The three young punks had been walking down a street in their neighborhood looking for whatever they could get their hands on and generally up to no good, when they stumbled upon an old man lying on the curb. “Hey, check the old dude down on the curb. Let’s see what the ol’ guy’s got! ” gibed one of the three ruffians. “Yeahhh! ” agreed another, grinning from ear to ear like a hyena at the sight of fresh meat. “Hold it! ” said Rick, the leader of the pack. “He might be Five-O! Net, go over there and turn him around.
Let’s see what he looks like. ” Ernesto, or Net or Neto, as he was known by his close friends, did as he was told and using his leg as a lever, cautiously turned the man over, and immediately the man started convulsing and coughing violently, taking Net by surprise and causing him to stumble back. The man continued his violent coughing for a while, and then muttered something incoherently. He opened his eyes and looked around dazed and confused, but the glare from the sun was too bright, so he used his hands to shield himself with.
Then he started coughing again, but this time the coughing turned into full-blown retching, making the three young punks turn away in disgust. After the man finished, Net, who was closest to the man, gave him a quick, hard kick to the groin. The man yelled out in pain, grabbing his crotch and writhing on the ground -then he began to vomit all over again. “Damn, Net, what did you do that for? ” asked Rick. “Sucker pissed me off! Now it smells like crap around here! ” “Yeah, well you just made him vomit again, DICKHEAD!! Don’t mess with him again, understand?!
Rick said angrily, as he approached the man for a closer look. The man appeared to be genuinely drunk, but police undercover cops were good at disguising themselves and going through elaborate charades in order to make street arrests. “Come on, Rick, man, let’s see what he’s got,” said the middle of the ruffians, Johnny, itching to get his hands on the man, and eyeing the man’s gold diamond ring with special interest. “Wait! I’ve got to be sure this dude’s not 5-0! ” “Rick, man, he just vomited all his crap out! He ain’t no 5-0! Look at him, he’s just a drunk ol’ dude! Well then, shut the heck up and let me do my job! ” Rick got closer to the man, and started feeling around in the man’s coat pockets, through his shirt and all around his back and through his pants, looking for anything that might feel like a wire or a gun. He didn’t find anything.
The man looked to be exactly what he appeared to be, just another drunk down on his luck. The only thing Rick found was an empty bottle of Vodka stuck inside one of the man’s pant’s pockets. “Well? ” asked Johnny, ready to pounce on the man at the word go. “Nope, nothing. Looks like just another drunk” “Get the hell off me! rumbled the man, as he spun his body around wildly, taking a swipe at the figure closest to him. “What did you say, you piece of crap! ” snarled Rick, pretending not to be surprised by the man’s sudden outburst. The man, gaining some control over his liquor diminished speaking ability, repeated his warning, “I said get heck off me! Go find somewhere else to play, kiddies! ” “Forget you! ” blurted Johnny, before charging the man and hitting him with a couple of swift kicks to the back of the head. The man, slow to react, covered himself as best he could, but he couldn’t avoid the blows.
OK, OK, what do you want? ” he asked, holding his head and spitting out a glob of blood streaked vomit. “Does it look like we’re asking for anything?! ” barked Net, standing over the man now, hoping to be provoked into a frenzied attack. “Wait, wait! ” mumbled the man, holding his hands up. “I’ll give you anything you want. Just don’t hit me! ” “Man! Who the heck do you think you’re talking to?!!! ” Net couldn’t hold back anymore and began slamming the man with a barrage of blows to his face and body, while Johnny pitched in with kicks and blows of his own.
