“You sound like you’re calling from inside a refrigerator,” Marcus said.
“I’m in the office.”
“Same thing. You always hated that room. What’s wrong?”
Joseph described the noise complaints, the scratch, the shove, the flyer, and the car across his driveway. Marcus listened without interrupting. When Joseph finished, there was a brief silence.
“What are you thinking of doing?” Marcus asked.
“I don’t know.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“He wants a fight.”
“And?”
“He’s not going to stop until he gets a reaction.”
Marcus exhaled. “Maybe. Or maybe you’ve decided he won’t stop because you’re tired of being patient. Those are different things.”
Joseph stared at the notebook. “I can’t let him keep doing this to Khloe.”
“Then do something that protects her. Document it. Speak to the parents. Involve the right people if you have to. Don’t confuse his invitation with your duty.”
“You haven’t met him.”
“No. But I know you.”
Marcus paused before continuing. “Remember what happened when you tried to solve every problem by being the most capable person in the room? You came home exhausted and convinced everybody needed protecting from you too.”
Joseph could hear the concern behind the teasing.
“I’m not going to the gym,” he said.
“Good.”
After the call, Joseph closed the steel box. He left Sarah’s notebook on the desk.
Upstairs, Khloe was practicing a piano piece in the wrong rhythm. The notes stumbled, restarted, and finally found their way toward something recognizable. He sat on the stairs and listened until she finished.
When she called his name, he answered immediately.
He wished answers to the harder questions came as easily.
Chapter 12: The World Trent Was Trying to Build
At Elite Striking, the late afternoon class ended with the sound of gloves hitting pads and Coach Barnes calling out instructions from the center of the room. He was a thickset man with a shaved head, a veteran of regional combat sports who had spent enough time around young fighters to recognize the difference between effort and maturity.
He liked Trent’s dedication. He did not like the way Trent looked at other people.
“You were throwing that kick to get applause,” Barnes said after the last round. “Try throwing it because it belongs in the exchange.”
Trent pulled off his gloves. “It worked.”
“On a bag. A bag doesn’t have plans.”
“I know what I’m doing.”
“You’re getting better at telling yourself that.”
The boys near the mirror laughed. Trent’s cheeks reddened. He had been preparing for the black-belt evaluation for months, and every correction now felt like a threat to the one achievement he could still hold over his father’s head.
Barnes took him aside. “You’ve got ability. Don’t waste it pretending you don’t need coaching.”
“I’m training twice a day.”
“I didn’t say train more. I said listen.”
Trent glanced toward his friends, who were pretending not to watch. “My neighbor wants to come to open mat Friday.”
“Your neighbor?”
“Old guy. He thinks he can tell me what to do.”
Barnes frowned. “Is this a training issue or a personal argument?”
“He scratched my car. His kid did. He’s been acting tough ever since.”
It was an astonishing rearrangement of events. Trent told it with the easy conviction of someone who had repeated a story enough times that he could no longer hear which details had disappeared.
“You aren’t bringing a street dispute onto my mats,” Barnes said.
“We’re just going to spar.”
“If it’s personal, find another way to settle it.”
Trent shrugged. “He probably won’t show anyway.”
Barnes should have ended the conversation there. He should have asked for the neighbor’s name, called him directly, and made certain the gym was not becoming the stage for a grievance. Instead another student asked about the tournament schedule, and the afternoon moved on. Barnes forgot the exchange by the time he locked up.
Trent did not.
In the locker room, his friend Devin opened a video on his phone. It showed Joseph standing beside the blocked driveway, quiet and expressionless while Trent made jokes. The caption read: When your neighbor thinks he’s the boss of the street.
“Already six thousand views,” Devin said.
Trent grinned. “Post the good part from Saturday too.”
“We don’t have video from Saturday.”
“Then tell them what happened.”
Devin hesitated. He enjoyed the attention but had begun to notice how Trent’s stories became larger every time he described them. “Your dad’s going to see it.”
“Good.”
He uploaded a photo of the BMW scratch and wrote a caption that left out the nine-year-old girl who had fallen and the offer to pay for the repair.
