she used to call me hedgehog, in 5th grade, but she insisted on being my playmate. I called her spazner so we were even.  I remember being over at her house on a play date and tromping in the woods between the houses. The trees were like the buildings of ancient civilizations, timeless and time tested. We were timeless too. 10 year olds are at the peak of perfection, boundless energy, willingness to be helpful, and unaffected by a reproductive system which will change our thinking for the next 5 decades. Out there in the woods we were not thinking about making out, we had our favorite sticks of wood and imagination, and that was enough for an endless afternoon. The neighbors kid must’ve heard us and sought to join in. I didn’t know him. She did. For some reason she wanted me to punch this boy. He was a little smaller than I was and maybe a year or younger. I remember being confused by this and the schizm between an inner voice to fulfill the wishes of the girl and being required to produce violence without motivation. Today this is a crime, called coercive abuse. Before the metoo hysteria it was just called peer pressure. So I punched him. I hit him in the stomach, but exaggerated the movement, and depowered the force, like the play fighting I knew and enjoyed with my step brothers. The boy said “Ow!”, and I felt he had recognized the game and for a good 5 seconds I was pretty happy about the whole thing.  Until. He lifted up his shirt and from between his boy nipples and the white band of his fruit of the looms were stitches.  They were fresh, and I remember the black threads and the pink skin like a grotesque holloween candy might be in a horror movie. I remember feeling so ashamed for hitting him and equally as glad I hadn’t actually punched him, and equally betrayed by my first girl friend.  I never went back to her house and I remember when my mother came to pick me up the old dodge dart seemed bigger and unfamiliar. A half century later I found her on Facebook. She is an assistant to some foo foo guru who was under investigation for fraud.