CRAZY TRAIN BY PETE MISER 6-9-04
I'm on the 6 Train platform at Union Square at, like, 10 PM on a Saturday
night. All types of people around. I realize that I want to exit the train
from the uptown end so I start to walk up the platform. Before I get
fifteen feet in that direction, a cop stops me and says that I can't go any
further.
He says I have to go back up stairs and come back down on the
uptown end of the platform. When I go up the stairs and look down onto the
platform from the connecting halls of the Union Square station I see why;
there's police tape all over the 6 train platform and about a pint of blood
splashed all over the place and puddled up down there. Nasty!
With this on my mind, I get on the 6 headed downtown.
The car I'm on is nearly empty despite it being early in the night on a
Saturday. Two of the other passengers get off at Astor Place leaving me and
a thuggish looking dude alone in the car.
Thuggish Dude: "Hey, man, what do you do for a living?"
Pete: "I'm a dj"
TD: "Well look, man, I just got out of prison today! Shit is hectic on the
streets out here." (Let's me see the pistol tucked into his pants.) "I
don't want to rob you but I will if I have to. A nigga tryin' to eat."
P: "I feel you. I was just in court today. I know how you feel. What do
you need?"
TD: "What do you have?"
P: (Opening my wallet and pulling out $2.00) "Will this help?"
TD: (Peering into my wallet and spotting the $42.00 total) "Man, you got a
lot of money in there, son."
P: "Well what do you need?"
TD: "Give me a twenty."
P: "Give me back the two."
Money is exchanged for the second time as I realize that I still have a
significant train ride left before the next stop.
P: "What's your name, man?"
TD: "Niggas call me 'Chosen'."
P: "Well why did you chose me?"
TD: (Chuckling at that) "Man, look family, You helped me out. Any body fuck
with you in the streets, I'll kill them."
P: "Gee, thanks" (Or something to that effect.)
The train stops, "Chosen" gets out and repeats himself as the doors close,
TD: "Anybody fuck with you in the streets, I'll kill 'em!"
I continue on feeling no more secure despite Chosen's assurance that he had
my back!
What can I say?
-Pete Miser
www.PeteMiser.com