close call.

The meeting was intolerable for a child of his young age. He tugged on his mother’s sleeve and begged to go play outside with Kevin. She agreed. The boys scammered down the stairs. The staircase was two stories high, long, straight and without a landing, leading directly to the door outside. They played games boys usually play when outside: tagging, running, laughing. They stayed around the cars in the parking lot though, darting in and out of the cars. Kevin started to dance in a goofy manner and the boys chuckled a good chuckle until Kevin suddenly stopped. He looked over his friend’s shoulder where two teenage black boys walked up. It became obvious that they didn’t want to play as they aggressively wrapped their hands around both boys’ necks and pulled them to the edge of the parking lot. As they walked Kevin and his friend, one of the boys pulled out a knife and the other pulled out a pair of handcuffs. It wasn’t a big knife, a pocketknife with a wooden handle and a three inch oxidized blade, but big enough to instill fear in both of the younger boys. The shorter of the two aggressors slid the handcuffs around Kevin’s friend’s wrists while the other held the knife up to his face saying with certainty that they were going to take him home with them and kill him. What happened next was a sort of bartering of words including reasons that they wouldn’t want to do that, similar to that of a hostage negotiator on a swat team, but on a much simpler scale, considering the age of the held. Were they really going to kidnap and kill. No. The surely had no intentions other than scare the shit out of two toothpick white boys. Eventually, cuffs came off, knives were pointed and threats were made, followed by the boys running for dear life in the door and up the stairs which seemed even longer that before. They gathered around their respective mothers and tried to get a word in edgewise. Somewhat successfully, although that it was crystal clear that they’re misadventures weren’t a priority, if believed at all.