tales from the 'hood: part 1

I used to walk Mochi down my street, over a block, back up the next street over, then home. I would do this twice a day. There are some nice older folks on one end of the next street over, and a guy about my age with the sweetest pit bull on the planet. Yes, my mom has three pits, all of whom are - for the most part - quite nice. But none of hers are *sweet* like this one. Every time Mochi and I would walk by he would come running out, wagging his tail, then roll over at my feet and squirm, begging me to rub his belly. Belly rub complete, he would then play with Mochi until we had walked past his yard, then he'd return to his front porch.

The other end of the next street over has a house I refer to as "the trash house" because the yard is always piled full of trash: actual garbage, cars on blocks, rotting furniture... you name it, you can probably find it in their yard. The thing is, this house is a rental. In between tenants, the landlord comes and cleans up the place and removes all the trash from the yard. And yet the landlord somehow always manages to rent the place to the same sort of folks: always white, always very trashy.

The two people who live there currently are a man (probably in his forties) and his nephew (in his twenties). Pretty much any time I walked past, they would be sitting on their front porch.

One day, the older of the pair was out there by himself, and he came down into the street to talk to me. You know how some people just give off a really, really creepy vibe? Well this fella was vibing away. *shiver*

"Thas a purty dawg yew got there."

"Thank you."

"Now, lemme ask you somethin.' My nephew - he'sa boy who's always sittin' up there on tha porch wi' me - he's real shy. He wannida know if you was seein' anybody."

I totally lied: said I had a boyfriend, and then skeedaddled.

About a week or so later, as I was once again walking Mochi around the block, I got to meet the nephew. He came ambling out to meet me.

"I jus' got me a new tattoo."

"Um..." Mochi and I began walking faster.

He stepped in front of me, then turned around to show me the grim reaper on his back. "See my new tattoo?"

"Um...." I half nodded, stepped around him, and continued walking on with Mochi.

He started walking next to me. "I might be goin' back to jay-el."

"Oh?" Kept walking.

"This time it might be fer ten years. But that ain't nothin.' I already done five."

"Mmmm." Almost past the house...

"They made me do one a them lie detectors. I didn't do so good."

No comment.

"Come up on the porch a second. My uncle, he wanna show yew somethin.'"

Something about the whole situation made me feel like I'd end up sliced into pieces and shoved into a burn barrel if I went anywhere near that porch. "Nope, gotta go." I jogged off with Mochi.

I haven't been back on that street since. Although I do miss playing with the pit bull down at the other end of the street.