Eddie

And I pull my metal lunchbox off and someone else's metal lunchbox falls on you, like falls on your shoulder.

Maybe you had a bruise the next day, but what I do remember is you then just started whacking me.

Yeah, hitting me multiple times.

And I really remember seeing your eyes and seeing rage in your eyes.

physically whacking me.

And then finally a teacher came over and separated us and I don't remember anything else that day.

I just, I remember you hitting me and I remember the rage in your eyes.

As I recall, we're at the 53rd Street Park.

Teacher took us out on a nice day.

We're sitting playing duck, duck, goose.

I had a serious phobia and I just hightailed it and I ran screaming.

I don't know if it was that time, but I know there were other times that I ran across Hyde Park Boulevard, which is a busy street with buses and cars and trucks, back to the safe side where the school building was.

And I remember being laughed at by you and other students in the class.

Not saying you're the only one, but I perceived you as the ringleader.

My memory over the arc of our young childhood was being teased by you.

And at some point, that became layered on my dog phobia.

And so in a way, you became the dog.

I think I just wept at that moment.

I was just so grateful to...

or to read that you had accepted what I wrote with such incredible grace.