It was an orange-skied December afternoon with sparkling snow. Joe was sewing a tear in his scarf when Katrina came home from school scowling. He looked up. "Qu'est-ce qui se passe, ma belle?" (What happened, darling?)
"Mr. Thompson is making me sing a song with Tyler Peterson in the Christmas concert," said Katrina, putting her bag down and flumping into a chair.
Tyler Peterson. Joe supposed this was the same Tyler who hit her on the playground. "Ça devrait vraiment t'ennuyer." (That must really bother you.)
"Yeah, cause Tyler Peterson hates me," griped Katrina. "He punches my arms and calls me Shard."
"Shard?" Joe was puzzled by the bizarre nickname. But then it hit him; shard, as in shards of broken glass, because she's Glass Joe's daughter. He sighed and shook his head. "Oh la la, chérie…As-tu parlé avec M. Thompson pour se changer?" (Oh, dear, sweetie…have you talked with Mr. Thompson to change it?)
"Mr. Thompson hates me too," said Katrina. "I told him like five times about how Tyler bullies me, but he always tells me I need to get over it and that in real life, we have to work with people we don't like."
Well, that certainly threw a wrench in things. Joe wanted to help his daughter, but he didn't know how. He pursed his lips as he thought of a game plan.
Later that night, after Katrina had left the table after dinner, Joe decided to email the school to try and arrange a meeting to discuss the issue.
From: Joseph Beaufort, 3MIC
To: Sandra Chontos
Subject: Le concert de Noël (The Christmas concert)
Bonjour Mme. Chontos, (Hello Mrs. Chontos,)
Je veux parler avec toi à propos du concert de Noël. Ma fille Katrina me déclare aujourd'hui qu'il y a un enseignant qui est se force de chanter avec un étudiant qui se intimide. (I'd like to speak to you about the Christmas concert. My daughter Katrina told me today that there is a teacher forcing her to sing with a student who is bullying her.)
Je comprends que le concert de Noël est une tradition préférée à cette école, et je ne veux pas causer un grand problème, alors puis-je parler avec toi ou un(e) enseignant(e) qui est impliqué avec le concert? (I understand that the Christmas concert is a favourite tradition at this school, and I don't want to cause a huge uproar, so may I speak to you or a teacher who is involved with the concert?)
Merci,
Joseph
Sent at 6:34 pm, December 13th, 2017
. . .
From: Sandra Chontos
To: Joseph Beaufort, 3MIC
Subject: Re: Le concert de Noel
Γεια σου Ιωσήφ, (Hello Joseph,)
Ευχαριστώ που το έφερε στην προσοχή μου. Η χριστουγεννιάτικη συναυλία υποτίθεται ότι είναι μια χαρούμενη στιγμή για όλους και αυτού του είδους η συμπεριφορά είναι απαράδεκτη. (Thank you for bringing this to my attention. The Christmas concert is supposed to be a happy time for everyone, and this kind of behaviour is unacceptable.)
Η κυρία Τζένινγκς και η τάξη της θα φτιάξουν διακοσμητικά στην τάξη αύριο. Θα την ενημερώσω ότι θέλεις να μπεις. (Mrs. Jennings and her class are going to make decorations in the classroom tomorrow. I will inform her that you'd like to come in.)
Σας ευχαριστώ και πάλι, (Thank you again,)
Σάντρα (Sandra)
Sent at 7:09 pm, December 13th, 2017
The next day, Joe came into school just as planned and went to Mrs. Jennings's classroom.
"It's so nice of you to come in and help today," said Mrs. Jennings. She and Joe sat at an empty table to work on decorations together. "So, what did you want to talk to me about?"
"Katrina me déclare hier soir qu'un enseignant se force de chanter avec son tyran," said Joe. "J'essaye de trouver une façon de se changer." (Katrina told me last night that a teacher is forcing her to sing with her bully. I'm trying to find a way to get that changed.)
Mrs. Jennings sighed. "Yeah. She told me about it too. I tried to talk to Mr. Thompson, but he's real stubborn about it. Something about kids these days being too soft."
Joe shook his head. "Eh bien, je suppose que j'ai besoin de parler avec M. Thompson directement." (Well, I guess I'll have to talk to Mr. Thompson directly.)
Once lunchtime rolled around, Joe and Mrs. Jennings exited the classroom to go to the gymnasium and talk to Mr. Thompson directly. Before they got there, a small Grade 1 boy approached them. "Are you the man who gets punched on the TV?"
"Eh, oui," said Joe, a bit flustered. He didn't often get stopped and asked about his career.
"When are you gonna fight again?"
That gave Joe an idea. If he scheduled a match on the same day as the Christmas concert, he would have a perfect excuse to take Katrina out of school that day! "Le vendredi prochain, en l'après-midi." (Next Friday afternoon.)
"Aw, cool," said the boy, "we have a half-day that day. I can watch it!"
"Parfait," said Joe, kneeling down to the boy's level. "Comment t'appelles-tu?" (What's your name?)
"Kaiden," said the boy, running off to go play.
Mrs. Jennings leaned in to Joe. "I'll talk to Mr. Dupont to get another kid in Katrina's class to learn the words to that song. Mr. Thompson will not hear a thing about this."
Joe nodded in agreement. His master plan was underway.
Several days later, it was Friday; the day of the Christmas concert. Just as he planned, Joe and Katrina had popped into school for just a moment to wish Mr. Dupont well for the holidays, and then off they went to the arena. Before Joe's match against Mr. Sandman (the only boxer available to fight that afternoon), they planned to show up early to watch a fight between Bear Hugger and Piston Hondo, and play some quick games.
After the first match, another successful win for Piston Hondo, the league gathered in the lounge to play some Heads Up. Just for fun, they decided to set the theme to Sports just to see if any of their names popped up.
"When was he active?!"
"He's been active since 2014!"
"Where's he from?"
"Salmon Arm!"
"Hold on; is this me?!"
"हां!" (Yeah!)
The whole gang laughed as Bear Hugger flipped the phone to continue.
A few hours later, it was time for Joe and Mr. Sandman's match. "In this corner, we have the WVBA's trooper, our unrelenting jobber, Glass Joe! And in this corner, we've got the big daddy from the far off worlds of Dreamland, Mr. Sandman!"
"Ceci c'est pour Kaiden!" Joe pumped his fist. (This is for Kaiden!)
"Fight!"
The fight began. Mr. Sandman started with his usual back-to-back overheads. Already, Joe was dizzy. He managed to jump out of the way of one hook, but stepped back too fast and got hit with two more.
Joe shook his head to snap himself back and threw a few jabs. They landed, although he suspected Mr. Sandman may have been letting him hit back. When he looked up, he saw Mr. Sandman drawing back for an uppercut; Dreamland Express.
Yup, there was no way out of this one. "Uh...joyeux Noël?" (Uh...merry Christmas?)
Mr. Sandman simply looked at him. "I'm Jewish," he said, before knocking Joe on his ass. Knockout.
Katrina waited on the bench for Joe to come back. When he emerged from the locker room, he was bruised a bit, but they were all covered up by his coat. He knelt down next to his daughter. "Je suis désolé d'être si blessé si proche à Noël." (I'm sorry for being so beaten so close to Christmas.)
Katrina smiled and hugged her father. "It's okay. It was better than going to the concert."
Joe held his daughter and kissed her forehead. "Viens, retournons chez nous et nous allons avoir du chocolat chaud avec des bâtons de menthe." (Come on, let's go home and have some hot chocolate with peppermint sticks.) Taking his daughter by the hand, the two of them started on their way home as a gentle snow began to fall.