The man, helpless at the attack, just covered himself with his arms and whimpered with each blow he received. “Man, Rick, forget this dude! ” growled Net angrily. “Let’s just take what he’s got and get the heck out of here. 5-0 could be on their way already! ” Bleeding profusely from the nose, mouth and head, the man sputtered something unintelligible. Then coughing out a large amount of blood, he gagged, and sputtered again, this time what he said came out clearer, “Why attack me? I told you I’d give you anything you wanted. ”
“What’d you think, we’re going you to ask you for permission or something?!! Oh, you’re a real MAN, beating a guy while he’s down,” said the man, wiping his mouth with his coat sleeve and starting to feel a little bit mad at his situation. “Rick, man, did you hear him?!! I’m tellin’ you, man, I’m going to waste this sucker here and now if he don’t shut the heck up! ” “Back off! The boy s’got some huge balls talkin’ like that, don’t you old man? ” said Rick, beginning to have a little respect for the man. “I just don’t like getting the heck beat out of me, especially when I said I’d give you anything you wanted.
And it doesn’t take a genius to figure out you’d get more out of a willing victim than a beaten one. But I guess you wouldn’t understand that. ” the man said, tempting his fate a little, hoping to gain more of an edge with the leader, the more reasonable one of the pack. That was all Net could take and began beating the man again, this time with more ferocity than before. Rick jumped in trying to restrain him, but Net was strong and determined. “Rick, let me go, man, let me go!! I’m going to kill this sucker!! ” “Get off him, Net. GET OFF!
Rick struggled but managed to gain more control over Net and was finally able to restrain him and make him back off. “Heck, man! You heard him, Rick, you heard him, man! He called me stupid. He disrespected me, man, right in front of you, and you know I can’t let him do that! Heck, you wouldn’t let him do that, man! Just let me beat the hell out of him, man! I can’t let this go, man!! ” Net tried getting away from Rick and charging the man again, but Rick stepped in front of him and blocked his way. “What the heck are you doin’, man?! You heard him! I can’t let him get away with that!
Get out of my way, man, get the hell out of my way before I bust a cap on your ass too! ” said Net uncontrollably, seething with anger, while reaching for the gun he kept hidden in the small of his back. But before he had a chance to pull it out, Rick jumped on him and wrestled him to the ground and took the gun away from him. “You should know better than to go against me, Net!! You know if you go against me there’ll be consequences to deal with, don’t you?!! ” “The hell with consequences, that dude insulted me, man! You heard him! I can’t let that go, man, I can’t! Just take it easy and see what he has to say. If he ain’t got nothing to offer, then you can beat the mess out of him later. But for now, let’s see what the old man s’got, awright? ”
Net didn’t like having to give into anything, especially when he had been insulted in front of his friends. It was all about respect with him. Once, when another guy had disrespected him in front of his friends, he just about killed the guy. And he would have done it too if it weren’t for his homies that restrained him and calmed him down, AND for the fact that some people who were watching had threatened to call the police.
Net was a hot-tempered young Hispanic punk, and was known to the rest of his peers as ‘Loco Net” or “Crazy Net. ” But lucky for him, he hung around Rick, who kept him out of serious trouble and helped keep his anger in check. Rick, Afro-American and older than the other two by a couple of years, was a product of the streets and had seen it all. But his days of being on the streets were numbered; he could feel it inside. The hatred and the anger and the violence were starting to wear thin on him now. It all seemed so pointless.
Someone would say something unfavorable to someone else, someone would look at someone else the wrong way, somebody would bump into someone by accident, and boom, the shooting would start. No words were exchanged, no fists fight, no attempt to talk things out, just guns were drawn and then lead and smoke would start to fill the streets. It was sickening. He’d been able to keep up the pretense of being one of the “boys” up until now, not that he’d been a saint. One never grows up in the tough parts of his neighborhood faking it.
He’d done his own brand of violence throughout the years that earned him honor and respect among his peers. But this pretense he’d kept up, this life he had chosen to be involved in, he knew deep down inside wasn’t for him. He’d seen too many good people go down for no reason at all, and he had had enough. But he’d have to be careful as to when he would terminate his association with the street life. He wanted to do it on his own terms, and to be respected for it. But for now, he would wait it out until he felt it was the right time. The time was getting close.
