壯漢子

ＢＹ?。校粒眨?/p>

I never knew his name.I used to call him the Bruiser.He was massive,with so much muscle and fat on his arms and legs that they swung around as he walked.With each step the legs seemed to make semicircles as one thigh worked its way around the other.The arms likewise had to arch their way around his massive torso.In other words,he was muscle?鄄bound.

The first time I saw him I was walking through a park between the train station and my home on my way from work.He was walking towards me in the opposite direction,holding the middle of the footpath.As soon as I saw him coming I moved to one side,leaving at least half the pathway for him to use,but he was not to be so easily satisfied.He approached dangerously,his huge legs swinging around each other in semicircles,his arms likewise swinging around his torso,and I had no choice but to take myself and my briefcase to the outer edge of the path as he passed and to walk with one foot on the path and the other on the grass,leaving the whole centre section to him.

I passed him on the same footpath at the same time about three or four weeks later.By now I knew better than to expect him to move to one side.I again moved into the edge of the path, one of my feet walking on the grass,and allowed him to hold the middle of the footpath as he passed me.

I passed him many times after that,and always yielded to his determination to occupy the centre of the path.On one occasion there was another man walking ahead of me.He was taller and heavier than I,and I wondered if the Bruiser might give some ground to him and if I might perhaps be able to occupy the wider path that he had thus forced open for me.But it was not to be.At the sight of the huge rolling figure approaching,its bearded face tightened into a frown,the man ahead of me did as I had learned to do.He moved to the side of the path and walked with one foot on the grass and of course I followed him,allowing the Bruiser to pass along the centre in all his glory.

There was just one occasion on which I managed to pass him without having to move to the edge of the path, but the achievement was not one in which I can take any pride.This time a young woman was walking ahead of me as the Bruiser approached.I expected that she would move to the edge as I had to do, but to my surprise,it was the Bruiser who moved aside and gave her plenty of room to pass.

“Evening, madame,”he said pleasantly as he passed.

I stayed close behind her on the middle of the path.He did not move back into the centre until I had passed.From this episode I understood that he did not wish to force the issue with women, and that it was only his fellow males that he treated as competitors, refusing to share his space with them.

I sometimes wondered what would happen if I tried to force the issue,if I only allowed him half the path, walking right up to him and not giving any additional ground.I never learned whether this would have succeeded.Though I thought about it,and wanted to do it,the sight of his huge figure approaching and his eyebrows knitted together in determination was too much for me.I reckoned if I did not step aside I would find myself bouncing off his flesh and landing on my bottom on the grass.It would not have been worth the humiliation, so I continued to adopt the policy of the lesser of two evils.I stepped to the edge of the path as he passed and allowed him to hold the centre ground.

I sometimes also wondered if one day he might meet his match, if someone even bigger than he might come along and force him to yield the centre of the path.But it never happened.I never saw him meeting anyone with a frame more bulky and intimidating than his own.

But everybody has an Achilles heel.Everybody has a weak point.I discovered the Bruisers Achilles heel quite by accident one evening on my way home from work.I saw him, at a distance of about forty yards,coming towards me with that familiar gait,the legs moving in semicircles,the arms arching around the torso as his huge frame rolled inexorably forward.I got ready for my usual move out of his way, but before I had time to begin my move,a commotion arose on the field beside the path.Two dogs, a Doberman and a German Shepherd,stood on their hind legs,each trying to bite the others face,howling and barking at a ferocious volume.The Doberman was the stronger.He pushed the German Shepherd into the middle of the path just as the Bruiser was arriving at the same point.

To my amazement,as the two dogs occupied the centre of the path, the Bruiser swung to his left off the path and onto the field.He had at last been forced to give ground.The owners of the two dogs scolded them and tried to separate them, as dog owners do.

“No-o-o-o-o-o!”

“Naughty!”

“Stop it immediately!”

“You bad boy!”

But of course when dogs engage with each other they ignore humans.Farther into the field the dogs wrestled each other,and farther into the field the Bruiser retreated.By now he was pale.His eyebrows were not longer knitted together.They were wide open with terror.He was clearly scared of dogs,and fighting dogs scared him out of his wits!

While all this was going on I enjoyed the luxury of walking along the middle of the path without having to make way for anyone.I didnt even have to switch my briefcase from one hand to the other.By the time I reached the gate of the park the noise had died down.I looked around before exiting.The dogs were safely back with their owners,fastened to leashes and receiving gentle taps on the nose and warnings against ever behaving like that again.The Bruiser was nowhere to be seen.

I never had another confrontation with the Bruiser.I did see him on his walks from time to time,but he was always on the opposite side of the park and I had the impression that he was avoiding me.If he was in fact avoiding me I will never know why.Perhaps he was embarrassed now that I had discovered his Achilles heel.Or perhaps the shock of his exposure by the two dogs had induced a change of mind.Perhaps he now felt that it is not so important after all to occupy the middle of the path and hold it against all male rivals.