So I submitted all the final grades. I was feeling rather celebratory and thought I’d go have a drink or two. But here I sit at 3:30 in the morning, nursing a sore elbow, and waiting for the adrenalin to fade so I can go to sleep, while realizing that but for a split-second decision I might very well be spending the night in jail.
People are stupid.
To make a dumb story short, I found myself embroiled in a brawl in the parking lot outside of a bar. A drunken asshole tried to hit a friend of mine with a tire iron and got an uppercut to the jaw to show for it. No harm done, except perhaps to his jaw, and my buddy’s fist. Wisely, after some yelling and puffing and general buffoonery, he got in his car to leave.
But no, he had to stop his car and get back out for more. Some folks are gluttons for punishment. He rushed my friend again at which point I grabbed him by the back of his shirt, which promptly tore in my hand, but I was able to get a hold of him nonetheless. At that point all bets were off. I wanted to pound the shit out of this guy. It disturbs me how quickly I could feel the violence surging. But my peacemaker instincts and bouncer experience kicked in and I pinned him against his car. I held him there for a minute while telling him to settle the fuck down. At that point someone began yelling about the cops, which seemed to bring people back to their senses. I let him go, he got in his car and drove off about fifteen seconds before the cops showed up.
Somewhere in the midst of it, the book Among the Thugs flashed through my mind with it’s frightening depictions of mob violence and the way it spreads in an instant. It’s palpable, it's visceral—I can still feel it in my stomach. It's depressing in retrospect.
I’d like to think that maybe it’s the fact that, even in the midst of a mindless, inane, drunken melee, I am thinking of literary references, that keeps me from losing my head in tense situations and assaulting some stupid son of a bitch who clearly deserves it. So thank God for books and learnin. And occasional breaks from them.
It’s summertime for Tricky.