Johnny rounded out the pack. Being Caucasian didn’t have its advantages in this part of town, and he was constantly being teased or called names. Among his street peers, which all happen to be either Hispanic or Black, he was known as “Vanilla Ice,” “redneck,” or “Guero (meaning White Boy in Spanish),” and an assortment of other names that were even more cruel or demeaning. But coming from a family of modest means and having established themselves among that part of town, he’d worked his way into one of the local gangs, just so that he wouldn’t get beaten up every day.
It was called “survival. ” Eventually, he met up with Rick, who didn’t care much about what color you were but rather the kind of person you were, and took him under his wing and taught him a thing or two about survival and about being street wise. Johnny looked up to Rick and admired him, and even went so far as to say that Rick was the smartest black dude he’d ever met. Rick smiled at the remark, not taking it the wrong way; he knew what he meant. It was just Johnny’s way of complimenting someone, even if it didn’t always come out right.
Being composed of such a diverse racial mixture, the group was derisively known on the streets as the RAINBOW FREAKING COALITION. Rick didn’t mind -it was accurate at least. “So, old dude, what’s it going to be? ” said Rick, towering over the man now and taking a defiant stance. “What’s it going to be?! What’s it going to be?! ” the man said, while spitting out another blob of blood and tooth particles. “What do you think?!! I’m just the old dude getting the hell beat out of him, remember?! If you guys want money, credit cards, here,” he offered his wallet, “take everything. Rings, jewelry?
Here! ” he took off his wristwatch and rings and offered them to Rick, at which point Johnny intercepted the extended hand and deftly snatched the ring he’d been eyeing. “There, what else do you want? I ain’t got nothing else. You’ve got all I’m worth right there in your hands. None of that stuff matters anymore anyway. I just don’t care anymore, I really don’t! ” the man said with such dejection that Rick almost felt sorry for the man. “What’s your story, old man? Why don’t you give a damn anymore? ” Rick asked interested. “Who gives a damn what this dude thinks! interrupted Net. He’s nothing but a old drunk that, unless he comes up with something else, is gonna get more of a beating whether he likes or not! ” “You need to calm your ass down, Net, DAMN! All you want to do is kick some sucker’s ass all the time. Kick some sucker’s ass, kick some sucker’s ass, that’s all you think about! Forget that! Kicking this sucker’s ass won’t mean a thing anyway! Like you said, he’s just some old drunk. What the heck is he gonna do to you? Huh?! What?! ” “I don’t give a damn what it means, that sucker insulted me and I’m gonna make him pay! ” Inflicting pain on others, is that what gets you off?
Seeing others hurt and feeling pain, does that make you feel powerful, does that make you feel like a man, Net? You don’t like yourself too much, do you Net? Bad self esteem? ” asked the man. “Are you talking to me, DUDE?!! And don’t,” said Net as he leveled a hard, vicious slap across the man’s face, causing him to fall back onto the pavement, “call me by my name again, YOU LOSER! You don’t know me good enough to call me by my name! ” Rick interceded again, but Net backed off, knowing he’d get his revenge when the time came. You OK, old man? ” asked Rick, as he helped the man sit up again. Man, what the heck happened to you that made you get like this? ” “People,” said the man groggily, shaking his head, trying to recover from the jarring blow he’d just received. “People,” he continued, “people brought me to this point. Humanity’s brought me to this point. Hatred, war, violence, prejudice, genocide, homicide. No matter how much we advance technically, we bring ourselves down by our actions towards each other. It’s a sad state of affairs. Just look at what happened here. Instead of helping me out, a man in obvious distress, you beat me up and rip me off.
That’s exactly what I’m talking about. You see why I’m this way now? Your very actions here have proven my point. You are my proof. If you had taken me to the hospital or had offered to help me in any way or something, I might have felt better and not like wanting to die. Because that’s exactly how I feel, like wanting to die! ” “Oh, you want to die sucker?!! I’ll help you there, you piece of crap! Just wait your turn, sucker, it’s coming! ” Rick didn’t say a word and just gave Net a menacing look. This fine young man’s an excellent example, a fine specimen of exactly why humanity is in the state it’s in.
