New York Tough: A Pandemic, An Attempted Stabbing, and Me
If You Can Make It Here, You Can Literally Make It Anywhere
There’s a saying around New York that if you can navigate the subway without getting lost or crying, you’ve made it. Well, I had a cheat code (a car), so I only had to deal with the challenge of the subway on rare occasions. Ultimately, nothing would really test my fortitude like a pandemic and long lines at the dollar store.
It was a Wednesday morning during phase 2 of reopening. I was working at a nursing home at the time and had seen a whole lot of bad things. The people in the city were tired, but vigilant. So being able to go into a store again was a hard earned reward for us. New York had been completely changed, but it certainly wasn’t “dead.”
I double parked my jeep outside of my favorite store, “Family Dollar.” There was an employee working the door making sure we were all following social distancing guidelines inside and outside of the store. Once inside, I was able to grab my essentials: Cinnamon and Brown Sugar Pop Tarts, Goldfish crackers, $2.22 Tortilla Chips, gummy bears, Summer’s Eve Douche, and Kidgets baby wipes (just in case). While I’m standing on my designated “X” marked in tape on the floor near the entrance, a short, bald man barges in. “Which one of y’all was talking crazy to my wife?!” he angrily asked. Without hesitation, the doorman motions to his coworker behind the counter. Now, I’m not familiar with street code, but I’ve heard on more than one occasion that “snitches get stitches,” so I was surprised by the speed at which he ratted his boy out.
The angry man rushes down the stairs towards the counter and yells, “YOU WERE TALKING CRAZY TO MY WIFE, HUH? WHAT THE FUCK IS UP?!” As he’s yelling, he reaches into his hoodie and that’s when I decided that I was no longer safe inside the store. While I slowly walked towards the exit, with my hand cart in tow, I looked to see what the man was pulling from his hoodie. It was a knife! I watched as he hopped over the counter like a hood gymnast, and lunged towards the worker. And I RAN. I ran so far away. Right to my double parked jeep. I sat there, breathing heavily; waiting for others who were in line with me to follow suit. But, nothing. No no one else left the store. “What the hell?” I was thinking to myself. As I continued to watch the door, the man exits. And his wife was with him! “When the hell did she come in?” I was so confused.
Ok, so, I consider myself to be a good person. If someone commits a crime, they gotta pay, so I’m sitting in my car trying to remember what they look like and what they’re wearing in case the police ask for witnesses. So what if snitches get stitches in this case!? To my surprise, do you know that these idiots walked across the street back into their apartment complex?! Insane! If you’re going to attempt to stab a man, at least hop in a cab and have it take you around the corner! New Yorkers truly don’t GAF.
I collected myself and looked down at the hand cart on the floor of the passenger seat. “Dang, I didn’t pay for this,” I thought. So, here is my dilemma: do I go back inside and pay for my things, or do I just drive off and consider myself lucky to be alive? As I mentioned earlier, I am a good person, so I got out of my car and went back inside the store. Everyone was still in line. They even saved my place! I asked the man in front of me why no one else left. He said, “I wanted to see what was gonna happen.” YOU WANTED TO WATCH A STABBING? A POTENTIAL MURDER?!” I asked in disbelief. “I mean, yeah” the man said. He then looked at my cart and laughed, “Why didn’t you just leave? You crazy for coming back in here to pay, cause I woulda been gone.”
In the midst of all of this, the cashier who survived the attempted stabbing was back behind the register ringing people up! This man was pretending that nothing happened! Unbelievable. As we all pieced together what had gone down, the cashier tries to explain himself and amazingly, some of the people in line yelled, “But you be talking shit though!” They totally sided with the stabber! I couldn’t believe it, but also, he DO be talking shit.
And that’s the moment I realized the meaning of “New York tough”. No pandemic is going to stop that city.
