I’m currently on an assignment with uni, so during the week, I live 220 kilometers from home in a small regional town with a population of a couple of hundred people.
My first day started as follows, out of bed at 5:45 am after restless nights sleep, downed some breakfast & then my morning run. I had pre-plotted a course from home & was kind of looking forward to it as it was up the country & all new to me.
I was running along the road & about three-quarters of the away around when I felt this enormous pain in my right calf, causing me to fall to the ground. I turning my head only to find a large dog attached to my leg, it had started thrashing its head back & fourth. Realizing this animal meant business; I grabbed the fur on the top of its head & drove my finger into its eye. It let go long enough for me to grab a hefty piece of tree branch & start belting it about the head, causing the dog to yelp several times quite loud.
During this commotion, the owner of the dog appeared from a nearby farmhouse, a girl in her late twenties. She yelled at the dog then grabbed it by the collar, managing to restrain it. Then she proceeded to yell at me for hitting her dog. I turned my leg to show her the lacerations on my calf, by now it was bleeding profusely but she didn’t care, she just kept spraying me with abuse & then left me standing on the side of the road. I had to use my tee shirt as a tourniquet & hobble the three kilometers back to my accommodation in my shorts & bra. Consequently, I missed my orientation & first day of school, as I had to drive myself 35 kilometers to the nearest hospital. The dog has since been put down as I wasn’t its first victim.
If the above wasn’t bad enough, eight days later a girl from a few rooms down from mine asked me if I’d like to go to the local pub for a few drinks after dinner. While we were standing at the bar I could hear a loud angry female voice coming from behind me. She was making the most vile & crass comments & in amongst her rants I heard a comment about a dog, I looked around & there she was with a group of locals.
I chose to ignore her; we gathered our drinks & found a spot across the other side of the bar. This seemed to infuriate her even more as it was clear that she was looking for a fight. I said to the girl that was with me, this is only going to escalate if you chose to go I’ll understand, “no way” she replied.
About twenty minutes later I was using the ATM that was located at the end of the pool table, all of the sudden I could feel a sharp jabbing on my thigh. I looked around only to find this girl was rather aggressively thrusting the pool cue back into me as she was pretending to take a shot, she kept it up for the duration of time that it took me to withdraw my money.
This was the final straw, I waited for her to walk back to her group, she was standing there, both arms extended & supported by the cue, she had a smirk on her face while staring at me. I very casually walked over to her & before she realized what happened, I’d disarmed her of the cue. I then took a few of steps back & threw it at her, hitting her across her body & face before it fell to the floor. I said “your poor dog was the victim of being owned by a mangy inbred mongrel, now pick up the cue & give it your best shot, please please pick it up NOW, I’m going to ram that cue where the sun doesn't shine” or words to that effect. She stood there speechless with a horrified look on her face as she rubbed her injured wrist. Prior to walking away I looked at the rest of her group, one by one & said “anyone else want to give it a crack, no just as I thought” A guy stepped forward & picked up the cue, as he straightened up he said no no no it's all good, you could hear a pin drop in the bar it was that silent. The next voice I heard was the barman saying “excuse me miss you’re going to have to leave, you can buy some takeaway if you wish” With that we brought a few beers & left, I couldn’t help myself in passing, I called her an inbred red neck & reminded her that my previous offer still stood, still no response.
I had to leave after school on Thursday night & come home as I had an appointment with a plastic surgeon on Friday morning. So out of the eight days, I have been here so far, I’ve been attacked by a dog, lost two days of school, almost got into a fight, made some enemies out of the locals & been banned from the local pub. No doubt there’ll be more to come, not to mention the time & cost associated with commuting back & forth.
The thing that I can’t get passed is the attitude of the dog owner; I’m still walking around in disbelief.
CallMeIshmael 