Pure, unadulterated hatred. And towards who? Me? He doesn’t even know me! He doesn’t know one thing about me! And he wants to kill me? Why? ” “Because you’re a worthless piece of crap and the world’s better off without you, that’s why! ” shot Net. And though not wanting to show it, Net began to take interest, in a demented sort of way, in what the old man was saying, even though he still wanted to beat the heck out of him. “There, you see, a fine example indeed. What did I ever do to you, huh? Before today, you didn’t even know I existed, and now you want to kill me?
Does that make any sense? ” “Makes perfect sense to me. You just don’t go around dissing fellas in front of their homies, old man, understand? ” said Net, explaining his rudimentary principle of respect. Johnny, who had been standing there admiring his new ring, was starting to get bored. “Yo, bros, let’s get the heck outta here. We’ve wasted enuf time on this old *censored*. He ain’t got nothin’ more anyway. Just some ol’ broken down piece of crap, s’all he is. ” You go head on, Johnny, we’ll catch up to you later. ” said Rick. “Now that’s what I’m talking about. Forget this stuff!
I got me a new FOURTEEN carat diamond ring, shoot! This sucker s’got to be worth some money. Check you bros out later, man. And don’t let that sucker mess with you’s head’s, man. He’s all talk and no action. Plenty of suckers like him around, don’t you know?! ” said Johnny, as he strutted down the street, flashing his new ring to anybody and everybody who cared to look his way. “Your friend has a thing for jewelry,” smirked the man. “Whatever makes him happy, I guess. “Hey, old dude, your time has just about run out. Now, you got something else for us, or we gonna do a last rites on your ass! “If you wish, if you feel the time is right, go ahead and finish me off right now. Besides, I could have met my fate a number of other ways for that matter. I could’ve stumbled out into the street and gotten run over by a car or something.
Or I could’ve been in an accident or been killed by a stray bullet or I could’ve been hit by lightening or anything like that. So why would this be any different? ” “Right, now that’s what I’m talking about! ” Ain’t nobody gonna do nothing around here! ” interjected Rick, starting to get really pissed with Net for his dogged, single minded pursuit. No, let him, I’m ready to die. In a way, that’s why I got drunk. I thought that by getting drunk that I’d find death somehow, someway, and I would never know about it. I’d just be another stat in the papers, and probably on the last page at that. ‘Old man, found on the street, dead of multiple stab wounds,’ or ‘Old man, wandering about in a drunken stupor, was run over and killed on Broadway Street somewhere. ‘ That’s what the headline would read like. In this case, it would read, ‘Old man, found dead on the street of gunshot wounds. The motive, robbery. ‘ So, go ahead, let it come true.
I’m ready for it. I’m ready to die. This LIFE just isn’t worth living anymore. Maybe I’ll find my peace in the next life, if there is one. If not, at least it’ll spare me having to live through ‘this’, and seeing anymore of ‘this. ‘ So go ahead, take your best shot. But let it be good, I wouldn’t want to be a vegetable in some hospital somewhere, with people having to take care of my sorry ass and burdening my family. So let your shot be true and to the mark, and be done with me. “Give me the gun, Rick, man, this dude’s seen his last day! ” “I ain’t givin’ you nothing!
And you ain’t doing nothing, you hear me! And you know what, I’m getting sick and tired of your bull crap, Net! The old man’s right. What the heck did he ever do to you, huh? Not a damn thing, so back off before I go off on your ass myself! ” Net, a little stunned at Rick’s anger, refused to back down and got right in front of Rick’s face, glaring at him and said, “What the hell are you gonna do, huh? WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO?!!! ” “Don’t try me, Net, I’m warning you, don’t freaking try me, NOT HERE, NOT NOW!!! “Oh, that’s pretty,” said the man, looking on with a blood stained smile on his face.
Here I am, waiting to be killed, and the two of you are playing the stare game. Ironic that the man wanting to die by those who would kill him witness them self-destruct right in front of him. ” “See what I mean, Rick? That dude’s got a smart mouth on him! Look, I ain’t got no problem with you, man, but this sucker’s been asking for it from the word go! ” “Correction, I wasn’t asking for anything! You stumbled on me, remember? Remember beating me up, taking my belongings, any of that ring a bell? Net burst out laughing so hard he had to hold his stomach. “Tell me he’s not asking for it, Rick?
