That afternoon in the living room we practiced saying the words “back off” in a voice that came from my son’s ‘I-mean-it’ place. It took a while, but finally after an hour or so he found what we called his ‘thunderous roar.’ The next day at school he was ready to use that voice. The boy with poop on a stick approached him to smear him with humiliation, and my son took a breath and was about to say his “back off,” when the boy changed his mind. Somehow they both knew the relationship had shifted.
Like Dev in Plenum
