My somewhat new friend asked some questions about combat one time. Mild, acceptable questions. We were having a coke in a Washington, D.C. hotel, near the mall, near the Vietnam memorial.

I gave him some vague answers, and he probed some more, still very acceptable, not like "How many people did you kill?" that I've heard from some ppl.

So I tried to avoid answers again, and he asked some more. His body language and his questions told me he wanted to know. So I gave him a short answer, kind of a trial response, and he gave every sign of wanting the whole answer.

I told him a story, and his questions led to another, and so on.
We left there after 45 min or so in a good mood and with him making remarks about how much he appreciated me telling him this stuff.

A couple days later .... big surprise...

We were together again and he kind of took me aside with some "can I tell you something" approach. And then he chewed me out for about 10 minutes about how I had ambushed him with these stories, that he had made a simple question and that I had given him an encyclopedia's worth of answer. His main point was that I might want to watch that because most people don't want to hear it.

That "friendly advice" felt to me like the worst chewing out I'd ever had. I know these stories are too strong for most people. And I didn't even give him a very strong dose in what I did tell. I'm the one who felt ambushed by his drawing me into the telling and then chewing me out for doing it.

I was so flabbergasted that I couldn't even respond.

So how do you think I reacted the next time someone wanted to open that door? .... You're right ... it was locked tight. Like I say, "It was a walk in the park."