Do you hear this sucker? He’s not just laughing at me but at both of us, man, both of us! Don’t you understand!? ” “Sorry, I didn’t mean it to seem as if I were laughing at you. But maybe you could see how ludicrous and easy it is for hatred to get out of hand. Here you are, seemingly good friends, at each other’s throats, over what? Respect? Honor? What? Explain it to me, pleaseI need to knowI want to know. Because if this is a microcosm of humanity, then we are indeed in bad shape. And hope is scarce. What possible hope can I have, what possible hope can we have as a people with this going on?
I’ll tell you, none, zero, zilch, no hope at all. And you know, it’s funny how this is all playing out, because I always thought I was put on this earth for something better than this, you know? That I was meant to contribute something to humanity, and not just wind up like this. Do any of you know what the noblest cause is? No? I’ll tell you what it is: doing good towards others, no matter who you are or what you are, doing good deeds and being of benefit to humanity in some measurable way, that’s what the noblest cause is. And I thought I had it figured out, that I would be of help to humanity in some way.
But I can see that humanity doesn’t want to have good deeds done to it. That no matter how much you want to help, there’s always destructive forces waiting on the other side to bring you down, to tear down what you’ve struggled so hard to build. In other words, my good fellows, humanity doesn’t deserve to be saved. It’s its own worst enemy. ‘ ‘So go ahead, either kill me or kill each other.
Or better yet, how about if we all do each other, that way we’d all be put out of our mutual misery’s and not have to endure anymore of ‘this’. aid the man while opening his arms wide and rotating his body around, indicated all of their surroundings. Stunned into silence, Rick tripped back, as if he had suddenly lost his equilibrium, and realizing what the old man had said was true, and just how fast things could’ve gotten out of hand. The very thing he’d come to hate about the streets, he almost committed himself, or been a victim of. God, what was he doing here?! And it was as if the old man had seen the pain in his soul or had been reading his mind, because what he said summed up exactly what he had been feeling.
Suddenly, something snapped in him; suddenly, it all seemed so wrong to him. It was like his life had flashed in front of him and he was watching what was happening to him, only it wasn’t him, it was someone else. Someone else was standing there on this corner, on this street in the middle of this neighborhood with these two people. It was like watching a movie about a two-bit gangster and the way his life had ended on a street on a sidewalk in a city somewhere in America. Just another punk gone down the wrong road and ending with his death for no good reason, just like many others had gone before him.
Then Rick snapped back to reality and looked around at his surroundings. His look was disoriented, confused, and a little scared. Then he looked over at Net and at the man sitting at the curb, and without notice, dropped the gun and the man’s belongings, and walked away without saying another word. “Hey, Rick, where are you goin’, man?! Rick?!! Rick!!! ” “Looks like your friend just found out a little about himself. Maybe this wasn’t the kind of life for him after all. ” Net walked over to where Rick had dropped the gun and picked it up. “Say nighty-night, dude!
Told you your time would come, didn’t I? ” “And don’t tell me, you’re a man of your word, huh? ” Walking fast down the street and picking up speed with each passing step, Rick began to sweat profusely, as if he had just woken out of a bad dream, a nightmare. This life, this environment, it WAS a nightmare. The time was now to get out. Not tomorrow, not the day after, but now. And just as he was walking along with his head spinning with all these thoughts, he heard a shot in the background and it made him jump, as if it was the first time he’d ever heard a gunshot.
His reaction was like those war vets that suffer from shell shock that jump at any sudden, loud bang, like the backfire from a passing car. Obviously he’d heard gunshots before, but this one was the first one that startled him. He’d never been scared of gunfire before. But this one, this one blast that he’d just heard scared him to death. It was a sound he’d never want to hear again! Without noticing that he’d started to run, Rick raced forward, faster and faster, wanting to out run this life and leave it behind forever.