Urban Evening - Part II

I heard them before we saw them. There was a low rhythmic rumbling that was emanating from some boom box with a prominent bass rattle that was too much for the speaker trying to convey the sound. You could hear the buzzing from the plastic case of the stereo player with every low note played.

Two youths came lumbering up from the park toward the entranceway where we were standing. The first one a very large black kid a wearing cut off sweatshirt and baggy pants with what appeared to be a skateboard tucked into the rear of the pants. The other kid, a tad skinnier light skinned Hispanic with visible body piercing, a large scar on the left side of his face and tattoos on his forearms was carrying the boom box. They both had the expression of mild annoyance with something. They carried themselves with almost a tired resigned body language as if they had many miles to go before they could rest.

As they reached the avenue and passed us, a skinny little white boy came running around the corner and shoved the large black man.

“Yo, where do you think you’re going…!! You just can’t walk away from this!”

“Get outta our way dude, I don’t know you. Why are you getting up in my grill?”

“I saw you… I saw what you did to Brian. He’s lying back there near the fountain. He needs medical attention, if you don’t help, I’m going to call the police.” The white kid whined.
“I told you to get of my way little man. I don’t want to hafta cut ya or nothing…” The black kid growled.

The white kid was persistent. He continued to run around the two youths attempting to block their progress.

All of a sudden a knife appeared. The black was brandishing it in the white boy’s face.

“You see this dude? You want some of this…? Get outta the way!” and he shoved the white kid hard. The white boy stumbled off the sidewalk and rolled to the ground. The other two turned and looked like they were going to be moving on down the avenue.

That’s when “Jesus” scooted away from me and confronted the two rough looking youths.

“Excuse me son but violence is never the way to achieve anything.”

“Stay out of this Christ… you don’t know what’s going on here…” said the Hispanic kid.

I thought…they know one another… they addressed him as “Christ” or was that a cursing… It took me a minute to process that.

“Come on Jesus, let’s head over to Mercy and see if we can get someone to look at your hand…” I offered.

It was then that the black kid seemed to notice me for the first time.

“Hey old man, what the heck do you think you’re doing…”

“Nothing… I just was attempting to help. He’s hurt… “ Indicating my new acquaintance “Jesus”.

“Hey, you got any money. We need to get a ride back to our hood… Can you give us bus fare…?

That’s when Jesus spoke back up and moved himself between the big kid and myself. The skinny white kid had also picked himself back up and was walking towards the group.

“Jesus” said…” Brother, please put away the knife and let’s talk.”

“Ain’t nothing to talk about. I need to get some money to catch a bus, it’s getting late.”

“It’s never too late to do the right thing.” “Jesus” said.

I began to edge my way away from the group and contemplated seriously whether I could out run these folks.