Dinner

"Your father must have a serious job to stay at work until so late", Jonhatan says while chewing a chunk of sausage. "Yes, pretty serious, sometimes he doesn't manage to get back home for dinner" I reply. There is a bit of embarrassment floating in the air. On the one hand, I'd like to ask more about him. On the other hand, I don't want to make Anna to feel uncomfortable. To start a kind of conversation with these two youngsters, I need a neutral topic, and the only one that I come up with is the same thought that has been settling my mind all that afternoon. "Sorry for interrupting you before... were you wrestling or something?"And who was winning?", I ask, pretending detachment. Anna giggles, "Yes, we wrestle quite often, but I always lose, and John never teaches me anything!". "Told you, come and join my class..." the guy replies. "Class of what?", I ask curiously. "Mixed martial arts", he answers. "Wow! That's a mean sport, very brutal", I comment unreflectively. "It's not that bad," the guy promptly replies. "The good thing is that you mix different combat sports...a bit of karate, a bit of wrestling, a bit of kickboxing and all of that gives you a lot of insights". "Mom used to do judo!" Anna beams, "but now she's into vovinam, a Vietnamese martial art!"I fill my chest out of pride, expecting an acknowledgement of fellowship between us. But he laughs, leaving me dumbfounded.

"What's so funny?", I ask, absolutely unable to dissimulate my anger. "No...sorry ma'am, nothing...it's just... well, you know judo is amazing but not really a combat sport....and this vietnamese thing... well....I guess that's rather a dance than a fighting sport. Don't get me wrong, I really appreciate women who are into martial arts, they have their own competitions...even in our league...but you know for them it's rather fitness". "Oh I see, only brutal sports are worthy and anything that teaches you values and respect is...what..a mockery?", I interject, sticking up against his stupid and implicitly sexist remarks. "No", he retorts, "It's just an combat-ineffecive choreography!". I open my mouth, affronted and surprised. "Ok, you're both sporty and you love fighting sports, I think that you have more things in common than you would believe,", Anna says, attempting to throw water on fire. I remain silent, and the guy's face turns red. That had not gone well if I wanted to avoid embarrassment. My priority was no longer to be pleasant though, but to teach that young arrogant boy a lesson he would never forget.