Bully

I send an inappropriate story to a boxing publication. Instead of a form rejection the editor sends me a lengthy letter that, in so many words, challenges me to a fight. I crumple the letter up and fling it into a neglected corner of the study but the editor shows up anyway, days later. When I first come upon him, he is leaning against my kitchen counter drinking a glass of milk. He is not at all how I pictured him. Small, thin, thick black-framed glasses covering his myopic eyes. Instinctively, I know who he is but wonder if I should introduce myself anyway. Should I even be polite? Maybe I should be confrontational, openly hostile.

He throws the empty glass onto the floor where it shatters.

“Pick it up,” I say, pointing to the mess of shards.

He spreads his arms out to either side and looks as threatening as his near-sighted eyes will allow. “I don’t even know where the broom and dust pan are,” he says.

“They’re in the closet there.” I point to the closet but he’s already approaching me.

“That’s woman’s work,” he says, quickly smacking me on the back of the head. “You and I both know why I’m here.”

“I never accepted your challenge.”

The man punches me in the stomach. I snatch the glasses from his face. He closes his eyes and blindly grasps for his glasses, hopping up to try and grab them out of my hands. I feel terrible. Like a bully. He collapses to the floor, pounding his hands against the wood.

“If I give you your glasses back… will you go?”

“Just don’t break em,” he murmurs.

“Will you go?”

“Yes. Anything. Just… please… I can’t see without em.”

“Okay.”

I bend down to give him his glasses and he rams his skull into my face. I feel my nose split. Awash with dizziness, I collapse onto the floor. Now he is over top of me, the glasses back on his narrow face, counting to ten. When he reaches ten, he says, “I win.”

“Win what?” I sputter.

“I could tell by your signature and address you were going to be easy.”

“Just get out,” I say, now sitting up and cupping my nose in my hands.

He pulls himself upright, straightens his collar, and leaves through the front door.