There was this guy I knew named Jumper. I don’t know why everyone called him Jumper, only that we did.

And one evening Jumper and I were sitting on the patio behind his apartment, a concrete slab that backed up to a large park, lots of wide, open space and dry, brittle grass, the glow from the city lighting everything up. And there was this little bridge in the middle of the park, just a little arched bridge that somebody put there for some reason. I guess it might have been ornamental, because there wasn’t any water under it or anything.

Anyway, while Jumper and I were talking these two guys came walking across this bridge with a couple of dogs, and these dogs kept looking up at them with big, trusting eyes and wagging their tails the way dogs do. And these guys were acting stupid, whooping and laughing like they might’ve been just as drunk as Jumper and I were. And they started teasing these dogs, calling out to them real nice, then shoving them away every time they got close, just pushing them away for no reason. And I imagined it was hurting the dog’s feelings. I mean, how could they know it was all a joke? They loved their masters, but every time they got close they got shoved away like they’d done something wrong.

And all of the sudden I started thinking about my wife and how much she’d always loved dogs, and I yelled, “Hey, Assholes! Knock it off!”

And these guys said something to each other, then one of them flipped us off and yelled, “Fuck you, bitch!”

And that was it. That’s all it took. Jumper and I jumped up and ran across the park and start swinging on these guys for being such douchebags.

The next thing I knew we were sitting on our butts on the frosty ground, and those guys and their dogs were gone. I was foggy and dizzy and could see this bubble of blood expanding out of one of my nostrils every time I breathed, expanding and collapsing, expanding and collapsing.

I looked at Jumper and pointed. “There’s a knife in your gut.”

And he reached down and touched it, and when he raised his hand there was blood all over it. He shivered. “It’s cold.”

His breath rose into the air, and I looked up and realized it was snowing.