The crowd of about 13 men hangin out on the opposite corner looked up to me in unison like a pack of predators would when prey accidentally stumbled into their den. This is exactly what had happened. I stumbled into the drug dealers street corner at about 3am in the morning. This was downtown Oakland Ca. & I had my backpack that I was living out of as I hitchhiked through California. This was too tempting for the crowd of thugs to pass up. Stupid white boy, alone, with stuff to steal on our turf. Without speaking to each other the pack moved. They even went so far as to shift their bodies in a way that seemed to try to give the impression they were not coming towards me even though I could clearly see them coming. They even shifted their eyes & seemed to point out things to each other that were in the opposite direction. The whole while they were as a pack closing the gap of open blacktop between us. Don't think I was stupid enough to be standing still during the time frame of the above description, I had no misunderstanding of the situation form the 1st second I rounded the corner & had made appropriate moves to keep my distance without doing anything that would cause the situation to break out into a full scale pursuit. I knew I had to keep a slight ruse up that I was not fleeing in terror or they would smell the fear & charge. I did not know the neighborhood & did not know the speed of my opponents. In a situation like this you play the chess game for the next move. Your adrenalin is pumping far too fast to think 2 or 3 moves ahead. I was staying alive a few extra moments for every move I made but did not have an overall exit strategy for the situation.
Oh shit, I thought as I approached a recessed doorway in a brownstone. Thats where that Crazy Bitch jumped out at me as I came by earlier & scared the livin shit out of me. That shopping basket lady with the wail of an evil spirit. She could set this whole thing off & fuck up my tenuous situation causing me to have to run like hell for my life, knowing full well I was at the disadvantage in that situation. I tried to clear out around her doorway enough so as not to alert her to my presence. She bolted out of nowhere into the street screaming like a fuckin banshee "Get away!" "Get Away!" over & over dancing in circles & waving her arms. The effect of this did exactly what I though it would. The pack of predators broke into a full run at me. I panicked & did exactly what I should not have done. what a dumbshit! I ducked into the Crazy Bitches doorway. She freaked on my intrusion into her lair & somehow got even louder & crazier, I did not think this was possible. Now I started thinking she may be more of a danger to me than the pack now just about 10 yards away. She turned her attention quickly to the pack & jumped from the top stair about 5 steps, right into the pack as they came running up. Screaming & swinging & scaring the shit out of them & me. She fuckin drove them off! What the hell? I watched as they ran & heard them arguing with each other. "I ain't going in there with that Crazy Bitch" "You fuckin go in there man!" these arguments were not going to convince any one of them to come in here, I could tell by the distance & the fading of the voices, they were not sticking around to convince each other to give it another try.
She stood panting in the street with her hands & arms held up like a preacher praying to god, until they were far off. Her eyes never coming up off the street. She turned & never looked at me as she sat next to her basket & ignored me for the rest of the night as I contorted my body back into the crevice of the bricks to get as far away from this whole night as possible. I stared at the back of her head that night, listening to the growls, moans, & unintelligible speech that fell from her. As the sun peaked up & some blue came to the sky. Some business people started coming by. My heart jumped right out my throat as she launched from the top step out into the street at the 1st suit & tie that walked by, screaming & thrashing about. He walked by as if she was not even there, sipping off his coffee as he went by. Apparently the regulars were used to her & unafraid. I took the opportunity of the space between the stoop & the street to bolt & get the hell out of Oakland. I left behind an unopened bottle of water. I did not have much to leave but hopefully that showed my thanks to that Crazy Bitch that saved my life.
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