We waited, the checkout line had stalled. The register guy was busy inputting numbers into the lottery machine, and the fellow at the front had a lot of numbers to play. The impatience in the line grew. Muttering discontent spread down the line. When it reached me I made my contribution. My standard lament of the vice of numbers games in the first place. I looked over my shoulder at the face of the dude behind me. He appeared undisturbed. It was like he would have been waiting in this spot regardless of how fast the line moved. He made no comment critical, only nodded his head with it’s tied gray hair.
When I looked back to the front of the waiting line I could not help but notice, through the all window store front, a blue SUV speeding into the parking lot. This guy is in a rush. The SUV turned to pull into an empty parking space right in front of the store. Immediate notice, “He’s not slowing down?!” Suddenly all hell breaks loose! Loud, loud, loud smashing, crashing, reviving, screeching, and screaming. It was not possible to differentiate who was screaming what from what was crashing screaming engine wheels SUV. The vehicle plowed into the store front, lurching, winding. It was sending shattering debris, racks, paper, bottles, glass, bars, and an ATM machine exploding from the impact. I don’t think anyone saw it coming. The sudden crush happened so fast it was impossible to get out of the way. Severely shoved and pushed back, the people were like a bundle of socks being crammed into an overstuffed drawer. As quickly as it started, it stopped.
The three people in front of me had been pushed back into me. I had felt the push pressure forcing me back until we stopped with my rear end in a cooler of sandwiches, and my shoulders pressing the shelf of produce. There was a sweetness fragrance overridden by a pungent burning oder, like burnt hair and plastic. Am I hurt, I wondered? Thinking for a moment in what seemed like a long echo of silence, I remembered seeing a kind of flash from out behind me. And what happened to the guy that had just been there?
The SUV had been stopped. It looked like mangled racks and shelves had stopped it about half way through the store. The driver was climbing out the window screaming, “That’s it! I’ve had it! I’ve fuckin’ had it! I’m not taking this shit anymore! Fuck all of you! Fuck everybody! I’m not taking it anymore!” The cashier was on the phone, And there was a big guy with a bloody shirt climbing over the broken pile to the drivers door. The big guy grabbed the driver. The two of them grappled for a moment. Then the big guy, who now seemed more enraged than the driver, had a strong hold on the maniac SUV driver. This big dude punched the driver flush in the face. His fist in he face made a squishing sound, and the driver’s body went weak. Then punch, punch after repeated punch! Squish, squish, sickening squish! It seemed like the was gonna kill him!
There was repeated exclamatory questioning. There was sobbing. There was quiet. I noticed that the fellow with the tied gray hair was limping over a twisted rack. There was a young man on the floor, sort of pinched in. He was saying to the gray haired guy, “Thank you. Thank you. If you hadn’t… I might have been… been…” His words trailed in tears. The man with the tied gray hair put his hand on the young guy’s shoulder and moved close to his ear. The young man looked up, stopped crying, and then displayed the appearance of calm relaxation that defied the circumstance. Bliss?!? Curiosity rose. What’s with this guy with the tied hair? I asked him, “How are you able to stay so calm?” He looked directly at me. At that moment the world fell silent. His eyes were alight, and he was bright himself while the periphery seemed to shade. I heard him say, “You know.”