The Anomalies by Joey Goebel Page B

your person cheat on his or her spouse?” It is much more fun to play it this way. But also muchharder. Luster plays the best. “Is your person Bernard?” “Yes!” “He’s a pedophile!”
    We go to bed when we are sleepy, crawling into sleeping bags on a childhood floor. Ember the little one needs a story to sleep to every night. Tonight I want to tell her it. I miss fathering. My own son so far away in Iraq.
    Ember doesn’t want to hear my stories of magic sitars and vagabond trickster tales, seahorses coming of age. She doesn’t like fake stories for liking real ones. So I tell her about the way I met her.
    “We met in kung fu class. It was my 1th night there. You had kung fued there many times before. The class was all ages and skills. Mainly children. I felt out of place in life as usual. But you sat next to my body and didn’t laugh at me like others.
    “I was there to learn to defend my body. I was tired of my body getting the whoop from the men whoms thought I was checking them out when I tried to figure out if I shot them in war.
    “Pat was the teacher’s name. He used his kung fu to get free Cokes out of soft-drink machines. That 1th night he chose you and me out when it was time to spar. He warned me that you could be dangerous. I told him I learned no moves yet and didn’t want to fight a small girl. I didn’t understand.
    “I still didn’t understand when he yelled ‘fight.’ You kicked me in my crotch. It hurt painfully, you kicked it some more. I fell down to the mat, you kicked it some more. You kicked me all over as I hurt on the floor. It was the biggest beat-up I had received up to that point. And kept getting worse! The other students yelled such as ‘Yeah!’ and ‘Woo!’ People love ‘Woo!’ in this country.
    “Meantime, you yelled things such as ‘Burn you up!’ and ‘Die!’ I was scared and didn’t understand while this child kept kicking my area. The teacher told me I was doing good because I blocked my privates, the focus of your attack. But then after he said that, you tried pulling my hands away from it, and the teacher said that wasn’t right.
    “You gave him the bad finger and proceeded kicking on my face and stomach. By this time, the crowd hush-hushed. The teacher tried pulling you off but had trouble. You yelled things such as ‘I hate you!’ and ‘Kill ’em all!’
    “The instructor finally got you off me. I was bruises and blood. You told me later you were taking kung fu because you wanted to learn how to hurt people better. You learned a lot on me that night, I think.
    “After the class and my wounds dressed up, I left. I saw you in the parking lot, sitting on the curb alone. I felt the need to talk to you. I talk to persons because this life is too small not to.
    “I said, ‘I just wanted to say you kick good.’
    “You said, ‘Tell me something I don’t know.’
    “I didn’t know what you meant and still don’t. I didn’t understand, and you told me to shut it.
    “I asked you what you did sitting out there, and you said your mom was to pick you up. But she forgot to sometimes. This was such one of these times. I offered you a ride home. That was when I drove a taxi and always gave people rides.
    “You told me that your babysitter Opal told you not to accept rides from strangers. But you said I was okay since you could already know you could kick my ass.
    “In the taxi, you asked—and I’ll never forget this—you asked why foreigners always drove taxis. I didn’t understand thenbut do now. I had never heard such until then. That was the beginning.
    “I gave you rides every week from then. Sometime shortly later you introduced me to Opal. She then introduced me to Luster. He inspirated me to not drive taxis so not to be predicted. I then worked at a tanning salon instead.
    “But you and the others got me wrong saying I liked pee-pees. You used to always make fun of me, saying I liked men’s butts and pee-pees. You all looked at me