A Tale of Courage

The story I'm about to tell is a battle between Good vs. Evil. Courage vs. Fear. Taking the red line late at night from up North vs. Just hailing a cab. If that cab would only stop... Muahahaha!! Hahahah!! *cough* hahahah!! *cough* *cough* aha! *ahem*.

It was a Thursday. After 10pm. It was either Berwyn. Or Bryn Mawr. One of the "B" stops. Anyway, we were far!! We had just wrapped a rehearsal at a friend's apartment, said our goodbyes and high-fives, and my friend Michael and I were left to our own devices to get home. We lived in the same direction, so we just began walking to the train when it became clear neither of us made the distinct look of trying to peer over things to find a parked car.

It was dark. Because it was like 10:15. At. Night.

As we were walking merrily along talking about rehearsal and having a grand ol' time, a peloton of teenage thugs emerged from an apartment and begin noisily walking right behind us. There were 5-6 of them, if there were a hundred. A quick glance would note they were all towering over the two of us, talking loudly, and just being overall intimidating. We had no choice. Michael and I just continued to talk gaily, remembering bits from rehearsal and riffing off them. We both held a small twinkle in our eyes that seemed to say, "Keep laughing! Don't you dare stop laughing!"

We were holding strong. Laughing on the outside, our guts knotting up on the inside with fear. But more street light was quickly approaching. We weren't far from a busy intersection! Full of people and witnesses. Joy was on our faces, warming our bodies...which quickly returned to fear. As we were to cross the street, we noticed another armada of hooligan teens beginning to cross the street. There would be 7-8 more coming towards us. They flared out to take up more space...and we had to dance the forbidden dance in order to avoid making contact with any of them. I remembered all of those movies where people had to pull ninja moves to get around the activated motion-sensor laser beams. In the corner of my eye, I saw Michael had seen the same films, and seemed to move like a ballerina in slow-motion, moving to an aria. I, like Catherine Zeta-Jones from that one movie nobody can remember, but can recall that scene instantly.

We made it to the other side. We did it. A tsunami of thug had passed us by and we were unscathed. We rejoiced. We smiled again and could un-pucker everything that had been puckered. We had made it to the train! And we did it with courage.

"Boy, that was kinda scary," I had finally let out.
"Yeah. Small ass, fat wallet. That's my problem," expressed Michael.

We shared another victory laugh and could finally exhale. I heard a small noise, stopped laughing, and wheeled around quickly, ready to do some damage.
Nothing of danger.
So we could laugh again.

AHAHAH..Quietly!

ahaha.