I'm standing under the hot sun, the grass of Ramona park beneath my feet. Two young girls approach me, one of them had been following me around all day. "Hi Ernie" says the older one with a smile. "Hey", a simple response, to show I was uninterested in them. "I bet you don't know my name" The Girl was right, i had no idea who she was, in that, i told the truth "I bet I don't." She was apt on getting me to talk to her "I'll tell you and you're gonna laugh, ok?" "okay..".
She waited a second, then told me her "name".
"Marrajawanna"
To be honest, I did laugh, only at the sheer stupidity. "It's true, I even wrote it on my bag. She showed me her bag, "Marijuana" was written in large bold letters across the back of it. I said nothing. "se habla espanol?"
me: "no habla"
her: "yeah you do!"
me: "yo no hablas."
her: "quieres marijuana?"
At that point, I decided it was best to walk away and not look back. "no." I said as I turned to escape her, she followed me for a couple yards, insisting that i wanted some weed.
Now, I'm sitting on the warm sidewalk, watching the children as they play on the playground. There are 4 light and life kids on the playground, including sam and liberty. There are about 7 local kids on the playground, including the one Alpha female with the attitude. As the birds sing, and the dandelions dance, the local kids start picking on two light and life kids. "Sam" I called him over to me "what are those kid's names?" I knew I'd have to call them by name when things got rough, to let the local kids know that they were my responsibility. Things escalated quickly, as i imagined they would, to the point where the two light and life kids were about to get an old school Long Beach pounding.
I made my way over to a position where i could easily see all 7 of the local kids. "Hey!" I shouted as I grew my ego exponentially, letting everyone know that I was in charge now. "if ANYONE touches those two kids, I'm gonna.." A million thoughts ran through my mind on how to finish that sentence, it ended up with "be PISSED!".
Everyone shut up and shrank, as i was hoping for. Everyone except the Alpha female. "well he punched my sister!".
There's a point where I doubt myself, and other points where I simply deny everything anyone else says.
"Bullcrap" I said, rejecting her false sense of reality "I was sitting right there watching the whole damn thing."
"well I don't let anyone hurt my family" She said, looking away.
"Good, and you better believe that anyone that touches my family is gonna get messed up, and these kids are MY family"
She muttered some sense of nonsense to which I ignored.
I called the children by name, and took them off of the playground, pissed that anyone would try to hurt them, and ready to break a few faces if i needed to. Adrenaline pumping through my veins.
I wonder to myself, why I was so protective over a few little kids I didn't even know, and why was I ready to fight for them rather then just pull them off the playground and leave? Because they were from my church? I realized then, that my church is my family, and I care for them as that. I don't simply have friends, I have one big family of people, all of which I care for as that.
That said, don't mess with my family, or im gonna be PISSED.
- There are 'those' days, and then there are days like mine.
- Ernie
No comments:
Post a Comment