A story posted to alt.polyamory

[outlier_lynn]

As told by Ailbhe's homepage: http://ailbhe.ossifrage.net/

Once upon a time, not so very long ago, and not so very far away
from here, the was a supermarket queue. And in this supermarket queue
was a little old lady, and behind her was a young mother and a small
boy. There were sundry other people behind them, of whom more later.

The small boy pushed the shopping cart up against the little old lady,
who winced and stepped aside.

He did it again, and she turned around and said to him, "Please don't
do that, it hurts me."

He did it again, and she was too embarrassed to say anything at all.

He did it again, and a man further back in the queue said to the boy's
young mother: "Stop your kid doing that, can't you see he's hurting
that lady?"

The young mother replied "My son is five years old and can do anything
he likes."

The man walked away from the queue and back into the aisles. Soon he
returned with a large jar of jam (jelly for USians). He opened it, and
upturned it over her head, saying "I am thirty-five years old and I can
do anything I like."

The young mother left her shopping in the cart in the queue and took her
son away from there. No assault charges were brought upon the man, and
the elderly lady wasn't permanently harmed by being repeatedly bashed
with a full shopping trolley. But everyone learned a valuable lesson.