BLEAK HALLOWEEN
It was unusually
freezing for Halloween. But this was not just another one. This was the last
Halloween of the 20th century. Manny and his friend Jimmy woke up in
the middle of the afternoon. They had crashed Manny’s place in the morning
after spending the night partying in Manhattan, New York. Jimmy lived in a city
nearby called Newark in the state of New Jersey. Now, Newark was roughly twenty
minutes driving from Manny’s apartment. Newark was a city renowned for
harboring gangsters, and all kinds of hoodlums that is why it had earned the
moniker: Brick City. Newark was also the home of many of Manny’s relatives
including his grandma Aura.
Manny’s mom Carmen was
cooking her best typical Paisa dish: Sancocho de res and the smell of it
compelled Manny to go try to mooch some beef stock. He had been drinking
heavily the night before and mama’s Sancocho was the perfect medication for his
hangover. What comes next is a series of events that might be thought of like a
plan. As Manny was dipping his nose in the bowl full of steaming beef stock his
mom started interrogating him. Nothing in the world would have bothered him at
that precise moment, besides he was already used to it. So when his mom asked
him where was he going? he replied between sips: Newark! Almost instantly his
mom told him to take a pot full of Sancocho to aunt Amparo in Newark. Manny had
no choice but to agree to the request since it was close to where he was going.
On the way to Newark,
Manny noticed the unusual quietness and stillness of everything around him. It
was like time had stopped except it hadn’t for him and Jimmy. Jimmy also lived
there and he was taking him home. Machine Head, the band they had just seen the
night before blasted on the radio and Manny’s mind went blank. The trip went
uneventful and when they arrived it seemed to him hours has passed. Aunt
Amparo’s house was closer than Jimmy’s, so they decided to drop the Sancocho
off first.
Aunt Amparo’s house was
located in a corner and there were no parking spaces available when they
arrived. Manny double-parked and got off the car with the Sancocho. He
carefully went up the few steps to the door and rang the bell. As he waiting
for the door to be opened he felt something hit him in the back. Manny was
holding the pot and had started to bend over to put it down when he got hit
multiple times more. Eggs! He was being hit with eggs all over by a group of
teenagers. Then, just then he remembered what his mom had told him before he
left.
This time Manny’s anger
got the best of him. He turned around and started yelled at them. There were
about eight thirteen to fifteen-year-old teenagers. The kids immediately took off
running as Manny kept insulting, cursing, and calling them names. All of a
sudden, they stopped running, turned around, and started heading back towards
him. Manny prepared a got ready to fight.
The kids surrounded
Manny and started kicking and punching him all over his body. Manny defended
himself the best he could. He kicked and punched all that he could, but there
were just too many of them. After a few punches to the head, he started feeling
dizzy and losing his balance. Manny was about to fall down when his friend
Jimmy who dozing off in the car got awaken by the commotion and ran to help
Manny. As soon as the teenagers saw Jimmy, they scattered. A few seconds more
and Manny would have been beaten to death. This was a Halloween Manny will
never forget. Since then, he takes heed of everything his mom tells him. He
knows it is for a good reason.
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