My mother gave not a word of defence for her eldest son, who cowered beside me crying with quivering legs, not trusting himself to wipe his fogged-up glasses, while my father talked himself into a rage for the hundredth time".
But then I thought about the way they cowered from me, reeking of guilt.
It was anthropologically fascinating, and reasonably exciting after a few Wray & Nephews, though I don't think my then-girlfriend appreciated the fieldwork, cowering behind me as "North London" steamed in.
Father Montgomery, who looked like a handsome young priest out of a 1930s movie, found me cowering and took my hand, leading me into the classroom.
Yet while I wish to retain my independence, I believe my greatest shortcoming to be my ever-increasing social ineptitude, which drives me to cower in the corner at parties, sometimes fleeing with my heart racing into the safety of some quiet back room.
A daytime thunderstorm makes me want to run outside and watch the lightning; a night-time one has me cowering in bed, certain that lightning is going strike the house sooner or later.
Like the Soho House and Norwood clubs, it is members only, and while the $149 annual fee isn't daunting, the screening process had me cowering.
I had seen an old film of Dracula at the age of 13, which had my cousin and little sister in stitches of laughter, and me cowering behind the sofa.
For awhile, when I was dancing again, crashing drumbeats would send me cowering in tears.
He has found me cowering in the beverage aisle of a grocery store, hiding in the shadow of a pyramid of Coca-Cola.
