I sprang from my bed to see...

Why the kid was crying. Early this morning, around 1:20 am, I climbed out of bed and peeked out the window to see where the crying was coming from. From my angle I couldn't see, but Mary could see some people standing in the street from her vantage point. There were 3 people; 2 men and woman. The woman began to yell at one of the men while the other man stood behind her. She repeatedly pushed the young man in front of her and he appeared to be interested in getting past her to the other guy. The crying child was watching this from an open door across the street where, intermittently, a person (grandmother?) would try to convince the woman (mother) to come inside. I watched this scene for about 2 minutes.

Finally, the guy had had enough of the woman's pushing, so he shoved her down and tackled the other guy. This is when I decided to go downstairs and offer 'help'. I slipped on my shoes and a pullover and made my way outside and down the road. Two men, Africans I surmised from their accents, were trying to pry the first guy, whom we'll refer to henceforth as Instigator, off of the second guy, whom we'll call Slim. The Africans were able to get Instigator away from Slim, but the fun was far from over. I stood back probably 15 feet and marvelled at the fact that I understood almost nothing these people were yelling at each other. I suspect we can blame much of it on the booze and/or drugs which was apparent from the slurred speech of the woman and Instigator. Another reason I couldn't understand them is that, in the heat of the moment, our accents are accentuated (nice pun) at high volumes. Thus, I was unable to surmise why these people were fighting. Throw in the fact that I'd been in REM just 5 minutes before, and its not surprising I was clueless.

All appeared to be well, people dispersing and death grips abating when... Slim decided to say something about Instigator's brother. I thought he said, "Tomorrow your brother will be in the nick.' But again, I'm not sure I understood any of it. Anyway, this set Instigator off (though the woman's further shoves probably helped). I asked the Africans if they knew what was going on, but they were as clueless as I. One said, "He might kill him." I asked them to call the police. I also looked toward the door where the screaming kid was and told the adult there to call the cops.

Whatever it was that Slim said, Insitigator was mad enough to resume the death grip for a minute or so on Slim's head. The woman peeled him away, but that only freed Instigator (drunk and/or high I remind you) to go to a nearby construction skip (dumpster) and grab a long stick, perhaps an old piece of moulding. He approached Slim and, thankfully, only threw the stick at him. The stick missed its target. After a little more shouting, Instigator grabbed another stick and began holding it like a baseball bat. Did I mention that I was backing up by now? Slim made a wise choice and decided to run. The woman was screaming bloody murder by this time. As Insigator took off after Slim, approaching the corner of our block, I was seriously hoping that Slim had the sense to keep running. At the moment that Insigator was about to get out of view, a police car pulled up and stopped in the middle of the road. I saw the officers get out and begin to run. It was obvious that they caught Instigator rather quickly but most of this took place just around the corner. Needless to say, someone had obviously called the cops before I showed up.

Another police car showed up and order was restored. I came back inside and talked the whole thing over with Mary who'd watched it all from our bedroom window. Because there was nothing to do but go back to bed, we did. I was awake at least 2 more hours. Certainly not the first incident I've seen between 'juiced up' people. Mary commented that, if this had happened when we first arrived, she and Helen would have been in a hotel across town.