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“You asked me if I had a history of violence. That indicates the past. Doesn’t it?”
Anna stood up. “If you want to push back at me this entire time, it’s only going to hurt you. You’re the one who wants to play hockey. I’m the one who has to give the recommendation.”
“You’re the one who saw my name and didn’t say a thing about our history.”
“That doesn’t matter.”
“Sure it does,” I said. “It matters a lot. How do you plan on talking to me without the past coming up?”
“Joe, you have to look inside yourself. Figure out what’s making you feel the way you do. If you really want to talk about it, I can help you. We can go through it all. And, yes, if that includes portions of the past, sure. Let’s talk about it. My only goal is to help you find a way to maybe… walk out of the bar instead of putting someone through a window. Or maybe get the bartender or security to help with that guy. Or maybe just pull the guy away and not put him in the hospital. Seem fair?”
“Ice cream, Anna,” I whispered. “You remember it. I know you do. Standing in line. Listening to those morons behind us. Right?”
“Joe.”
“No. I’m here to talk. You want me to talk. So I’m talking,Dr. Autumn. The comments they made. About you. To you. I stood there. I ignored them. All I wanted to do was get you your ice cream. Soft vanilla in a cone with rainbow sprinkles. Do you remember what happened when you got your ice cream?”
“If you feel the need to tell this story, then go for it.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought. They knocked it right out of your hand. You looked at me. Terrified. You were actually scared, Anna. Now, me? I was just some seventeen-year-old punk kid with a crush on a pretty girl with green eyes.Hint. That was you.Now this big tough assholes were messing with you.”
I paused.
Anna said nothing.
Not to bore the world with the rest of the story since both Anna and I knew how it went.
I saw the look on Anna’s face when those guys harassed her.
Taking on three guys who were at least five years older than me was crazy.
But I had to do it.
It wasn’t some action movie where I knocked them all out without so much as a scratch on my face.
To put it lightly - I got my ass kicked.
But…
I broke one of their noses.
Another one had a swollen left eye.
And the ringleader of them all begged me to stop fighting because he was out of breath.
He bought Anna another ice cream. And he and his goons apologized to her for what they had said and done.
Then for good measure I hit him in the jaw so hard with one last punch, he fell to the ground in a second. Out cold.
The other two dragged him away.
And that… I guess was part of myhistory of violence.
“Okay, Joe,” Anna said. “I’m glad we were able to have this session today. It was far more productive than the first one.”
“Can I play hockey now?”
“No.”
