there are few things as terrifying... 5.20.07
as getting out of your car at 11:30 at night and discovering a young man with a gun pointed at you, telling you he is going to shoot you if you don't give him your wallet. At first, there is the process of instant reality check, "No, JP, this is not a dream". Things can possibly get very bad, very ugly in less time than it takes to think about it, nevertheless the curious mind is examining the facts at hand: Young black man, maybe a teenager, and yessiree that is a gun in his hand, which he points at your face in an extremely threatening manner when he tells you to stop looking at him and give him your wallet. One has seen guns before, mostly in movies and TV shows, and something about this scenario is vaguely suggestive of some bad TV program. The young fellow is in a bit of a hurry and I've still not given him my wallet and I move towards him, mostly a suggestion of my moving toward him but stop when that gun is drawn evenly with my sightline and he reminds me again he is going to shoot me if I do not give him my goddamned wallet. The next moment is almost comedic because I see myself raise my hands, in something of a motion of pleading, "no man, easy does it, I will give you my wallet" and he says "step back there, don't look at me or I'm going to shoot you in the leg" while he simultaneously makes a motion as if to cock the gun, and I begin wondering if it is a real, bonafide gun and not a pellet or dart gun; having had a few looks at it, noticing the small bore of the long barrel, that it is a semi-automatic and remembering that even a .22 at this range can really fuck up your day. He loses patience with me and moves quickly towards me with his free (left) hand and scoops my wallet out of my right hip pocket then starts to step back and away from me, extending his arm and pointing the gun at me while he orders me to turn around and walk back towards my car. For some reason, the last thing I want to do is turn my back on this guy, so I sort of timidly shamble back towards the blue subaru, only half turned away from him as he spins and runs up the driveway where his comrade awaits him. I didn't mention the other guy. That fellow had accosted my lady friend and had taken her shopping bags and purse when he and his gun-toting partner first materialized out of the darkness as I was parking the car, she perfectly willing to give these guys what they are asking for just as long as they would get the fuck out of here and leave us alone. They weren't, unfortunately, about to leave with just the shopping bags and purse, not when the dude getting out of the car's likely to have a wallet on him, maybe a couple of credit cards and cash in it.
The entire scenario may have taken something like seven or eight minutes, a blitzkreig. Couple drives up the dark driveway alongside the apartment building and she gets out before he parks the car, retrieving her purse and shopping bags as she exits and walks towards the building entrance. He is completely unaware of the unsuspected visitors about to accost her and parks his car, shuts everything down and exits, initially imagining the figure in the shadows outside the car door was his lady friend. SURPRISE!
So, all in all, the two of them get off lucky. There were moments, she tells him later, that she was so certain he was going to get shot. He had heard her voice, its tone pleadingly insistent, asking them to please just take the stuff and go and leave them alone, please don't shoot anybody. The local constabulary was called and showed up quite pronto quickly, and during the next hour or so both of them were interviewed and questioned and then separated where they were each assisted in preparing a statement by a different officer. In the course of that hour three other patrol cars appeared and each of the officers in those cars stopped by and chatted with the pair handling the taking of statements. It was nearly two in the morning by the time they were able to get to a location where they both could begin the process of reporting their credit and debit cards stolen. Yea, verily, Binky, t'was a very, very long night. The ugliest reality left behind by the experience is that I know that my friend will never feel safe in that neighborhood again, especially if she has to be outside anytime late at night. I am pretty damned sure that I would feel that way too, wouldn't you?
