The Sun: Readers Write on Fights (due Jan 1st, 2011)
Every month the Sun magazine shares the submissions of some of its readers on specific topics. The deadline for the "Fights" topic is the 1st of January. Seeing how that's tomorrow, I don't think there is anyway I can snail mail this off to North Carolina in the next couple of hours (I'm in France). So, this is just practice. Feel free to respond with your own post on Fights or comment on mine.
I've been in Budapest lately. Recently I went to meet some friends at the theater to see Harry Potter in English (I don't understand enough Hungarian yet). Unfortunately I forgot my phone and so had to sit elsewhere. I scanned the room while removing the heavy winter coat my mother brought me during a visit in September. The man behind me took offense at me blocking his view while I undressed, commanding me to sit back in my seat. I turned, perplexed at the hostility in his voice and told the man "just a moment." I carefully placed the coat at my feet and sat myself comfortably toward the front of the seat to enjoy the commercials and to be attentive to my friends' arrival.
Presently the film began and the man behind again commanded me to "sit back!" and then a face stuck itself uncomfortably close to mine and told me off in a stream of Hungarian I had no hope of understand. In his language I told him that I, unfortunately, I couldn't understand Hungarian. So he reiterated his displeasure in English. I had no desire for this to escalate into a fight and thought it best to respond as politely as possible. I said again "just a moment" and focused on the screen again, receiving a kick to the back of my seat. I went back on my decision not to get upset and turned to glare at him. Now I was getting irritated: hadn't I the right to sit like this? Of course I planned sit back but I preferred to do so on my own terms and not someone else's.
In hindsight I suppose I ought to have expected what happened next: I felt a cold splash across my head and back. I lost my cool and stood up just as the title music ended, furiously and frustratedly questioning what was WRONG with him, I couldn't believe it! My heart pounded in my cheeks deafeningly but I was still hyper aware of the silence in the theater all around me.
The childhood habit of tattling to Maman when my brother was excessively mean during a fight he'd instigated manifested itself in my next act: I fled the room and cried to an attendant. The director of the theater assured me they would resolved the issue: first my seat was changed. Five minutes later (the movie was already underway) the film paused and the lights went up to reveal staff removing three gentlemen. I maintained a low profile as the movie resumed. I hate fights.
I've been in Budapest lately. Recently I went to meet some friends at the theater to see Harry Potter in English (I don't understand enough Hungarian yet). Unfortunately I forgot my phone and so had to sit elsewhere. I scanned the room while removing the heavy winter coat my mother brought me during a visit in September. The man behind me took offense at me blocking his view while I undressed, commanding me to sit back in my seat. I turned, perplexed at the hostility in his voice and told the man "just a moment." I carefully placed the coat at my feet and sat myself comfortably toward the front of the seat to enjoy the commercials and to be attentive to my friends' arrival.
Presently the film began and the man behind again commanded me to "sit back!" and then a face stuck itself uncomfortably close to mine and told me off in a stream of Hungarian I had no hope of understand. In his language I told him that I, unfortunately, I couldn't understand Hungarian. So he reiterated his displeasure in English. I had no desire for this to escalate into a fight and thought it best to respond as politely as possible. I said again "just a moment" and focused on the screen again, receiving a kick to the back of my seat. I went back on my decision not to get upset and turned to glare at him. Now I was getting irritated: hadn't I the right to sit like this? Of course I planned sit back but I preferred to do so on my own terms and not someone else's.
In hindsight I suppose I ought to have expected what happened next: I felt a cold splash across my head and back. I lost my cool and stood up just as the title music ended, furiously and frustratedly questioning what was WRONG with him, I couldn't believe it! My heart pounded in my cheeks deafeningly but I was still hyper aware of the silence in the theater all around me.
The childhood habit of tattling to Maman when my brother was excessively mean during a fight he'd instigated manifested itself in my next act: I fled the room and cried to an attendant. The director of the theater assured me they would resolved the issue: first my seat was changed. Five minutes later (the movie was already underway) the film paused and the lights went up to reveal staff removing three gentlemen. I maintained a low profile as the movie resumed. I hate fights.