Uncle Raymond grabbed my shoe and taunted me for what seemed like hours, being barefoot on the sharp stones.  So I simply stood still with my back to him and announced that he could keep the shoe, I was feed up with the game.  So he snuck up behind me and dangled the shoe over my head so I could see it easily.  This just made me so blasted mad, without thinking, I grabbed his forearm and tugged as hard as a 7 year old could.  As I tugged a bent over as far as I could go without falling forward.!!!  Holy crap!!  When I opened my eyes Uncle Raymond was on the ground in front of me, on his back, with a look of shock!!  In my anger, I had flipped this 6 foot 170 pound adult and now I was scared!! Like Urkule, "Did I do that?"   Before he could regain his bearings, I ran as fast as I could and tried to get under my mother's dress.  Uncle Raymond would beat the tar out of his kids when they misbehaved and I thought I was in for one good beating!!  He stood up and rubbing his back, from landing so hard on those sharp stones, he called me a little shit and started to walk towards me with my shoe still in his hand.  I truly thought my short life was over!  He stopped and called me over to him, I looked up at mom who was pushing me out from under her dress.  So cautiously I approached him with tears rolling down my chubby cheeks, when he picked me up!!  He put my shoe back on my foot and gave me a kiss.  He called me a little shit again and told me what a surprise I could flip him so fast without warning.  He was not mad at me!!  To this very day, he talks often about this incident, still amazed I flipped him over my head.  One thing for sure was that never ever again did we play that grab the shoe game.  He had a little more respect for me after that, because he wasn't sure what else I was capable of doing.