the knife fight in juvie

my son, scott, has quite a past behind him, and a great personality to deal w/ the future. since his car wreck 3 years ago that left a fairly large and obvious scar running down the side of his face, scott has many intrusive and obnoxious questions asked about his scar and the incident. he doesn't mind people asking if they truly care about him or they are sincere, but those people who are just nosey and intrusive irritate him. he doesn't feel like he owes them an explanation, or at least a truthful explanation. i had no idea he was doing this until we were seated at dinner one night at jim's steakhouse, and the perfect opportunity for his outrageous story happened.

it was an evening out for the kids and me. summer had her "new pony" along, and he (jared) was trying very hard to impress my son w/ his manliness. summer and i were across from each other and jared was across from scott. we were having a very nice time at dinner, chatting and getting to know each other.

summer had on a new green peasant shirt, w/ the wide scooped neckline, and she looked beautiful. the green of the shirt really brought out the green of her eyes. the style of the shirt "looked" very revealing, but it truly was not. i bought the shirt for her, and i also thought it looked nice. if it were revealing, she would not have left the house in it!

unfortunately, there was man of middle-eastern heritage at the table next to us at the restaurant. he was totally enthralled w/ the view of summer's exposed skin on her chest. he stared so intently at her that he was ignoring his own dinner partners, making us all uncomfortable and embarrassing summer. i was becoming quite angry that this adult man was leering at my daughter's chest as if dessert would be served there. the boyfriend was uncomfortable and thinking about starting a brawl, and scott calmly continued eating his meal while he watched this whole thing go on.

i kept shooting dirty looks at the man at the next table, and scott looked at me and winked. jared had been "talking big" all evening, so he was making threats about taking the man outside and "kicking his ass." that would've been a mess, as i probably would've had to go rescue jared from the man. or even worse -- rescue the little redneck twirp from jail or the emergency room!

scott leaned slightly forward toward jared and held up his pointed, serrated steak knife and said, "did i ever tell you about that knife fight i had when i was in juvie?"

"no . . . what happened?" jared said (w/ genuine surprise and interest)

scott pointed w/ the steak knife and said, "this is just about the size of the knife i used when i stabbed that kid 13 times."

"really?" jared said, and he didn't know us well enough to know whether it was true or not.

scott said, "yeah, that's where i got this from" and ran the tip of his steak knife very slowly down the scar on the side of his face. "i would've been out of there 18 months earlier, but the other kid died. i got out w/ just a few stitches and this scar. worth it . . . i thought."

when scott looked over at me, i could see the sparkle in his eyes. he was having some good fun at the man's expense, he was protecting his sister from the oggling stranger, and diffused the tension in the situation for our table. poor jared still didn't know that scott was telling a whopper.

the man who had been staring at summer's chest now had a look of shock on his face as he struggled to get his dinner choked down. no matter the noise or the distraction, he never looked toward our table again. it was obvious that he was very uncomfortable and doing his best to ignore us.

when we were outside, i asked scott where in the world he came up w/ that story about the knife fight in juvie, and he just shrugged his shoulders, smiled that big smile of his that says "oops, i'm busted but i know you love me anyway!", and said "oh, i have a whole collection of stories i tell people when they ask things that are none of their business! keeps'em from asking more stupid questions!"