Lighter - Peter Varholak

I will kill you! The man is shouting to me from distance... How this all had happened?

Dear toastmaster, ladies and gentleman. It happened in another city, not in London, city that has also own beauty. Beautiful happy people, great food everywhere and very close to it a lot of nature, especially forests and hills. One night quite long time ago was little bit colder than usual. But these nights you can see stars shining even brighter and you see even more of them. Everywhere silent. Just couple of cars speeding around.

I was dancing salsa and kizomba with my friend. She is little bit taller than me but I don´t mind. I can handle almost all types of dancers. When we left the party I agreed to stay with her while she had been waiting for her bus home.

While we were waiting for the bus some chap appeared close to us. He was smaller than me but still he looked as if he was training regularly in a gym, he had some scary tatoos on the neck and one of his front teeth was missing. He was boxer like type of person maybe looking like Muhamad Ali little bit. He was also little bit drunk what was even more dangerous.

"Do you have fire?" He asked. "No I don´t smoke" He came closer to us. I stepped in front of my friend little bit. "And your girlfriend?" He asked again. "No she don´t have either." I respond just to be polite. "Just couple of steps from here is a bar. They are certainly open." I add. He step one step closer. And now he is too close. My fight or flight reflex had been activated. Just couple of days ago I had been thinking what should I do in the situation like this. Qiute a long time I avoided all the conflicts because I had been military officer and involvement in the fight could mean to lose my job that I loved. But these times were over. And I had nothing to lose. Just gain. Gain experince from fight that I could use later in my life to defend my loved ones. I did some tae-kwon do, judo and boxing in my life so I felt prepared. I mirrored him. I stepped closer. My heart was pounding faster. My body prepared for fight. Adrenaline started to circulate in my veins ad I felt it. He now wasn´t sure what to expect. He saw the man that is not afraid of him. He looked at me and said. "How it is possible that man like you don´t have a lighter?" He turned and went to the nearest bar. From half way he shouted. "I will kill you!" I took my friend and we were leaving one bus stop away. What if he decide to return with a knife? This is the best strategy that I learned couple of years later from my instructor of close protection. Remove people that you are protecting from danger.

I learned this day one rule of wilderness. Fire can save you life.