Asakiyume mita

That's a good, if tough, assignment. I hope he finds someone he can talk to comfortably who can relay such a story.

This assignment brought a memory of mine to mind. I wasn't sure if I should share it, in case it sounded like horn-tooting (it certainly isn't an example of heroism with a capital "H"), but here it is: When I was in college, I was walking with three female friends late at night near campus, and a couple of drunk guys started harassing them. The most obnoxious one was running in circles around us. After a few mouthy circuits, I stopped walking just in time for him to run into me. He and his friend immediately focused all of their attention on me, which is what I wanted, and my friends continued on safely, not knowing I had done anything at all. I told Circling Guy to go sleep it off and turned to walk away. He then kicked me in the back, hard enough to seriously bruise my ribs, but I didn't feel any pain at the time. I turned around and, instead of going after him, despite my analysis that his staggering recovery from his roundhouse kick would give me a real edge in a fight (my grandfather was a Marine Corps boxer and had taught me to defend myself), I told him flat-voiced how unimpressed I was with him. I then began walking away again and dodged a charge from another drunk buddy of his. I realized then that there were three of them, but they stopped trying to do anything after the missed charge. I caught up with my friends a few minutes later but didn't tell them what happened. For a long time after, especially when my ribs were really hurting, I kicked _myself_ for not pounding Circling Guy. (I was young.)