Wivez n the Hood

“You touch my shoes and I will f%@king kill you”, a young gang-banger muttered under his breath to my family as we all boarded the crowded train.

I had just finished watching some of the March Madness tournament with my wife and son in Houston, Texas. As we entered the train car and headed back towards our hotel, my wife sat directly next to a young African-American male dressed complete in gangbanger garb with multiple tattoos and gold chains while I sat directly across from him. My son stood in the aisle just a few inches away from his very expensive “Air Jordan” basketball shoes.

This young man looked angry at the entire world. My son and I immediately heard the overt threat of violence from this young man as we boarded the train but my wife had not.

My wife just started looking at this boy and smiling.

“Oh, God… don’t do it, Janet.” I thought to myself. “This guy just threatened to kill us. Look straight ahead and do NOT talk to this guy.”

“So”, my wife said to the young man, “did you go to the basketball game?”

The boy looked legitimately startled that this middle-aged white woman whom he had just threatened would try to start a conversation with him.

“What?” He looked annoyed. “No way. I don’t have the money to do stuff like that.”

My wife replied, “Oh, I’m sorry. But it’s really fun. You should go someday if you get the chance.”

“Pfffftttt.” The boy dismissed her recommendation and gazed down at his smartphone which had a completely shattered screen.

My wife immediately noticed his broken phone and said to him, “Wow, your phone has had a rough life.”

“I have had a rough life!” He barked back at her in an attempt to get her to leave him alone.

My wife then immediately asked him, “Oh, I’m so sorry. Why have you had a rough life?”

I immediately thought to myself, “We are all going to die tonight. We are all totally going to die.”  My son continued to stare at his mother in silent disbelief.

“You wanna hear why I had a rough life? How long you gonna be on this train?” The young man chuckled at himself which also made my wife laugh.

“Y’all pretty cool. Y’all on vacation down here or something?” The boy said to my wife.

“Why yes, we are!” My wife proclaimed. She went on to tell this young “gang-banger” all about our vacation plans.

The next thing I know, this young man who had threated to kill us just moments earlier is engaged in SMALL TALK with my wife! They are both smiling and interacting with one another. They are making each other laugh!

Eventually, we reached our destination and my wife told him, “This is our stop, you have a great evening.”

“You, too.” The young man said. “Y’all enjoy the rest of your vacation.”

As we stepped off the train, my son approached his mother and said, “Mom, did you not hear that guy threaten to KILL US?”

“What?” My wife was completely startled by this new information. “That boy was sweet. He was not going to kill anybody!”

I don’t know what my wife was thinking on this evening. Maybe she was just being naive or perhaps she was the wisest person on the train that night. All I know is that my sweet and wonderful wife is an amazing force for good in this ugly world… and sometimes love really does conquer all.