It was a night full of twists and turns that led me to this door that carries the title of the article. Let’s go back to the beginning and we will take it from there. It was just after noon and the mailman was extra early, I proceeded to get my mail when I saw two dudes fighting in the alley. I watched for a second and when one of them looked at me and ran, the other man grabbed something and took off after him. Then I heard a noise pop, pop, pop! I knew they where gun shots so I ran to see what was going on and I could not find anything… no blood, no shells, no nothing. I turned around and saw something that looked like a shoe lying on the edge of the tall grass and I had that sinking feeling, so I slowly made my way through the brush as it was very thick and you could barely stand straight up.
I walked on up to the dude and he looked dead, but I didn’t see any wounds. That’s when I heard a voice “is he gone?” “Who said that?!” I yelled, then I heard, “down here stupid”. I jumped back as he was raising his head… he reached out his hand and said “can you give me a hand?” So I helped him up and asked him “what was all those gun shots?” he said that they where from the guy giving him the beating. I asked him “are you shot?” he said, “no, when I saw you at your mail box he stopped and I had enough of a head start to get a bit in front of him, I used to run track” he said with a laugh as if the whole thing was completely normal. So I asked him, “what happened?” He said that he had slept with his friends sister and might have stolen from her as well. I thought it was a joke, but he insisted that the guy was about to shoot him right there in the ally till I saw them and he began to thank me and then said, “I would have handled it”.
Ok. I wondered what next. He offered me a cigarette and when I said I don’t smoke, he said, “sure you do”. I did not argue, that’s when he said “you enjoy a pipe about every other night behind your house” I thought, “well, he must live close and has seen me outside on occassion.” Then he said “you also eat about 4 dozen eggs a weak and have a young child and cats” Now I was getting a little upset.  He said, “don’t worry about it”. I told him he better tell me how he knew that or I would finish what his friend started. “Trash man” he said “this is my route, that’s how I met Ron” referring to his friend who had given him the beating.
“Do you have a light?” again he asked.  “No”, I said, “but you come back to my place and I can give you one and you can clean up there” he graciously accepted. We headed back to my place walking slowly off the side of the road when a van comes from behind us and swerves in front. Throwing open the doors and grabbing me and my new “friend”, we are soon gagged and tied up. I hear a voice “I never want to see you here again and if I do I will kill you” We soon arrived at a set of tracks and when the van stopped we where asked to get in this box car. We did what we where told. A man locked the doors and said “make a new life, anywhere but here, before Ron finds you again”.
As the train began to move we untied ourselves and I said “what going on?” This time I was upset. “That was my brother, he works for Ron and this train makes two more stops before it leaves town”. I said, “Good, I think. What if they see us again or me? I am not with you and now they think I am”. “Yeah sorry about that”, he explained that he was going to get to the bottom of this as soon as the train stopped.
We stopped and as the doors opened we were surprised by two cops, both who seemed to know about everything and didn’t want to listen to either of us. As they where cuffing us the fella that got me in this trouble grabbed the gun from one of the officers and told them “this will make sense in the end, trust me”. We put the cuffs on them and took their car and as we sped off I told him “let me out!!” He said “keep your shirt on this will only take a minute” We arrived at a salon where he eventually came out with a very upset girl. I figured she was the reason for this mess.
She got in the car and asked him ‚Äúwhere are you taking me?‚Äù He said, ‚Äúto your brother and you are going to tell him that I took nothing from him and you didn‚Äôt sleep with me‚Äù. She was surprised, ‚Äúhe‚Äôs going to kill you and your friend‚Äù. To which I quickly added, ‚ÄúI am not going and I am not his friend‚Äù. To which he responded, ‚ÄúI thought we had hit it of pretty well, I have to get her home you understand right?‚Äù ‚ÄúOh no‚Äù, I replied, ‚Äúno, I have a wife and kids‚Äù. He said, ‚Äúit will be fine‚Äù. That‚Äôs when it happened. BAM! We were t-boned by another car. I rolled out and wandered over to the curb. As I looked back the whole car exploded with the other two in it knocking me back to the ground. It wasn‚Äôt soon after that I heard police sirens and I thought I was going to jail. When they got there I was put in an ambulance and explained the story to the officers that had been there at the train. They said ‚Äúwe know exactly what‚Äôs going on and you are lucky that you weren‚Äôt killed back there‚Äù. I agreed. They added, ‚Äúyou know that the guy you were with was a convicted felon on probation for his mafia ties and was awaiting testifying in court right?‚Äù I said ‚Äúno‚Äù. They explained the guy in question had committed many mafia style killings and was out due to a plea agreement and got in some trouble with the bosses wife…not sister. He was a garbage man. I told them ‚Äúyeah, he said that and I was amazed‚Äù. ‚ÄúWell, the Italian mafia owns the company and now we have the evidence to put them away for a while. Let us take you home‚Äù, to which I quickly agreed.
Once I was home, I was never so glad to see my red front door as I was that night.
