He said he had a gun…kept a hand on his pocket…I didn’t believe him…men lie all the time…they lie ’bout financial matters…women they’ve screwed…women they haven’t screwed…fights they never got into…jobs they never had…and now this one said he had a gun…

Men are always bluffing…always bluffing…you can feel it in your bones when something’s ’bout to go down…there’s a twinge of excitement…a feelin’ in the air…your blood races through the veins a little faster and the heart skips a beat or two…hair has electricity in it and the teeth chatter just a bit…just a bit…

I didn’t feel any of that with this guy…this small man barkin’ orders for me to give up my wallet…my money…my debit card…cellphone…he wanted it all…gratis…he just kept yelling orders as the train rolled on throughout the night overhead…sparks flyin’ off the rails…the smell of piss by a dumpster…

So…I told him…,Show me the gun…Go-on…show it to me…,my voice was deadpan…not a drop of sweat fell from my forehead…I just calmly asked him to show me the gun…,Go on…show it to me…

And…of course…he didn’t have a gun…he turned and ran…ran down Howard Street towards the Jamaican bakery where they made meat pies and sold cans of pop…he cut the corner and headed south down a side street…I watched him run away…he ran fast…you could tell he was scared…frightened…’cause somebody’d called his bluff…