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BEFORE THE BEGINNING

Mel Waldman

On a bus, in the wasteland of the Southeast Bronx, I sat next
to a young woman in a white uniform. She screamed into her
cell phone: “He’s no danger to the children.”

Ten seconds of silence.

“Don’t believe in statistics. Just because he killed the dog...”

Five seconds of silence.

“He’s not gonna hurt the kids. You see, it’s good he got rid of
the rage.”

Three seconds of silence.

“Damn you. He ain’t no murderer! I mean, killing a dog don’t
count. He’s really very gentle and...”

One second of silence.

“I couldn’t love no man who would harm my kids. No way.”

She got off the bus. Her right arm looked bruised, I believe. Or
was it my imagination?

I stayed on the bus until I got to the medical center. My first
therapy patient waited for me outside the seething building which
was still closed. The sun was blazing on this beautiful summer
morning.


It was too early for violence, I thought. Yet the metamorphosis had
already begun. Contagious and insidious, the raw rage crept into my
being, filling me up, and ripping my soul apart in a secret abattoir.

Before the beginning...



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