The Threat of Thursday Night

 

    The leaves hadn’t yet changed color, but a cold breeze made the trees crinkle on a September night.  The usual sounds of motorcycle engines, police helicopters, and city urchin arguments were all there like usual, but tonight, they were all distant. The street was calm, but it was pregnant.  The air in the South Philly neighborhood held its breath, as if tonight, there was a different mayhem planned.  Something else was to disturb the south side of 5^th Street tonight and the leaves knew it.  They were agitated.  

    The fences looked fine, albeit contrasting, as always.  White picket connecting to chain link at the corner, both implying that they were the better of the two styles.  The bricks of the house stood still, the small patch of grass lay flat, and the power lines showed no sign of decay.  Even the clouds looked fluffy in the illuminated evening sky.  So why did it seem like something was hanging in the air?  Last Thursday, the entire Pagan motorcycle gang roared up 5^th Street around 11pm, so loud their engines may have been on everyone's bathroom floor.  The Thursday before that, the new casino held its grand opening long weekend and the fireworks began around 9:30pm.  The Thursday before that there was the second murder in a month in front of the local late night sandwich stand.  The fact that nothing to note as of yet had erupted over the night sky lingered like a threat.