The Bully

It was my unfortunate fate to meet this individual. If you believed him, he was a retired hit man. Big muscles, bull head, a no neck person, tattoos and impressive to look at. Initially we got on just fine, but there always was a friction between us. It was somehow a competition as to who was more macho. I was the ‘hide my lamp under a bushel type,' he was the ‘bold brash in your face,' sort.

I took every opportunity to take a rise out of him, he did likewise to me We spared in words and effect. The fact that he was twenty years younger than me did not mitigate the threat he perceived in me. There was absolutely nothing I could do about this. He continued to gain the upper hand and I refused to let him have it all his own way. We verbally spared and he was infuriated to find my command of English stronger while gentler than his. He resorted to swear words while I never swore. Eventually he discerned this and his tactics were modified. He attacked my age. I attacked his inexperience.

This phase lasted a few months and eventually he perceived that people were beginning to look to me rather than him. The green-eyed monster began to rise and his behavior began to become irrational.

This was for me a problem because we had a common thread, a relationship totally outside our competing personalities. Within this relationship, I was at a substantial disadvantage.

I had not seen his sudden attack coming. Direct confronting and abusive, in public. In front of his significant others!

I let him rant and rave. I made placating noises. He ranted further. I bided my time, I was effusive. I shrugged his slanderous jibes aside. I finally saw him, as he really was, a bully!

I knew I could take him in any sort of confrontation. He was skilled in thugery. I had real training in armed combat. He was strong and deadly, he did not have a clue as to how deadly I was.

During our friendly stage, he had confessed to killing two men. Dirty foul deeds, unadulterated murders! He had told me of years in prison. He was boastful, and I saw the evil!

I had given him in return stories of my experiences in a short and dirty war. Man against man, man protecting the innocent, getting stuck in and doing what had to be done. He was a gun for hire, I had been a vengeful angle or devil, depending upon whose side you were on. He had killed two, I had killed many many more!

I always got the feeling that he did not believe me. His attacks upon my status ranged unabated. I of course retaliated. I did after all have a better command of the English language!

Tensions between us remained at a low simmer for quite a while, then a trigger point emerged from an unexpected direction.

His paramour, an older woman, he was her toy boy and he resented my knowledge of that fact. Yet he had boasted when ever and where ever he could.

His paramour had a young rich daughter, an inheritance from her father, she also had a brash young man as a fiancée. My protagonist did not get along with the daughter, or her fiancée. The fact that his paramour was still married also hung hard around his neck. The fact that I knew about this relationship weighed even heavier.

And so he seized upon an opening and attacked with a brutal full frontal assault, but he chose words, in front of all concerned and other interested parties!

Within a few minutes, he was reduced to a red-faced babbling raging bull. While I kept cool, took his venom and spat it aside. I let him rant. I made no defense against his assault. He stood back sure in his triumph. I let calm descend on the assembled company the struck, oh so gently.

"You are out of order. You are drunk, back off and let's forget this silly argument!"

This was of course waving a red rag to an angry bull and he compounded his aggression with a vitriolic attack. I smiled and did not respond. This infuriated him even more. I gave him his head and eventually he ran out of steam. He was in an environment where his every move was being recorded so he could not make the first move and he knew that I would not be so foolish. He was being more and more abusive more and more provocative. I remained passive letting him give vent to his ineffective and self-damaging fury. Eventually he dried up.

I stood very close to him. "You are out of order, look about you, no one supports you, and every one is embarrassed, let's forget this and let it be."

His fist was raised, I looked him in the eye and perhaps for the first time in his life he saw what was a challenge, a defiance that met and possibly could put him down.

An unafraid opponent!

He was suddenly silent. I left him and retired to a neutral corner. I engaged in conversation with people who he had known for years and I had known for a few months. They were effusive. We had a drink together; people began to drift from his sphere of influence into mine. It was probably less than two minutes before he was virtually alone while people surrounded me. I perceived it had been a long time since he had been faced down.

Even more significant was the status of the people who came to talk to me, about this and that, anything except the confrontation. I found myself surrounded by a dozen, or more while his entourage continued to decline.

I bad him good night and retired victorious, words are mightier than the sword. I wonder what will happen next time we meet. It is a significant point to note that his paramour's daughter and her financee gave me a lift home. He was not mentioned during the 30-minute drive. I would love to be a fly on the wall in that household tonight!

I know I can take him in any situation. I think he has just realized that perhaps he has met more than his match.

He is after all just a bully!