Terminus: Auburn & Hilliard

[jack_babalon]

Prince Hall


Take a right off Boulevard down Auburn three blocks to Hilliard. Late Sunday afternoon. Bad Scene Central. A gray blue pontiac so old you'd think it was a time machine rumble-rattles up to the corner. A man on the otherside of an obvious green light nods. Another man, this one much younger and tucked flat in the side doorway to the Prince Hall lodge, nods back, steps off the curb, strolls up to the passenger window with an elaborate limp, leans in, they talk for a quick minute, the man pulls himself out of the window, the Pontiac rumble-rattles off, the muffler scrapes loudly...

"Hey I know you. You was at the club last night." this old man with a storm cloud colored beard shrieks at me. The man with the limp turns around at the commotion. He see's me standing there across the street with a camera in my hands. Figure me for one of two things. Undercover or a tourist who wondered too far from the MLK Center up the road. Figure undercover ain't gonna be on a bicycle.

"You're thinking of someone else" I say distracted, the first man who nodded at the Pontiac is crossing diagonally through the intersection towards me.

"Yeah it was! Don't lie! You owe me a dollar!"

"Oh yeah-yeah-yeah..." I nod eager, amiable, tucking my camera into my pocket with the quickness, I pull out my wallet, Storm Beards eyes hone in on it....

"Hold up!" Mr. Nod is asking from the middle of the street, "Lemme ask you somethin' real quick!"

I keep nodding stupidly, I open the wallet show it to Storm Beard, then as fast as I can I grab the handle bars , push off in a burst of speed, making my way towards the highway, cutting through the intersection, sticking just out of the potential of Mr.Nod's reach. I hear Storm Beard shouting behind me now. I catch the younger guy filming me with his camera phone, training it steadily on me as I glide away. I hit the pedals now and notice a small scene was forming on the other side of the street. Fuck me running. Scratch that: Riding!

I cover a block quick. Catch the Very Big Head out of the corner of my eye. I shouldn't but I have to. I Brake, squeal and slide in the Square scattering a cloud of pigeons in front of me. I trade the wallet for the camera. In my panic I left it on, but that means I don't have to warm it up. Good because both Mr.Nod and Storm Beard are coming up the block, Mr.Nod joining in on the shouting. I shoot once. I shoot a back up. A car pulls up. The Pontiac!

I spin around, lifting the frame and the front wheel off the sidewalk. I go straight down Auburn and don't stop until I hit Downtown.

My heart raced. I felt alive. Aware. Electric. I love this shit. When panic buzzes, literally buzzes in your ear as the blood rushes to your head. It's like when you're a kid running around the playground. It's Tag, Dodgeball or 'Smear the Queer' (sorry but that's what they called it) and even though you know it's just a game you play as if your life depended on it. That's how it felt that afternoon.


A very large head
July 1st, 2007
~Rob M.