"Slam," the sound reverberated in my head, ears now ringing as I crashed into the ground again. The word and medical condition both fit how I was feeling at the moment. Shock noun: a sudden upsetting or surprising event or experience. Also, shock, a critical condition brought on by the sudden drop in blood flow through the body likely resulting from trauma.
"Get up. I don't want to take advantage of someone who is defenseless." Laying there in the fetal position, the description of me was entirely apropos. Perhaps my best defense was remaining on the ground, playing dead. An intimidating towering mountain of muscularity loomed over me after completely dominating me physically."But given what you've done, I'm pretty much compelled to finish you off either way," she growled. What I've done.
Fuck, she wasn't going to let up, and she remembered. I'd hoped that she was just some crazy woman that was offended when we'd collided on the path. After my usual weekend of debauchery, I'd recently instated a regular trail loop hike every Sunday morning to avoid putting on too much weight. The freshman fifteen had come fast and then another fifteen turned an athletic high school athlete into a beer-bellied frat rat in just two years. There was still some measure of athleticism -- some -- but not to the extraordinary level of the woman looking down on me -- literally and figuratively.
* * *
It had begun a few moments before. Out of breath on a short uphill stent, staring down, to maintain my footing, I'd seen a sudden shadow and then been upended when it felt like I'd run into a brick wall.
Squinting into the sun, I looked up at a large figure in anger. "Watch where you're going, buddy."
