"Man, what happened?"
"Gee, how'd that happen?"
"Are you okay?"
This was a small sample of the questions the young man was asked on the Monday morning when he came to work.
Over the hours before lunch, the events became clear, and it was simple and bad. He had been out at a bar with friends on Friday.
At one point, he was standing outside the bar having a cigarette. His all-American looks and his outgoing disposition made it easy to talk and banter with strangers wherever he went.
Sentences, half sentences, affirmations, negations were bouncing around, and his fateful contribution to the chatter was short: "we should get out of this unwarranted war".
He heard "You unpatriotic bastard" from his right and turned to get a look of the man who had said it. "Come on, that's not unpatriotic."
The man grabbed his shoulder, and a split second later our all-American young man was doubled over, his right leg on fire with pain.
One of the young women in the group shrieked, another man went "hey!"
Before he could catch his breath and straighten himself up, the attacker was gone.
The police took a statement but refused to include "unpatriotic bastard" in their short writeup. His ankle fractured by the violent crushing blow, the young man took months to get better and gave his co-workers and friends regular updates on the costs incurred.
"It just passed the 50 000 dollar mark", he declared one day. "Thank god, I took the more expensive health plan."
Six months later, when he moved to another city for a new job, he still had a small limp.
The police never contacted him after they took the one page statement that night.
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