My school was across town, and being an 11 year old kid in NYC on that daily commute was a clear canvas ready for layers and colors. I used to try different routes, different buses, just to get others vibes. Sometimes I would get off at a wrong stop, or take a wrong bus, and hop off casually, faking my fear.
You see, only a few blocks from my house, were the streets that began Spanish Harlem, and my skinny sneakers were not fit to walk on those hot coals. People were weird, bums and hookers would mess with you, and taller kids with mustaches would measure you up and down, looking for goodies to jump you for.
So I was only allowed to cross the park at 86th, or 79th, the more downtown, the safer. One day I walked a few blocks up with a friend, and decided to take the cross-town bus at 92nd. Since he would be heading up into harlem, I got off on Columbus, and had few blocks to go solo on. As I was walking over to Broadway, I went through a street that looked like it was safe. It wasn’t very busy, but it smelled good, and the red brick buildings gave it a warm tone. As I am about halfway on the block, I see a guy standing on the corner, smoking a cigarette, apparently waiting. He seems nervous, and he makes me nervous.
My instinct tells me to go. At this age I am more scared of kids than of grown-ups. So I keep going on my way. As I take a few steps forward, there is a car that is parked, and there is a strange looking man inside. He rolls the window down, and looks straight at me. His stare was so strong it made me stumble my steps, but I hurried up.
As I approach the nervous dude on the corner, I see he is approached by a car, with 2 other guys. They look like hollywood movie drug dealers. The car is pimped, they got glistening gold and rocks blinding my sight, and the hip-hop bass makes the ground shake. They are talking to the guy on the corner, smiling and bragging, and I am standing on the corner, so close I can smell them.
The light says don’t walk. I do what it says. On the side of my eye, I can see whats going on. It’s a drug deal. They are exchanging money for drugs, and not even being so discreet about it. Apparently neither am I, cause the nervous dude gives me a look that let’s me know he knows I am looking at him, and I get nervous like him and try to move out of his sight. I start singing Double Talking Jive to myself, waiting for that light that takes an eternity.
When all of a sudden, and very fast, so fast I only felt a wind, that guy from the car from before, is right behind me, and whispers to me an assertive message.
“Watch out kid”. I give him a look, and the light flashes walk, and I do it, and behind me, for those guys on the corner, all hell breaks loose. 2 cop cars close them in, the nervous dude tries to run, and the weird guy from the car chases him down beating his head to the ground. The 2 guys in the car get out with their hands behind their heads.
It was scary yet amazing, it was a huge bust, with undercover cops, and I was almost in the very middle of it.
I got home and didn’t tell my mother about that story. I didn’t tell anyone. I wasn’t supposed to be walking on those streets anyway.
