Surrounded

"Run faster."

One of the group of ten guys muttered under his breath as I ran by. They were probably in college or just recently finished. I decided the comment wasn't insulting enough for me to make a scene. But I secretly vowed that if they said anything offensive to me on my way back, I wouldn't hesitate to do something about it.

I ran back and the group had thinned to five. I kept my pace and minded my own business. They seemed to ignore me until I started hearing cat calls. "Hey girl." I took one more stride and stopped.

I turned around and began walking back to the group. "What's up?" I yelled. "What's up?" The biggest guy, who was probably twice my size, took the lead. "We're just fucking around." I didn't here him at first. I took a couple of steps closer to him and asked once against, "What's up?" He repeated. Another guy, to my left, explained that a girl had run by earlier and they were just making jokes about it as I ran by.

I accepted the explanation and felt I had made my point. I had stood up to them and they had backed down. Gandhiji would have been proud of this nonviolent confrontation. But I still seethed as I got home. I paced the house searching for a baseball bat. I had visions of driving back there, bat in hand and screaming, "I'm just fucking around! This is how I fuck around!" as I swung the bat wildly at each of the five guys.

I managed to calm myself down and accept that I had done the right thing.