It was nearly ten when Ms. Tracy finally returned home. To her surprise, there was a stranger in the house.
"This is the fellow I've mentioned to you so often..." Ms. Tracy's father introduced him.
Ms. Tracy set her backpack on the coffee table, looked the man up and down, then reached out and shook his hand lightly. "He often tells me he once punched you hard in the nose."
When Ms. Tracy's father was young, he used to tell her amusing stories from his military days, including a few incidents involving this visitor.
For example, they had once fought over the same female nurse. According to Ms. Tracy's father's version, he had defeated his close friend in a duel.
He had then fallen into a wonderful romance with the lovely nurse. In this account, he always emphasized, "I aimed a punch right at his nose. Then he fell to the ground, and I walked toward the lady with my foot on his butt..."
The visitor could not help glancing back at Ms. Tracy's father. "Is that really how you tell people those things happened between us?"
Ms. Tracy's father gave an embarrassed smile. "A little artistic embellishment."
But the visitor clearly had no intention of dropping the subject. "Artistic embellishment is fine, but you turned yourself into me! That obviously goes beyond artistic embellishment!"
He said this as he looked back at Ms. Tracy. "Actually, I was the winner of that duel. If you've ever paid attention, you'd notice that your father's nose is still crooked."
Ms. Tracy glanced at her father. The bridge of his nose really was somewhat... sunken. She had never noticed it before, but now it did look slightly crooked.
"All right. Go ahead and laugh. I admit I went too far with the embellishment!"