Sept 24th, 2017
In the midnight hours, my neighbour is hosting a party. And I... was in my bedroom watching "The Walking Dead" on Netflix.
In the room next to mine, I hear shouting in the streets and out my window I see the flashing of lights.
2 cop cars on my block.
The night is not young, but look at all these young people in it.
I analyze the voices outside my window, as I watch 3 young boys gather in my driveway.
Wearing dark clothing, CHECK.
Group movement, CHECK.
Overuse of the word "****", CHECK.
And I am praying for them to leave my driveway and they do.
And I migrate to the next room, slightly open the window and listen for more of these people. It's too dark outside for me to see much but the colour of their hair, and the backpacks or purses the brought with them.
They are all gathering at one house, the cops are further down the street, so that all moved.
I used to hang out with the kid who lives at this house. My how things have changed.
Relax.
Go back to your show. And I did.
Later into the night, I hear through my headphones the shouting of a girl and I stop.
She and her what I assumed was her boyfriend just turned the corner and I slowly open my window.
I begin to analyze the situation.
Fighting teenage couple, Check
Probably intoxicated Check
She starts talking about some other guy.
He starts accusing her of cheating.
She gets in his face.
He gets in her face.
She says "I wouldn't do that because I ******* love you!" "And you're gonna make me walk home in the dark?!"
She gets in his face, he gets in her face....
BAM
She's on the ground.
He had forcefully shoved her into the pavement and she just...
Sits there.
In disbelief.
He says, "Yeah? HOW BOUT THAT!"
I don't know why it took so long to act, but I did.
Bolting into my kitchen, with my father up playing backgammon I tell him I just watched a guy shoe his supposed girlfriend in the road and he doesn't miss a beat.
He is out there in the middle of the night and he gets to that boy and I just stand in my living room, watching.
The windows on the first floor were closed so I couldn't hear a thing. But I could only pray that this boy did not carry a blade, or a gun, or the wrong words to my father's throat.
I ran up to my bedroom, grabbed my old cap gun and heard the boy say, "Hey man I don't hit my ******* woman!"
And I went downstair thinking to myself I don't know if my dad is sure to return to this house alive.
I just watched a girl suffer battery, I did not need to see my father die today.
And nobody can tell cap guns are fake when you're buzzed at 2 in the morning so yeah, I was scared.
But wait....
I see my father shake the boy's hand, give him a bro hug...
And send him off.
And when he came back into the house I hugged him and I wasn't exactly keen on letting go.
He told me that he had sent the boy in the opposite direction of his girlfriend.
It turns out she had already walked down the block by the time he had gotten outside.
It is 2:25 AM
After a talk about what happened, I went back to watching "The Walking Dead on Netflix".
And I can only hope that girl was not also walking dead.
My father is a good man.
Even after all that.
He still went back to play more backgammon.
My old man.