Josh White

Most women never get to see all of us. Less than a year after I was married, my wife and I were headed to a nice restaurant in Lisbon, dressed up. We parked the car in an alley; she got out and was a few feet ahead of me while I locked the car. We were in a very poorly lit, back-street area under construction. No one was around. I was on high alert but also calm, as usual. She rounded a blind corner, about 10 paces ahead of me. A man in a black leather jacket pulled out a knife and threatened her. He didn't see me until I came around the corner, put my left hand around his neck, lifted him off the ground, wrapped my right hand around his knife hand, and pushed it into his guts. I told him in a growl, "I'm going to kill you now." And I leaned into the knife. My wife said, "Don't kill him here, please." I remember her saying, "please", specifically, and wondering where she thought I should kill him. Her words snapped me out of the trance I was in, and his thick jacket saved him from getting the full blade stuck in him. The blade snapped off, clattering on the ground, and I let him drop the handle and run off to his two friends, who were watching about 30 feet away. As fast as it started, it was over, and I was back to normal, but with some adrenaline rushing, of course. My wife and I quickly joined our friends at the restaurant, I never mentioned it, and she was dead silent for a while. I asked if everything was all right, and she said, "I've never seen you get like that; it was scary. I didn't realize I married someone who could be like that." She was not disapproving, but she had never seen a man get that coldly violent before. It shocked her. Most women don't realize how gentle and civilized men are around them and how different we can be when needed. If all goes well, they will never see the full spectrum of masculinity.