An opportunity in South Philly Covid, story pieces

 

    The sandwich guy stood there sweating, his mouth slightly open but breathing loudly through his nose.  When he looked at me, it was never for more then a moment before his eyes darted to the next things, and then eventually back to me again.

    “Not now,” I said.

    “Why not now?”  the sandwich guy said.

    “Because I’ll get caught,” I said.

    “If anything goes wrong,” the sandwich guy said, “just go to the casino.  Do you know what that means?  I mean, if you find yourself out of fucking options, then just take what you got and go to the casino.   Why?  Because, dipshit, that’s the best you got.  At least you know Rick.  He’s not the kind of guy that’s gonna double your odds, but he’s as good as you’re gonna get tonight, know what I mean?  Look.  If you’re having second thoughts, don’t do the job, but if you’re gonna do it, we’re gonna do it right and we’re all going to make a lot of money.  But if you fuck it up, they’re going to find you, and they’re going to fucking kill you.  Slowly!  If that wasn’t already clear.  Ok?  Ok, we’re all good?  So what’s it gonna be?  You want to say yes, for once in your life, shithead?”

    I’ve been down on my luck before.  I’ve been at the tail end of a blackout night, covered in puke while my ride home was closing the door on me.  I’ve watched the guards walking towards me, while the alarm was going off, and the eyes were on my pockets.  The dogs have had my scent, the hammer was coming down, the lights were turning off.  And I made it out. Every time.  Unscathed.  I’ve made it through every single jam that seemed to be insurmountable at the time.  I’m very proud of that.  So why was I hesitant to go along with the sandwich guy’s scheme?  Because of fucking fireworks. 

    The sandwich guy knew, during lockdown in South Philly, there would be fireworks going off over all the row homes.  Every fucking night of the summer.  No one was going down the shore, no one would be congregating around the usual fireworks displays over the water.  The police had other things to worry about, and some people even thought they were responsible for some of the loudest explosions, just to scare people into staying indoors. 

 

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