'Rough and Tough Randolph' his friends actually nicknamed him. Then came the turnaround day. The day everyone would remember for a long time to come. The school principal had grappled with whether he should expel Randolph or not. The fighting had finally gone too far. A school friend of Randolph's had been sent straight from the gym to the hospital emergency room to have his leg placed in a cast.
On this memorable day, Randolph... by fighting Jonathan... felt he was becoming a man. He had not had the time in the fight to make a decision if kicking was appropriate or not. The risk of being booted out of school had not had time to enter his mind either. Randolph's learned behavior of applying brut force when he felt anger had turned into what is known as blind rage.
Randolph first became disturbed by the comments his friend made about the new Volkswagen they had inherited (actually candy apple red was great). Next, he was moved to anger by the comments made about his girlfriend. In fact, the temperature of his blood seemed to change at that point in time. His face had changed from a natural skin tone to a bright red. The left hand began to twitch as if he needed to start boxing or something. The pressure cooker had begun to boil. Then all of a sudden, Jonathan threw out one final comment about how Randolph's mother needed to stop flirting with the grocery clerks... all at once... the lightening bolt struck! Randolph's memory decided to take a vacation. In fact, Randolph does not even remember choosing to kick his friend in the shins with his size 12 boot.
"Kicking during a fight!" exclaimed Randolph's father Harold when he was told his son was expelled from school for fighting. "Fighting like a girl," Harold said staring right into Randolph's eyes with a look of disgust, "what kind of boy are you? How could a future colonel in the army fight like that? Are you trying to be a sissy and embarrass me and your mother?"
| Here's the follow-up discussion on this article: | View all related messages |
For a complete listing of article comments, questions, and other discussions related to Victoria Tallman Freudiger's Hypochondria topic, please visit the Discussions page.