commute

I drive the 6th street gauntlet to work everyday, usually twice. I start at the top of the hill near the big famous church and the masonic temple, and then end up near the DPT tow yard on harrison. Leaving my house at 6:40am gets me to work at about 6:50. I have seen some sad, scary, random, interesting and downright horrifying scenarios played out on this sad strip of blacktop. Once I actually jumped out of my car to help what I thought was a woman lying face down in the street outside bourbon and branch, turns out it was one of those inflatable thingies - a male version in drag and I actually touched it to turn it over. It was clammy. So I stop at my java spot to grab my columbian and after said transaction continue on my way, only to get pulled over a block later for not wearing my seatbelt by a cycle cop. I'm sitting in my car in a metered spot and about a half block away I see this drug deal going wrong, let me see if I can describe it.

She walks up to him and gives him the whats up, he is tweaking super hard so he cant stop moving most of his limbs the whole time. They do the palm-off and he about-faces, searching his hand for the score. He sticks his hand in his pants and then reverses his trajectory, grabbing the woman by the back of the neck. He pulls her backward as if he is some kind of Neanderthal going in for the dip and kiss, but instead of lips he jams his hand into her mouth and I can see the force he's using from up the street. She struggles but her 70 pound emaciated state is no match for his uber-tweak and he removes his hand from her mouth accompanied by a long silvery string of saliva. It was surreal enough but that long weird saliva strand glinting in the morning light was too much. The cop came back to my car and gave me the ticket, advising me to be more attentive to safety and the traffic laws when driving around the city. I had the obsessive urge to brush my teeth. Good Morning.