Freeze and Fight or Flight

For Edward, it was already a long day, even though his leg was bothering him; he was out and about enjoying the day before the afternoon rains began. When he was 15 he fell 3 stories straight down a flight of steps onto a marble floor, he survived the fall, but not without permanent injury to his right leg, which caused him to walk with a severe limp, and now that he was in his mid-50's needed a cane for support. To add insult to injury he only had 25% of the hearing in his right ear for reasons he had yet to pinpoint. He couldn't afford proper hearing aids, and the cheap set he did get from some online store sounded like the person speaking to him was talking through a tin can.

After visiting one of the parks in Center City, of which there are quite a few, he had one more stop to make before going home to rest; a quick stop to pick up some groceries at the grocery store. That stop took him all of 15 minutes, and had all placed in a backpack, it was on the heavy side but manageable. He made his way from the store on Fairmount to Girard.

After making his way to the Girard stop so he could take the final leg of his journey home, he stood on the loading platform and waited for the 15 trolley. That's when he noticed two women talking and pointing not just vaguely in his general direction, but directly at him as if he had done something wrong. He moved to another spot on the crowded platform, just to make sure it wasn't him she was pointing to, which was hard to do, as it was long and narrow with a fence traversing the entire length of the platform.

Again, with the pointing and remarks. Edward couldn't pinpoint what was being said, but the pointing and signaling him out made him fully aware of the fact that he was the only white person on the platform of 50 some odd people.

Edward moved towards the woman slightly and stare her down as he leaned in on his cane. “Why would you do that?”

“I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that.”

At that point that should have been the end of the incident, but unbeknownst to either of them, the worst was yet to come.

---

The 3:00 school bell had already rung a few minutes before, and Jamal lit out of the school like an angry ball of lightning angry at the world over something that was over 140-some-odd years before he was even born. He was angry over the fact that when he was 5, the man he could only assume was his father went out for a pack of cigarettes and never came back until a month ago and now wants to be an important part of his life.

As a result, he was out looking someone's ass to kick, and it needed to be someone who was unable to easily defend himself, he looked out at the trolley stop, the big mean old white guy who was confronting the poor innocent black woman would do just nicely. He pulled a tiny vial of oily liquid (of which there were several) straight into his mouth and gave the meth a few seconds to work. Then he went to work. “Yo, white trash, what the hell do you think you're doing?”

The woman spoke first. “I said something that made him feel signaled out, and he simply made a comment about it. That's all.”

“So, the white-assed piece of shit needed to get all disrespectful,” by this time, Jamal was standing in the middle of the left turn lane blocking traffic getting the drivers of the cars he was blocking ticked off at him.

“You're the one that is being disrespectful,” Edward noticed that some of the drivers of the cars were getting a bit impatient for the black guy standing there blocking traffic to move.

“Come on!” The front driver began to tap on his horn.

“F-caw-f!” Jamal flipped a gesture to the driver, as he turned his attention back towards the "mean old white guy" and began to climb over the railing to get to him.

“You don't even know what the hell is going on,” the woman yelled out as she and several others tried to block Jamal from reaching Edward, “I don't remember calling out for help. And if I did there are 50 other people on this platform who are more than capable of doing that!”

Jamal ignored what the woman was saying. The "big mean white guy" was within arm's reach. Rage built up within him as the meth began to burn its way through his blood stream.

Edward was frozen with fear as he found himself staring at the young brute who literally came at him out of left field and was now staring him down.

“I think you better get out of here.” The woman said directly to Edward.

The words broke Edward out of his freeze, so he began to step away from Jamal. As he turned, he found an opening behind a silver pick-up truck in the traffic that had stopped for the light.

That single action pissed Jamal off, and he pushed at Edward with a force, letting off a slight laugh.

Edward should have been able to endure being pushed, despite having a bad leg, but he was in a turning motion when he was pushed, and the weight in the bag shifted enough to knock him off balance and into the pick-up truck, then fall further until he was face down between the truck and the platform.

“Take that--.” Jamal wanted to say more, to do more, but the other people on the platform had seen and heard enough and began to hold him back.

“Don't move your truck,” the woman, now totally sympathetic towards Edward, yelled out to the driver, “someone was just pushed under it.”

Edward began to slowly get up, but the pain from his body hitting the side of the truck was noticeable, and he needed to fish around under the truck for both his cane and a few food items that fell out of his backpack. The one jar of sauerkraut he would have to count as a loss, as it smashed open when it hit the ground. He noticed the wheel of the truck moving towards his one hand and quickly pulled it away as the wheel occupied the place where his hand was just a second before.

“Let him get the hell up first!” the woman yelled at the driver.

Edward finally did get up even as the truck moved forwards, and almost knocked him back down again. Now, he was the one who was pissed, his left hand clenched up and took a swing at the rear-view mirror of the truck that refused to come to a full stop until he could get up. The mirror was knocked askew, but no actual damage was done to it.

“What the hell was that for?”

“You don't even know, do you?” Edward asked.

“Know what?” The driver asked. “Is there something going on that I need to get concerned about?”

“He's the guy who was just pushed into your truck.” The woman responded.

“I thought you were kidding me!” The driver said as he drove off.

Edward looked back, it took 5 strong men to hold Jamal back, and even then, he wasn't sure how much longer they could do so. He looked up to see the #4 bus unloading passengers. It was the wrong bus going the wrong way, but at least he would be out of there before the 5 men had lost their grip on him.

“I thought you would see things our way!” Jamal taunted as Edward got on the bus and the doors closed behind him.

Edward stayed on the bus for a few stops and got off, crossed over Broad Street so he can get the 4-bus going back towards the direction he needed to go.

As he waited, two 20something men dressed in black slacks and a pure white shirts approached him holding out religious literature trying to make Edward take hold of it. “Hello, we're from The Church of Jesus Christ....”

“Oh, shut the hell up!” Edward while he believed in God and Jesus had issues with organized religion. And more-so, these guys, especially when he was already ticked off.

“Ho-kay, time to move on,” One of the two said as they went on to someone else.

The #4 bus pulled up, and Edward got on and sat on the left-hand side of the bus, which took him back the way he came. By this time several police had arrived at the scene where Jamal had broken free of the 5 men who were holding him back. He saw Jamal throwing a hard punch at a female officer who approached him. The bus was stopped in traffic, allowing Edward to see (but not hear) a few moments of the final outcome of the fact that the officer being punched.

---

Jamal had just thrown the punch at the female officer drawing blood.

“Officer in distress!” She called out to the other officers on the scene. Immediately, several other officers surrounded Jamal with their weapons drawn.

“GET DOWN ON THE GROUND!” One officer pointed his weapon at Jamal.

“You don't understand,” Jamal refused to comply.

“You're the one who doesn't understand,” the officer was joined by two other officers, “you just struck a Police Officer who was doing her duty. Now get down on the ground.”

“There's this white guy I was after--.” Jamal realized that was something he could have worded better.

The woman was still there; she gave a pause then smiled. “What white guy?”

“That part doesn't matter; the fact that he struck an officer does.” The officer turned his attention back to Jamal. “Now for the last time, get down on the ground before we have to force you down.”

---

The bus began to move away as Edward got one last glimpse of the trolley stop, and several officers began to rush at Jamal as the drug rushing through his veins went into full effect putting him into full rage mode. He placed his head against the window, closed his eyes and muttered to himself; “I certainly don't have to guess how this is going end for him.”