The Situation

I was driving, as usual. So many things happen on this particular stretch of Hollywood Boulevard, two lanes of traffic on either side, the W hotel, the Pantages theater, a tattoo parlor, a couple of restaurants, flashing neon signs, a car dealership. It's weird how the sound of agitated voices can cut through all that, but it does, easily. I turned down the radio and opened the window to figure out where it was coming from. I saw a guy, handsome and fit, he was big actually, standing in the middle of the street I was turning on. He had his fists half raised and was giving a "you want this?" look to a cluster of about five 18 year old street kids. They were yelling something and holding on to each other. They were dirty and probably lived and slept on the street, but they were laughing. I couldn't hear anything except  fuck and fuckin and fuck you. Even though there were more of them, it was easy to see they were threatened, they were the ones backing away, but they kept yelling. Every time the guy made a few steps towards them they flurried like a group of pigeons.

It's weird how paths cross, how people come into your life, cause chaos, stress, agitation and then they are gone. Two properties mix, cause an explosion, dust settles. What the hell? Is there a reason for it? Are you supposed to take a good long look, do some evaluation, figure it out. Or do you say say, eh, it's just a random thing, whatever. Doesn't everyone want good things? Sweetness? Love?

Anyway, here I was in my car. On my usual path home. Watching. I was eating nuts actually, salty almonds I just got from Trader Joe's. It's weird that it took all of 5 seconds to assess the entire thing. It was a situation. The kids were on one side of me, the guy on the other, maybe eight feet away in each direction. I had salt on my fingers and I was licking it off while I was driving and watching the whole thing like it was a TV show. I had the thought, now is the moment someone takes out a gun, and a stray bullet goes through my car window and gets stuck in my head. What a way to go. Eating salty almonds. Driving. That says nothing about me. Just as I was thinking this I saw one of the kids throw a glass bottle; it arced and spun through the air. We all stopped to watch. It only took a second really. It went in slow motion, top over bottom, right over my car, and then splat-shattered on the sidewalk 10 feet away from anything.

Boom.

And everyone went on their way.